Want to sharpen your web search skills? Find information in the real-time collaborative and social web? Learn from the experts? Join search veterans, speakers, and authors to learn the latest strategies and techniques for searching online. This fast-paced, newly updated, day-long event allows you to interact with the experts, who share their searching secrets and expertise as they focus on the most-current practices in the field of web research. There’s always something new to be learned from these leading-edge panelists. Participants should have basic experience with web searching, but even searchers with an extensive searching background will find tips to polish and advance their skills and will come away with new resources and tools. Academy topics include the following:

• Hidden Tools & Features of the Major Search Engines: Learn about the new and little-known search features of the Big Three.
• Desert Island Databases: What online resources would you consider essential if you were stranded on a desert island?
• Cost-Effective Searching: Online strategies/practices for tough times to get the most for your search dollar and your time.
• Searching the Social Web: Find out how to tap into the social web to glean intelligence.
• Searching the Mobile Web: Best apps and strategies.
• Subject Search Round-Up: Hear from experts on the specific tools and resources for searching in a variety of specialized topics

Presented by: Mary Ellen Bates, Greg Notess, Gary Price, Marcy Phelps

This full-day, intensive, hands-on workshop is for new and novice Drupal users. It covers Drupal 6 and 7 skills, including installation, configuration, core functions, and theme development. This introductory workshop touches on most every aspect of the core Drupal framework:

• How to install Drupal and all the modules that a common site would use
• Adding, editing, and moderating content
• Creating user accounts and understanding Drupal’s permissions system
• Setting up menus and other design elements on a page
• Creating human-readable URLs
• Categorizing content using Drupal’s taxonomy system
• Editing your own Drupal theme 
• Bring your laptop, and at the end of this Drupal day, you’ll have a simple but complete Drupal site.

Presented by: Blake Carver, Sean Fitzpatrick

Interested in improving your library website and reframing your digital presence from the point of view of the user? This lively, high-level and interactive workshop shares practical ways to assess, design, and improve your online properties for maximum user friendliness. Immerse yourself in this in-depth workshop led by experts and practitioners that incorporates an overview of usability tools and techniques, a look at the latest research on designing for a positive user experience, tons of tips and tricks to help you avoid common usability and UX pitfalls, and discusses other useful measurement and assessment tools to help you better understand your users.

Presented by: Darlene Fichter, Jeff Wisniewski, Marshall Breeding, Frank Cervone

This interactive and hands-on workshop provides a complete overview of mobile technologies, discusses the concept of the mobile revolution, and shares the potential applications to libraries. This tailored learning experience includes expert guest speakers presenting ideas originally shared at the online Handheld Librarian conferences. The workshop outlines the major mobile technologies available for libraries and exact methods for applying them with strategies for success. It focuses on interactive discussions enhanced by the mobile tools themselves and features immersive hands-on learning and playing to deliver specific takeaways that attendees can immediately apply to their libraries. Bring your laptop/notebook/mobile device/tablet!

Presented by: Joe Murphy, Chad Mairn

Are you a solo web developer with an interest in learning basic web scripting? A newbie thrown into your library web programming role because nobody else raised their hand? Somebody with a little more experience but always looking to improve your programming skills? This workshop is for you. Speakers work through the basics of web programming and highlight resources to continue learning. Their emphasis is on mashups and web services as a means to practice these skills. Featured topics include REST and Structured Data (e.g., JSON); common programming routines and functions; building simple video widgets with the YouTube API; mapping data with Google Maps; and learning how JavaScript (jQuery) and PHP work together to create advanced search mashups with the WorldCat API. Note: Attendees should bring a laptop to play along with the examples and have some familiarity with HTML and a scripting language.

Presented by: Jason A. Clark, Amanda Hollister