As a first time IL attendee, the conference experience for me has been all about making connections. And that has happened in more ways than one. Yes, there are the mental connections – I’ve had the opportunity to meet with librarians in the U.S. and Canada who are trying out social networking tools and they’re talking about the huge impact these tools are having on their communities. But there are also the personal connections. Meeting these librarians and hearing about the work their doing is inspiring! The other thing is that IL is big enough to have really great speakers and leaders in the profession but small enough that serendipitous moments of meeting these leaders are always happening. Case in point: Yesterday, I saw Helene Blowers presenting on Lego Building: Learning through Play! It was a great presentation full of helpful tips (I love helpful tips and easy take-ways). And just now, guess who sat down right next to me? Helene freakin’ Blowers! How cool is that?

So let’s go back a second to Helene’s presentation – it was actually both Helene and Meredith Farkas, of 5 Weeks to a Social Library fame. Meredith repeatedly mentioned the idea of “paying it forward” when it comes to learning from one another. So I want to quickly pay tribute to that – and hopefully make some connections for others. Helene talked about the importance of thinking of ourselves less as “experts” that have to know EVERYTHING (because we all know how do-able that is) to becoming “guides” – people who can exhibit and explain points of interest. The difference being the ability to create a level of engagement that allows us to learn as well as empowering our learners. Here are Helene Blowers Five Tips for Becoming a Discovery Guide:

1. It’s all about training learning!
2. Remove the classroom.
3. Remember exposure is the first step towards learning.
4. Learners have as much to share as guides.
5. Focus on fun!