BETT 2012

Last Thursday I went down to London with some of my colleagues from e-services to attend the BETT 2012 exhibiton at Londons Olympia exhibiton centre. When I was originally asked if I wanted to go I declined as the thought of being the only member of the library team going was a bit daunting and I wasn't really sure what to look for. However as it turns out our line manager requested that both myself and our Senior Learning Resource Assistant for User Education both go.

I'm glad I did go though as it was a great experience it was initially a bit overwhelming as the venue was huge and there were an uncountable number of stands. I stuck with the SLRA and one of the e-services team to track down useful items for the library. One such item was a sanner mouse - this allows the user to scan a portion of text and transfer into a word document. This is a great idea - especially for use on our reference books however I can see it being problematic in realtion to copyright liscences and plagarism.

We also saw some multi purpose computer desks which work by storing the screen and accesories under the desk so it can be used as a study desk, or if you pop-up the scrren and take out the accesories you can use it as a computer table. This type of desk would be ideal in smaller libraries/ resource centres as it creates a more flexible workning environment.

I do wish we had more time there as we didn't get the oportunity to look around all the stalls, perhaps if i were to go again I would plan the stalls that I want to fit in a visit to.