This Forum Report was provided by Scott Young, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Montana State University & a 2013 DLF New Professionals Fellow.
After attending the DLF Forum for the first time in 2012 and then after having attended the DLF Forum as a New Professional Fellow in 2013, I am happy to report my findings: the DLF Forum is a great conference! I say this for two primary reasons: balance and energy.
The Forum firstly strikes a productive balance between practice and theory. Some sessions will tackle the nuts-and-bolts of projects such as structured data or hydra implementation, while other sessions will feature concept-level discussions of the nature and definition of digital scholarship or library publishing. As a new professional to the field, the DLF Forum has been invaluable for connecting me with a community of fellow practitioners who think and care deeply about the work of building the digital library.
The Forum secondly is driven by an impressive and positive energy. After this year’s conference I returned home with abundant inspiration—the tell-tale sign of a great conference. In the spirit of creation and communication, I wanted to bolster my own understanding of a basic aspect of the web, the DOM tree, and then build and publish a learning tool on my blog. So I looked more into the DOM structure<http://bitovi.com/blog/2010/10/a-crash-course-in-how-dom-events-work.html> and methods for manipulating various HTML elements<http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/11/12/an-introduction-to-dom-events/> with JavaScript. Fun stuff! The final product is a little web app that illustrates the DOM tree, “Hi Color<http://hellolibrarian.com/side-projects/hi-color/>”. While this project in itself is rather insignificant, I will be a better web developer as a result of the playful creative time dedicated towards tinkering with the DOM tree.
As I’ve come to know the DLF, I’ve seen that its members constitute a strong community of creative builders who enjoy sharing knowledge and forming relationships at the DLF Forum. In the future I hope to attend many Forums where I can continue to connect in valuable ways with other members of the DLF community.
