I attended my first SXSW conference this past week, and have been struggling about how to describe it. On one hand, I was able to find interesting things and have a great time. On the other, the conference felt so very desperate, like a marketing team and a brogrammer had a kid. It was a non-stop barrage of things that were really-well-known being well-known (Game of Thrones, Mr. Robot) and things that weren’t well-known trying desperately to be so.
Libraries and librarians were, as always, the saving grace in the midst of the chaos. I spent time with the Library IdeaDrop house this year, and all I can say is that they run a tight ship, full of interesting people and awesome events. I would be a part of it again in a heartbeat.
I wrote up my experiences for American Libraries, here’s the three-part story:
- South by Southwest Interactive, Day One
- South by Southwest Interactive, Day Two
- South by Southwest Interactive, Day Three
And here are all the interviews that I did with IdeaDrop this year:
SESSION 6 from Idea Drop & ER&L on Vimeo.
Jason Griffey @ #IdeaDrop from Idea Drop & ER&L on Vimeo.
Knight News Challenge from Idea Drop & ER&L on Vimeo.
SESSION 8 from Idea Drop & ER&L on Vimeo.
Copyright and Creators: 2026 @ #IdeaDrop from Idea Drop & ER&L on Vimeo.
Digital Content and the Legality of Web Scraping from Idea Drop & ER&L on Vimeo.