The University Library pulled in 65 faculty members and graduate assistants Friday – though not because it was raffling off tenured positions.

They were attending the first ever “Library Live!” conference to look at ways of using Web and library resources to improve classes and research.

There was a lot of interest in the “Google Tools for Scholars” and “Is Podcasting for You?” sessions, said Mary Lee Jensen, head of instructional services at the library and one of the event’s organizers.

“Some of the mini-sessions were popular enough that they had to be switched to regular sessions,” she said.

Attendees generally liked that the conference wasn’t spread out over several days, she said, and that they got to have discussions with colleagues.

“I think overall the response was that it was useful information, that people enjoyed having everything packed together into one time slot,” Jensen said.

It was suggested future conferences be held every semester or annually, but many participants said they would like to see longer sessions and more hands-on learning, she said.

“From our perspectives we thought it was successful because we got faculty and graduate assistants into the library who might not have come for other events,” Jensen said.

“We see it kind of as a starting point.”

Contact libraries and information reporter Andrew Schiller at [email protected].