That’s what I’m doing right now, ensconced in my window seat in coach on my flight home, playing Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted, and Black” tuned up loud enough to drown out the food-smackers behind me while I tidy up trip reports and budget forecasts and put the buff on a small preservation planning grant. But […]
My first ALA was Midwinter 1992 in San Antonio. It was the usual First ALA: immersive, bewildering, awesome, wonderful, daunting, and fun.But it was also an experience where I began learning and practicing my best conference etiquette. I have had some bad habits in my life: being too hard on others and myself; rushing to […]
From: Karen G. Schneider, Cupcake U. [note name change; not that I don’t like peanuts, but cupcakes are more strategically aligned with MPOW’s current direction] Subject: ALA Annual 2011 (aka #ALA11): The Highlights To: The World Date: July 10, 2011 Flickr sets: Assorted Photos from #ALA11; Tour of St. Charles Parish Library Professional Enrichment ACRL […]
Bobbyi “Librarian By Day” Newman has a new post about surviving ALA conferences that links back to my own ALA survival post from last year as well as a few other useful conference posts. It’s worth re-reading those those posts, but I’m adding a few tips below. First tip (specific to NOLA): don’t waste your […]
Last Saturday at the LITA board meeting, board member Jason Griffey set an armadillo on fire and let it loose in the room. I watched in amazement as board members (metaphorically) leapt on chairs and screamed. The armadillo was ALA’s open meeting policy, and the fire was Jason opening his MacBook and streaming the proceedings […]
And when it comes, oh dear, oh dear! ALA Midwinter is next week?! How can that BE? It’s not even New Year’s yet! In any event, here is my skeleton schedule for ALA and events leading up to it. Campus starts up again Tuesday, which is one reason I’m cutting Midwinter short. Work one day, […]
Last week I briefly stuck my finger into a discussion about the future of libraries initially launched by Jason Perlow of ZDNet. Then I got busy with work and personal writing deadlines and pulled my finger back out. However, half of what I would have said was summed rather tidily in an anonymous comment on […]
By my count, since I first attended ALA at Midwinter 1992 (San Antonio), I have attended roughly 35 ALA conferences, if you include Midwinter “meetings”–so many that I have founded the (actually nonexistent) Old Members Round Table, which sports a hashtag on Twitter of #OMRT. There are many tips for surviving and enjoying ALA, and […]
Away, away, to ALA… I have attended all but three of the combined Midwinter and Annual conferences since January 1992, and I know one thing for sure: there is no “final schedule” for me–it evolves throughout the conference! I’m really looking forward to reconnecting with friends, colleagues, and vendors, and bouncing along with the whole […]
My Place Of Work is one of the most diverse universities in the United States. That’s a fact we’re very proud of, and it’s an environment I enjoy. Diversity was a matter-of-fact reality in the middle-class San Francisco neighborhood I grew up in, and throughout my life, when I’ve been in environments flavored with only […]