My ALA Schedule

6-20-05: Yet more updates to my schedule for the upcoming ALA annual conference. (The ALA calendar itself? Pah-tooey! What a useless pile of horse excrement.) Plus this year I am one of several folks honchoing the first LITA blog. I need an RFID chip!

Years ago a friend asked if I weren’t worried that by posting such a detailed schedule I was making it easy to be stalked. All I could think was “How in the world would a stalker keep up with me?” ALA is a busy week for library governance junkies! (Ah yes, those of you who are from outside the library world… now you know how we maintain our jealously guarded gatekeeper status… we do it through endless meetings.)

Thursday June 23

Arrive Chicago, early evening.

Dinner (perhaps dessert by the time I get there) with C. and her lovely crowd, Crab House, 21 E Hubbard Street, (312) 527-2722

Friday, June 24

Hustle over to McCormick or to Palmer House to pick up badge, or sneak into this meeting first and get the badge afterwards:

9:30 – 11: LITA Executive Committee. HIL Conference Room 5A… Darlings, that’s *6:30 a.m.* my time! I will be puffy-eyed but will hoist the maniple for My People (whoever you might be).

1:30 – 3ish: So much for museums, I just gotta get me to the OCLC Symposium “Mining the Long Tail: Libraries, Amazoogle and Infinite Availability.” It’s All Good said, “we are pleased as all get out to have as our main speaker Chris Anderson who wrote ‘The Long Tail’ article that has had such huge resonance since it was published in October 2004. Chris is the Editor-in-Chief for Wired Magazine.”

4 – 4:30?: L’s book party. Oh joy!

5 – 7: LITA Happy Hour… Big Bar of the Hyatt Regency, Chicago, on Friday, June 24, 2005, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. 151 East Wacker Drive, east of Michigan Avenue along the south bank of the Chicago River. A great time to meet with LITA bloggers. Toss off a glass of wine, eat veggie nibbles, then at 5:45 dash to…

6:00 – 7:30, Webjunction (ergo PubLib) Social, Chicago Hilton & Towers, Continental Room. … which should be a killer event, since PubLib folks always show up for free chow. V. and I are walking to the Publib party together, a way for two buddies to chat and laugh.

Not able to make it to the LITA Board dinner, but can have dinner with V.

Saturday, June 25

7 a.m. Divisional Councilor Breakfast. Chuckle… oh, sure, I’ll make that.

8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Orientation Program for Newly Elected ALA Councilors – McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom A. A nice event that shows Council at its best. Worth sitting in on if you are thinking about Council, and a good thing for sitting Councilors to participate in,though I have to grit my teeth this time because it means giving up an 8:30 talk by Eric “Devil in the White City” Larson.

I leave halfway to get to…

9:30 – 12:00: LITA Board of Directors, MCP N128. Geeks with ideas: be still my heart!

High noon: Lunch with Z. Hope we can get far from the conference center, somewhere befitting two elegant ladies.

1:30pm-3:30pm LITA: Implementing a Federated Search Tool, INTER Exchange. I’m blogging this for LITA, as well.

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm: LITA Open House, MER Salon I-II. But of course! Come by and kibitz. It conflicts with ALA Membership Meeting, but honestly, that’s sparsely attended and the LITA Open House is chock full of personalities.

5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Opening General Session – McCormick Place, North Hall. Barack Obama! Yes! Be still my fluttering Democratic heart!

7-ish: A cherished tradition: dinner with dear old friends at an overpriced restaurant. We are now all too old to follow the dinner with hours of winey camaraderie, as in days of yore. In another decade we’ll be dining at the 4:30 Early Bird specials.

Sunday, June 26

Well, I would love to march with GLBTRT (the last time I marched in a GLBTRT Pride contingent, our chant was “Return Those Books!”), but I am Organization Woman. What shall I wear to make it clear that I am spiritually marching with GLBTRT though I am at all these pesky meetings I pledged to attend?

8:00 – 9:30am, RefWorks User Breakfast, Sheraton Hotel, Ballroom IX, assuming I’m awake…

9:00-10:00 a.m. Of course, by now I’m wrung out, but I am woman, hear me roar, so I will be prompt to ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session – McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom A. A must-attend for any ALA Councilor (you’re listening, newbies, yes?).

10:00-10:30 a.m. ALA-APA Information Session – McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom A. More of the same. I must be brave.

10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. ALA Council 1 – McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom A. A fifteen-minute breather from the last meeting. One year after Council 1, I wandered into the men’s room and didn’t know it until I walked out and saw a man standing there pointing to the sign. Like, dude, I’m sorry, o.k.?

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm: LITA Top Tech Trends, INTER Grand BR. Oh my stars and bars, I’m an expert! Come watch me blog my own blatherings real-time. By now the pancake makeup is a little thick. For this I am missing the Book Truck World Team Championship, 1:30 â€“ 3:30 pm, which sounds like a hoot.

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: LITA Awards Reception, INTER Empire BR. But darlings, you must be there! Geeks with certificates to prove it! A great elbow-rubbing event.

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.: LITA Presidentâ€™s program, Digital Searching to Digital Reading: Helping Users in an Online World presented by Michael Lesk. Hotel Inter-Continental Grand Ballroom. (So when DO I get to go to the exhibits?)

5:30: OCLC Bloggers’ Soiree at the OCLC Blue Suite, Hyatt Regency McCormick Place. Do you blog? Do you like bloggers? Looking for the best pick-up scene at ALA? Please, do show up–though RSVP first so they know how many shrimp and cocktail weenies to buy. And then, oh joy, it’s…

6:30 – on: L’s own soiree. Delightful! And then on to…

A low-carb, high-style, but quiet dinner with dear friend M., followed by clay facial and good night’s sleep. No GLBTRT Sunday social tonight due to big dinner Monday night.

Monday, June 27

8:30 Web Advisory Committee, McCormick Place room N135, do sit in if you’re interested in hearing about the direction for ALA’s website.

10:15-11:15 a.m. ALA-APA Council – McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom A. Not to be confused with ALA Council, the APA is the Allied Professional Association that can be the advocacy arm for librarians a lot of us are looking for.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ALA Membership Meeting II – McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom A. Well, maybe. There *is* that read-aloud. May I not also render unto My Craft?

12 noon: LITA Board luncheon (dutch treat). Farewell Craft.

1:30 pm – 3:30 pm: Google and Libraries: What’s in Store for Google Print and Google Scholar. Indeedy! INTER Grand BR.

5 – 6:30: PLA Program: David Sedaris… yowza! Though I would give this up for…

5-ish: Cocktail with dear old buddy S., lately of VLO.

7-ish: GLBTRT 35th anniversary dinner. Empire Room, Palmer House (Monroe and State). Oh, I am *so* gay! Alas, I shall miss Council Forum. Carolyn, thank you for carrying the colors on the resolution about free speech and sexual orientation.

Tuesday, June 28

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.: Closing program with Henry Winkler, who has done a lot for children’s welfare. (I repeat that verbatim from a website.)

9:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m Council 2. Leaves me 15 minutes to get to…

1-4:30: LITA Board. Nice crew.

4:30 – 6 Council Forum

7 – ? Divisional Councilor dinner? By this time in the conference we’re so fat and poor…

Wednesday, June 29

Council 3, 8:00 – 12, four hours of undiluted happy fun time, sifting through stream-of-consciousness resolutions written by divisions who would like us to stop this online nonsense and go back to bull’s ink on papyrus or whatever they learned at the Alexandria School of Information.

Early afternoon: Fly home, God willing.