New Members Round Table: Conference 101.
What do I take away from x? Did it change my thinking? Am I a better person, employee, researcher, librarian… Some very good generic questions to ask yourself about something whether you’re talking about a degree program, a specific session at a conference, or about friendships and partnerships.
There’s red ships, and green ships, but there’s no ship like partnership (Callum Keith Rennie, Due South, season 3, “Call of the Wild, Pt. II”)
Okay, I’ll stop.
On entering the room, I saw Tiffany whom I met at Catholic University’s library school as part of a career day panel back in March. (Yes, Audio Artifacts readers, I have been having a life while I’ve been ignoring my blog). She had found a job—yeah! Then I saw another person who I knew from interning at the Library of Congress. Her name was Emily and she was a Junior Fellow Summer Intern with me during the summer of 2005. I guess this just shows that if you make your way through a haystack, you’ll eventually recognize a needle or two. (Did I just utterly mangle that metaphor? Oh well)
It was a good introduction to the workings of ALA. The four panelists talked about the exhibits, the structure of the organization, the meetings, the programs, and how we can get involved in the organization even as “younger” members. Even this session was standing room only, with lots of folks standing and sitting in the back of the room. I left there with a good sense of what I wanted to accomplish at the conference, but I was willing to leave myself open to the possibility of going to meetings I wouldn’t normally think about. But at 5:30 (and with a 7:00 meeting ahead), I was hungry and wanted to get some food before the festivities continued.
Foodie comments: I went to Acadiana on the same square as the convention center. I couldn’t get a table, so I ate at the bar. Just a couple of appetizers, and a tasty beverage: 1) roasted sweet corn and blue crab soup; and 2) trio of deviled eggs with crabmeat ravigote, shrimp rémoulade, and louisiana choupique caviar. Yum.
ALCTS 101
Then I headed back to the convention and went to the ALCTS 101 session. (ALCTS stands for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services). Those newbies (like myself) in attendance got to meet many of the veteran members, and the latter made speeches encouraging us young bucks to get involved, commit, and serve wherever we were needed. Upon rejoining ALA, I rejoined ALCTS (which I just learned is pronounced “uh-lex”). I have only found their periodical Library Resources & Technical Services to be delightfully geeky and helpful as one interested in cataloging, metadata, and preservation issues. They had a light dessert reception for us, and I got to meet some heavy hitters in the field, including Bruce Johnson (who works for the Cataloging Distribution Service at the Library of Congress). I also recognized the incoming president Dina Giambi (University of Delaware) from that same career panel at Catholic University. You never know where you’re going to see these people again, so always try to make a good first impression.
I felt welcomed, but not overwhelmed. These were clearly my people—even the serials librarians. (That was a joke).
Note: If you don’t see enough links or content, don’t despair gentle reader, I’ll be updating these entries and adding links to powerpoints and useful websites as I find them and the notes I’ve scribbled over various handouts.
More to come on Saturday: Libraries as conversations, Shakespeare in libraries, drinking with the music librarians, and clubbing with the Next Generation library crowd.
