Summer in the city

You know those stereotypical scenes of kids playing in the spray of the fire hydrants on hot summer days that you always see on the news? I've never witnessed it. I've lived in cities for many years now and I've never seen it. That is, until yesterday.

Driving home from an errand, my car got "washed" not once, but twice by spray from the fire hydrant. I also had to slow down so the kids could move before I drove by since they were all in the street playing in the water spray. And several of my neighbors had little kiddie inflatable pools sitting on the sidewalk in front of their homes. In my neighborhood there are no front yards, so the sidewalk becomes the location for grilling, picnics, gathering, and apparently, pools. Each pool had several kids in it, all armed with super-soaker style water guns, and they were nicely offering to "cool off" the people that walked by. They were having a great time.

Aaahhh, summer in the city. The hum of window A/C units, people on the porches, kids in the street, the bell of the water ice truck, the music of the ice cream truck, and the flash of lightening bugs. I love it.

ALA Annual 2007: day 4, last day

My committee met for the second time this conference at 8am on Monday. The most exciting thing was when our chair reported that the proposed Section name change we put together had been accepted by the Section's Executive Board. Announcements of the change will be sent out in the coming weeks. Of course, this means my committee has some work to do. So we spent the rest of the meeting figuring out the schedule for the coming months in preparation for the ALA Midwinter meeting (January 2008...far away...yet so close). [Update: apparently there are a few more steps that have been made clear before everything is official and announcements can be made. But once those steps are taken care of, onward ho!]

Most of the committee wanted to attend the ALCTS 50th Anniversary President's Program on "Ambient Findability" with speaker Peter Morville. The room was packed. Ironically, it was competing with a session that featured Julie Andrews, but it didn't seem to impact the turnout at all. Unfortunately, I haven't finished his book, also titled Ambient Findability, quite yet, but I have started it. His presentation was very interesting, talking about how we must learn from the past to design for the future, and addressing issues of the user experience, alternate interfaces, library2.0, web2.0, and the intersection of people and content among others. He referenced a large number of works, so now my reading list has grown by leaps and bounds. And I'm really looking forward to finishing his book soon.

Afterwards I met up with my good friend KM for lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time between sessions, and definitely not nearly enough time to catch up on each others' lives. We ended up eating at Ella's Wood Fired Pizza. I had their very yummy "Pucillo" pizza with smoked mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula, and tomatoes. KM had a salad with an amazing garlic vinaigrette. The restaurant was between the session by Peter Morville and the hotel where my next session was, so that made it quite convenient. Fortunately, it was also very tasty. If you're looking for really good wood fired pizza, check out Ella's.

My last meeting of the conference was the Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee Update Forum. It is because of this forum that I always stay through Monday at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. The first part of the forum was a series of reports, some of which repeated sessions I attended like CONSER. Other reports updated us on things that we discussed, upcoming or existing task forces on various topics, and updated us on the status of various proposals for changes in MARC21 coding and cataloging practice. Always informative. The second half of the forum consisted of a panel of 3 people discussing their answers to three questions proposed by the committee. These were cataloging specific topics such as the CONSER Standard Record and different ways to access continuing resources. Some interesting ideas were raised, both by the panelists and by comments from the attendees at the end of the presentations. We actually ran out of time, and had to end the session despite the fact that I think we probably could have discussed things for many more hours.

With the adjournment of the forum, my "official" conference business ended for this Annual Conference. It was nice to not have to run someplace else, especially given the blisters on my heels. I put band-aids on my forming blisters, only to have the shoes rub the band-aids, causing more blisters. Ouch. I'll be wearing sandals with no heel strap for at least a week. A known conference hazard, and no matter what I do, it happens every time. Oh well.

After some downtime, SM and I decided that for dinner we needed to return to Thai Kingdom. SM wanted more Pad Thai, and Thai food sounded really good to me. And it was just so good on Thursday night, we had to go back. I let my friend CH know, and he decided to join us. SM and I both got Pad Thai (she got chicken, I got vegetarian), and CH got a chicken in a spicy peanut sauce. And it was delicious, again. I'll be keeping this restaurant on my list of places to go when I'm in DC.

SM decided to have some downtime to herself in the hotel room, so I headed out for drinks with CH and a bunch of library product coders (i.e. OPAC coders/developers) back at at RFD (Regional Food & Drink). It ended up really entertaining and interesting. But kind of scary at the same time when I realized that in a way, I was representing catalogers with these people, trying to answer their questions about cataloging standards, practices, and coding. And then I scared myself when I realized I could actually follow the conversations when they started talking about coding specifics (I am not a programmer, and I'm OK with that). There was more arguing cataloging theory with CH, who happens to get very earnest and excited when he argues about this stuff...which makes it much more fun to argue. I believe we have the same point of view, and have the same vision as to where things are going, but the paths we envision are just a little bit, OK, sometimes a lot, different. I see future cataloging theory discussions in our future.

Again, I was up late (I really gotta work on that), and up early, just like every other night at this conference. This time it wasn't a meeting, but up early in order to catch my train back home. The train was late by about an hour, which made me a bit cranky in that I could have gotten more sleep. So I napped on the train for the 2 hour trip.

I finally arrived home, only to leave again to pick up the dog from the kennel (she had a bath this time!). Aussie was very happy to see me, and me her. She's just as exhausted from her weekend as I am and is currently sacked out on her bed, snoring rather loudly.

I need sleep now...it was a very long and very full weekend...I'm feeling rather wrecked...and I have work tomorrow.

ALA Annual 2007: day 3

My day started at 8am with the CONSER meeting. We had reports on the status of some projects and proposals, and discussed how we will be monitoring the problems and questions that arise as institution begin to implement the CONSER Standard Record and people really start using it. There's a wiki up now for use by members, and we decided the best option was to use it as a working document, or a way to collocate questions, concerns, and answers as we have them.

I hopped a shuttle to get to the OCLC Connexion User Group Meeting on time. Connexion is the OCLC cataloging software/module that we use. It's kind of a "back door" into WorldCat, which is the public search interface. This meeting was chock full of information for me to take back to my colleagues. The new version of the software will be released within days (if not tomorrow), it incorporates the last pieces of the functionality from the RLIN21 client (the RLG cataloging software/module), and they had lots of information about what the changes were and what the new bells and whistles are. When I get back to work I'll be incorporating it into our existing training documents (and creating some new ones) pronto. Lots of good changes that will make lots of people happy.

After grabbing a quick bite, I headed for the RLG-OCLC Transition Meeting. This was the final meeting for the transition since its in the last stages. We got an update on what stages the record loads from RLG into the OCLC/WorldCat database are at, what the plan is to migrate the last of the records and deal with the "problem records" that have come up (duplicates, unknowns, etc.), and got answers to a few questions. I asked a few questions that the facilitators didn't know the answer to (there have been some changes to some of the processes and it's not all clear yet), so they'll ask when they get back to the office and let me know. Perhaps most importantly for me and my department, I did learn that the RLIN21 client (for cataloging) will probably be "retired" on Aug. 31st, along with the RLG Union Catalog. This means a time crunch to get everyone migrated to using OCLC Connexion full time! Work will certainly be exciting the next few months.

Next was the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Participants' Meeting. Yes, this was a very full day for me. After a brief report and some thank yous to people that served on committees, the speaker was introduced. They had a Microsoft product developer (Jay Girotto - Group Program Manager, Live Search Selection) talked about searching. He is also serving on some library-related (Future of Bibliographic Control) groups, so he's used to dealing with librarians. Some of the highlights of his talk include a distinction between undiscoverable data versus irrelevant data, consumer behaviors, and how this all affects the transformation of industries and institutions, including libraries. The bulk of his talk was spent talking about information discovery, including the "search" in general, the problem of discerning the intent of the searcher, that the web still has a very limited scope (very little of the available information out there is actually discoverable or even exists online), search personalization, the lack of memory both for the person searching and the software doing the search, and the general disconnect between the search and the follow up action. The question and answer period afterwards raised issues related to data control, using Library of Congress Subject Headings to help populate the data fields used by searches, and issues related to languages and materials in other languages (specifically non-Roman scripts like Arabic or Chinese). Some interesting questions. This was not the type of session that includes answers, as most of it is still theory, in development, or unknown (future oriented). But it brought up some very interesting topics for future discussions and thoughts. There are lots of changes going on in the world, with web2.0, user-generated content being added to existing data, and a general evolution of the search. Very exciting times, but I won't go off into a theory related tangent (for this post, but I make no promises about future posts).

I left a bit early to make it to my library school reception at Old Ebbitt Grill. We were put in the atrium, a very large open space with plants and a skylight. They had some decent snacky-type foods (this was good as I needed some food!), free drinks, but it was a bit hard to hear announcements because of the echo. Not a whole lot of people I knew were in attendance, saw a few former professors, someone I worked with up in tech services as a student cataloger, and one person that overlapped with me, VD (now VE), was there with her husband and we made plans to meet up at Midwinter for dinner. I had never managed to make the reception before, so I'm glad I went. Hopefully they'll do another one next year.

I headed back to the hotel to drop my stuff and meet up with my roommates. SM wasn't up for going out (tired), but JT and I went in search of dessert. We decided to check out the NMRT Social sponsored by 3M, figuring it wasn't that far and it's been entertaining in the past. We arrived just in time for the drawings, and since I had brought a children's book to donate (per their request), my name was entered. And per usual (I almost never win raffles/drawings/etc.), I didn't win. After they were done with announcing winners, they started the music. It began with a rather rousing rendition of the electric slide. Just when you think you've seen it all, you end up with a bunch of librarians of all ages on a dance floor doing the electric slide. Wow. It was certainly entertaining. After getting over the shock/fear of seeing our colleagues dance (some of them better than others, and I have pictures), we ended up sticking around much longer than expected and had a really good time. The DJ spun a bit of the 70s, a lot of the 80s, some 90s and even some really recent stuff. It was nice to let loose and dance and not have to think for a bit. By 11pm, JT and I realized that while she didn't have an early meeting, I was not so lucky and had yet another 8am committee meeting the next day (sigh...why do these people insist on starting the day at 8am after hosting receptions until the wee hours of the morning? I just don't understand). And people were still dancing the night away when we left.

We walked back the hotel, which gave us another opportunity to do some catching up. Living so far from each other, face to face conversation is something JT and I don't get very often. So we try to carve out some time at conferences. Fortunately we were able to do that this time. We crashed out pretty quickly once we got to the room, and all that dancing and walking was a bit painful this morning (I had forgotten about some of my leg muscles, but they reintroduced themselves this morning, um, ouch), but it was worth it: it was FUN.

ALA Annual 2007: day 2

My first meeting today was at 8:00AM. My committee meeting. I managed to drag myself out of bed (no easy feat) in time to find coffee before the meeting. I arrive at a Starbucks that's on my way to the hotel that my committee meeting is at, and am informed that there's going to be a 3 minute wait as they are brewing a new batch of drip coffee. That's OK, I believe I'll wait. Armed with my fresh (and large) cup of coffee, I made it to my meeting on time and like Midwinter, we had a list of tasks to accomplish, including some group editing of documents. We did successfully complete what we needed to complete for today's meeting, and our chair has things to discuss with the section board before our meeting on Monday, where we have a whole other list of things to do. There's a lot going on for us this year, but it's all good stuff, so it's exciting.

After our meeting (we even managed to end a bit early), I headed out with EM to the Convention Center to walk through the exhibits for a bit before meeting up with people for lunch. The exhibits is a maze of vendors, aisles and aisles of vendors with demonstrations, give aways (swag!), and people to talk to you about their products. And don't forget the authors that come and do book signing at various booths. It's intense. I've learned to spread it out over a few days. I do try to pick up some of the swag to take back to work for my colleagues that couldn't be here, as well as picking up some sticky-notes and pens for myself to use at work. Many publishers also bring uncorrected proofs of books to be published soon or advanced reader copies that they make available for free. It's a great way to pick up interesting new authors that I wouldn't necessarily hear about otherwise since I don't deal with library acquisitions. I now have a stack of things to read for this summer and fall that I'm really excited about.

I grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading off to the NMRT President's Program on intergenerational workplaces. The speaker was interesting and entertaining. She's been doing presentations on this topic for many years now. There were a couple of things that stood out to me during her presentation. One, "resistance to change" is a meaningless phrase. People aren't resistant, it's much more complex than that. She believes there are two aspects to it, that people don't know HOW to learn (i.e. don't know their own learning style) and that there's a fear of humiliation and of losing status in the workplace.

The second thing that stood out for me is that she considers training to be "necessary overhead" rather than something that's optional. And the last thing she discussed, what she really stressed, is to forget about putting people into categories of "generations." The best option is to think about people in the workplace as if we were all born the exact same year, and view those differences usually defined as "generational" as different approaches and different ways people function. Interesting viewpoint. I've never much subscribed to the idea that Gen X is so different than Gen Y and that the Baby Boomers are still different than both. I know too many people of all different ages that I get along with. So basically I agree with her viewpoint.

I had to book it back to the conference center for my next session, the RDA Update Forum. We had the standard report on the status of RDA, the, ahem, modified (yet again) timeline, the development, etc. The powerpoint presentation does change a little bit each time as they finish a new chapter, and it's interesting to see how it is all coming together. This time there was a new presentation on how RDA as a content standard will work with other metadata formats like Dublin Core. The idea is that RDA will be cross-applicable with different formats, and there are groups starting to form to look at how it's going to work.

After the Forum I headed back to my hotel to meet up with my roommates, JT and SM. We went for dinner at Busboys and Poets on the recommendation of a friend of mine that lives in the area (but isn't a librarian). It's a combination cafe, bar, and bookstore. I had a very yummy pizza for dinner, the Mediterranean, with spinach, olives, tomatoes and feta cheese with a pesto sauce (yes, pictures will be available on my Flickr account soon). To wash it down, they had a good Belgian white ale on tap. SM and I both enjoyed the beer, it was light and smooth, a perfect summer time ale. Both SM and JT got sandwiches, and said they were delicious. SM tried my pizza as well and gave it two thumbs up. I hereby heartily endorse Busboys and Poets as a great place for food. What made it better was the setting. There is a mix of traditional tables and chairs as well as couches for you to sit at. We got to sit on nice comfy couches while we ate. And the customers were as diverse and eclectic as the setting. Made for a very pleasant environment to just relax and wind down after a hectic day.

After eating, I convinced them to go to Kramerbooks with me for more socializing, using the argument that we did one cafe/bookstore/bar for dinner, they really should see the other one. We met up with EM and some of her friends from former workplaces, were joined by LH and WT (engagement toast!!), and just hung out for a bit. Argued some cataloging theory with CH (a new friend thanks to EM), discussed hockey, what it's like to live in different cities, etc. A good time was had by all. But knowing we all had an early start, people started heading back to hotels fairly early. A few of us die hards stuck around until after midnight, but not too late, knowing that we'd pay for it at our 8am meetings (ok, I'd pay for it at MY 8am meeting) the next morning.

ALA Annual 2007: day 1

Today started with registration. SM and I decided to get to the Convention Center early to beat the crowd that was arriving today. This was a good move. By mid-morning the line was out of control.

My first official meeting of ALA was the OCLC Enhance Sharing Session at 10:30AM, so after getting our conference bag and all the stuff, SM and I enjoyed the free wifi in the Convention Center for a bit before finding the meeting room. This particular meeting I had offered to take notes for the facilitator (since I'd be taking notes for myself anyway, why not send him a copy), so I had to make sure I arrived in plenty of time to get set up and comfortable. It was an excellent sharing session for this particular cooperative program, and had one of the largest numbers of attendees I've seen at it (I've been attending this sharing session for several years now). Lots of good questions, and even better, answers to those questions. The best kind of sessions always include answers. I had a brief meeting with the session facilitator about some questions my institution had about the program, and got answers for those too to take back with me. An excellent beginning to my ALA.

After the sharing session, I was meeting my best friend from library school for lunch. BF and I both went to library school to become catalogers, so we spent a lot of time together, especially since we started the program at the same time. We had at least once class a semester together, sometimes more. We make a point to have a reunion at every ALA so we can catch up. This time, we both had Friday afternoon open, so we had lots of time.

We wandered down NW 7th Street to a restaurant named Oyamel Cocina Mexicana. OMG. Authentic delicious Mexican food. AUTHENTIC Mexican food, people. It was FANTASTIC. I had a grilled salmon fillet with a stew of tomatoes, garlic, onion, capers and olives, and guacamole on the side. They have an option of ordering tacos, with 7 varieties to mix and match for however many or few you want. BF chose three tacos, and devoured them all. To make it even better, their tortilla chips were fresh, with a great seasoned salt on them, and their salsa was a smoky roasted chipotle. We were both in heaven. I do believe I'm going to have to come back on a future trip. Their menu looked fantastic, with a selection of ceviches and antojitos (tapas) that looked really good. I had a hard time deciding, and ultimately our server recommended the salmon. Good call on his part.

We both had plans to attend a forum at 4pm, so after lunch we took a walk and fortified ourselves with some iced coffee. Unfortunately, the forum was not what we expected, so we slipped out between panelists. BF headed to another session, and I found myself an outlet in the Convention Center and decided to enjoy the free wifi for a bit before my reception at 6:30.

I signed up to be a mentor for the New Members Round Table (NMRT) this year. Surprise, surprise, I'm doing more mentoring. Conferences are hard to navigate; they can be extremely overwhelming. I know the value of having someone to give you helpful tips and suggestions about how to get the most out of it without killing yourself. I've done this enough that, just like for NASIG, I feel comfortable taking on that role. I "unofficially" mentored my best friend SE at the ALA Midwinter conference, and she told me that I was very helpful and she was really happy for the advice. So I figured if I could do that for her, I could do it for someone else too.

The NMRT set up a reception just for the mentor/mentee pairs to help us find each other. With almost 20,000 (yes, 20 thousand) librarians at ALA, finding people is like hunting for a needle in a haystack if you don't have concrete plans to meet up. My friends and colleagues and I all text each other to find one another or randomly meet at various sessions. I've gone whole conferences without seeing a single colleague. After having some difficulty finding the hotel (it had changed names and I foolishly had not noted the new name on my schedule), I arrived at the reception to find that my mentee was already there. We sat and chatted for awhile, talking about the best way to "attack" the overwhelming experience that ALA can be for a first timer. Unfortunately, there were no snacks, so by around 7:30ish I was quite peckish.

I called SM to find out where she and a some friends who had arrived only a couple of hours earlier were so I could meet up with them. They had gone to RFD (Regional Food & Drink) on NW 7th Street not too far from the convention center. They have quite a large selection of beers, and pretty standard pub fare. While talking to SM, my friend AC walked up. Since neither one of us had eaten, and she was hungry too, we headed out to meet up with SM, JM and TP. By the time we arrived, they had finished eating, but were enjoying the beer selection and decided to stay for awhile longer. I ended up ordering some fish and chips, purely because JM said they were tasty and the batter was a beer batter made with Rogue Dead Guy Ale (one of my favorite Pacific NW beers!). The fish was crispy and well cooked, and not too greasy. And the beer I had washed it down nicely.

After eating, JM and TP wanted to head back to spend some quality time together (their toddler is with grandma and grandpa this weekend!) and SM was tired, so we started walking in the direction of everyone's hotels. I had talked about meeting up with my friend B for pints at Kramerbooks, and AC wasn't tired yet, so we continued on. B and her roommate for the conference JN met us there. I hadn't seen JN since Midwinter, so we had a nice chat catching each other up on all our personal gossip.

Knowing we all had an early start on Saturday, we didn't stay long. But it was wonderful to have the opportunity to reconnect with friends from all across the country. Hopefully there will be more of that over the course of the weekend.

ALA Annual 2007: day 0, arrival

So I ended up in the same train car as several of my colleagues. How random. The train was as packed as our schedules, so I may not see them again until we're all back in the same building next week.

I had no problem getting from Union Station to my hotel on the Metro. I heart DC's public transit system. I still had my Metro card from CONSER, all charged up and ready to go. I arrived at the hotel to find that my roommate, SM (friend who visited me in Philly not to long ago, former colleague), was already there. We chatted for a bit, catching up on our gossip and our recent trips (she survived a trip to a place that can only be described as Las Vegas designed by Ned Flanders), until we realized we were quite hungry.

We both had tourist guides with us (yay for geeky librarians being prepared) and we found a Thai place that the book boasted had the best pad thai in the city. Worth investigating. We left the hotel and walked into a rainstorm, a pretty normal summer-in-DC fast moving downpour, dashing from storefront awning to storefront awning for the 10 block walk. We found Thai Kingdom, and decided it looked good. We were not disappointed.

Yummy. SM decided to sample the pad thai, and said it was one of the better ones she's had. I thoroughly enjoyed my vegetable red curry, even if it was a bit on the oily side. After eating way too much food, we headed out to try and find other colleagues. It took a bit, but we did find them, after asking a valet where the restaurant was (an excellent example of using the resources available to us!). Having just stuffed ourselves, we sat for a bit while everyone else ate and chatted.

Eventually we all headed out, SM and other back to various hotels, and myself, well, Kramerbooks had a pint or two with my name on it. And my friends EM and MP were there holding down the fort and saving a barstool for me. We had an excellent time, complete with leaving random voice mails for various friends (sorry, JS, you do get some doozies, don't you?) that weren't in town yet or couldn't make it to ALA this year. Just because that's how we roll.

Pet peeve

rant

Why oh why, if I'm paying $90 a night for a room, are you charging me for internet access? I can get free wifi at plenty of other hotels for less than $50 a night for a room. And you call yourselves "upscale"??

What's more, no wifi?? Are you kidding me? Not only do you want me to pay you $11 a DAY for internet access, you expect me to tether myself to a ethernet cable?

Bad hotel. Bad bad bad hotel. And don't get me started on your crappy shower water pressure...

/rant

Off to ALA

I'm off to Washington, D.C. for the ALA Annual conference today. The dog is at the kennel yet again (the mother guilt is already settling in). I'm taking the train down later this afternoon (I heart Amtrak...no airports for me!!).

I spent yesterday trying to nail down my schedule for the conference. It's packed. There's just so much going on (ALA is always like that) and there's just no way I'm ever going to make it to all the sessions I want to. I'm barely going to make it to the sessions I'm required to attend! My official whirlwind starts on Friday morning with a 10:30AM meeting and pretty much goes non-stop until 3:30 on Monday afternoon. Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday all start at 8:00AM. My meetings go every day until around 6:00PM. Then I have evening commitments on Thursday (social), Friday (receptions), Saturday (social), and Sunday (library school reunion, vendor receptions, etc.). Have I mentioned I don't get much sleep at conferences?

I think I'm going to need a lot of coffee.

But for now I'm trying to complete my packing. Packing for conferences just doesn't get any easier. I'm having the same issues I did when I tried to pack for Midwinter (you can read about it here). This time I have the added complication that it's June, in DC, which means it's hot and humid. So not only do I need to pack extra conditioner and hair ties so I can attempt to contain what will be very frizzy hair (can we say white girl afro?), I have to accommodate walking outside in the heat from meeting to meeting and then sitting inside freezing cold rooms. So I've thrown in my lovely cardigans (warning! librarian stereotype ahead! but I don't know how else to cope). And brace yourselves, Shana is going to be wearing skirts all weekend. For those of you that have known me for a long time, you know that this is extremely odd for me. I have skirts...but I just don't wear them. I worked for 3 years at a library and my colleagues swear they only saw me in a skirt a total of 3 times, and once was for my job interview.

Anyway, the one thing I have learned about packing for conferences is that it's better to over pack than under pack. I have way more clothes than I need for a four day trip. Better safe than sorry. So I'm taking the big suitcase with wheels. As long as it's not too heavy for me to maneuver through the train station and on the DC Metro, I'm good. Besides, the big suitcase gives me space to bring back lots of swag from the vendor exhibition booths for my colleagues...if I have time to make it to the exhibits, that is.

So I'm off! Like a herd of turtles.

Insomnia

I haven't been able to sleep the past two nights. I don't know why. I get to bed by 10:00pm and then lie awake. I'm tired, but I just can't seem to fall asleep and if I do fall asleep, I'm not staying asleep. I have a chiming clock downstairs, and for the past few nights I've counted out the 12 chimes at midnight. And the single chime at 1am. And the three chimes at 3am. I finally fall asleep, only to be woken up by my alarm around 5:30am. This just isn't cutting it for me. I haven't changed my schedule or habits (still no caffeine after 3pm, and yes, Mom, I'm eating a good dinner). I just don't get why I can't sleep.

There are a myriad of possible reasons that I can think of, none of which satisfy me as "the" reason for my insomnia. A combination of the possible reasons doesn't particularly satisfy me either. [And no, the wedding R.S.V.P. is not a possible reason, I'm not that stressed about it. Really.]

The past few weeks I've been trying to catch up from being gone for NASIG while simultaneously trying to prepare for ALA Annual which begins this coming Friday. This was a lost battle from the beginning. It may have finally caught up with me. And then there's the various projects I'm heading up, trying to nail jello to a tree/wall (otherwise known as getting a group to focus on a task for longer than 30 seconds), reports to write, my normal work, etc. But I'm not any busier than anyone else I know. Yes, work is stressful, but I'm not thinking about it lying there in the dark. I'm not thinking about much of anything at 3am besides the fact that I'm tired.

It could be because I'm traveling. Travel usually stresses me out quite a bit, I admit. Especially flying. I have very bad luck with security. For the vast majority (80 percent or more) of flights I've taken since 2001, I been wanded in security or had my bag looked through. Even when I don't set anything off magically I'm "randomly selected" for extra screening (random my ass!). So flying stresses me out because I know in advance I have to allow extra time for that "selected" extra screening in security. But ALA Annual is in Washington, D.C. So I'm not flying this time. I can take the train, a relatively painless experience. My friends, this option of taking the train instead of flying is one of the joys of living on the East Coast for me. I'm actually looking forward to it.

But then there's the unavoidable "mother guilt" of having to leave my dog at a kennel while I'm gone. I know she does fine (fortunately not much fazes my dog), and I know she has a good time, but I still hate having to leave her. Frankly, I hate being separated from her, period. But it usually doesn't keep me from sleeping, especially with her snoring quietly beside me. I find her snoring comforting and it usually lulls me to sleep.

It could be ALA Annual. I leave on Thursday. My schedule is, per usual, packed. I have committee meetings, informational sessions, operations meetings for groups I belong to, etc., and somehow I'm trying to squeeze in time to see colleagues and friends from across the U.S. I have several days in a row that begin at 8am and don't end until 8pm. Multiple 12 hour days. Over a weekend. Which means I come back from the insanity and go immediately back to work without a break. So yes, I'm a bit stressed about it. This conference stress is the most likely culprit keeping me awake, but again, I'm not consciously thinking about it at 3am, and conference stress hasn't caused insomnia in the past for me.

It could be the weather. It's finally behaving like summer, which means it's a bit warm. But not uncomfortably so. I have a fan in my bedroom window. No, I haven't put in my window A/C unit yet, but it hasn't really been uncomfortably hot. Once the sun goes down the temperature drops and my bedroom comfortably cools down into somewhere in the upper 60s or low 70s Fahrenheit. Perfect for sleeping in my world. I'm not doing anything different than I have previous years and it's never affected my sleep before. Really, I have no problem sleeping in the middle of summer in Australia with no A/C when it's in the upper 30s/low 40s Celsius (that's upper 90s/low 100s Fahrenheit). Heat just doesn't faze me all that much. Must be those southern roots from my grandmother. So I don't think it's the weather.

Sigh...Ultimately I don't care why I can't sleep. I just want to get some sleep, dammit!

a R.S.V.P. conundrum

The person I've been friends with the longest is getting married this summer. HF (soon to be HL?) and I have known each other since we were three years old. Our mothers share similar parenting philosophies regarding food and TV watching, so we spent a lot of time together. Somehow we've managed to stay in contact through my many moves with my family, both of us in college and grad school, she in med school (PhD/MD program!!), and both of us moving several times since college and grad school. I have letters in a box dating back to when we were around 8 years old. I met her fiance (JL) a couple of years ago when they made a trip to the city I was in then. It's amazing how with some people it's like time never passes. We just pick up where we left off as if nothing happened in between (minus some catching up of course). She's just one of those people and I can't imagine us not being friends.

So she and JL are getting married this summer. I'm so very excited and happy for her and him both! They are an adorable couple and balance each other beautifully (and he helps her lighten up). But wedding invitations present an issue for a single person. How do you R.S.V.P.? I have two options, neither of which is without problems or potential problems.

Option one: R.S.V.P. for one. I'm single. This makes sense. But for weddings you have to reply over a month in advance. This is where the problem sets in. What if I start dating someone and I want to bring them? Do I call and add a second person to my party attending? And then there's the "single person at a wedding" problem. If it is just me, and I don't really know anyone besides the bride and groom and the bride's family, it could make for a very long evening. But, conversely, HF and JL met at a wedding, so who knows, being there alone could work in my favor. Or I could feel entirely out of place. But I'm capable of talking to just about anyone and having a good time no matter what, so it could be OK. Sigh...flip...flop...flip...flop...there is no answer and I won't know until I'm there. But that security of having someone with me that I know to talk to is very appealing because then I wouldn't have the "single person at a wedding" problem to deal with.

Which brings me to option two: R.S.V.P. for two. This means I have the pressure of finding someone to go with me. Granted, this could be a friend (I've done this in the past) or it could be an actual date. But it's still pressure to find someone. And what happens if I don't find someone, friend or otherwise, to go with me? I'd have to call and say "sorry, it's just me now" which I'd just rather not have to think about doing.

Sigh...I have a few weeks before I have to mail the R.S.V.P. card, and I'm sure I'll be weighing my two options right up until I put it in the mail. Sometimes being single is a real pain in the butt.

Shutterbug

I've been a bit of a shutterbug since I was a kid. Around 4th or 5th grade, I did a summer day camp course on photography. We were given a non-automatic camera, taught all about f-stops, zooming, developing, exposure time, how to focus on one element and blur out the rest of the stuff in the frame, etc. I LOVED it. Absolutely loved it. This class did nothing but convince me that photography was the coolest thing ever.

I was hooked. Head over heels in love with taking photos.

I know I got my first camera back when I didn't need my feet to count how old I was, probably shortly after that summer class. I think it was a Canon, a nice little point and shoot automatic film camera. It even had a bit of zoom and was "water resistant." It died in college. After that I got an Olympus Stylus Zoom. Again, a nice automatic film camera. I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere. Now I have a nice digital camera. A Canon PowerShot A95. It's wonderful. It has so many options I still haven't figured out what all the little icons on the dial mean (part of my problem is I'm just NOT and icon person...they just don't compute in my brain, but more on that another time). I know there are plenty of fancier cameras out there, but my Canon does what I need it to do, and some things I haven't figured out yet. Yes, I could spend upwards of a thousand dollars on something fancy, but I don't need that. I know I'm a hobby photographer, I'll never be a professional photographer (I'm OK with that), and I just don't need that extra zoom lens or other extra fancy options. It works for me.

Since my first camera, I've taken thousands upon thousands of photos. I'm not exaggerating. I have several plastic bins full of photos I've taken since the early 1980s. Summer camp, family trips, the family pets, you name it, I photographed it. Or at least tried to photograph it. Some photos turned out better than others (is that my finger?? dammit, stop moving!!). I moved a lot growing up, and have continued that trend into adulthood. So my photos are also a chronicle of this. They're my way of keeping track of all the places I've lived and visited and the friends and family that are scattered all over the world.

Photos are the ultimate in memories; they're the best way to remember a place, your meal, the goofiness of your friends and family. Unfortunately, I wasn't always as good as I am now about labeling my photos, so some of the packets of developed film in those bins are [ahem] loosely [ahem] identified. There are plenty of names I can't remember. I did some photo albums, but scrapbooking (despite my best efforts) and photo albums take so much time. And my camera goes with me as much as possible, so there's always new photos, and it's hard to keep up with getting them printed, organizing them, putting them into an album, making labels, etc.

I've discovered that putting my digital photos online makes this organizing and labeling so much easier. I actually do it. There's no printing involved, so I can take a photo, put it online, label it and organize it in an album all within minutes. Now that's something I can keep up with. And it's an easy way to share my photos, especially with my friends and family all over the place.

By now I'm sure you're wondering what prompted this post. Well, Yahoo! has decided to close down their online photos. I've been putting photos up on that site since 2004. Apparently it was in competition with their acquired photo site, Flickr. In late 2006 I started a Flickr account, and in that short time period I have posted over 500 photos, most of them taken since I started my account (I'm not joking here, people). Fortunately, Yahoo! made it easy to move your photos over to a photo site of your choice (obviously Flickr for me), complete with labels and metadata (camera info, etc.). This was good. I had over 400 photos on my Yahoo! site. That's a lot of photos, and what's more, there weren't any duplicates between the two sites. So now they're all on Flickr, all 1000+ of them, and I'm slowly re-organizing them. It's fun going through photos from several years ago, and the wisdom of labeling them and organizing them into online sets or albums has been made crystal clear. It's also really shown me just how much I love photography, and how much my photos mean to me as a chronicle of my life.

I still have more I'd like to put online. Some of them were pre-digital, so I'm going to have to scan them. But preserving things in photographs for me is the most fabulous thing ever. I am a bit of a pack rat, and one tip I've read recently about reducing clutter was to photograph those ticket stubs and programs and keepsakes (like old report cards, those preschool drawings you mother kept, etc.) and save them digitally instead. I should look into that. It would certainly reduce the number of bins of stuff I keep hauling around. What was in 5 plastic bins could become a few nice CD-ROMs (or one USB drive) of photos. This is very appealing; and much less heavy when it comes time to move again.

So watch my Flickr site. More photos will be added over the summer as I start going through that backlog and getting things online. Prepare yourself for a trip or two down memory lane. This could get interesting.

It's a fine line

Growing up I remember hearing my mom talk about having invisible tattoos on your hands. One hand said "NO" and the other said "I'll get back to you." The idea was whenever someone asked you to take something on, you chose a hand and responded with that tattooed statement. It was a way to try and learn to say "no" to people and to keep yourself from becoming too busy. And a way you could learn to take on only the things you cared about and turn down the rest.

Intellectually, I get it. It makes perfect sense. I can see how it works. In practice, however, well...I'm not always so good at the practice part.

To a certain extent I thrive on being busy. I like being busy. I just don't like being too busy. It's a fine line between sufficiently busy enough to keep myself from being bored (and to keep myself out of trouble) and from being so busy I'm too busy and stressed out.

Being too busy in my personal life is my own fault. I know that I need down time to recharge or I'm not very good company for anyone except my dog who doesn't care if I'm cranky. [As my father said to me once in high school when I was at the need-to-recharge point: "you're a real b*tch today" and I'm not lying, he really did.] So saying no in my personal life is my own responsibility, I know where that line is, and I have to mind the words that come out of my mouth to make sure I don't cross it. When I need down time, I have to say no or no one has a good time.

This distinction between busy and too busy is usually made even more difficult by obligations, specifically work obligations. We all have work related obligations. Duties, tasks, assignments, projects, promotion requirements, professional service, etc. that we cannot say no to. We work. We have to work. My problem is when I have so many work obligations that I don't have time to do any of the work related things I want to do because I will cross the line into the too busy zone.

I have a rule that don't take work home with me, and I endeavor to not stay late at work (having a dog that needs to go out helps with this). I love my job, I love being a librarian, it's part of my identity, an integral part of my identity to be honest, but it's not my entire identity. My life must be more than work. I must have a balance or I will lose my mind (just ask me about grad school when I had no life outside of school...NOT pretty).

Well, I broke that rule the other day. I took work home with me. I'm not proud of this fact. I'm actually quite angry with myself about it. But I had a presentation to give and I wasn't ready. Because there just aren't enough hours in the day (especially during conference season). And I have too much pride (and sense of responsibility) to show up to give a presentation unprepared.

I want to be involved in my profession. I really really do. As much as I want to be on committees for all my professional organizations, I made the choice to only serve on one committee for one organization at a time. There may be a few months overlap just due to transitions, but only one committee for one organization at a time. Currently I'm involved with an ALA ALCTS division committee. This means that for at least another year I'm not involved with a NASIG committee. A year from now I'll have to make a choice, continue for another 2 years on my current committee, or decide to become involved with a different one. I also choose to attend conferences because I get a lot out of them (I've waxed poetic on this several times before), despite that I'm behind for at least 2 weeks after I get back from being gone for 4 days (yeah, I know the math doesn't add up...I can't explain it, but it's true).

At my institution I was just elected to the Librarians' Assembly as a Board Member at Large. I'm really quite honored, one, to be asked to run, and two, that my colleagues elected me. Especially since I'm still new (I've only been here for just over 9 months now). It's a great way to meet people and work with colleagues outside of my immediate purview. People I probably wouldn't interact with otherwise. I did agree to serve (I could have said no), but being able to work with a variety of colleagues outside of my normal job duties is important to me. That and there are several interesting things the Assembly is doing right now including implementing a mentoring program for new-to-the-institution librarians, and as you all know, I'm a big fan of mentoring.

I'm trying to determine if my decision to add something I want to do to my obligatory collection of committees, projects, trainings, reports, and oh yeah, CATALOGING, is going to push me over that fine line into too busy. I know that for several big projects the bulk of the work will be done by the end of the summer, and the Assembly doesn't meet during the summer, so I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

Or maybe it's time to get those tattoos on my hand touched up.

In the mean time, I'm going back to the conference season insanity that always always elevates my stress level because I'm gone as much as I'm at work...which means things pile up...like the stack of records to review from my intern. Damn her for being so competent (not really, I'm actually really really glad she is, and really lucky she is, but you understand, right?).

NASIG 2007: day 4

Sunday, June 3rd, 2007

Last day. Going to bed earlier was a good thing, and I did make the final Vision Session. The presenter, Daniel Chudnov, talked about using technology to integrate library services with social software to make our services and resources more accessible. It was very interesting, and he approached it from the point of view of if everyone implements something small, it can cascade and work together. And what he was suggestion as options were all very practical and scalable. Truly a "vision" session as he has a very clear vision of what library services can be and how to begin to achieve that future.

I only attended one session on Sunday, specifically about serials cataloging. It reviewed a specific project done at another library on outsourcing a project and a review of its successes and failures. Interesting stuff, but it really was a report rather than ideas.

These last sessions were followed by the Conference Closing. By now the attendees are thinning out, with some people having to leave early to catch their planes. We were all leaving at different times, some of us late on Sunday afternoon and a few of us on Monday morning (like myself). Of those of us that were left, a few had a post-conference meeting for the NASIG Board, so B, my mentee EL, LH, and I headed out for lunch. B and I decided to split the cost of a car for 24 hours, figuring we could drive around on Sunday and then use it to get to the airport in the morning.

The four of us headed out in search of something we just don't have where we each live: Waffle House. I'm not joking. We were feeling the need for some WaHo. It's the ultimate in diner food and the waffles really are good. We did find it, but frankly, this was not one of our better WaHo experiences. Their cook was having issues and managed to screw up not one, not two, but all four of our hash brown orders AND forgot LH's bacon [proprietary conference joke reference: "I'm a vegetarian except for bacon" or, if you prefer, "bacon goes with everything"]. And I think our waitress was, um, not the brightest crayon in the box, but she was very nice and apologetic about the issues with the cook. Afterwards, we drove through Sonic for cherry limeades (I miss Sonic!!!), and that cheered us all up.

Unfortunately, this was followed by having to drop EL off at the airport. We all got a bit goofy with the picture snapping, but we got some good photos out of it (see my Flickr account for the pics). Hopefully we'll see her again next year, and maybe even sooner if I go visit my PCOR (previous city of residence). B and I dropped LH back at the hotel to do some work she had to do on a presentation, and we headed over to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

We made it just in time for the last tour of the day. Since it was Sunday, the bats were not in production, but it was still neat to see. And, bonus!, we were the only two on that tour, so we got a nice personalized version. At the end of the tour you even get a free mini-bat. It was so worth the admission price, and I recommend it to anyone that likes baseball even a little bit. Additionally, the Museum has an exhibit right now called Peanuts at Bat, all about the baseball theme in Charles M. Schultz's comic strips. It was really cool. They had lots of the strips up on the wall, along with various toys and products related to the comic like the Snoopy dolls and Peanuts lunch box and banners. So much fun to look at! And of course, there were random goofy photos. B and I had fun acting like dorks for a bit.

We headed back to the hotel for some rest and to plan dinner. We met up with our friend AC, and headed out for more barbecue. Unfortunately, it was not our night, nor, apparently, our weekend for choosing restaurants. The place was closed. We were not the only one that was misled, as we pulled up there was a guy pulling on the door and looking confused and a bit cross about the place being closed.

Since we had the car, we decided to drive around for a bit. We happened across a Krispy Kreme place right as the "HOT" sign lit up, so we just had to stop for doughnuts. Again, not something we really have where we each live, but something we all enjoyed in PCORs. After our sugary appetizer, we drove around a bit more. Many places were closed, and we never did find a barbecue place. We ended up at Steak n' Shake for dinner. Not that this was disappointing. Like WaHo, it's something we all enjoy, but is a regional chain that none of us have where we live now. All I have to say is cheese fries and patty melts. Yummy. And milkshakes for dessert to go. After all this good food all weekend I'll be eating salad for the next week.

I always get so much out of this conference, both professionally and personally. I can't imagine not attending, and this year was no different. I learned a lot, gained lots of information to take with me and actually use, and played just as hard as always. Camp for serialists, indeed.

"This one time, at NASIG _[insert story here]_ "

NASIG 2007: day 3

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

Well, I missed the morning Vision Session. Bummer. It was actually someone I would have liked to have heard, but, fortunately, I'll at least be able to see the PowerPoint presentation. All the PowerPoints and handouts are being posted online this year where people can go and download them and/or print them if they so desire. It's great, and I plan to go and look at it as soon as I dig my way out from being behind at work (this may take a few more days...).

Like Friday, I attended two sessions. One was on how to give presentations, given by my friend JS. Now, I did not just attend this session because my friend was presenting. I really was interested in the topic. I'm in a much larger library now, and I'm finding that I am doing more presenting to larger groups, many of them in other parts of the library. I figured I need all the hints I can get to make myself a good presenter. I don't do badly, but that speech class back in high school was a long time ago, so the refresher was fabulous. It was more of a mix of presentation by JS and discussion and feedback/ideas from the audience. I picked up some excellent tips that I plan on using. So thanks!

I also went to a session on mixing serials, a traditionally behind the scenes technical services aspect of librarianship, with public service aspects, and how that can make you better at your technical services job. They discussed things like spending time on the reference desk to really understand what users are doing and how they are searching for things, and being accessible to those on the desk for help when necessary. The speakers were great, and I really enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see how I can potentially integrate some of their ideas into my current job.

Also on Saturday were the two discussion groups, one topical discussion, and one "user group" session for specific softwares and programs. The discussion group I attended got a bit sidetracked from the topic, but it was interesting for awhile. Part way through, my mentee EL and I decided to go have our own discussion. She's new to serials cataloging, so it was nice to have an opportunity to talk to her about her professional development and issues related to being a serials cataloger and her career. We talked about everything from how to get involved on a national level to how to affect change in your institution and discuss issues with other departments in your library in an accessible way. I really enjoyed our conversation, and I hope she was able to take something away from it.

Later on Saturday afternoon was the user group discussion session. I led the session on a particular product we had purchased, and tried to focus the session on troubleshooting and questions people had, in addition to how they implemented the product in their libraries. I was actually looking for some ideas since we are still in the implementation phase, and came away with some information and ideas that I will be using.

After the sessions were over, six of us headed out for another "anti-dine around." This time we took a cab (rather 2 cabs), to a different part of town I think is called Bardstown (Road?) for some BBQ. Our cabbie, Mack, was a trip, but the ride was a bit harrowing to say the least. At the end of the ride he gave us his number to call for the ride back to the hotel after our meal. Cool. We went on a recommendation to Mark's Feed Store for our Kentucky bbq. It's a local chain and had very good food. Sweet tea, fried pickles (better than the ones B and I had previously), onion strings, and barbecue. Excellent.

Our tummies full, we wandered down the road, which had an eclectic blend of restaurants and shops. We did stop and browse a few shops along the way, and I think we bored JS, the only guy in the group. We jokingly referred to him as "alpha" during the night...and I believe someone (but not JS, to his credit) referred to us as his "harem" at one point. Yes, librarians have bizarre, twisted senses of humor. But we do have fun.

There was a point to our rambling, we were in search of the hockey game. Game 3 of the playoffs was on, and B and I needed to find out what was going on. We ended up at a bar called Willy's that boasted 68 beers on tap and 1 giant lizard. We never saw the lizard, but they did have a lot of beers. And they had stone benches and tables (literally slabs of stone you sat on). And, most importantly, they had the game on tv. B and I managed to amuse the locals by yelling and cursing at the game periodically. I think LH got a picture of the two of us focused quite intently on the game. After a bit, we decided to call our cabbie, Mack, and head back to the hotel. Mack showed up with only one cab, so we had to flag a second one down to get us all back. At which point a few of the crew headed to their rooms to crash, or to catch the end of the open-mic talent event, but B, JS and I headed back to our room to watch the end of the game. We were joined by another friend, MP, and, once again, B and I amused our "audience," who, consequently, didn't know much about hockey, but had fun anyway. This game did end better than the game on Wednesday, much to our joy.

By this point in the conference, the conference fatigue was really starting to set in, so we did all head to bed early by normal conference standards.

NASIG 2007: day 2

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Each day at NASIG starts with a Vision Session. A speaker is invited to come and talk to all of us on a topic that is relevant to librarianship, technology, and/or life in general. Our first speaker was Bob Stein, from the USC Annenberg Center. He talked about issues of authority and how to determine an authoritative version of a work from the beginning of printing to the digital age. It was interesting to think about how marginalia in a book can create a new version of a work. And how marginalia exists in the digital world and how that network impacts what it means to be human. One thought I really liked was the idea that before you can design the answer to a problem/question/issue, you have to understand the purpose of what you do.

After the group Vision Session, we had a series of Strategy Sessions and Tactics Sessions, with lunch and breaks mixed in. There are many simultaneous sessions, and fortunately most of them are repeated during the conference. A few, however, are not repeated. One such session was on leadership and how technical services has taught people to be leaders. Being a technical services librarian (which includes all the behind the scenes aspects like cataloging), I thought the session would be interesting. And it was. I now have a reading list of books and articles the three speakers recommended that sound really interesting. Nothing like a little light summer reading, no?

I also attended a session on a new vision for applying FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) to continuing resources. This is an issue that has been debated for years. Serials do not fit neatly into the FRBR model. They just don't. This project involves the creation of a superworkspression record that would function as an authority record for that particular serial title. I'm not completely happy with this idea. One, it involves re-cataloging things. I don't have time to catalog everything now, much less re-catalog things I've already dealt with. Besides, I don't see why we have to re-do things. Personally, I think we should be able to make our systems manipulate the data we already have. I recognize that this presentation was for an idea that is currently being worked on, it's in process, so there are obviously things to be worked out. It will be interesting to see where they go with this new application of the FRBR model to serials.

The nice thing about this conference, is that you aren't required to attend everything, so if there's a block of time that doesn't have anything that you're interested in or that relates to your job, you have some down time to visit with more people or just take a nap. There is a such thing as "conference fatigue" where your brain just can't handle anything else, and the lack of sleep combined with the intensity catches up with you. So down time when you can get it is immensely valuable for warding off "conference fatigue." Basically, I'm offering an excuse for the fact that I took some time to myself before the evening's activities kicked off.

Breakfast and lunch are provided at the conference, but dinners you are on your own. Locals attending the conference offer to take people on "dine arounds" to various restaurants walking distance from the hotel. A group of us usually have some sort of "anti" dine around where we go off and find another restaurant, usually something ethnic or generally weird. B and I picked out an African restaurant, even looked at the menu online, and we all headed out. There was a group of 10 of us, wandering down the street. On the way, we spotted not one, not two, but THREE wig shops!! NASIG is not complete without seeing a wig shop. We have seen one on each and every NASIG I've attended, and always within 10 blocks of the hotel. Fabulous!

So after our wig shop sighting for this NASIG, we continued on our way to the restaurant. Alas, the fates were not smiling, and it was closed! Bummer. Fortunately, a member of our group, PM, had a map, which he promptly pulled out. Now that's using your resources and being prepared. Impressive. Just down the street was the Bluegrass Brewing Co. So that's where we went. It was good. The beer was good, the company was good, the food was good, and our waitress, Kim, was excellent.

After dinner, we headed back to the 4th Street Live area for martinis. There had been many a discussion about the merits of a gin martini versus a vodka martini, so we decided we must have a martini night to compare. We landed at the Red Star Tavern. JS is a gin person, and I'm a vodka person. We each ordered our favorites, and then exchanged. Then we exchanged back. Not that the other option was bad, but I think we each preferred our favorite martini style. After doing more sitting and chatting, we all started to get restless.

A few people headed back to the hotel because they were tired, but the majority of us headed out for some dancing. When we walked into the street, we discovered that they were holding a fashion show in the middle of the street! Crazy. It meant that there was not only loud music inside the bars, but outside, and there were people everywhere. Talk about a party in the street. We headed to a place called the Tengo Sed Cantina (yes, I'm laughing quite hard about the name) for some dancing and craziness. And we all had fun. My mentee, EL, told me she had a blast and is already looking forward to next year. Awesome! But it was a very late night. Ah, the joys of conferences.

NASIG 2007: day 1

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

NASIG began with the First Timers/Mentoring Reception at 3pm. After a leisurely day, I braced myself to meet my mentee, EL. If you remember from my previous post, EL is a new hire at my first place of employment post-degree. I don't think either one of us had any idea what to expect. Fortunately, we got along famously, and hung out the rest of the weekend. She has been fully indoctrinated into the world and experience that is NASIG, long days and crazy nights and all the insanity. And yes, she was a willing participant for the entire thing.

After the reception was the Opening Program. The opening always has a few speakers, one to welcome us to the city, and one that addresses the history of the city. This year's speaker on the city history was Professor Tom Owen. He has a background in ministry, and boy howdy could you hear it. He was a wonderful speaker, engaging, humorous, informative, yet part of me kept expecting him to suddenly say "can I get an Amen." He's also a participant in the city government, and had some interesting information about how the city works and it's efforts to become more bike friendly. He's a bicyclist himself, having given up his car a while ago. I think that's awesome. And you could see it walking around the downtown area. They've combined bike-friendliness with art, commissioning artists to create bike racks that are actually visually interesting. Why can't every city do this? You can see one here.

After the Opening, we all walked down Main Street to the Frazier International History Museum for the Reception. There was food, and lots of catching up with friends and colleagues. In addition to opening up the Museum just for us, keeping the exhibits open for us and the Museum also staged a sword fighting demonstration. They two actors were quite good, and explained the different styles and the historical development of sword fighting. It was fascinating. I missed the beginning, but my friend LH explained to me I didn't miss much, except the stretching and one of the many staged fights. Bummer about missing the stretching...according to LH, the two guys were very thorough.

When we walked in, we were told they're was also a bit on the beheading of Anne Boleyn, complete with a fake head. Alas, they lied. No fake head. But the interpreter was very good, telling the story from the point of view of one of Anne's ladies in waiting, and remaining in character the whole time.

The reception ended rather early by conference night standards, so a group of us wandered back down to 4th Street Live and crammed into a booth at The Pub for some more catching up. We still had an early night, as Friday would be starting early, but it was so great to see people and visit more over a few pints. We all do talk between conferences, but e-mail and phone calls are no substitute for face to face conversation. We spend so much time together at conferences, but they can be so far apart sometimes. Many of my friends I hadn't seen since last year's NASIG, or most recently in January at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. So it was awesome to sit and talk and hear what was going on in people's lives. I wish we all lived closer to each other, except I'd never get any sleep.

NASIG 2007: day 0, arrival

Much like I did with CONSER, I will now be playing catch up with my posts about NASIG. Brace yourself for 5 posts in quick succession about the conference. Enjoy.

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Travel day. This time I had to fly. I took the dog to the kennel on Tuesday evening, and got up super early on Wednesday to catch the bus and then the train to the airport (much much cheaper than parking). I didn't have coffee before I left the house, as juggling a coffee cup, luggage and my carry on bag would not have been pretty. I figured I'd get some at the airport. I arrived at the airport in plenty of time, breezed through check in and security (a rarity for me, I assure you) and then discovered something awful. NO REAL COFFEE past security in that particular terminal. Unless you count non-McDonald's fast food coffee as real coffee, there was no coffee to be had. The food court was next to non-existent. Ugh. I did buy a cup, but I couldn't drink it; it was just too terrible tasting. Fortunately, we boarded shortly and I slept all the way to my connection in Detroit. In Detroit, I had ample time to find real coffee, and options were plentiful. Life became instantly better, I became human again.

After arriving in Louisville, I took the bus to the hotel. I love taking public transportation when I travel. It gives me the opportunity to really see the city, and not just the "touristy" parts of it. You see neighborhoods, both good and bad, office buildings, warehouses, factories, all the stuff that isn't in the downtown or around your hotel and convention center. It's a great way to get a feel for things.

My roommate for the conference, my friend B (remember her from CONSER? yeah, we travel well together), arrived not too long after I did and we went in search of food. We walked up the street, and ended up in an area called 4th Street Live. It's an outdoor pedestrian area full of restaurants, a small mall area, and bars. We got carded going in and had a bracelet put on our wrists to mark us as part of the over-21 crowd. Apparently open containers are allowed in the pedestrian mall area. Who knew. We picked a place called The Pub. It's a chain, but anyplace that has something called the Beer Bible is OK by us. We had excellent beers and fried pickles (YUM!) for an appetizer. I had their Shepherd's Pie for dinner and it was delicious. A fancy schmancy version with beef and lamb and chive potatoes.

Now, one thing you need to know about B and I is that we are hockey nuts. And it's the Stanley Cup Finals right now. She's a Buffalo Sabres fan (but I like her anyway). I was raised on the Detroit Red Wings. Both our teams are out of the quest, and fortunately we're both cheering for the same team, the Ottawa Senators. The Anaheim Ducks are wrong for many reasons: it's an expansion team in southern California AND the franchise used to be owned by Disney. That's just wrong (and if you're a Ducks fan, I'm not apologizing if you're offended, you'll just have to deal with it). So after eating, we had our own quest: to find a place we could see the game (only broadcast on satellite). We ended up at Champion's Sports Bar. Shortly after we arrived, our friends AC and JS joined us. Neither one of them are hockey fans, but they were amused watching us watch the game and periodically curse at the screen. Unfortunately, Ottawa lost. There was more cursing.

After the game was over, we sat and chatted for a bit, catching up with each others lives, and then went to another bar. What you need to remember about librarians, is that while we work very very hard, we also play hard. Conferences can be like camp (cue American Pie movie reference: "this one time, at NASIG..."). So while we attend sessions and learn a lot during the day, we like to go out and have a good time. We got back to the hotel rather late, and all of us crashed out, needing to rest up for the start of the conference on Thursday afternoon.