ALA Annual 2012 Anaheim

Later this week I'm off to Anaheim, CA for the ALA Annual Conference 2012. I'm looking forward to catching up with and seeing my colleagues from all over the country. :) But per usual, I need a clone. There are far too many sessions going on concurrently that I want to attend!


Here are a few highlights:

• The Library Code Year Interest Group inaugural meeting!: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/651
• Kuali OLE (learn about the project; FYI, MPOW is a development partner): http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/260
• Continuing Resources Cataloging Update Forum: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/378
• Quality Standards in Batch Records and Adventures in Cooperative Cataloging: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/380
• CONSER/BIBCO/SACO At-Large: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1166 (agenda: http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/PCC-At-Large-Agenda-June-2012.doc)
• PCC Participants' Meeting (undifferentiated names in the LC/NACO Authority File): http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/261 (agenda: http://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/documents/PCC-Participants-Meeting-2012-Annual.doc)
• RDA Meetings (thank's RDA Toolkit for the list!): http://www.rdatoolkit.org/blog/392

For anyone wanting/needing to track me down at ALA, here's my full ALA Annual 2012 Anaheim schedule (subject to change at any given moment leading up to the start and as the conference progresses):
(link: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/user/30698/schedule-embed)


Update (6/19/2012): My colleagues and I have enacted a "divide and conquer" approach. Thus for the time slots with multiple items they are ranked in terms of priority, with the High designated sessions being the ones I said I'd attend. Unfortunately, the "priority" status isn't visible in the public version of my calendar. Boo. At any rate, DM me via Twitter (@slmcdanold) or text me if you're trying to find me.

Library Code Year Interest Group at ALA

The LITA/ALCTS Library Code Year IG will be having our first meeting at ALA Annual 2012 (#ala12) in Anaheim, CA and we need your help. We are looking for speakers to give lightening talks!

Call for Speakers

What strategies, or roadblocks, have you found in learning to code? How have you used programming to improve library service models or workflows?

The Library Code Year Interest Group seeks speakers for lightening talks (5 minutes) on any aspect of coding and libraries, including projects you have completed, your experience learning to code or thoughts on projects you would like to see in the future.  Speakers at all levels of coding skill and from all types of library backgrounds are invited to participate.

Our meeting at ALA Annual in Anaheim will be Saturday, June 23, 1:30-3:30pm at the Doubletree Suites (Tuscany AB). You can find it on the ALA Scheduler here. The inaugural meeting of the Library Code Year Interest Group will provide an opportunity for members to discuss how they have used what they have learned through Code Year in their jobs and to discuss roadblocks they have encountered along the way through a combination of lightening talks and roundtable discussions. Attendees will learn ways that the code they are learning can be used in libraries and have a chance to share their experiences learning and using code. We will end with a brainstorming session on how the IG can support members’ efforts to learn and apply code in libraries.

Feel free to contact me with any questions at slmcdanold@gmail.com or mcdanold@pobox.upenn.edu or post your thoughts on our Connect page.

Even if you don't want to give a talk, I hope to see you there! 

Talking about Code Year

It's really weird to watch yourself talk. And listen to yourself. Oh boy.

Anyway, here's a link to Andromeda Yelton and I talking about the Code Year phenomenon and what we've got going on:

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/ala-members-blog/beginning-lita-code-year-interest-group



[Note: I'm on the left, wearing the Stewie from Family Guy "OBEY ME!" lanyard.]

Watch. And then come join us!! Thanks to Tina Coleman for posting her video and sharing it. :)

We are working on making the ALA Interest Group a joint LITA/ALCTS venture. There are far too many catalogers involved fro ALCTS to not participate! Yay for dialogue between catalogers and coders!

Catcode twitter list
Catcode wiki
Code Year on ALA Connect

ALA Midwinter 2012 Dallas

Over the weekend I'm off to Dallas for the ALA Midwinter Meeting 2012. As usual, there's a lot going on and I expect I'll be quite busy. I'm also looking forward to catching up with and seeing my colleagues from all over the country. :)

For anyone wanting/needing to track me down at ALA, here's my ALA Midwinter 2012 Dallas schedule:



I'll be spending a lot of time in the Omni Dallas Hotel and the Convention Center this Midwinter. Yes, my schedule is full. It always is. Yes, there are conflicts. They're unavoidable. If anyone has figured out how to clone themselves, please share. In the time slots with conflicts, I will be at one of the listed sessions...I just don't know which one. You can assume I'll be at the PCC/CONSER/BIBCO stuff, anything under the type committee meeting, or anything marked private because I most likely have to be.

Drop me an email or contact me via GoogleChat or Twitter if you want to meet up. :)

Advice for ALA Annual newbies: part 2, Other

There's been lots of advice floating around for people attending ALA Annual for the first time. Sometime ago (a few years back, I think), I created a document of all the things I wish people had told me back when I attended my first few ALAs. I've now been to more ALAs than I care to count.

So, in the interest of sharing, here's my advice for ALA Annual newbies, divided into two posts: Scheduling and Other.

Other

REMOVE your conference name badge when leaving hotels and the convention center. The only reason to keep it on is if you are boarding an ALA shuttle. Please, for the love of all that is holy, remember to do this. If you walk around the city with it on you're signaling that you're a tourist and will be targeted accordingly.

Bring a bag you're comfortable lugging around with lots of stuff in it (a backpack is nice). You may or may not be able to head back to your room to get things or drop things off. You don't need a laptop or netbook unless you really want it (I haul my netbook because I type faster than I write), but make sure you have something to take notes on that's firm.

Be sure to pack comfortable shoes. This is very important. It's often quicker to walk from meeting to meeting rather than deal with the shuttles.

Dress is business casual, but with comfortable shoes. The only people you typically see in heels are vendors.

Think layers...hot outside, but the meeting rooms are often freezing (I always carry a sweater to throw on).

Bring a map of the city with you to help you navigate (the hotel map from ALA is never to scale). Don’t be afraid to use city public transit as needed.

Bring band-aids, because no matter how broken in your shoes are, you still might get blisters. Carry them with you (I have a mini first aid kit in a plastic baggie).

Bring snacks and a refillable water bottle. It's not always convenient or easy to find food, so a bunch of granola bars, nuts, and/or dried fruit can keep you from falling over from hunger. Many/most of the meeting rooms have pitchers of water so you can refill your water bottle. Also don't forget your travel mug for coffee/tea. Get your coffee/tea in your hotel or outside the convention center and bring it with you. The lines inside are long, and it's often more expensive.

Carry a stack of business cards with you (if you don't have any, buy a pack of those perforated sheet ones from an office supply place and make your own). When you get someone else's card, once you're done talking, write on the back of the card where you met them and a few notes to help you remember who they are and what you talked about. This will be helpful later when you return to work and are staring at the stack of cards on your desk, wondering who the heck these people are and why you should care.

Most importantly: HAVE FUN. Make sure you carve out some time for fun, even if it means not going to a meeting or two. Part of the conference is experiencing the city it's in.

Advice for ALA Annual newbies: part 1, Scheduling

There's been lots of advice floating around for people attending ALA Annual for the first time. Sometime ago (a few years back, I think), I created a document of all the things I wish people had told me back when I attended my first few ALAs. I've now been to more ALAs than I care to count.

So, in the interest of sharing, here's my advice for ALA Annual newbies, divided into two posts: Scheduling and Other.

Scheduling

Use the ALA Event Planner. Unless a meeting is marked as “closed”, anyone is welcome to attend. This does include committee meetings. Non ALA groups can be found under UNO. You can then export your Event Planner calendar in iCal format for importing into whatever web-based calendar you use or for your smart phone, etc. Just be careful to adjust the times of your meetings for whatever time-zone ALA is in that year.

Check the daily Cognotes for last minute changes and meeting cancellations.

Follow the ALA hashtag on Twitter (Annual 2010: #ala10) as well as various ALA divisions, groups, etc. Often you'll hear about updates to events, meetings, programs, etc. there first.

Membership in a group does not equal obligation to attend all of their meetings, not even for business meetings.

Not everything makes it into the planner, but you do have the option of adding personal meetings for those things that aren't there that you know about, such as dinners, Tweet-ups, or vendor events. Most social events, happy hours, etc. will not be in the planner. Keep an eye out for invites, postings, etc. These are valuable networking opportunities.

Don't try to go to everything; often meetings are not convenient and you don't have enough time between them and naturally there are lots and lots of conflicts. Start with your required meetings, and figure out what else you can attend from there based on timing and location.

Attend a meeting/session/program that has nothing to do with your current job, but covers a topic you're interested in personally.

Don't be afraid to stand up and walk out of a meeting to either go to a different one or because it's not what you expected. People wander in and out of sessions all the time. Conversely, don't be afraid to show up late for a meeting you're really interested in attending. Shuttles get delayed, meetings run long, etc.

Don't be afraid to skip a session to go to coffee with someone you really want to talk to instead. Those one-on-one meetings with a potential long term mentor/contact/support can be priceless.

One meeting I do recommend for first timers is the NMRT Orientation on Saturday morning. It's very helpful in getting the lay of the land and giving tips on getting around. Also good for a first time attendee are the “101” sessions put on by various ALA divisions.

Make some time to wander the exhibition hall and see the vendors. It's actually best to try and break it up into a few smaller sessions here and there (there are a LOT of vendors).

Try to attend at least some of the social events, for both vendors and divisions/sections. This does mean your day will be very long, but it's to your benefit to network at those evening socials.

ALA Annual Conference recap

This years ALA Annual Conference was in Chicago, IL. The good news: I got to stay with my sister. The bad news: I didn't get to see that much of her because I was so busy!

I'm only getting to this a week late, but at least I'm getting it done this time, right? Right?!? (Lord I'm behind...and I swear the to-do list has a life of it's own now.)

Sessions attended:

Friday, July 10, 2009
*OCLC Enhance Sharing Session
*ALCTS CCS "Hot Topics" Forum: The Future of MARC

Saturday, July 11, 2009
*ALCTS CRS Policy & Planning Committee meeting (business)
*ALCTS Catalog Form and Function Interest Group discussion: Accentuating the "e-": Electronic Resources in the Public Catalog
*LITA Standards Interest Group: SERU and NISO update

Sunday, July 12, 2009
*CONSER/BIBCO/SACO-at-Large (I stayed for both CONSER and BIBCO)
*Program for Cooperative Cataloging Participants' Meeting: The Death of the Document (David Lankes)
*CONSER dinner

Monday, July 13, 2009
*RLG Print Archiving Project
*ALCTS CRS Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee Update Forum

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
*ALCTS CRS Executive Committee meeting (business)

There were many more things I would have liked to have attended, but unfortunately location and time were determining factors. As were conflicts. Seems all the sessions I was really interested in occurred in the same time slots. Lots of tough decisions. And my need to eat lunch played a role as well (feed me regularly or suffer the consequences!). Everything I attended was great, I just wish I could have cloned myself to attend some of the other sessions happening at the same time too!

Hopefully over the next few days (or maybe this weekend) I'll pull together summaries of the sessions from my notes and post them.

Pics on Flickr: ALA Annual 2009

I'm going to Disneyland...err...ALA

I'm off to the ALA Annual Conference tomorrow. It's in Anaheim, CA this year. I can see us all now, sitting in our sessions and meetings sporting Mickey Mouse ears with our names on them instead of our conference badges. Strangely, none of my friends or colleagues want me to bring them mouse ears back...hm.

Per usual, I have a packed schedule with tons of conflicts. Typical ALA chaos. This year I have an additional (new to me) meeting on Tuesday morning. What was once a 3 day conference is now 5 days of meetings. Lord help me and give me coffee.

BUT, the Scholarship Bash is a ticket to a Disneyland park on Saturday night. So in a role reversal, I'm going to tag along with my NASIG mentee EL and her friends and go to Disneyland! Woo hoo!

I so need to get a picture of me and Mickey.

Back to reality...

I'm back to reality from my 4 days of being insanely busy with the ALA Midwinter Meeting. OK, so technically I didn't actually go anywhere since it was here in Philly, but I wasn't any less busy. If anything (or if even possible), I was more busy than previous Meetings.

Having a conference or large professional meeting in your home city is a double-edged sword. On the plus side, you don't have to deal with the stress of travel. All your friends get to see where you live, including the ones that would never be able to visit you otherwise. And I did see friends. It was wonderful to see them all, but as with every conference/meeting, we did not have enough time together as we all had lots to do. Also on the plus side you know where you're going. There's nothing worse than trying to find the hotel where you're next meeting is and ending up completely lost. Or getting lost trying to find your hotel at night after dinner. It was nice to know where I was and where I was going for once.

But on the flip side, having a conference/meeting in your home city is extra work. People ask you for directions. Or where to eat dinner. I haven't been out to eat much, so I had to ask several colleagues and friends to help me compile a list of suggestions. You're asked to do extra local arrangements stuff for groups. And you still have to deal with all the normal home stuff. The dog still needs to go out and other home chores still have to happen. Just because you have a conference doesn't mean your regular life stops when it's local (when you travel you can escape the day to day stuff). You have to worry about public transit schedules both to get to meetings in the mornings and to make sure you don't miss the last bus or the last train home. I actually know people that still elect to stay in one of the conference hotels when their city is hosting just so they don't have to worry about such things. And I seriously considered putting the dog in a kennel for the weekend. Lucky for me, I have awesome friends that were staying with me so we could tag-team the dog care. My friends ROCK.

This was a successful Midwinter for me. Things went smoothly. I saw lots of friends. My ALA committee completed it's work and goals. We worked hard and we've worked for months but it all paid off when we accomplished what we set out to do. The workshop I presented was well received and I got lots of positive feedback. My other meetings went smoothly and things are moving forward. I made new connections with colleagues. A dinner I planned for one of my groups ended up being very tasty, lots of fun, and everyone that attended enjoyed themselves. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's over, but overall everything went very very well.

Now it's back to the grind. I have follow up work to do. So while the official event is over, the related work is just getting started. And I need to pick back up some of the work stuff I put on hold for the Meeting. The next few days are going to be just as busy until I get on top of things again.

Conference scheduling nightmares

The 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting is in Philly this weekend. This means that a large number of librarians will be descending on the city. Large as in somewhere around 12,000 librarians. I have friends staying with me, which is good as I that means we can tag team the dog duties. I'll be making up a chart to guarantee the dog goes out at least three times a day during the insanity of all the conference meetings.

My weekend is packed. It always is. And I always have conflicts. This year seems to be particularly bad. To make it worse, they seem to be concentrated with nothing either interesting or obligatory in between them. So it's lots of conflicts for several hours followed by several hours of dead time. On the upside, I'll actually have several blocks of time to wander through the exhibits this Midwinter Meeting.

OK, back to the problem. I have two conflicting meetings Saturday morning at 10:30. I have three Sunday morning at 10:30 and another two, oops, three at 4:00 that afternoon. The worst part? It's not a matter of deciding which of two potentially interesting sessions I want to try (and I've picked the wrong one before). This time it's about choosing between two (or three) job related and useful sessions. I've tried to do the divide and conquer method with colleagues, where we each attend one, take copious notes, and then trade.

Unfortunately, this won't work for the Saturday morning conflict. Those two sessions don't really relate to anyone else's job buy mine. Damn. I guess it's time to chant eeny, meeny, miny, moe and just randomly pick one as I only have a few more days to nail down my schedule.

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.

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.

Back from the whirlwind

So I'm back from the whirlwind trip known as the ALA Midwinter Meeting. I saw colleagues, friends, former colleagues, met new people and attended a hell of a lot of meetings. The Midwinter Meeting is the business meeting for the organization. In other words, it's lots of committee work, no "program" type sessions, and an intense couple of days with lots of work done. And don't forget the social activities after a full day of meetings. But I survived. As did my feet and my clothing (despite my agonizing packing decisions). I now need a detox from all the coffee I drank to stay awake and keep myself up and running around.

My roommate this time was my bestest friend from college (I swore her to secrecy before we arrived, so no damaging stories could be told). She's a library student right now, and still figuring out what she kind of librarian she wants to be (librarianship is a diverse profession with lots of options). Now, my committee got a lot done this meeting. Much more than last year (of course, the exec committee gave us more this year, too). But our success pales in comparison to my friend's success at this conference. She contributed to (not just attended and observed) committee meetings, met someone that she will most likely and hopefully be an intern for in the near future (which is invaluable experience for a student, FYI), made loads of professional connections, and will most likely be contributing to a student blogging project for a major publication in our field. And all in two days. Wow. I remember sitting in on a few committee meetings when I was just getting started in my field. Once they asked me my opinion and I was practically paralyzed with fear that I'd say the wrong thing or just end up sounding stupid. My friend actually presented to the big group what her little group talked about. And did it with grace. More power to her!

My meetings, both committee and informative, all dealt with change. There's lots going on in the library world of cataloging right now. I could get into the minutiae of changes to serials/continuing resources cataloging rules, and the way our current general cataloging rules are evolving and undergoing a major revision, but I'm not sure I could effectively explain it. I don't understand it all myself (few of us do). Suffice to say, sessions on those changes took up most of my time. I know it's hard to imagine, but librarians do get very passionate about things, just attend a few committee meetings to watch the drama unfold. But the best thing is we can debate for hours over a detail, yet still go out for dinner later and enjoy each other's company.

Anyway, I didn't get much sleep, but that's ok, I never do, because I'm happy to sacrifice sleep to spend some time with my friends after all the meetings. We had our share of personal drama (when you don't get together much because you live in separate cities, months worth of interactions happen in a few short hours when you are together), but I wouldn't trade it for the world since for me, talking face to face beats text messages, chat, e-mail and even the phone any day of the week. It was so good to see everyone and re-establish connections. I even had the opportunity to have lunch with the man who is the reason I'm a librarian and someone I consider my mentor. He goes a long way to show what it means to be a librarian outside the stereotypes and still be very passionate about your field and libraries in general. It was 3 hours very well spent and I'm very grateful we had the chance to get together and talk.

Now I just have to remember what exactly I was working on before I left. After I clean out the over 200 listserv messages sitting in my inbox. But first, I think I'll get a cup of coffee, as I'm exhausted both mentally and physically from the ALA Midwinter Meeting and everything that comes with it. My coffee detox can wait for the weekend.