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.

CONSER 2007: day 3

Friday, May 4th, 2007

Last day. Today was all CONSER, but it was also a short day, ending a bit early (3pm instead of 5pm) to allow for people to get out and sightsee if they so desire.

Our morning consisted of more discussion of the CONSER Standard Record, naturally, followed by a rehashing of an old debate on single versus separate records for different formats, but with a new twist: digital archival copies of the works. After going in circles for a good hour, we decided to not change our policy, and while the single record format is allowed, CONSER policy recommends separate records. That's our policy and for now we're stickin' to it.

I'm not sure all of the CONSER Standard Record issues have been resolved, but I'm not sure they all can be just yet. We voted to go ahead and implement the new and slimmed-down record as of June 1st, and basically see what happens. There are a few things that have to be worked out before implementation (software issues), but we're moving forward.

Since it was a short day, we went to the LC cafeteria for lunch. It's a pretty nice cafeteria, with salad bars, sandwich bars and hot dish options. Plenty of options. So we got our trays and sat with a bunch of other CONSER folks for a very nice relaxing lunch. After lunch it was back to the meeting room for some more discussion, member updates and a wrap up. Towards the end of the meeting, the previous CONSER Coordinator walked in for a visit. Shortly after her arrival, we adjourned, this time for some social time at Bullfeathers.

It's amazing what you learn about your colleagues when you just sit an chat. We learned that our current CONSER Coordinator is a pretty damn good blues guitarist on the side, and he has posted several videos on YouTube. You can check him out here. Of course, as a cataloger, he was careful to tag his videos properly so they would be findable. We're all about the findability of items. Our purpose is to make things findable to the user, and the way we tag things in our personal lives is no exception. This admission of his and his desire to tag things correctly led to an interesting commentary about how librarians tag things versus how catalogers tag things versus how a non-librarian tags things. Yes, we really are all geeks. And that's "Ms. Library Geek" to you, thankyouverymuch.

After some socializing, B and I set out to find a gift for her cat sitter. Apparently her cat sitter is a Republican and a HUGE fan of Ronald Reagan. We decided a good place to start would be the Library of Congress gift shop in the Jefferson Building. We hit the jackpot. A talking Ronnie doll. No joke. They had a whole collection of talking president dolls. Clinton, Reagan, both Bushes, and I think I even saw Carter and Nixon in there. The perfect gift. We left the Capitol Hill area with our quarry, and headed back over to the Firehook Bakery & Coffee House for coffee and a cookie (see, I told you I saw another cookie in my future!). Not only do they make really good cookies, they make really good coffee, so I bought a bag of beans. I can't wait to try them (I have to finish the last of my other beans first, don't want to mix different beans and roasts after all).

Post coffee and yummy cookie, we retrieved our bags from the b&b (I'll definitely stay there again) and headed for Union Station to catch the Amtrak back to Philly. B's garment bag once again attempted to hang her when she went through the METRO turnstiles. We made it to Union Station with time to spare, and just sat and relaxed a bit. Once on the train, B and I managed to get one of the "foursome" setups, with two sets of seats facing each other, which gave us a bit more space to stretch out. Being Friday night, the train was full, but not so full that we had to share. Train rides do produce some interesting people. At the first stop a girl got on carrying a suitcase and a cage. A rodent cage. The rodent, however, was not in the cage, but all it's bedding/food/dishes were. The rodent was in a little rodent carrier that looked kind of like a purse. I'm guessing it was a guinea pig, but I didn't ask.

We arrived in Philly exhausted and hungry, and caught a cab back to my place. Once there, we dropped our stuff and headed back out in search of cheesesteaks. Specifically Abner's Cheesesteaks. We ordered three: one for there to split, and two to go (one for each of us). Oh, and an order of cheese fries and two Smithwick's beers. We learned on our first trip that half of an Abner's cheesesteak with all the fixins is more than plenty. That cheesesteak I took home was lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. Which was good, since I had no food in the house and desperately needed to go grocery shopping (remedied on Sunday afternoon once I had some energy). After our very very late dinner (it was after 11:00PM), we headed back to the house and crashed out. Unfortunately, B had to head out of town by mid morning, but we'll see each other again soon, in Louisville, KY for NASIG. And conference season continues!

Needless to say, after 3 days of meetings, no access to e-mail except in the evenings (when I was too exhausted to do anything but check for urgent/disaster type messages), I picked up the dog from the kennel on Saturday morning after B left and we (the dog and I) slept most of the rest of the day. And I'm still catching up on my e-mail both at home and at work.

CONSER 2007: day 2

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Today opened with a joint meeting with the other half of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC): BIBCO. CONSER deals with continuing resources, and BIBCO deals with monographs. Both groups participate in creating authority records for people, places, corporations and series. Authority is a joint all-hands-on-deck activity.

We discovered at breakfast that another CONSER library representative was also saying at the same b&b, PF. He came down to breakfast after us, and was still sitting there when we left to catch the METRO. B and I were trying to give ourselves enough time to get a coffee before going into the joint meeting. Alas, today was not our day for the METRO. We missed the red line, watched it pull out as we reached the platform. Once we caught the next train and transferred to the orange line at Metro Center, heading for the Capitol South station that dumps us at the back door of the Madison Building, we thought out luck was getting better, as a train arrived just as we did. We were wrong. We sat on the orange line train an waited, watching our chance for coffee slip by. Ironically, PF caught up with us. Even more amazingly, he reached the meeting room in the Madison Building before we did. How did he do that?? Hmm...what does he have hidden in his backpack...a transporter maybe?

Anyway, today there were tables, and a much larger meeting room. Of course, being a joint meeting, there were also a lot more people. PF realized he forgot a pen. Like, forgot to bring one to DC with him. He had pencils, but no pen. So B loaned him a pen, and PF vowed to buy a new one during lunch.

The morning consisted of reports by various standing committees, an OCLC report that updated us on status of the merger of RLG and OCLC update, and a discussion of the one format both groups are responsible for (integrating resources). Also included was a speech by Beecher Wiggins on the reorganization of the various divisions in cataloging and acquisitions going on at the Library of Congress, discussion of adding non-roman text to authority records, and some really interesting demonstrations of software that automatically adds non-roman text to records. I realize that for most of you this means nothing, but let me explain. Every time something is cataloged, it is input in a romanized form, in other words characters are spelled out using the roman alphabet. This may not sound all that serious, but often meaning is lost in the translation, and it's not a true one-to-one conversion. So, now that our software can handle it, we're trying to add the non-roman text to the records. So when you catalog something in Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc., you put the title in twice: once using the romanized form of the words, and once using the actual script/characters. It looks really cool. Well, a few people got together and wrote a script to add the fields automatically, translating the romanized text into the characters and vice versa. For people like me, who don't read or write, say, Korean, this is awesome. Amazing what software can do these days.

Anyway, it was a full morning, and we were reconvening as a joint meeting again after lunch before splitting off into our respective groups again later in the afternoon. Knowing that the afternoon was going to be just as full as the morning, B and I once again opted to leave the building and get some fresh air during lunch. We found our way to a Thai place on Pennsylvania Avenue, figuring some spicy food would help clear up B's congestion (a head cold to make traveling fun) and perk us both up a bit after sitting for hours on end. So we ordered lunch, and had a rather bizarre experience. Our food came at completely different times, literally a good 10 minutes apart. The service just kept getting more and more bizarre, we had a hard time getting the attention of either one of the two servers. Additionally, the clientèle were equally as bizarre. One lady sat there and snapped her fingers at the server while we were talking to him. So he left us to talk to her and then never came back. How rude. But the food was good (although not good enough to make me want to go back and deal with the bizarre service again). I had a vegetable coconut curry dish that wasn't too spicy but just enough to give my lips that "curry tingle" and make my nose run a bit. And bonus, they had mangoes and sticky rice listed for dessert. Alas, the menu lied...the mangoes weren't good, so no sticky rice for us. Instead we stopped at Firehook Bakery & Coffee House for a treat. A delicious cookie. A really delicious cookie. I see more Firehook cookies in my future.

Returning to the room after lunch, we learned that PF really did buy a new pen. Two pens, actually, just in case one of them didn't work. Which was a good thing, since one of them didn't work. We sat there trying to stifle our giggles as PF wrestled with his new pen, trying to get it to write, only to give up and pull out the second one.

After a few more reports, the groups split, and us CONSER folks headed to our meeting room. Fortunately, this room also contained tables. Our afternoon meeting contained a report on the state of the ISSN. Always informative. This was followed by discussion of, you guessed it, the CONSER Standard Record. Today things got a bit more passionate, but that may have been the fact that there were more people present. After several hours of discussion, we finally adjourned for the day.

B and I left the meeting, deciding to head out for Kramerbooks for some well earned pints of Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Rogue ales are delicious brews made in Oregon, and hard to find elsewhere in the country, so finding them on tap is like gold. We took the METRO to the Dupont Circle station, exiting on the north side. As we stepped onto the escalator, we got about 10 feet and it came to a grinding, screeching halt. Nails on a chalkboard screeching, some shuddering, and then a complete stand still. A collective groan rises from the packed escalator. Two things to note: one, there are three escalators, two going down, and only one going up. Two, the Dupont Circle station is rather deep, it had to go under a streetcar tunnel. So imagine the stairmaster nightmare as we all started climbing. We earned our pints. We really earned our pints of Rogue Dead Guy Ale. We topped the night off by eating dinner in the Afterwards cafe as well. They make killer nachos, as well as killer desserts. Specifically the Cafe Nachos Grande Gigante. We ordered guacamole with them, and they were big enough for us to split as dinner, but not to worry, it was a balanced meal, with plenty of veggies including salad topping off the chips and cheese. These nachos are so much more than an appetizer, or "sharezie." Dessert was a Dysfunctional Family Sundae. We thought the dysfunctional fit, given that CONSER is often very much like a big dysfunctional family in itself. But you love it anyway.

Ironically, on our way back home, the up escalator was working, but now both the down escalators were out of service. Sigh. At least we had a chance to work off that brownie and ice cream with some more stairmaster.

CONSER 2007: day 1

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

Today was the "bonus" day for CONSER. Normally, the annual operations meeting is only two days, but due to the CONSER Standard Record, an extra day was added to discuss it this year.

And discuss it we did. The room was packed. I'm fairly certain we violated several fire codes with too many people, too many chairs, and all in a rather small room with only one small door. No tables to write on. [Caution: begin rant] This is a pet peeve of mine. I have short legs, legs that usually barely reach the floor. Which means when I don't have a surface to write on, my legs must be tensed in order to provide a stable and flat surface that my paper won't slide off of. Even more difficult, where do you put your cup of coffee (necessary for survival) and possibly your snack where you or anyone else will NOT kick it? There really is no perfect place. Oh well. [end rant]

We started the day with two of our colleagues reviewing the CONSER Standard Record and it's elements, highlighting the changes to cataloging from past practice. They did a very good job, however, one of them, V, needs to switch to decaf. She's a petite woman, and is far far too energetic. The kind of high energy person that can be likened to a hamster on speed at times (visualize a hamster running on it's wheel at high speed...yeah, like that). It was almost too much to take at 10:00 in the morning. But we all survived, and like I said before, the overview was very well done.

B and I ventured outside for lunch, deciding to walk down the street until something caught our fancy. Getting outside becomes very important when you're in a windowless room in the middle of the Madison Building of the Library of Congress with 50 of your colleagues for hours upon hours. You need the fresh air. We decided upon a place called Taverna the Greek Islands (305 Pennsylvania Avenue SE). We both had a very nice salad with gyro meat on top. It was filling without being too much, so we wouldn't be falling asleep during the afternoon session.

The afternoon was dedicated to discussion of various questions and issues that came up during the morning's overview. Someone did not get lunch, as they categorized (we're catalogers, what did you expect?) and typed up the list of items from the various scrawled notes written down on flip charts during the morning presentation. This discussion was relatively calm, much to our surprise, but our esteemed CONSER Coordinator probably could have used a whistle on several occasions just to get people's attention. Fortunately, V, the high-energy presenter, was there to get our attention for him. We did not, however, solve all the issues that were raised. Meaning that the discussion would be continuing the next day.

After the meeting adjourned, a group of around 8 of us headed out to find some beverages and to rehash the day. I've learned that frequently discussions continue well after the meetings are over, usually over a beverage or two, and I always learn something, so it's worth my time. That and I enjoy the company of my colleagues even when we aren't discussing work-related issues. This time was a happy combination of continued discussion and general fun. We wandered down Pennsylvania Avenue until we came to a bar that several members of our group had been to before. I have no idea what the name of it was, but I will find it again. They made a damn good vodka martini, exactly the way I asked, and bonus, it was happy hour so it didn't break the bank. We sat and chatted, decompressing from the day of discussion, until it was time to get back for dinner.

Dinner was an arranged dinner for CONSER members at the nearby Young Chow (312 Pennsylvania Avenue SE). It was a set menu of tea, soup, egg rolls, and a variety of meat dishes, served family style at two tables of 10 people each. And all for 10 dollars, including tax and tip. The food was good, the service was great, and it was very inexpensive. Who can ask for more?

After dinner it was back to the b&b to rest up for day 2 of this year's CONSER meeting. What would tomorrow bring? Besides more discussion of the CONSER Standard Record, of course.

CONSER 2007: day 0, arrival

So bear with me as I catch up. This will be the first of four posts about my recent trip to Washington, DC for the annual "CONSER cage match" (I say this affectionately, and I'm proud to be a part of said cage match, really).

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Tuesday was travel and arrival day. I took Amtrak down with my friend B, who drove in from farther up into the Northeast. Due to traffic, she barely made it (damn turnpikes) before the taxi was scheduled, but she did, albeit a bit tired and cranky. We got to the train station in plenty of time. We even had some time to stop for a refreshment before boarding our train.

The train ride was uneventful. I have vague memories of riding the train as a child with my grandma from DC to New Jersey. I was no more than 5 years old and I do remember learning that dot-to-dot activities are not the best thing to do on a train. What I can tell you is that the seats are infinitely more comfortable than plane seats, I don't have to strip down to go through a metal detector (bonus! 'cause I always always set the damn things off...usually because of the underwire in my bra, no joke), and you see some really interesting things. We made a trip to the food car for some water about 1/2 way through the 2 hour trip. Our food car attendant was a comedian. I think he was bored and saw us as a break in the monotony.

We arrived into Union Station and hauled our crap via the METRO to the bed and breakfast we stayed at for the meeting. B has sworn to invest in a nice rolling suitcase that is mid-sized after her garment bag nearly killed her when she tried to get through the METRO turnstiles. The b&b was very nice, the Woodley Park Guest House, in, you guessed it, Woodley Park, and very close and convenient to that METRO stop, making it easy to get to the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill. It's a very nice large house, with many rooms in varying sizes. B had a bigger room, with a nice double bed and an attached half bath, and I stayed in a cute little single with a twin bed and a shared bath next door. It was only fair that B got the bigger room since she's stayed there many times in the past and let me know about it. The breakfast is basic, but good. I don't usually want much, so the variety of cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt and pastries was perfect. And they make excellent coffee. Excellent coffee, which is very important (as those of you that know me have learned). And it's all at a reasonable price. I do believe I'll stay there again.

After checking in and dropping our stuff, we headed out to 18th Street up in Adams Morgan in search of Ethiopian cuisine. We took the METRO to Dupont Circle and walked north on 18th for a good 10 or so blocks until we came to Meskerem (2434 18th Street NW). The tables are tiny, woven straw things that the dishes set down in, almost like a straw bowl on a stand, and are called messobs. Next to the straw bowl tables are small side tables for your injera, a pancake/crepe that you use to pick up the food (no silverware here), and your beverages. We decided to share a combination platter and each sampled one of the available Ethiopian beers. Our only complaint is that apparently we were invisible to our server so it took awhile once we were done eating to get her attention so we could go get some rest.

We walked back to the b&b, and headed for bed. We needed to get some rest in preparation for the long meetings over the next 3 days.

I declare conference season open

Conference season for libraries begins sometime in April and doesn't end for most librarians until the ALA Annual ends at the end of June. Just about every week and weekend you can find someone at your library that's out attending a conference or meeting. In April, ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries), CIL (Computers in Libraries), and a variety of state library associations and user groups all had conferences. May means more user group meetings, NASIG, and more state library association meetings/conferences.

I have my first conference of the "season" this week. Well, it's not really a conference, but rather a very long meeting. A meeting that lasts for 2 days. CONSER has it's annual operations meeting the first Thursday and Friday of May each year. It's an opportunity to throw a bunch of catalogers in a small windowless room in the middle of the Madison Building of the Library of Congress and watch us duke it out over a variety of pressing issues. Think cage match with less blood but more drama.

This year they're adding an extra day for training on the "new" CONSER Standard Record. I say "new" because it's been in development for over a year now. We discussed it last year at the operations meeting, only it was called the "access level record" at that point. Not everyone is particularly happy with everything about the record, but you can't make everyone happy all the time or nothing gets done. Basically this record is the result of serials, oops, excuse me, continuing resources catalogers trying to simplify our rules and look to the future. But discussing it can be very interesting as people get very emotional. And I include myself in that statement. Don't ever accuse a librarian of being meek or quiet or afraid of confrontation. We're not. Just sit in on a meeting and you'll see. We are very passionate about what we do. VERY PASSIONATE.

Fortunately, I've been to enough events at this point that I do know most of the people attending. And after the meetings each day, there will be much "self medicating" with a variety of adult beverages together as well as dinners at the myriad of international restaurants nearby. Well, maybe not too much "self medicating," but there will be plenty of social time with my colleagues at a variety of institutions from all across the United States and Canada. It's a fantastic opportunity to network, and, for my type of specialized position that like for most means I'm the only one that does what I do at my institution, that networking is priceless. It means I have faces to go with the names I see on listservs and people to contact directly for feedback or someone I can ask my questions or another head to troubleshoot/solve issues/interpret the cataloging rules with when I need it.

Since the meeting is at the Library of Congress, it means the dog goes to the kennel and I travel to Washington, D.C. For the first time, I won't be flying. Philly is only a 2 hour train ride away from D.C., making the trip less expensive and much less stressful (I hate hate hate airport security...I have the WORST luck for always getting the "extra" screening). D.C. is an odd thing for me. I was born there, and lived in the area through most of elementary school. It always feels surreal to walk down the Mall and see the Smithsonians and the monuments. Kind of this I-know-exactly-where-I-am-but-don't-ask-me-for-directions-'cause-I-really-don't-know kind of thing. You know, most of the Smithsonian museums smell exactly the same as they did when I was 5 years old. It always amazes me how smell takes you back.

Happily, I'm not all on my own this trip. My good friend B (who visited E in New York with me this past February) is my counterpart at another institution. Seriously, we do pretty much the exact same job. This means we see a LOT of each other at various meetings and conferences, and end up spending way way too much time together during conference season. And lucky for us and everyone around us, we like each other and enjoy each others company and have yet to get sick of each other. Well, maybe not lucky for everyone else (peanut gallery, anyone?), but definitely lucky for us as we can be very self-entertaining if needed. Just read about the New York City trip if you don't believe me. Given previous years and trips, this trip to D.C. should be fun.

I promise to report on our adventures searching the city for good food (Ethiopian!) and beverages, our trips to Kramerbooks, and the general entertainment I'm sure will follow us where ever we go, if we don't create our own entertainment first.