Professional Development

It’s my dirty little secret. I’m scared of the exhibit halls. They’re big, crowded, loud, and I’m not ever sure exactly what I’m supposed to do. I normally just make time to do a quick run through, see what’s going on (so that when people are talking about Google, I know what they’re doing), and get out. Today was about par for the course, but I did see this stellar view:

Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

LITA works a little bit differently than other groups.  Where some ALA divisions have committees (by appointment), LITA has Interest Groups (of interested folks).  When I’m at ALA meetings, I like to sit in on the distance learning ones, just to see what they’re up to.  They’re generally just facilitated discussions on issues related to distance learning and technology in instruction.
Interesting points:

• All students expect distance education services (via Blackboard, etc.).
• Students use online materials.  Now DL is more about reaching out.
• Social software sometimes the answer.  Anecdotal: Several pointed out that availability on social websites with limited online interaction, but then number of in-person questions increased.
• Nothing to lose by trying.
• Virtual reference as where it’s going; DL is part of that.
• Any library might be a library for local students taking online only classes anywhere in the world.
• Librarians should be on curriculum committees; accreditation will drive library use in courses.
• Can we own information literacy?  Should we be stewards and let faculty be the drivers?
• How do we get to faculty, adjunct faculty? How to market what we have to them?
• What are our students going to look like in 10 years?  Will they use IM rather than email?  Would they rather use visual search than text?  How do they interact with information?  How will this impact our IL strategy?
• Stick to very short modules: 15 seconds or 2 minutes.  15 minutes is boring (and takes longer to update).
• Will start a wiki or blog for communication and sharing ideas.

COSWL met at 8:00 this morning. (I’m like Mary, I like the West coast time!)  It was a really good and productive meeting.  In general, we’re focusing on our blog as a marketing and communication tool to reach out to a larger audience.  At annual, we’re going to participate in the vendor area to talk to people about what we’re doing.

We’ve also set up a Flickr account, will set up a del.icio.us account, and will probably have a wiki by annual.  We’re thinking that it might be a really good annual program in 2008 to do something about women and social technology.  It’s an exciting and fun time to be involved with COSWL.  If you’re interested in women’s issues in librarianship, read the blog and leave us some comments!!

Hello All! This is my first time as a blogger, so bear with me!

Yesterday was a day of planes and airports for me. I left my house around 9am and arrived at my hotel in Seattle after midnight EST. I was able to watch The Queen on the flight from Atlanta to Seattle. I also had a nice chat with my seatmate who is an engineer with the U.S. Forest Service and a cattle rancher in Missouri. She also happens to be the Treasurer of her local public library board. She was eager to tell me all the improvements they have made in the last few years, including providing internet access to county residents. They have done a lot with grants, including building a combo library/tornado shelter with a grant from FEMA!

Unlike Susan, the west coast time suits me. It is nice to think that my 8am meetings will begin around 11 according to my body clock. My first meeting this morning (Saturday) is with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Bylaws Committee. We will be considering a slight change to the Law and Political and Sciences Section’s (LPSS) bylaws and then begin a discussion of the need for section by-laws in general. This can be dry stuff, but by-laws do keep an organization as large as ALA, and its divisions, on the ’straight and narrow.’ After this I will be heading over to the Convention Center to pick up my packet and meet with the Government Documents Roundtable’s (GODORT) Federal Documents Task Force (FDTF). I’m serving as the GODORT Cataloging Committee’s liaison to FDTF. We will spend the first part of our meeting talking to representatives from the EPA about the EPA library closures. We hope to come up with some ideas on where the EPA material might be able to go to remain accessible. Then we’ll have a representative from the Government Printing Office (GPO) give us an update on the happenings in DC. Later on in the day I’ll be doing some reading for my Monday committee meeting that I couldn’t get to before I left W-S.

I’m still on east coast time, so was awake at 3:30 am. I worked on finishing up a review of a manuscript submission to the Journal of Web Librarianship (I’m on the editorial board). The first session I’m attending this morning will have the editor as one of the speakers so I wanted to be able to honestly say “it’s submitted”!

At 7 am I headed out to wander around until the public library opens at 10 (my first session isn’t til 10:30).

After Craig’s comment on this being such a coffee town, I set out to find the “original Starbucks”. I’d done my research and knew it is located in Pike’s Place. I got my first cup of coffee there and took this little phone pic for Craig:

Many places weren’t opened, but lots of business workers were busy getting ready for a busy Saturday. Fresh produce was being set up, and tons of seafood was being put out on ice. Here’s a typical booth:

Right now, I’m sitting in Tully’s, another “big” coffee shop. I’m sipping on green tea and listening to a live pianist play “Summertime.”

Time to head down 4th Street and visit the public library and see if I agree with Lynn’s assessment.

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs:

• One of the planes took a sharp decent way before we were near the airport. Luckily, the pilots were there. They came on the intercom and announced the autopilot caused the descent, so they took over to correct it.
• We left the airport terminal only to see the buses to our downtown location pull away. Luckily, another bus came way ahead of schedule, and it was a quick, easy, and inexpensive ($1.25!!!) ride to our hotel!
• Due to the crazy schedule of the day, I hadn’t eaten by the time we checked into the Moore Hotel, around 7:30pm Seattle time. Luckily, the super friendly vegan manager had lots of restaurants to recommend and I had the largest meal of tofu fajitas I’ve ever eaten.

Hopefully today will be a little more calm and steady. Now, I’m just waiting for registration to open so that I can get to my first meeting at 8:00am.  I’ll report in as I finish up with events!

After hours of being airborne, I arrived safe and sound right before noon (Seattle time). I hitched a ride on a shuttle bus to the downtown Hilton, settled in and went to the Convention & Trade Center to pick up the conference schedule. It is amazing the number of sessions and meetings that are taking place over the next few days. It almost gave me a headache…..You probably won’t be surprised to hear that after sitting on a plane and in airports for 7+ hours I was so fidgety that I ducked out mid-afternoon and explored the town during a nice run. There is a pretty pedestrian/biking trail along the Elliott Bay and I was able to run through Pike Place Public Market and past the Space Needle. Here’s my route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=654005.

I got back to business after that and visited the exhibit hall. It is massive. I just strolled up and down aisles but did stop and talk with a couple ExLibris reps who showed me their latest product: Primo. It’s a new product that is targeted at updating the user portal to include some of those features that users are beginning to desire: “did you mean” links, user reviews, faceted browsing, cover art, lay tagging, etc. I never did find Alibris, but I didn’t do anything as sensible as looking at the hall exhibitor map. But I know I will be making some more targeted visits tomorrow and Sunday.

This is a beautiful big city with THOUSANDs of librarians running all over the place (and they are so easy to spot). As I got off the elevator this evening, I was amazed to run into Elizabeth Skinner from FCPL (she’s one of the Digital Forsyth folks). She and her colleague had a horrible trip out with yesterday’s weather problems, and were diverted to San Francisco where they were put up overnight. They finally arrived today. Their sad tale made my travel day seem like a breeze.

Waterfront View

Originally uploaded by Susan Sharpless Smith.

The Space Needle and Calder

Space Needle

Originally uploaded by Susan Sharpless Smith.