Professional Development

A hurt neck kept me from lugging my laptop around combined with a lack of reasonably priced internet anywhere near my hotel kept me off the “real” internet for much of the conference. This was the first ALA I have attended where there were days that I didn’t carry a computer, and it made for a slightly different experience. I engaged in Twitter on my phone a bunch more, and I interacted on Facebook, took notes on paper, but I didn’t have hardly any opportunities to blog. Very strange for me! But instead of pushing out information about the conference, I feel that I participated in many more conversations, and that’s something I’d like to be sure to do at future conferences.

To pick up where I left off, Saturday was a real LITA day for me. I attended the BIGWIG meeting physically for the first time. This is a group of LITA that formed around blogs, interactive groups, and wikis (hence the name), but now mostly experiments with emerging social technologies and acts as a test bed to pilot new tools. Many of us were new to the meeting group, but have been participatory online, so it was nice to put some faces with some names and connect with people I’ve been following. (…both literally and figuratively!)

Next up I had the LITA Web Coordinating Committee. I’m midway through my term in this group, and our charge is to work on the LITA website. As you might know, ALA recently went through a redesign, and LITA is following with a similar information architecture. It was especially interesting in light of the web group at ZSR, and gave me lots of food for thought.

After that, Kaeley and I met up with Susan at the Art Institute for the ProQuest VIP Reception and the Scholarship Bash. We ran into Debbie Nolan and were able to catch up a bit with her, we had some food, saw some art, and it was a good time. I was able to meet up with some of my online colleagues as well to hammer out a bit of business among the fun.

I didn’t go to my 7:30 breakfast on Sunday (trying to give my neck a little rest), and instead went to the exhibits at 9:00 to get a chance to see things before my signing. When I got to my booth I saw Sarah right away! Sarah, Carolyn, Lynn, Bill, Susan, Roz, and Kaeley were the ZSR crew that came by, and a few others, too. It was nice to get a chance to talk with Rory, my editor, now that the project is complete.

My next meeting was the Emerging Leaders Subcommittee. Assuming the HRDR committee chair decides to appoint me, I might have the opportunity to participate in this group to help make the Emerging Leaders program better. It was fascinating to hear the behind the scenes discussion, and I was pleased to hear the ‘09 class had an improved experience over what much of the ‘08 class remembers. I am hopeful that this program is one that improves each year.

I raced away from that meeting to meet Kaeley at the LITA President’s program. The program was about the Dutch Boys at DOK.

They’re a fascinating trio and I really recommend checking them out. They recently released a book on their USA library tour if you’re interested in more. The Twitter backchannel was particularly fun and lively throughout the session discussing (among other topics) can you train people to be innovative and how do you know if people you’re hiring will be innovative? Following the LITA session, Kaeley and I met up with Roz, her sister, Susan, Carolyn, and Sarah for a nice Italian ZSR Dinner.

Monday morning was my first day that wasn’t scheduled from start to finish. I was hoping for lots of serendipitous meetings and I wasn’t disappointed. My first session was to see Roz present her paper, but I got to the convention center pretty early. Luckily I ran into someone I know from the ‘07 Emerging Leaders class who is also really involved in LITA. We swapped stories and found out more about what we both actually do and what our libraries are like. Our work is similar enough that I really hope that we’ll be able to collaborate on something sometime soon.

Roz’s paper was an interesting comparison of subject guide software. I found the ACRL geared presentation interesting in light of similar LITA discussions. The subject is the same, but the approach, perspective, and decision making is a little bit different. It was good stuff, and LibGuides is clearly a hot topic for a lot of libraries.

Susan, Roz, Kaeley, and I ended up at LITA’s Social Software Showcase next. This year was a bit different from years past. The program finally had a room big enough for the number of people interested in attending, but the furniture wasn’t set up particularly well for the interactive nature of the program. They rolled with it, and the overall responses were great. I was particularly glad to catch up with several online friends at the session, and we ended up having a surprise social software showcase of our own involving Google Voice, a “hackintosh,” and brainstorming about how the program could work.

Some of that group, Kaeley, and I found a little Italian/pizza place near the convention center, so we were able to grab something to eat and catch up before the Ultimate Debate program. This is the program that a few others have blogged about: David Lee King, Meredith Farkas, Michael Porter, and Cindi Trainor were on the panel and Roy Tennant moderated. It was a fun session and it’s always nice to get a chance to see everyone in real life and see folks actually interact.

One of my library/facebook friends was organizing a vegetarian dinner, so we had an adventure of a time finding a place and eventually ended up at the very yummy Chicago Diner. Of the six of us I hadn’t met any of of my fellow diners face to face before. One I interact with online (it was her birthday), two I knew of–and have been impressed with–from their online presence, and two were entirely new to me. It was great fun and really enjoyed the conversation. The day wrapped up with a great conversation on the walk back to the hotel and a bit of getting ready for the last day.

Sunday kicked off with my last meeting of the conference and my last meeting on the committee. I am finishing up my term on the Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship with this conference. It’s been a wonderful committee to serve on and it’s hard to believe that it’s been four years. More than anything, I learned about how ALA actually functions from serving on this committee. We wrapped up some business, I helped out a little with the new ALA Connect, and with that my conference was over.

With this conference, my terms on COSWL and the Women’s Studies Section Instruction Committee both end. I had later appointments to a few LITA groups, so that’s carrying me forward to the next conference. Over the last four years I’ve learned a lot about ALA from COSWL and WSS, but I have also learned that you have to really focus on one or two aspects of ALA if you want your energy to make an impact. I am choosing to focus my energy on LITA. I really feel that there is potential to make positive change there that can provide real-world examples to ALA about some of the changes that might make the larger association more relevant in the 21st century. (That’s my soapbox, at least. ) I might focus on Emerging Leaders as a secondary area since positive work there will influence people who will potentially be in positions to make change within the larger organization.

This ALA had been a particularly good on for me. It was great fun to room with Kaeley and to see so much of the ZSR group along the way. The preconference went really well, my discussion group had great conversations, and the booksigning wasn’t even too stressful! But even more importantly, it’s been filled with great conversation and great people and I’m feeling more reenergized than I have been in some time.

ALA snuck up on me this year, despite falling later on the calendar. This year is also a big one for me, as I had both a pre-conference and a book-signing on my calendar.

Kaeley and I flew in and are rooming together. We ran into Elisabeth Leonard and Beth Bernhardt at the GSO airport, and found out we were all staying at the same hotel. We were able to put our heads together for a remarkably smooth and quick trip from O’Hare to the hotel, with an exciting train ride along the way.

Once in town Kaeley and I checked in to the hotel and conference, walked around Millennium Park a bit, and practiced for our pre-conference. We got out for a late dinner at a cute grocery/cafe, and came back to rest up for the big day on Friday.

We practiced some more Friday morning before grabbing a quick lunch and heading over the the pre-conference hotel. We both agreed that a pre-conference is a long enough presentation that you really can’t practice very easily until you’re at the hotel with nothing on your calendar. Carving out three and a half workday hours would have been impossible, and running through a few times on a weekend would eat up a whole day! But once we were in Chicago, with nothing else scheduled, it was easy to fit in a few run-throughs.

We proposed our topic over a year ago, so it was nice that it was a more or less timeless one: Instructional Design for Librarians. We tried our best to model what we were teaching. We had a full house (we think 53) and the three and a half hours went by more quickly than we thought they might. The group was great and we got very positive feedback, which was really nice and rewarding.

Afterwards we headed to the LITA Happy Hour where we met up with Susan. It was a perfect way to unwind from the pre-conference, and we chatted with a few other LITA folks. After that we headed out from the LITA Happy Hour, had a leisurely dinner on the river, and came back for a fairly early night.

Saturday has been a big LITA day for me, mostly in the same hotel. First thing this morning was the Joint Interest Group and Committee Chairs meeting for LITA. The meeting is designed to keep LITA leadership in the loop for association news. I really like being at the table for the discussion. Some of the interesting news from the meeting: LITA membership is down slightly, but that is common when ALA raises dues (which it did). A majority of LITA membership is in the southeast. LITA’s working to “modernize the workflow” of program proposals, so this should get easier. If you have something techy to talk about, I bet there’s a way to do it with LITA. (Let’s talk if you do!) After the meeting I was able to connect with the person that needed to find out a bit more about my interest group for our renewal, so I was able to straighten everything out and we’re good for renewal.

After the chairs meeting, my LITA interest group met. This group is the Distance Learning Interest Group. Lauren Ray (of NC, but now in Seattle) co-facilitated and the discussion went really well. I bet we could have continued chatting if we all weren’t scheduled right away.

Now I’m sitting with REAL internet for the first time in days. I’m wrapping up a few things I needed to post online, and I’m headed to the LITA’s BIGWIG (Blogs, Wikis, etc, not actualBigwigs) group for the first time ever. Since it was formed I wanted to be part of it, but my calendar has always been packed so I’ve only participated virtually. It’ll be nice to actually be there. This evening holds a few receptions, so I’m hoping to cross paths with some ZSR folks at some point soon!

Evening View of the Chicago River
Since I don’t have committee meetings until tomorrow, I flew to Chicago this morning and arrived mid-afternoon. I’m staying in a hotel (Wanda is my roommate) on North Michigan Ave. just north of the Chicago River. It’s located in the area known as the Magnificent Mile. I’m told that McCormick Place, the Convention Center, is an hour walk away, so I was glad to discover that there was satellite registration at a hotel just across the River. With that accomplished, I headed down Michigan Ave. to eat a late lunch, then meet Lauren P. and Kaeley, who had conducted their pre-conference this afternoon. We met to attend the LITA Happy Hour, an annual get-together of the group. Then we had a dinner outdoors beside the Chicago River. The picture above is the view we had. I had a little chance to take some photos, since my work doesn’t gear up until tomorrow. It’s great to be back in Chicago, it’s one of my favorite cities!