Last day in the Windy City…

So, today was a slightly more laid-back day. My roommate and I “slept in” until 8am, when housekeeping knocked on the door…which they haven’t done all the other days when we did actually have to get up early…oh well. We had planned to get brunch, but weren’t sure where to go, so we wandered around the loop for a bit in the hopes of finding something that wasn’t a chain (a little difficult in this touristy area). We finally found Ronny’s Original Steakhouse…which sounds odd for brunch, but it was GREAT. For about $7, I got a huge omelette, home fries, ham, and toast – at least enough for 3 people to eat – and it was delicious. After having granola bars and coffee on the run for breakfast the past several days, it was nice to sit down and enjoy the first meal of the day! After breakfast, we did some sightseeing at the Chicago Cultural Center, which is the former public library and is an absolutely gorgeous building, as are many in the city. We also walked around Millennium Park and enjoyed the live bluegrass band playing.

Too soon, we had to leave, and I made my way over to the convention center for my final session of the conference – “Ultimate Debate: Has Library 2.0 Fulfilled Its Promise?”  And I honestly could not imagine a better one to end on. The panel consisted of Cindi Trainor, David Lee King, Michael Porter, and Meredith Farkas, and the moderator was Roy Tennant. All are well know in the blogosphere, and all are worth following if you don’t already! They discussed what Library 2.0 meant to them (and yes, like most of us, they are sick of that term, too!), what it looks like, the barriers that libraries may face in implementing these tools, how to use them responsibly, and gave examples of what you can do with 2.0 tools. Here are some of the big things that stood out for me:

• these tools are great, but we have to treat and evaluate them like any other technology that we consider using in our libraries
• only use what fulfills a need for your users, your staff,  your organization – function over cool factor
• you can get statistics out to demonstrate effectiveness to a certain extent, but numbers don’t measure emotional engagement
• don’t be afraid to experiment – the worst you can do is fail and learn from your mistakes (and administrators, let your staff experiment!)
• these tools aren’t a magic wand, and they don’t mean that we change everything that we have been doing, but we must change and grow to remain relevant with our users, or services like kgb and Netflix are going to have a serious effect on our role

There was certainly much more (and I’d be glad to share my notes with you if you’d like), but the overall tone was that these tools can make our lives easier and help us connect and share and collaborate with others, but they aren’t perfect and we must constantly be assessing and changing to keep them relevant.

Post-session, it was back to the hotel, then off to meet up for some Chicago deep-dish at Giordano’s (the one off the corner of Lake and Michigan, to clarify). Definitely one of the best pizzas I have eaten, and amazingly, we didn’t have to wait! Probably had something to do with being there at 5:30 on a Monday…I highly recommend it. A few of us went down to Navy Pier, saw some of the Tiffany glass exhibit, took some pictures, wandered around for a bit, and ended up at Billy Goat Tavern again. By that time, we were all tired and decided to call it a night. We walked back along the river to our hotel and took in our last night in the Windy City.

It’s been a great conference, and I’m sad to leave, but I also think I’ll need about a week to catch up on my sleep! I met so many amazing people that I look forward to keeping up with and seeing at future conferences (networking, people!). I also learned how to make my next conference experience even better, not to mention what I gleaned from the great programs I attended. A million thanks to ALA, the Student-to-Staff Program, and UNCG for the opportunity!

Day 4

So, I’m going to try to get this in before I fall asleep at the keyboard…I have had such an amazing day today. I started off with a fantastic session on “Preparing Yourself to Teach: Touching All the Bases,” presented by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe and Beth Woodard of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Monika Antonelli of Minnesota State University – Mankato. They each covered a different aspect of preparation, beginning with assessment as learning. While we normally think of doing assessment at the end of instruction, Hinchcliffe made the case that we should think about assessment from the beginning of planning an instruction session. Woodard discussed student-centered design and the importance of creating learner-centered classrooms that motivate students and incorporate a variety of learning styles. Antonelli presented on teaching as performance and showed how theatrical techniques can be used to help us improve our presence in the classroom. Even though I have heard a lot about instruction and teaching at the conference, it hasn’t been redundant. Rather, every session seems to have built on the one before, and with each one, I feel a little more confident about teaching. And, realizing that there’s a huge network of people out there who are amazing at what they do and are more than willing to help you is also extremely reassuring!

My next destination on this whirlwind day was a lunch date with some of the members of the COPE pane that I was serving on (for our own Sandra Andrews) and our ALA representative. Then the panel itself, “Alice Down the YouTube” followed – it was such an honor to sit on a panel with Eric Faden, Michael Denton, and Dan Conley. We watched the videos that they have created, including Faden’s “A Fair(y) Use Tale” – if you haven’t seen it, go search for it on YouTube now. (And please comment – I’d love to hear what you think about it!). We had a great exchange about ethics and how videos can be used for teaching about and discussing ethics and why/why not YouTube is a good platform for this topic. (If you want to see some of the videos we watched or some more info, e-mail Sandra.)

Then, I couldn’t resist stopping by the watch the Bookcart Drillteam competition…Oak Park won with their “Library Warriors” routine – and if you’ve ever wanted to see  librarians dancing with bookcarts in viking hats, Elvis costumes, poodle skirts, and more, then check out the Demco site to watch the videos of the routines (I’ll try to post a link later – it’s not currently working).

Had dinner with some newfound friends from YALSA at Rock Bottom Brewery – all their beer is brewed on site, and they also had great food. I enjoyed learning more about what YA/teen/children’s librarians do and talking about books – new ones that I haven’t heard of and some of my old favorites that are still around.

Last on the day’s agenda was free dessert at the ASCLA silent auction. The auction benefited a scholarship to promote diversity in libraries. Although there were a number of items that I would have loved to bid on, I ended up winning some reusable totes. Definitely a worthy cause – I wish I could have contributed more!

So, that was today. Tomorrow, I’m going to try to fit in some sightseeing in the morning, one last session in the afternoon, and then a night of enjoying Chicago. My time here is going by so quickly! By the way, I also saw my first story published in Cognotes today! Small thrills…more tomorrow on my last full day at ALA!

Networking 101

I started off my day today by going to an interest session for ACRL. They talked about some of the different sections within ACRL (there are 17 of them) and had representatives from each that you could talk to. I had already met one of the reps from the Instruction Section at the soiree last night, so I gravitated toward that one. After the general interest meeting, I went to the interest meeting for that section and learned about the different committees within that group. There’s everything from membership to awards to conference planning to teaching methods. I spoke with someone from the instructional technologies committee. I also learned that, if you can’t get onto a committee (since there are limited spots), you can also volunteer as an intern. I’m really excited about getting more closely involved with ALA, and specifically within a smaller group that allows me to actually get to know people.

And speaking of getting to know people, my session for the day was on “Networking for Career Success.” Obviously, a lot of it was focused on job seeking, specifically for those of us looking for first jobs. Here’s pretty much what I got out of it:
You already have a personal network of people – family, friends, neighbors, etc.
You never know who knows who, so don’t just limit yourself to talking to people within your specific field.
Be able to present yourself, what you have done and what you’re looking for in 90 seconds or less – and have a business card!
Use your personal/professional network of contacts to set up an “informational interview” with someone in the field/area/organization that you’re interested in working for. The purpose of the interview is not to ask for a job, but to gather information or contacts from that person that can help you in your job search.

I also enjoyed getting free stuff from “The Stacks” – the exhibit hall. I’ve racked up several free bags, a dictionary, lots of bookmarks and pens and free wine, cake, champagne, and cheese. Yay for swag!

Now I’m headed off to the ALA/Proquest Scholarship Bash at the Art Institute of Chicago to take in the beautiful art and some food. More about that later tonight…or perhaps in the morning…

My first session & meeting and greeting at ALA

Another busy day in Chicago. I headed down to the convention center (McCormick Place) this morning to meet with the Cognotes staff and learn a little more about what I’m doing. So, basically, I have to write up something for at least one of the sessions that I attend each day, send it in, and if space permits, it gets put into the daily newspaper of the conference. And believe me, if it does, I’ll let you know! We also got special Press ribbons which, while pretty powerless, still made us feel a little special. After the meeting, the other student reporter and I grabbed some lunch and headed to our first assignments.

My first session was actually a preconference led by (UNCG alum!) Lauren Pressley and Kaeley McMahan, both of whom teach at Wake Forest University. Their session was “Instructional Design for Librarians: The What, Why and How of ID.” As an aspiring instruction librarian, I was especially interested in attending this one. Lauren and Kaeley did a great job of not only breaking ID down into a manageable process, but giving practical examples. They generated some good discussion among the group, and I learned a lot just from listening to the people around me. I may not be dealing with these issues now, but it showed me that no matter where you’re teaching, you’re facing a lot of the same issues that other librarians are. That’s why it’s so important for us to communicate with each other! There will never be a perfect solution, but we can help each other by sharing ideas and innovations that can improve what we do.

So, after being inspired at the preconference, I headed off to a “soiree” sponsored by the ACRL Instruction Session at the Elephant and Castle Pub. It was a bit overwhelming at first, as there were probably 100 of us (or more) crowding into a small room in the bottom of the pub, but eventually I got my free food (very important at these things) and found a group to join and talk to. If there is one thing that I have discovered, it is that librarians are incredibly friendly. Some of us may be socially awkward, but for the most part, everyone that I have met has been wonderful. And very encouraging about the job prospects. One of the people that I met is not so far out of library school herself, and has encouraged me to get involved with an ACRL IS committee, which is a great way to get your foot into ALA in a small way. I’m going to that meeting tomorrow, so more on that later. A group of us then decided to go to the New Members Round Table (NMRT) Meet and Greet. Although not quite as exciting as the ACRL outing, it was still enjoyable, but by this time, my feet hurt and I was really tired, as was my roommate. Proof that librarians are awesome – one of the librarians that actually lives in Chicago was getting her husband to pick her up, and they gave my roommate and I a ride home! Now, off to finish my Cognotes story and to bed! Tomorrow is another big day!

Live from Chase Auditorium in downtown Chicago…

Okay, so unless you’ve heard the NPR news quiz, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” you won’t get that. But I am indeed in downtown Chicago at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference! I’m representing UNCG as an intern in the Student to Staff Program – which means I work in exchange for conference registration and lodging (and a few other small perks). I’ll be working with Cognotes, the conference’s daily newspaper (but more about that tomorrow).

So, today has already been both exciting and exhausting. I finally got to my hotel, the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza, after an hour and a half plane flight from Raleigh-Durham and an hour and a half shuttle ride on a van full of NYC policemen. I met up with a MLS student from ECU and her roommate, and we had the brilliant idea to try to walk to McCormick Place, where the convention is being held. For the most part, it was an enjoyable walk- we saw the Chicago Public Library building, Millennium Park, Grant Park, Soldier Field, the Art Institute, Lake Shore Drive…but the walk was much longer than expected. Much longer. Once we finally got there, and I met up with another Student to Staffer  from Florida State. The two of us had the great privilege to get tickets to Wait Wait! The wonderful staff at the information desk kindly gave us directions as to which bus to take so that our poor feet didn’t have to suffer anymore, and we headed on our way to the Chase Auditorium. We had a quick dinner at Chipotle, then to Chase. The Wait Wait audience was entirely composed of librarians – this was the first time any group had ever bought out the entire auditorium for a show, and it was incredible! The guest was Neko Case, and indie rocker who, honestly, I had never heard of – but she’s hilarious! If you’ve never heard the show before, I highly recommend going to iTunes and downloading the free podcast – especially the one that will air this Saturday. Peter Sagal mentions using Wikipedia for finding facts…and chaos ensues…

That’s all for now! More to come tomorrow!

Academic libraries all the rave

University students headed to their campus libraries en masse the week before exams at the end of April, but not just to study: At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Kentucky in Lexington, the College of Charleston, South Carolina, and the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, students used blogs, Facebook, text messaging, and Twitter to coordinate “impromptu” flash raves….(read the rest of the story)

Wake Forest University also held a rave at Z. Smith Reynolds Library on May 3:

10 Websites for Booklovers

So, I bet several of you have a LibraryThing account (I know I do) but here’s a list of 10 other websites that can help you satisfy your need to catalog, share, and discuss your favorite books….

Schott’s Vocab Blog

I love words. I am fascinated Bill Bryson’s books The Mother Tongue and Made in America, was enthralled by Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman, and even just bought a Concise OED (and I’m very sad that the full version will no longer be released in print). So, when I came across Schott’s Vocab on the New York Times website, I was definitely intrigued.

From the site: “Schott’s Vocab is a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy. Each day, Schott’s Vocab explores news sites around the world to find words and phrases that encapsulate the times in which we live or shed light on a story of note. If language is the archives of history, as Emerson believed, then Schott’s Vocab is an attempt to index those archives on the fly.”

Some of Schott’s recent posts are about the “bonfire of the billionaires,” a term that describes the recent reduction in the wealthy population in Britain, the “carbon bootprint,” and “climigration.” I think my favorite post discusses the various terms used to describe the recent outbreak of swine flu and the precautions that people are taking to prevent the spread of the illness:

“California Schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell said that last week teachers reminded students that if they have to sneeze, to put their mouths into the crook of one of their elbows. ‘The students started calling that the Dracula Sneeze, and we picked up on that.’”

So, if you also like words, and need a little diversion from the end of the semester chaos, take a few minutes to check out Schott’s Vocab!

New Google Feature: Google News Timeline

Google on Monday unveiled a new experimental product called Google News Timeline that displays news and related search results on an interactive timeline. It offers interesting possibilities for exploring stories, especially older ones, that are largely hidden in newspaper and magazine archives. It is also a powerful way to view trends in culture and society or the careers of famous people.

The main page of Google News Timeline displays the top stories divided by columns, with each column representing a day. Users can drag the results left, right, up or down, much as they can with Google Maps, to see different days or to scroll deeper within a day. They can also change the time intervals to weekly, monthly or yearly. One of the interesting features of the main news page is that it includes Time magazine covers, so users can easily scan world events over the years through that prism…(read the rest of the story from New York Times)

10 Surprising Former Librarians…

In honor of National Library Week (April 12-18), Mental Floss magazine has put up blog post featuring 10 surprising former librarians. You probably already knew a few of them (Laura Bush, Batgirl…), but there were definitely some that were new to me! Enjoy!

Photo by L. Marie; used under Creative Commons from Flickr.