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I got to attend the 2008 ALA conference after several years of hiatus. I had forgotten the excitement and the hustle and bustle of it all. It was a very good conference and I got to attend several interesting and informational sessions.

“Sustainable Libraries: Shades of Green” discussed how libraries can be built using recycled materials, natural sunlight and new technologies to conserve energy, but at the same time, inviting. In the Santa Monica Public library, they have a reserved staff shower to encourage employees to ride their bike to work.

“ILL Data Collection, Definition, & Analysis; why don’t MY data match what i get from various systems?” kind of answered the question those of us in the ILL land have had in years. Unfortunately, there is no standard regarding when a request is being counted, therefore there is quite a bit of confusion in the reporting of ILL traffic. What I got from the session is not to worry about the discrepancy between the systems and to monitor the trend of the ILL traffic in our department.

I also attended several copyright related discussions. As much information as I have received, I am still as confused as ever. One the one side, the librarians and teachers are encouraging to take advantage of the “fair use” rule, with the lawyers being more cautious on the other side. However, the best part of these discussions and the ILL copyright poster session is that I walked aways with lots of handouts. I hope they will come in handy for the new person, who will take on the copyright issues.

The breakfast provided by Lexis/Nexis was nice, and Susan gave a very nice speech about the project for which she won the award. She thanked everyone involved, Lynn, Caroline, Erik, Giz, Kevin and Tim. It was nice to hear Wake Forest and those familiar names mentioned in a national forum.

The exhibits are the highlight of the ALA conference for me. I spent a significant chunk of time at the exhibits learning about the new products. Since the Access Team has been talking about self-checkout, I made a point to talk to many vendors, and several of them are interested in doing a demo. I also happened upon an author signing a panda poster and her panda picture book. Panda is my thirteen-year-old’s favorite animal. Guess what she is going to have for her birthday?

Overall, this has been a great experience, other than the part about getting up at 3 in the morning to catch a flight. It was exhilarating, informative and educational.