During January 2011

Inside ZSR

Lauren P.’s ALA Midwinter, part II: All About Council

Yesterday began my term on council. I really, really like it. I can see how it could be frustrating or how some people might rather spend their time elsewhere, but it is a good fit for me. Everyone in the room cares about the profession, are passionate about what they do, think about the issues... more

Wanda’a ALA days 1-3

On Friday afternoon after my BCALA filled morning, I attended the OCLC symposium entitled “Transformational Literacy: preparing user’s for life’s transitions.” Keynoter Dr. Mimi Ito, discussed principles for libraries to consider that help create environments that encourage lifelong learning as well as the critical role librarians play in this. The future is already here, it... more

Susan’s Day 2 @ ALA Midwinter: Top Tech Trends

I am on the LITA Top Technology Trends Committee this year and the main purpose of this group is to put on this popular event at each Midwinter and Annual ALA Conference. Top Tech Trends took place this morning with a panel of “trendsters,” who discuss current technology trends and often predict future trends. The... more

ACRL session on future scenarios for higher education libraries

In the afternoon I bounced around to a few sessions but wound up the acrl future of academic libraries session. The session was packed and focused on a report of alternate futures for academic libraries. In general active curation roles were popular as was the the idea that online learning could lead to virtual or... more

Storage interest group at ala

After the lita top tech trends panel I decided to head over to the off site storage interest group to find out how other institutions are approaching storage. I had the pleasure of running into Emily Stanbaugh who worked at WFU back in 2005. She is currently the shared print manager at California Digital Library.... more

Susan’s ALA Midwinter, Day 1 in San Diego

San Diego Convention Center After arriving in San Diego in late afternoon Friday, I jumped right into conference mode first thing Saturday morning. Roz and I attended a Serials Solution breakfast and heard a very interesting talk by Carol Tenopir about “Beyond Topic: How Readers Choose What Articles to Read.” Roz did an admirable job... more

Roz at ALA Day 1

So those of you who know me know of my love of vendor floors, vendor presentations and all things exhibits. I guess it goes with trying to keep up with what is out there available for our patrons and looking for those missing pieces that would really be of use to our students, faculty and... more

Lauren P.’s ALA Midwinter, part I

This is an unusual ALA for me. Since I knew I was about to have a major life change, and was running for council, I timed a lot of my committee obligations to end before this conference. With that being the case, I haven’t been seeing as many familiar faces. With Leif being so little... more

ALA, RDA and more

I have to admit that I have some conference fatigue. Back to back conferences can make it tough to focus so to combat fatigue I decided to pick and choose sessions on a whim on Saturday. I saw some interesting talks on book reading clubs that dovetailed nicely with an NPR piece I heard last... more

Library automation, intellectual freedom and last day at ALISE

I finished up the ALISE conference on Friday by attending a session on library technology history that analyzed e history of intellectual freedom in libraries (it turns out that libraries have reacted in many different ways to intellectual freedom challenges over time) and a history of library automation focused on the work that led to... more