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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 week on the continuing tend of book clubs.

I was wandering down the hall to head to a ‘how Washington works’ session when I ran into Steve Kelley and got a very well informed explanation of the role of FRBR, RDA, FRAD, linked data, authority control and the state of MARC (thanks Steve). I had attended a session on the adoption of RDA at ALISE and have to admit that I left the session confused about what the right first steps are. After talking with Steve it seems that it might be worth taking our library data and trying out some of these models on it to see what transitioning our records to these new standards might mean for us.

The session on the current funding issues for public libraries enforced a discussion I had with Leo Cao at ALISE regarding the importance of framing library relevance in terms that make sense to your community. This means showing economic responsibility, reflecting the diverse makeup of your community and providing services that have real-world impact. In academic libraries I know that we often feel that our mission is focused on research and different populations but I found that the types of services that public libraries provide are highly relevant.