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You can see from all the posts that ZSR is well represented in Dallas. Now where did I leave off? Saturday afternoon, I think. I went to a session entitled “Do I Own These E-books or Not?” and the answer, unfortunately, is not really, or not without a fight. State Librarian of Kansas, Jo Budler, told her story of trying to keep rights to her books by moving them from one platform to another by writing to each publisher to ask permission. Blah. Hate that. Then I caught a bit of the SPARC forum previously reported by Molly. I am very interested in the Georgia State case and am looking forward to its resolution (if it comes out our way, that is).
Like others, I started Sunday with the Alexander Street breakfast. I have never attended before, but have heard good things and it did not disappoint. Next up was LITA’s Top Tech Trends, ably reported by Susan. I particularly liked hearing of the imminent demise of the legacy ILS, though that has been predicted for about 10 years now. Can’t come too soon.
My main reason for coming to Midwinter was my responsibility as co-chair of the Cyber Zed Shed Commitee for the 2013 ACRL Conference in Indianapolis. The Coordinating Committee met Sunday afternoon and it was the first time I met all of the other chairs. It is quite a feat to pull off these conferences and an awful lot of work. My committee’s work doesn’t really begin until next fall, but other committees are already selecting Keynote and Invited Paper speakers. Some people worried about Indianapolis not being an attraction but someone else said, “yes, that’s what we thought about Detroit, but that turned out to be a FABULOUS conference (which made me feel good because I worked on local arrangements for that one).
I skipped the ProQuest Vogue Archive dinner Sunday night in favor of getting together with Bill’s former Alibris colleagues. So now it is Monday morning and I am catching up on work and getting ready to go to the airport. I am determined to take the train/bus public transportation option because the high cab fare has long made me mad when traveling to/from Dallas. Wish me luck!
Final thought about Midwinter: it seems obvious it is fading, if not dying. The meeting rooms, corridors and buses were more than half empty. I suspect that in the next few years when MW returns to the cold weather cities of Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, and more committee work is done virtually, it will be even more empty. That’s a problem for ALA. I hope good minds, like Lauren’s on Council, are figuring that out…
3 Comments on ‘ALA Midwinter, Pt. II – Lynn’
Trying our best, Lynn, trying our best! And very thankful to be included in those discussions at this point in time. 🙂
After the experience in Dallas I thought, “Gee, Detroit would be a way better place to hold this than here.” I didn’t know it had ever been done, but I’m glad to here it went well!
My husband frequently goes to Indianapolis on business trips and he thinks it’s a great city. It has a thriving downtown.