By Susan Smith

Inside ZSR

Susan’s Final Post from LITA National Forum, SLC

Since I reported in yesterday, I finished up my “hosting” jobs of introducing session speakers in concurrent sessions. I introduced Robin Hastings (Missouri River Regional Library) who spoke on “Collaborating in the Cloud.” She discussed how libraries can leverage their social networking presence using various free sites like Google Docs and Flickr. It was a... more

A Day and A Half into LITA National Forum 2009

David Weinberger Delivering Saturday’s Keynote Address I learned very quickly yesterday that being a member of a conference planning committee means you are kept busy all day long and into the evening. I had volunteered to record all three keynote addresses, so I worked with Jason Griffrey, who handled the audio portion, to get my... more

Susan at LITA National Forum, SLC

This year I am a member of the LITA National Forum Planning Committee which is taking place this weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lauren (who is presenting later today) and I traveled yesterday from Raleigh (go for those cheap airline fares). We were surprised when Steve Kelley showed up on our flight. He was... more

Who Let the Librarians Out? ZSR Journal Reading Group

This month, I was asked to select the journal article for our reading group. Since I’ve been in the midst of researching embedded librarianship, I chose a very current article about the topic, by one of the big names on topic, David Shumaker. The article Who Let the Librarians Out? Embedded Librarianship and the Library... more

Susan’s Monday Morning at ALA

The meeting for my second ALA committee (LLAMA BES/LIFE=Library Leadership, Administration & Management Association, Building & Equipment Section/Library Interiors, Furnishings and Equipment Committee, whew!) took place this morning. The sole purpose of this committee is to generate programs for ALA Annual. Program planning takes about 18 months from conception to execution and has to go... more

Susan’s ALA Sunday

As Lynn mentioned, I had an early start to the day by joining in on Bill’s Alibris morning run. It was a beautiful Chicago day and it was nice to be outside and running through Grant Park and along Lake Michigan. After I earned my t-shirt and trophy (which looks amazingly like the ones for... more

Lynn Receives the Sirsi-Dynix ALA-APA Award

Here is Lynn receiving the Sirsi-Dynix ALA-APA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers. Her award was presented by Linda Dobbs. Congratulations, Lynn! more

Susan’s Saturday at ALA

I started out bright and early this morning filling in for Wanda at a (free) Serials Solution breakfast where they announced the commercial release of their latest product “Summon,” a web-scale discovery service. This, finally, is the answer that libraries need: it “allows the researcher to quickly search, discover and access reliable and credible library... more

Susan Arrives at ALA

Evening View of the Chicago River Since I don’t have committee meetings until tomorrow, I flew to Chicago this morning and arrived mid-afternoon. I’m staying in a hotel (Wanda is my roommate) on North Michigan Ave. just north of the Chicago River. It’s located in the area known as the Magnificent Mile. I’m told that... more

From Ground Zero to Parchman: A Trip of Contrasts

My last posting was a week and a half ago – hard to believe! I remembered that this trip is one that will keep you busy from breakfast to bedtime. Erik and I have worked out a daily routine that allows us to get our work produced and posted, but sometimes it has taken a... more