Conference reports and more from ZSR Librarians
My conference experience revolved around two specific foci. I was recently elected as a member-at-large of SustainRT, the Sustainability Round Table of ALA. My duties with this group include arranging programming for our sessions at ALA Annual, so I did a bit of networking to identify topics and speakers that might be of interest at... more ›
Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with three Fourth grade classes at Moore Elementary School for Career Day. Joining a group of professionals including a police man, an EMT, a chemist, a World Relief High Point employee, Mooney (of Mooney’s Mediterranean Cafe), and many other talented people, I represented librarians and archivists to the best... more ›
As Jeff noted in his post, I got sick at Midwinter, just like I did two years ago in Chicago. However, this time I waited until Sunday to be laid low by a brutal cold, and I did not ask Jeff to mercy kill me. So, not as bad, right? Luckily, I did manage to... more ›
For the 2017 Midwinter conference in Atlanta I made the strange decision to pack the back seat of my car with a 2-year-old and a 2-month-old, seated beside one another, facing in opposite directions but unanimous in their displeasure. My wife was better-behaved. Nevertheless the arrangement proved untenable and I ditched them somewhere outside Alpharetta, where... more ›
Atlanta at Night – view from my hotel room As reported capably by Thomas, much of my ALA Midwinter weekend was filled with meeting and event obligations that I have as a LITA board member. These always include 2 multi-hour board meetings, a joint chairs gathering, LITA Happy Hour (a networking event, it is legit!),... more ›
Between numerous required committee meetings on metadata and advocacy, I learned about Summon & Primo integration and discussed ebook record problems in several venues (exhibits, a session, a dinner, and a committee meeting). Discovery Tools from Ex Libris: Summon and Primo are gradually being integrated, which I likened to EBL and Ebrary integration. I sent... more ›
ALA Midwinter has become a vendor exhibition with some committee meetings filling in around the edges. If you’ve ever chuckled at a poster or coffee mug that says, “I survived another meeting that should have been an e-mail”? That. Maybe we want an annual vendor exhibition, but I have trouble seeing the continuing need for... more ›
On Friday, December 16th, Librarians from Elon University hosted the Fall meeting of NC-LITe. NC-LITe is a twice-annual meeting of academic librarians in North Carolina that focuses on library instruction and instructional technology. We met at Elon’s Moseley Center, a perfect venue for the meeting. Rosalind Tedford, Joy Gambill, Kathy Shields, and I were all... more ›
I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, Thomas is at ALA, not CNI. The poor guy is so confused” (or words to that effect). Which I usually am, but on opening up my note taking app to jot down a few things about Midwinter, I found my notes on CNI meetings from back in December. Consider... more ›
I’ve been inspired for a long time by the work being done in the Open Education community. For the uninitiated, “Open Education” is an umbrella term that applies the principles of openness (think open access scholarship, open source software, etc.) to learning materials specifically and pedagogy and institutional practices more broadly. If you’ve heard of... more ›