I had some concerns about attending this year’s ALA virtual Annual Conference. Not falling asleep during sessions was a big one. I’ve attended many webinars in the past, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for me to doze off midway through one. With ALA being virtual, I would essentially be attending lots of webinars.... more ›
This is the first conference blog post I’ve written in a long time. I guess we’re getting back to normal, gradually. As we all know, ALA Annual 2021 was, for the first time, an online conference, after the coronavirus pandemic cancelled the 2020 conference entirely. Was this year’s version the same as past ALA conferences?... more ›
2019 marks my thirteenth year of attending ALA Annual as well as the second time I’ve traveled to Washington DC to do so. The first time was in 2010 in which I, along with several ZSR librarians, rode up together to our nation’s capital in the library’s newly purchased Quest van. Below are recaps of... more ›
ALA Annual 2019 marked my first return to Washington DC since 2007, when I attended my very first professional library conference there. I was a law librarian then. I am no longer that. Nor am I a rookie librarian anymore. In fact, at this year’s conference, I met up with my new ALCTS mentee. Either... more ›
This year’s meeting of the Music Library Association was held in Portland, Oregon. A very busy conference for me, between session attendance and committee duties. Cataloging The Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG), which holds its annual meeting as a pre-conference to MLA, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. We received updates on cataloging standards and... 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 ›
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 ›
This year’s meeting of the Southeast Music Library Association was hosted by our neighbors at Duke University. Lots of thought-provoking presentations! DIGITAL HUMANITIES A colleague at Duke who teaches both English literature and music appreciation noticed that her students often misidentify sounds — but that there was no dictionary to refer them to, as she... more ›
Steve, Leslie, Monesha, and I attended NCLA RTSS’s Fall Workshop at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro on 10/7/16. The workshop was impressively well-attended by folks from throughout the state. By way of summing up, we wrote a paragraph or two each. Here they are, in alphabetical order by author (aka Jeff-first order): “Watch This! Including... more ›
Productivity with vendors (book and ILS), committee obligations, and future of cataloging were the three main themes for me in Orlando. Meetings by chance also played a key role in making this an above average conference for me. I caught up with our Casalini sales rep on how to implement a more Gobi-like version of... more ›