Lauren at ALA

This was my first opportunity to attend the ALA Conference and I have never been to such a large convention before – there were 22,000 librarians! It was a great experience and I hope I’ll be able to do it again sometime.

The focus of my trip was professional development and networking with training/CE colleagues, so I built my agenda around ALA-CLENE (Continuing Library Education Network Exchange) events and anything else that smacked of training or CE. Also, as chairperson of the MLA Intellectual Freedom Committee I wanted to attend some IFC events. It was good to have a basic purpose because the array of available session topics is amazing and I wouldn’t have had any idea where to start…

My three days at conference included several visits to the Exhibit Hall as well as the following sessions:

Saturday:

• AASL President’s Program – Intellectual Freedom: a Core Value – (American Association of School Librarians) – excellent panel discussion
• ACRL Learning Virtually: Online Professional Development for Library Workers with Tight Budgets (Association of College and Research Libraries) – panel discussion and examination of online learning systems
• ACRL Learning Virtually Poster Session – an opportunity to meet and discuss online learning projects with designer/developers
• ALSC Stories for a Saturday Evening (Association for Library Service to Children) – I’ve never heard professional storytellers before and this was really fantastic. I got to hear two of the performers – a very funny lady telling stories about family life and her Puerto Rican grandmother and an older black gentleman (and library school professor) sharing African fables and stories.

Sunday:

• ACRL-ANSS The Lady, the Tramp & the Lion King: Mixed Messages about Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Disney’s Magic Kingdom (Anthropology and Sociology Section of ACRL) – I slipped into this session to kill some time before my next scheduled event and this was very interesting! In a nutshell: Disney has come a long way in representing ethnic and racial diversity but when it comes to gender and class they’re still back in the ‘50s where they started.
• ALA-LIRT Energize Your Instruction: Keep the Magic Alive for You and Your Audience (ALA Library Instruction Round Table) – lively presentation from a witty and charismatic speaker. Not what I expected, but very good. If I had this guy’s talents I would always have the enthusiastic attention of an audience – but I’m not the same Myers-Briggs type!
• ALA-CLENE Training Showcase – An opportunity to meet training/continuing education colleagues and learn about training/CE projects going on in library systems around the nation.
• ALA-IFC IFC/FTRF Issues Briefing (Intellectual Freedom Committee/ Freedom to Read Foundation) – Review of challenges to library materials that have taken place around the nation during the past year.

Monday:

• OCLC WebJunction MAC Brainstorm – discussion of Member’s Advisory Council and upcoming changes to the WJ website
• ALA Public Programs Let’s Talk About It: Love and Forgiveness – This year’s ”Let’s Talk About It” program has a very nicely developed theme. This panel discussion included the scholar who created the program, a representative of the foundation who is co-sponsoring, a librarian who has successfully run the “Let’s Talk...” program, and the director of ALA Public Programs. 30 libraries nationwide will be selected for the grant, but even without the grant you can use the resources to run a program at your library.
• CLENERT Training and Staff Development Discussion – Roundtable discussion with library trainers and CE coordinators from many systems in many states.
• ALSC Poetry Blast – Wow! Authors of children’s picture books that are written in verse reading from their books.
  
  I hope I can bring the benefits of my ALA conference experience to Montana libraries. Let me know if there is anything you would like to hear more about. And I recommend that if you ever get an opportunity to attend this conference - grab it!