This year I’m not going to tell you about the fancypants programs I attended and the fabulously organized content I sucked up. Why? Because I didn’t and there wasn’t. [a quick shout out to the Set Sail for Fail folks from NJ for throwing down an unsession during Midwinter, that part was fabulous]

My big realization about ALA this year was that I’ve graduated. I was a fledgling ALA member and I did fabulous things like Student to Staff, during which I interned for RUSA; I was an Emerging Leader and worked on a project for ACRL; I showed up to a lot of discussion groups and asked a lot of vague and half-assed questions.

I became more established while serving as an ACRL MAC committee member; I started speaking for ACRL at events like ACRL 101 and took over as convener of the ACRL New Members Discussion Group, where we have launched a new discussion group presentation style (No-Tech Talks, CV opportunities for all).

After these experiences I’ve become a semi-veteran ALA member and conference attendee and spent much time wreaking general havoc and running amok, amongst many other activities. This is where I’m at now and I realize I have two primary options.

1. Shrug. I got what I was gonna get, time to stop paying in to the machine. I mean, the machine has run out of things to give me, right? I’ve been semi-elevated, some folks took note, I got a tenure-track job. Woot. I even gave a little back, so I won’t feel too guilty. End transmission…
2. Contribute more. Bring my own content and share it, formally and informally. Continue to work on making ACRL relevant and useful for members. Help ACRL board to no longer need a bellybutton window. Start showing up at Council. Make more noise.

Although it really, oh man I mean really pains me to do it, I’m going to strive for option 2. I’ve joined the task force of many names (young turks, young librarians, young professionals…yadda yadda) and am going to try to help ALA figure out what the eff we want from them. If I just bail out now, I’m only doing what countless librarians and ALA members before me have done (and I don’t blame them at all) — ”…drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after?” Yes, I know that’s about poison and death. Right now, if I am honest, that’s what being an ALA member feels like… like these a-holes who came before could have at least left me a memo telling me to find my own damn poison.

So although I probably sound a little bitter, and am in fact a little bitter about all the money I have to come up with to help ALA not brontosaurus their way through the future, I’m a little posicore as well.

p.s. I like this tweet:
@pbromberg @kimll #youngturks think beyond What Can ALA Do For YOUYOUYOU. I just gave $ 2 RedCross. What do they do 4 MEMEME? Yet I support them.

The ACRL New Members Discussion Group invites the submission of proposals for presentation at its meeting at the 2010 ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston, MA on Saturday, January 16, 2010.

Proposals are due by Monday 12/28/2009.

The ACRL New Members Discussion Group is for new (and aspiring) academic librarians. We meet twice a year–at both ALA conferences–to chat about whatever is on our minds. It’s an opportunity for networking and a friendly place to ask any questions you have about succeeding in ACRL. Presenters at this meeting have the opportunity to contribute to the professional development of other academic librarians, gain conference presentation experience, and build their CV. Students are welcome to submit proposals.

This Midwinter conference we want to hear from you on themes relating to Incorporating Technology Tools in Library Instruction. How do you perceive the role of technology in library instruction and how do you handle teaching about technology? We are interested in presentations that share personal experiences with incorporating technology tools, such as customized browser toolbars, screencasting, citation management software, and podcasting into library instruction. The goal of these presentations is to familiarize new and aspiring academic librarians with effective uses of these tools and effective methods of teaching about technology topics. We seek proposals for presentations that address this topic from a variety of angles, including (but not limited to):

• Examples of effective uses of technology tools in library instruction, either as a means for delivering instruction (for example, creating screencasts about citation management software), or as the topic of instruction (for example, delivering library instruction sessions that teach students how to use tools such as podcasting or citation management software)
• How to use technology tools to meet specific learning outcomes
• Successful strategies for promoting library instruction sessions that focus on technology

The ACRL New Members Discussion Group meeting will take place on Saturday January 16, 2010, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Westin Copley Place Essex Center.  Presenters should plan to speak for 10 minutes and allow 5 minutes for questions/discussion. There will be three presentations. Following the presentations, we will open the floor for discussion on the topic, or we can answer your questions about getting involved in national activities and/or academic librarianship in general.

Proposals are due by Monday 12/28/2009. Notification of acceptance will be made by Tuesday 01/05/2010. Please include the following information in your proposal:

1. A cover sheet with your name, title, institutional affiliation (or LIS program), mailing address, phone number, and email address.
2. A second sheet that contains no identifying information and includes the title and a 200-300 word description of your presentation. The description should clearly identify the topic of your presentation, your personal experience with this topic, and how your presentation will contribute to new and aspiring librarians’ understanding of how to incorporate technology tools in library instruction.
3. Keep in mind that there will be no use of technology for these presentations. If your proposal is accepted, you should plan to provide handouts that contain tips, further reading, etc.

Please submit proposal by email to Allie Flanary (ACRL NMDG convener) at aflanary@gmail.com.

This conference was epic for me on a lot of levels. I was directly involved in two programs: ACRL 101 (my first speaking gig at ALA Annual) and ACRL New Members Discussion Group (of which I am now the convener). 101 was awesome and I had a lot of fun, more fun than I expected to. Preparing my remarks on how to get the most out of conference really caused me to do some reflecting about my first Annual (2007) and what that experience was like for me.

My first Annual was different because I was a student-to-staff participant, interning to RUSA. So when I got really overwhelmed (frequently) I had someplace to go—the staff office. Anyway, thinking about that had an impact on my conference this year, I think. I always feel hyper aware of the social dynamics of conference, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering how those cool kids came to be those cool kids (not a specific set of people, I think your cool kids may be different than mine, but whoever they are, you know them when you see them). How did they break in to their clique? How did the clique become a clique? Do those people even know that we see them that way?

So it’s interesting that as I was cruising through Chicago thinking these things I happened upon a conversation with someone who is probably in a lot of people’s cool kids clique, Michael Porter (libraryman, @libraryman). This was at the OCLC blogger’s salon, where I saw some really awesome people (and some really drunk people. Open bar, what what?). I’d never met the illustrious Porter before, but he seemed a nice enough guy who was willing to riff on these topics with me and some other folks.

He was talking about his awareness that people might perceive certain “long-time” library bloggers as belonging to some elitist club, but that he didn’t want it to be that way. Michael told me that he doesn’t want to be in a clique, they didn’t set out to be a clique and they aren’t really sure how to convey that to other people. He even talked about how he has intentionally backed off of posting the big fun issues on his blog so that newbie bloggers can get their recognition for posting on big fun issues. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t note that his chest puffs out just the slightest bit when he talks about taking this intentional blogging backseat and then lowers his voice to tell us that he’s been at this for 6 years and it’s only natural that he’s got an established foothold in this community. He’s totally right too, puffing and all. (I mean no offense, it was kinda endearing, really).

Ultimately, he said exactly what I’m saying, the only way to meet those people is to go somewhere they are and talk to them. They might have rad friends to introduce you to. So on and so forth. This was also timely, since this year is the first year I really pushed myself to go where the interesting folks are and strike up random conversations (like that radtacular conversation with Walt about all things Buffy).

I spent all day Friday at the Unconference (you can catch the tweets there also) and shared time with people I might have been in awe of in the past. I sat at a discussion table with Meredith Farkas and talked innovation, without a single fangirl moment. When I was reflecting on this later I realized that I’m not a fangirl anymore. In library school I may have been because I wasn’t a practitioner, really. Everything I read seemed so fancy and alluring. Everything someone did felt unattainable and slightly sparkly.

Now these are just people to me. People who, during their work day, do more or less what I do during my work day. Sometimes we innovate in different ways, but really, it’s mostly the same. What makes made us different is all in the attitude. It’s nice to spend time with these folks at conference because they have the confidence to put their ideas out there and they’re willing to share. There’s relatively little proprietary mojo attached to the ideas they generate.

But you can generate ideas, too. You have a voice, use it. Make friends, share ideas. It’s like the poster says, you learned it all in kindergarten (sorry LIS programs, no poster for you)—you just need to put it into practice.

I swear I learned more at conference than how to socialize with innovators, but it really didn’t make an interesting blog post.

Our topic is “The Publication Process—Getting Published in LIS Journals.” We will hear the following presentations:

Writing to Write: Kickstarting the Publication Process
Emily Drabinski, Electronic Resources and Instruction Librarian, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus

Best Practices for Beginners: Getting Published – From Inspiration to Publication
Lisa Carlucci Thomas, Digital Collections Librarian, Yale University
Karen Sobel, Reference & Instruction Librarian, University of Colorado, Denver

Targeting Teaching Faculty for Collaborative Publications
Linda Hofschire, Research Consultant, University of Colorado, Boulder

We will also have time to share experiences and lessons learned, and to discuss your questions about publishing. The ACRL New Member Discussion group is for new (and aspiring) academic librarians. We
meet twice a year–at both ALA conferences–to chat about whatever is on our minds. It’s an opportunity for networking and a friendly place to ask any questions you have about succeeding in academic libraries.

Questions? Interested in getting involved? Contact Merinda Hensley, Convener, ACRL New Member Discussion Group, mhensle1@uiuc.edu (or you can contact me, as the incoming convener).

The ACRL New Members Discussion Group is for new (and aspiring) academic librarians. We meet twice a year–at both ALA conferences–to chat about whatever is on our minds. It’s an opportunity for networking and a friendly place to ask any questions you have about succeeding in ACRL. Presenters at this meeting have the opportunity to contribute to the professional development of other academic librarians, gain conference presentation experience, and build their CV.

Our meeting topic for the conference is “The Publication Process: Getting Published in LIS Journals.” We are interested in presentations that share personal experiences with the publication process, that will help new and aspiring academic librarians gain a better understanding of the various steps that are involved in this process. We seek proposals for presentations that address this topic from a variety of angles, including (but not limited to):

-Planning a systematic research program
-The publication process: Generating topics, writing up and submitting the manuscript, working with an editor, responding to reviewers, etc.
-Targeting various journals for publication
-What to do if your manuscript is not accepted

The ACRL New Members Discussion Group meeting will take place on Saturday, July 11, 2009, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Presenters should plan to speak for 10 minutes and allow 5 minutes for questions/discussion. There will be three presentations. Following the presentations, we will open the floor for discussion on the topic, or we can answer your questions about getting involved in national activities and/or academic librarianship in general.

Proposals are due by June 8, 2009. Notification of acceptance will be made by June 15, 2009. Please include the following information in your proposal:

1. A cover sheet with your name, title, institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone number, and email address.
2. A second sheet that contains no identifying information and includes the title and a 200-300 word description of your presentation. The description should clearly identify the topic of your presentation, your personal experience with this topic, and how your presentation will contribute to new and aspiring librarians’ understanding of the publication process.
3. Keep in mind that there will be no use of technology for these presentations. Feel free to bring handouts if you’d like to provide a list of further reading, etc.

Please submit proposal by email to Merinda Hensley (ACRL Convener) at mhensle1@illinois.edu

{I’ll talk more about this in a future post, but I hope you’ll consider submitting a proposal. We’re trying to shake things up and get new blood involved in ACRL–the only way to do that is to participate.}

Live scrolling feed for the #ola2009 hashtag.

I received a pretty crappy letter from my employer over spring break. It was a we-might-lay-you-off-but-we’re-stalling-on-deciding-p.s.-have-a-rockin-vakay type of letter. Obviously I am not amused.

I hope you are all weathering these stormy economic seas okay out there in library land.

Meanwhile, I’m presenting at the Oregon Library Association annual conference this Friday (#OLA2009).  I am going footloose and slidefree. Feels a bit strange to be untethered, but I think it might rock—or I might just suck out loud.

We’re just entering week 2 of the Fall term here. Our instruction schedule is just a wee bit scary, although certainly not unmanageable. There’s been a lot of speculation about what’s driving the current instruction boom, I’ll be interested to see if we can find out some of the real factors.

Despite all of my well-intentioned proclamations, my list of professional obligations for which I do not receive a paycheck is growing and growing. I’m on the Oregon Library Association planning committee for the upcoming conference. I’ve agreed to be on a panel presenting at said upcoming conference (April, I think). I was just asked to join the OLA president’s Vision 2020 committee (planning and visioning for libraries in Oregon, etc.). I won’t even bother listing off the national obligations, but they are mighty.

In spite of it all I’m still striving for some work-life balance this year. Let’s hope I can find it.

Quotable moment. At the end of a one-shot with the first year nursing students I ask if there are any questions. A young man raises his hand and asks me this, “How much caffeine are you ON?”

He was kinda shocked when I told him that I don’t consume caffeine. He said, “That’s nuts!” before shaking his head and wandering off.

I like those nursing students…moxie.

I had to dash out before the end of this session to catch my airport shuttle and head back home. This means I slammed the laptop shut when I got a txt message telling me the shuttle arrived early and was already boarding. Apparently I forgot to save my draft before doing so and lost most of my notes. Fortunately Joe wrote a guest blog for Tame the Web which talks about the Yale Science Library text a librarian program. Essentially Yale SciLib (and some others, as you see in the comments) launched a texting program and decided that the best option was actually to purchase a mobile device rather than a subscription service that forwards SMS to email/IM.

Apples & Oranges: A Comparison of Proprietary Chat Reference Software Versus Free Instant Messaging Services
Lorrie Evans, Nina McHale, Karen Sobel, all of the Auraria Library, University of Colorado, Denver

Staffing questions

• should we provide IM service the entire time the desk is staffed?
• is it appropriate to have parapros staff the IM service?
• What is the “triage” procedure when the desk/phone/IM are all busy?

AskColorado at Auraria Library

• Ask Colorado began in 2003 as a regional and consortial program offering chat reference service to Colorado residents.
• With large and diverse student pop. they felt the need to provide a flexible form of reference service.
• AskColorado would priprovide that with excellent support frmo the Colorado State Library
• uses tutor.com

I appreciated David Lankes reminding us all that we make a lot of assumptions about “young librarians” (whether that means age or time in the profession). Just because we’ve just come out of library school does not mean that you should cram us into a lot of techy responsibility because that tends to alienate us from the organization, from time spent getting to know the culture where we work. I feel lucky that I get to geek out, but have colleagues who reach out to wrap me into the fold of our culture all the same. It is a good blend but I can see how it would easily become overwhelming in many situations.

Lankes also called for big changes in LIS education. Whenever I hear a speaker on this topic I am again affirmed that I really did get a great LIS education. I know there are people who think a theoretically-based/inspired program is a waste of time but it simply is not true. Tools and applications can be picked up later (hell, they keep changin’ anyway). This is not to say that cataloging is not important ( I took it, it was mandatory) but that there’s no point to it if we’re missing the underpinnings. It’s like wearing vintage couture without a bra: expensive and it wont hold you up for long.

Carla Stoffle, like many speakers, reminded us that we need to take the library to the user, not require the user to 1) figure out what they actually want and 2)find us to ask for it. Importantly, she points out that technology is a tool, not a finite set of skills to set and forget.

Marie Radford is not a woman I’d want to get into a barroom brawl with, she’d totally win. What a spitfire! She asserts that communication, content, and cognitive skills are the most important qualities in a reference librarian. Be an agent of change, don’t just get dragged along with it is the take home message here. Well, that and, “No more lone ranger librarians!”

Jamie LaRue of Douglas County Libraries reminded me about some of the softer, but essential elements of librarianship. The heart of communication is really the ability to be in the same space as another human being. As we face the destuction of the circulation desk via RFID and self-checkout this becomes so much more important. Do the simple things: look up and make eye-contact, examine your reference desk and determine whether you’ve got a fotress or moat effect going on.

Renee and I had a brief chat (she chatted, I gawked) with Jamie LaRue about some elements of the Working Together program spearheaded by VPL. Tres exciting. Take a look at what those wacky Canucks are doing, I am really impressed. I’m also impressed by the idea of bottom-up community mapping, also being done by VPL. Jamie was the perfect person to talk to about this as his talk during the plenary panel was really about outreach and putting ourselves where we need to be. He used the example of a librarian he “assigned” to attend community meetings (town council perhaps, I neglected to note it). Initially the meeting folks treated her like a mascot, not a useful member of the group. Within a short period of time they came to recognize how essential her presence and contributions were and the culture shifted to one of, “We can’t begin the meeting yet, the librarian hasn’t arrived.” How can you engender this in your community/library/environment?

What Participatory Approach Tells Us
R. David Lankes, Ph.D., Syracuse University

• the user is in control
• it is all about learning
• learning is a collaborative conversation
• the library serves as facilitators of conversation
• true facilitation with  the community means shared ownership
• invest in tools for creation over the collection of artifacts

Traditional reference is 1:1, but why?

Access is just one way/facilitator…. also knowledge, safety, policy, motivation

Changes in LIS education

• recognize the shift in innovation from concentrated in the academy to distributed throughout practice and other industries
• model co-learning in the classroom
• recognize and enhance the participatory network that is a school
• include communication and political skills
• we need to teach everyone coming out of library school how to be subversive, political, and a change agent
• we tend to take the “young librarians” and shove them into technical positions, based on our opinion that they must know more about it. but what they don’t know is the organization. we shove them into these tech spaces that then take them away from the organizational learning, getting to know the system, learning the politics, etc.

The idea that librarians are unbiased is ridiculous. The moment we reach for a book or start typing, we display our bias. We need to let go of this.

Carla Stoffle (C.f. org chart handout)

• Technology has to come from the sense that tech is a tool, something that will change. these are not a finite set of skills to develop and use.
• need someone who understand reference written large
• take the library to the user; not require the user to understand what they want/need and  come to us
• online textbooks
• reaching out to our Campus partners with solutions not waiting for them to Come to us _ how often do they think of us anyway ?
• off-desk reference
• importance of assessment
• less about helping people find information and more about helping them use info

Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., Rutgers University School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies

• communication, content, and cognitive/behavioral skills: most important qualities in a ref lib
• importance of interpersonal relations and skills
• agree with Lankes re: collaboration
• change is getting more rapid
• be a change advocate, not just dragged along by Change
• different roles: are, Para, etc,
• spending too much time writing long reports that no one reads
• when Teaching, make students get out their cell phones and add ref # to their contacts
• no more Lone Ranger librarians!
• 25-30% of IM & chat users are in the buildings!
• recommend: Conducting the Reference Interview, Catherine Ross

Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries

• only one still matters communication
• the heart of communication is the ability to be in the same space as another human being
• economic gardening identify the person who is ready to take the next step
• for a long time in our libraries we based stiffing based on where the telephones are…
• leadership-know thyself
• destruction of the circ desk: RFID, self-checkout, etc.
• re-integration of departments, silos
• is there a fortress or moat around the Reference desk?
• leadership skills librarian as community asset