ALA Annual - Day Two

1. Remember to check the Flickr group for pictures: ALA Annual 2007


2. I hit the exhibits first thing as I decided not to go to the session I'd originally planned on attending. I've got a few exhibitors I need to ask questions of for work, and after I got my Darwin bobblehead from Greenwood, I got some leads to follow up on from one of the vendors. I also ended up with a lot more items than the two I planned on leaving with. Pretty much the extras are all ARCs, but dang, they're heavy!


3. My first session today was "Participatory Networks: Libraries as Conversations". I honestly had no clue what I was getting into with this session. It turned out to be a great kick-off session. Speakers included John Lester from Linden Labs, Eli Neiburger from Ann Arbor District Library, Kitty Pope from Alliance Library System, and Angela Semifero from Marshall District Library. All of them had very interesting things to say about how libraries can initiate conversations with people who may not normally come to the library. I think one of the truest comments came from Kitty Pope: extended services do not fit in with every community. Bonus: I got to meet Abby from LibraryThing as she was sitting right behind me.


4. Next was a brief lunch with friends before heading off to the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. This was a great event organized by the BIGWIG group of LITA. Once again, this was absolutely wonderful! I got to meet Tim Spalding, creator of LibraryThing. I Tweeted with the Davids during introductions. And, I got to talk with Simon Spero about authority and taxonomy and folksonomies. What Simon had to say was extremely fascinating, but admittedly, a bit over my head. Definitely check out the Showcase's Wiki for ongoing discussions and presentations.


5. After dropping off my haul from the exhibit hall this morning at the hotel, I headed back to the Convention Center for the session called Trit Trot to Washington which was on Early Childhood Literacy techniques and exercises. This was a nice complement to the workshop I went to back in April that was led by Saroj Ghoting.


6. To cap off the day, the LISNews.com get together at the Capitol City Brewery. Much fun was had with friends, and the BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich was fabulous.

Sleep is now direly needed, so I'm off to bed. One last comment though: some very nice bags are to be had at this conference. It's kind of funny when you're on one of the shuttle buses and you're comparing bags from the current conference with past conferences with other librarians.