Skip to main content

North American Serials Interest Group 2015 - Day 1

Today was primarily a travel day. Since my flight was late arriving, I missed the First Timers Reception and a chance to meet my mentor, so I sat through the opening session in the back with some other late comers feeling completely out of place because it's not only my first time here and I'm the only one from my library, but I'm also one of the few people from a public library here.

The opening speaker works at an architecture museum here in DC and gave a lecture on the history of the city's architecture. It was pretty interesting, but also highlighted just how different a type of library conference I'm at. PLA has fun popular presenters. ALA makes bold political choices. NASIG goes for academic detail.

During the meal I got to know my tablemates, two of whom bonded over ASL. Since my boss has been taking a library ASL class, I sort of wish she'd been there to contribute to the conversation. The other two at our table were a married couple from Pennsylvania. Other small talk was made. Then everyone agreed it was time to hit the hay early (one of the side benefits to a library conference is that most of us or introverts, so we don't need to explain the need to recharge in solitude). I texted my mentor and we're going to try meeting up again tomorrow at breakfast.

Hopefully I'll have more library substance to report tomorrow.


Posted via Blogaway

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PLA - Day 1

Today was my first day at the Public Library Association conference, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do 2.5 more days and keep my head from exploding. There's just so much that's so relevant to my job, I can find something interesting everywhere I look. This morning I went to the Get Your Game On: Gaming in Libraries Preconference, and it was wonderful. I realized that I need to stop playing the role of wife of a gamer and own that I know a thing or two about video games, too, and what I don't know I can learn. Eli and Aaron spent the first half of the program talking about the benefits of gaming and why libraries should be doing gaming, which is something I'd always bought, but never been very good at articulating. Essentially it boils down to all the different types of literacies learned through video games and what are libraries for if not promoting literacy. It was also interesting they argued that the way libraries get the most value out of gaming is by...

Reflections of a New Community College Librarian

After months of searching I finally found found a job and I have to say that I'm really surprised with both where I landed and how much I'm loving it. After focusing primarily on the public library reference jobs that were similar to my most recent position, I stumbled onto a couple openings at nearby community colleges. When I'd first graduated from library school I heard somewhere that people who worked in community college libraries claimed they were this magical land where public meets academic, where you don't have to deal with spoiled rich kids and people are looking for things more stimulating than the latest James Patterson novel. But I went to library school so I could become a public librarian and I loved the public library job I eventually got, so I never really thought about that statement. While I loved my public library job, one of things I discovered I loved most about it was teaching public computer classes. Eventually it clicked with me that academi...

Ebooks & Libraries

For a long time I've been frustrated with the way ebook publishers have been approaching library lending, but my rage has been overruling my sense and I haven't been able to get many coherent thoughts into print. Luckily Bobbi Newman pretty much hit the nail on the head with her " 9 Reasons Why Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are the Enemy and Start Thanking Them ". I could go through each of her reasons and expound on why each one makes so much sense and explains a piece of where my frustration is coming from, but I'm going to focus on the points that have been bugging me the most. First from the consumer side, I know I'm not alone in the group of people who don't like to buy books until they're pretty sure they're going to love them. I simply read too much for buying every book I read to make any sort of financial sense. Often that means borrowing the first book in a series or by a new author to see if I want to spend money on th...