ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim: Orange County

My ALA Annual Conference experience was definitely a whirlwind. I was constantly on the run but accomplished a lot. This was definitely a conference of getting things done.

I attended the Library Journal Movers & Shakers luncheon at The White House. The highlight of that event was seeing William Kamkwamba speak. He was engaging, informative, and funny. I look forward to reading my signed copy of his book The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

I also had the opportunity to go on the Queen Mary with my Sage Reference colleagues. The 40 minute drive to Long Beach was definitely worth it. It was also the only sightseeing on my trip.



My two back-to-back presentations went extremely well. I was the keynote for the New Members Round Table President's Program. I had the pleasure of presenting at the RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Forum. I was asked to talk briefly about technologies that may have a future impact on virtual reference service. I particularly enjoyed the discussion following my ideas and generated from the round table discussions. A very positive write up of this session was posted by Library Journal.

On Sunday morning I introduced author Sapphire. That evening while at a reception hosted by Oxford a few people said hello to me and they recognized me from introducing Sapphire that morning. It was nice to meet new people and get positive feedback. I also ran into a bunch of people I know at Oxford's reception hosted at Bowers Museum. I'm always thrilled when that happens.

This conference also marked the conclusion of my term on the ALA Executive Board. It has been an absolutely wonderful experience. I am still incredibly grateful to the members of the board nominating committee and ALA Council for giving me the opportunity to serve the Association in this capacity. I have worked hard, taken this responsibility seriously, and had so much fun.

ALA Annual 2012 Preparations

I'm getting ready for the ALA Annual conference in Anaheim. It's hard to believe this will be my last conference as a member of the ALA Executive Board. My schedule is still shaping up, but here are some of the highlights for what will be a very busy (and hopefully very good) week. Note that I have back-to-back presentations on Saturday -- 1:30-3:30pm and 4-5:30pm!

Wednesday, June 20
PIT - ORD - SNA

Thursday, June 21
Special reception honoring Library Champions, Major Donors, and Legacy Society members
distribute executive board liaison talking points to ACRL, COL, COD, TOLD

Friday, June 22
ALA Executive Board I
ALA Opening Ceremony and ribbon cutting for Exhibits Opening

Saturday, June 23
ALA Council orientation
Visit the exhibits
Lunch - thanks EBSCO!
Lead Presenter: NMRT President's Program
Lead Presenter: RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Forum
Scholarship Bash
#ala12 After Hours / LibrarianWardrobe Walkoff Contest

Sunday, June 24
Breakfast - thanks ebrary!
ALA Council I
Introduction for Auditorium Speaker Series: Sapphire
Planning and Budget Assembly
Division Leaders/BARC joint meeting
executive board liaison visits:  CORS, Membership

Monday, June 25
ALA Council II
ALA Executive Board II
executive board liaison visits: OITP, LLAMA

Tuesday, June 26
ALA Council III
Closing General Session: JR Martinez
Inaugural Brunch
ALA Executive Board III

Wednesday, June 27 and Thursday, June 28
SNA - ORD - PIT

NMRT Annual Program: Professional Networking for New Librarians

The 2012 NMRT Annual Program took place online. Professional Networking for New Librarians covered the who, what, when, where, why, and how of networking. The session presenters included Ned Potter, Loida Garcia-Febo, JP Pocaro, Pat Hawthorne, and me. I covered "Professional Networking Tips for New Librarians: Where to Network". I learned a lot from my co-presenters. I am also happy I had the opportunity to think about this topic in a more organized way. Do check it out, and please let me or any of the presenters know if you have any questions.

Thanks again to NMRT and the committee for a useful, timely, and accessible program.

Georgia COMO Conference 2010

I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the Georgia Council Of Media Organizations (COMO) XXII conference in Athens GA. I was a panelist for the October 14 program "Getting Involved: Professional Organizations and the Opportunity to Make a Difference, Stay Connected, and Build Relationships". The program was sponsored by the Georgia Library Association Paraprofessional Division. Kara Mullen and Ashley Dupuy were the other two panelists. Karen Walton was the panel moderator.


Karen Walton, Kara Mullen, Ashley Dupuy, and Courtney Young
My role was to talk about getting involved in the American Library Association. I believe active participation in an association is beneficial to both the individual and the association. I have applied the skills and best practices learned from my involvement in ALA to my day-to-day work. Some of the satisfaction I have in my career has resulted from my involvement in the association. At the same time, those day-to-day happenings inform my perspective and work in the association. My leadership skills, which are still in development, are rooted in my involvement with ALA and were the key to me landing my current position.

I also highlighted opportunities and benefits with regards to ALA, particularly New Members Round Table and the Library Support Staff Interests Round Table, as great places to start and get to know what is often perceived as a large and unwieldy organization. Active participation by paraprofessionals and library support staff is important to the association. It reflects another dimension of diversity within libraries. ALA membership and involvement also means access to travel grants and scholarships to attend conferences, the Emerging Leaders program, and the Spectrum Scholarship. I also talked about the ALA-APA Library Staff Certification Program that was highlighted in other sessions by the GLA Paraprofessional Division.

I did not get to Athens in time to hear Michael Porter's keynote "Our Libraries, Our Communities: Technology Evolution, Change and Success". However, conference attendees who did were energized and buzzing about his presentation. Fortunately I did catch up with Michael before and after my session. That evening I had the pleasure of attending the GLA Awards Banquet dinner. The event kicked off with a highly entertaining Battledecks Competition. During dessert, ALA President Roberta Stevens talked about 21st Century Libraries. Various well-deserved award winners were recognized, and the 2011 board was installed.

Thank you GLA and Athens for a great conference!

Famous African American Penn Staters

The Penn State Alumni Association was kind enough to ask me to put together a talk and kick off their 2010 City Lights Speaker Series on February 28. The event was at Pittsburgh's new August Wilson Center, and tours of the cultural landmark were offered before and after my keynote. I particularly enjoyed the Teenie Harris photographs.



My presentation consisted of three parts. First, a brief overview of African
Americans in higher education and at the University. Second, brief profiles of
Black alumni who are famous both around the world and across the state,
including right here in Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. Third, I highlighted a few University leaders whose work continues the Black tradition at Penn State and create an environment where faculty, staff, and students of all races can be successful.

I enjoyed researching and putting together my presentation. The staff at the Penn State University Archives provided me with many wonderful historical images. The feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive. I'm glad that one of my campus faculty colleagues was able to attend and lend her support. As a bonus she ran into one of her former students there.

My thanks again to the Penn State Alumni Association for this opportunity.


Photos from the event are here.

PaLA

I attended the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) conference October 17 - 20. My primary motivation for attending was to facilitate an ALA Planning Forum the afternoon of the 20th. It is not a conference I attend on a regular basis, so it was a good opportunity for me to find out what my colleagues across the state are doing, learn something new, and visit vendors.
I attended a number of sessions. The first was a session called "Communications Among Library Staff: When NOT to Be Quiet in the Library" presented by Tricia Richards of ineedprhelp.com. This session emphasized that for communication in the work place to be effective it must be viewed as a shared responsibility.

The next session was "Avoiding Certain Doom: Integrating Information Literacy Through Collaboration" presented by Alison S. Gregory. I really enjoyed this session. It was shaped by three key questions including why collaboration is important, examples of collaboratively-creted research assignments emphasizing information literacy, and how a librarian can begin collaborating with other faculty at their home institution. She provided a really nice literature review, examples of assignment design and assessment from her campus, and employed some active learning techniques to get us talking with each other on ways to improve "doomed" assignments on our campus. I took a lot of good ideas away from the session, but also left feeling like I've been doing the right things in my library instruction. I have been fortunate to collaborate with other faculty on campus to improve and refine assignments as well as see more of those assignments once completed.

An interesting session was "iPrimer: Using the iPod Touch and iPhone in Library Reference and Education" by Corrine Syster and Misti Smith. It was described as an "overview of the devices and their features, while discussing their relevance to libraries. Significant applications (“apps”), such as “Kindle for iPhone” and catalog app from the Washington DC Public Library will be introduced along with current projects and research into library and classroom uses." The session was rounded out with discussion of the "practicality, challenges, and future of these technologies." Their presentation is available from Syster's site.

The iPrimer session got me thinking more about the future of mobile reference from a collection development standpoint. App recommendations, both free and fee, will be key to providing effective mobile reference. The same skills used to evaluate and assess "traditional" reference tools can be applied and expanded on for reference and productivity apps.

I was very interested in attending a session on the ALA Emerging Leaders program presented by Pennsylvania librarians who were selected as part of the 2009 class. Erin Dorney, Jennifer Jarson, and Rebecca Metzger discussed their experiences in the program, working in teams, their continued service to ALA and PaLA, and how the associations can continue to grow new leaders.