ALA Midwinter 2015 - Monday/Tuesday Notes

Monday Notes

Mondays at Midwinter always begin early. The 15th Annual MLK Celebration took place at 6:30 am. There was a larger turnout than in prior years – even with the bad weather. After a hymn, there was a selection of readings from the works of Marin Luther King, Jr. by representatives of the organizing groups. This was followed by the keynote speech by Cornel West and a call to action by my friend Satia Orange. The singing of “We Shall Overcome” was very poignant.

A friend invited me to sit in for the LITA breakfast, which precedes the “LITA Town Hall Forum” which is part of LITA’s planning process. I had the opportunity catch up with some friends with whom I had not yet connected.

 PLA is in the process of developing some tools to use as measures of outcomes of library services. It is being developed by the Performance Measurement Task Force. Their meeting was scheduled for 6 hours (!). I attended the beginning.

 I attended the beginning of the second session of the ASCLA Board of Directors and had the opportunity to hear ALA Presidential candidate Julie Todaro. I left to attend the ALA Executive Board Candidates Forum because several of those candidates had asked me for advice. However, the session was moved up in time because the business at ALA Council II did not last as long as budgeted. I did attend the APA [American Psychological Association] Lunch & Learn @ ALA Midwinter 2015 where some new features of their products were presented. It is interesting that vendors/exhibitors are the ones who provide most of the “content” or learning opportunities at Midwinter. Midwinter is technically a “meeting” not a conference, but a time and place for the Association’s committees to meet and do business. In the evening, I attended a social/networking event which I have been attending for over a decade.

Tuesday Notes

I packed and headed to the Convention Center. I wanted to get there early to be sure that I was there for the Memorials and Tributes. (I helped write, and seconded one of the Memorials.) I also wanted to get set up to be part of the LSSC course webinar this morning. I am pleased to report that the webinar went well – without a hitch. I purposely did not have a microphone, but I did try out my laptop web cam, and at the end of the session was able to show the room.