June 26, 2016

 I got a decent number of sleep last night but waking up in the morning still kind of sucked. My first session this morning was at 8:30AM which meant I needed to leave the hotel before eight o'clock to make sure I had enough time to get to the convention center, walk all the way across the convention center, and find the correct room with enough time to get a seat. Some of the sessions never fill up and others are already overflowing way before the session starts.

The walk over this morning was pretty nice this morning and I only sweat a little bit. My first session was about library instruction. There were examples from school, academic, and public libraries and they were all interesting. It was sponsored by the Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) which is one I plan on joining when I get home because instruction will soon be an important part of my job.

My next session was basically about digital literacy in the public library setting. The session as a whole was fairly disappointing because it wasn't what I was expecting, but they included some interesting information so it wasn't a complete loss.

Following that session, which was on the first floor, I went halfway across the building and up to the fourth floor to see some ignite sessions. It is one big session filled with several different presenters who give quick five minute talks on various topics. I went to watch the one on self-marketing but ended up seeing a few more on top of that because they didn't seem to be following the order in the conference schedule. I learned about social media policies, how to be a manager, and a small mug library project, as well as self-marketing. I have a couple more of those sessions on my schedule tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it because it is a fun concept.

I had about an hour before my next session so I ate lunch. The Pizza place in the food court had the shortest line so I went there and got a tiny cheese pizza for $9.75. Definitely not worth the prize but it was quick and one of the few vegetarian options that wasn't just a salad.

My first session in the afternoon was about 3D printing and program ideas to make it more interesting. It was mostly focused on kids and teens but they included several ideas that could be used for adults. The library system in the basement of our public library has a 3D printer and my boss is interested in possibly incorporating it into some of our programming. I've now got a few potential ideas.

I had some time after that so I went back to the exhibit hall on a mission. My first stop was the booth for Better World Books. My library is starting a weeding project soon and in preparation for that we all had to read a different article on the topic. Mine mentioned Better Word Books, which takes old library books, sells what it can, donates what it can't, and recycles any that are left. For all the books they sell the library gets some of the money. I had a nice conversation with one of the ladies working at the booth and I grabbed some information to take back to work.

The last session of the day was the ALA Awards Presentation, which was followed by the President's Program where Diane Guerrero spoke about her book and immigration reform. The awards presentation was pretty boring until the last one. That one was presented by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket). The prize was “$10,000 and an odd symbolic object from Lemony Snicket's private stash.” It went to the director of the public library in Baltimore that is located at the intersection where Freddie Gray was taken into custody. After his death there were demonstrations and when a riot broke out at the intersection, the director made the decision to lock the doors of the library to keep the people inside safe from the destruction outside. She opened the library the following day, despite the unrest, and continued to help the community, as a good library does. In his speech Daniel Handler told all the librarians in the audience to keep the doors open, but added only one person was getting $10,000 for it. The “odd symbolic object” was brought out on stage by Mo Willems. Daniel Handler announced this and held his arm out to one side of the stage as if to welcome Mo but then Mo walked out from the other direction, which was funny. Then he ran back off stage and brought out a big stuffed chair that he proceeded to stand on in order to hold up the giant ceramic plate that was the prize. I think he may have also drawn a picture and written a message on it. He also pulled out a much smaller ceramic plate as a gift for Daniel Handler and had written on it something to the effect of “You're okay, I guess”. It was pretty great.

Diane Guerrero's speech was about as expected. It was good but she's not much of a speaker. I'm not judging her though because she did way better than I could have done. She threw in some serious stuff but also some funny stuff, and stuff that she intended to be funny but didn't really get the laughs she was hoping for.

After the meeting I was going to go to a social thing for LIRT, and I walked across the bridge to a hotel, but then looked at the shuttle schedule. It looked like the regular schedule ended before the social thing would be over. There was another event this evening and there was supposed to be an extended shuttle schedule for that but that was also supposed to happen the other night when it never showed up and I had to walk back to the hotel. It rained a little today and it looked like it may rain again, and I didn't want to walk back in the rain. I also didn't want to walk back at all, so I walked back to the convention center and got on the shuttle to go back to the hotel. While sitting on the shuttle I realized that I had actually gone to the wrong hotel for the social event, so it's probably good I decided not to go because I would have been awfully late.

When I got back to my room I ordered food from a different pizza place than last time. I got a big pizza, a salad, breadsticks, and chocolate cake because why not. After an hour the delivery guy called and told me to meet him in the lobby in five minutes. I finished writing a sentence in my journal for class and then headed down to the lobby. I walked out the front door right as the guy was walking from his car with my food. Another instance of perfect timing. As for the food, the salad was lettuce so nothing special, the pizza wasn't as good as the first pizza I got, the breadsticks were over-cooked, and the chocolate cake was freaking delicious.

Tonight I wrote the first entry of my journal for class. That means I'm only four entries behind now. I have all the basic information written here, so I don't have to worry about forgetting that stuff, and I've got all the notes I have taken while in sessions, so I'm good there, too. I just need to write it all out. I should have plenty of time to do that. Hopefully that won't mean writing all day on my last free day. I don't have anything planned for that free day but I wouldn't mind not spending the whole day writing.