Today officially kicked off the ALA 2013 conference. I began the day at the Class of 2k13 debut authors. The program was hosted by Veronica Roth (Divergent, Insurgent and Oct 2013's Allegiant). The line up was:
Caela Carter
Cristin Terrill
Debra Driza
Demitria Lunetta
Geoffrey Girard
Jennifer McGowan
K.A. Barson
Kate Karyus Quinn
Liesl Shurtliff
Lydia Kang
Mindy McGinnis
Nicole McInnes
Polly Holyoke, Panel Coordinator, The Class of 2k13
Stephanie Kuehn
Tamera Wissinger
Tara Sullivan
A trivia game followed with each of the debut authors hosting a table; to the winners (not me) were "super" grab bags.
It was a fun program and it looks like it will be a good year for YA fiction.
The next program I attended was Intellectual Freedom 101 hosted by the Office of Intellectual freedom and then the General Opening Session.
At this point the Exhibitor Hall opened and there was a flash flood of Librarians being swept down the aisles, grabbing what they could as they poured down the aisles,
More details and pics to come.
Michael
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
ALA2013 warm-up day
Today was the first full day in Chicago. The weather was great and even had a few minutes of nice cool rain early in the morning.
Today's goals were to get my conference badge, scope out the convention center and begin to "nest".
The first two tasks were accomplished. The third is under way. I've got a couple of days worth of food from the local store. With a small fridge in the hotel room, this is a great cost saving measure as restaurants, room service and snack machines get expensive for a conference that lasts 4-5 days. One of the few benefits of being diabetic is getting a higher priority for a hotel fridge for the room.
As an added bonus, the 9 story Harold Washington Library was right across the street from the store. Topped with a skylight garden and gargoyles at the top, this is an impressive building.
The first floor houses their Popular Collection and Information desk.
The second floor is the 18,000 sq.ft. Thomas Hughes Children's Library. A quick look around shows that the space clearly is designed for children; my opinion is that a children's space should look appealing to children. This is true of this space. Kudos to the Chicago Public Library System.
The third floor contains the computer commons, the newspapers/periodicals and my favorite part, the new Maker Space. According to an employee, this is set to open in about a month but as a conference attendee I was able to join the group that was touring the space. There were about half a dozen laptops, a laser etching machine and several 3-D printers working away. The coolest part was the laptop hooked up to a Microsoft Kinect sensor that, after taking a picture of someone, was able to send the image directly to the 3-D printer to create a bust of the person. Uber-cool!
Unfortunately, at this stage, my blood sugar took a major drop and I had to leave. I think the 13 hours it took to get from AZ to IL yesterday and today's humidity combined with the four miles I walked in 3 hours was a bit too much. Like a dope I left my sugar boosters in the fridge at the hotel. D'oh!
No worries though. The store across the street supplied me with what I needed and I was able to down some orange juice and stock up on a couple days of supplies. I returned to the hotel with plans to check out the rest of the library before leaving town.
I have pictures to upload including some shots with Flat Stanley. My new phone isn't playing nice with the computer right now but I'll get them up soon.
Time to catch some zzzzz's. The conference kicks off with sessions tomorrow.
Michael
Today's goals were to get my conference badge, scope out the convention center and begin to "nest".
The first two tasks were accomplished. The third is under way. I've got a couple of days worth of food from the local store. With a small fridge in the hotel room, this is a great cost saving measure as restaurants, room service and snack machines get expensive for a conference that lasts 4-5 days. One of the few benefits of being diabetic is getting a higher priority for a hotel fridge for the room.
As an added bonus, the 9 story Harold Washington Library was right across the street from the store. Topped with a skylight garden and gargoyles at the top, this is an impressive building.
The first floor houses their Popular Collection and Information desk.
The second floor is the 18,000 sq.ft. Thomas Hughes Children's Library. A quick look around shows that the space clearly is designed for children; my opinion is that a children's space should look appealing to children. This is true of this space. Kudos to the Chicago Public Library System.
The third floor contains the computer commons, the newspapers/periodicals and my favorite part, the new Maker Space. According to an employee, this is set to open in about a month but as a conference attendee I was able to join the group that was touring the space. There were about half a dozen laptops, a laser etching machine and several 3-D printers working away. The coolest part was the laptop hooked up to a Microsoft Kinect sensor that, after taking a picture of someone, was able to send the image directly to the 3-D printer to create a bust of the person. Uber-cool!
Unfortunately, at this stage, my blood sugar took a major drop and I had to leave. I think the 13 hours it took to get from AZ to IL yesterday and today's humidity combined with the four miles I walked in 3 hours was a bit too much. Like a dope I left my sugar boosters in the fridge at the hotel. D'oh!
No worries though. The store across the street supplied me with what I needed and I was able to down some orange juice and stock up on a couple days of supplies. I returned to the hotel with plans to check out the rest of the library before leaving town.
I have pictures to upload including some shots with Flat Stanley. My new phone isn't playing nice with the computer right now but I'll get them up soon.
Time to catch some zzzzz's. The conference kicks off with sessions tomorrow.
Michael
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
We did it!
Thanks to everyone who donated, tweeted, cross-posted and spread the word in any way!
I reached my funding goal for the "Please help get me to ALA Annual 2013" crowdfunding campaign with a couple days to spare on cofundedu.
I'm just so excited to be at ALA this year and that there was such an outpouring of support for this new project.
If you are a library staff member who wants to get to a conference but you or your library don't have the funds, start a campaign!
Michael
I reached my funding goal for the "Please help get me to ALA Annual 2013" crowdfunding campaign with a couple days to spare on cofundedu.
I'm just so excited to be at ALA this year and that there was such an outpouring of support for this new project.
If you are a library staff member who wants to get to a conference but you or your library don't have the funds, start a campaign!
Michael
Monday, May 27, 2013
ALA Annual 2013 Crowdfunding Campaign
Hello friends, family and colleagues!
I’m writing this email to let you know about a new venture
I’m in. The American Library Association Annual conference (ALA 2013) is
coming up and I am trying something new to get there. This is the
premiere conference in my industry and due to budget cuts, etc. over the
past five years libraries around the country have cut back drastically on
sending front line staff to not only this industry conference but many
others. For library staff to progress in their careers and become more
valuable to their communities these conferences can be essential.
Last year, I was invited to join my second national
committee; the Library Information Technology Association (LITA) Top
Technology Trends Committee. This was a huge and unexpected honor so I
jumped at the chance. Over the past several months, I have been working
on brainstorming ideas/topics and helping create a panel of Library and
Technology insiders for our program at ALA 2013 in Chicago.
Unfortunately, due to the cost (registration hotel,
transport, etc.), I have not been able to attend since I first became a
librarian in 2007. My fellow committee members and the committee chair
agree that it would be a good idea to have me on site as one of the planners
and liaison to several panelists. They understood not just my financial
issues but also library financial positions however, as tech people, we
thought there had to be a way around this. And, thus, an idea was born.
Conference attendance overall has been slipping gradually;
not because the content isn’t fresh or relative but because library budgets and
staff pay have been cut around the country, and the world and people just can’t
afford the out of pocket costs. We brainstormed and researched and our
committee chair came up with the brilliant idea to start a crowdfunding campaign.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, people will post to a site like Kickstarter or gofundme and ask for donations to help them
reach their goal. Our goal is very similar however unlike other sites we
are exclusive to library staff who want to attend library conferences where,
due to financial barriers, they would not be able to.
We decided that I would be a good test case. I want to
assure you that you will not receive any emails, etc. from anyone else.
The heart of Crowdfunding is to first ask direct family, friends and
colleagues. There has been quite a bit of red tape to go through but we are now
ready to launch. We hope to be offering this to more library staff around
the country and for more library related conferences. The really exciting
part is that we don’t need to raise all of the money on our own. We have
several companies within the library world that have agreed to be sponsors and
match every dollar raised! This means we only need to fund half of what
we need. For example, my campaign will try to raise $945 and then the
sponsors will match that. I’ve already put in all I can. There’s no
“mad money” in there. This covers the conference registration, hotel,
flight, transportation, and other requirements only.
Disclaimer: I am doing
this as a private citizen and not a member/representative of my city or library system.
My main reason for posting this is also so you know my
social media accounts have not been hacked. Since this has never been
tried before it may or may not get the interest of media or association
journals and we will be promoting this heavily by word of mouth as well as
online. Please do not feel obligated to donate although it would be
greatly appreciated.
Here is the link to my crowdfunding campaign. Sorry
for the long post and if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading it :)
Hope everyone is well!
Michael
Librarian
LITA Top Tech Trends Committee
YALSA Legislative Committee
Grand Canyon Reader Award Committee – Tween
fiction/non-fiction
Friday, April 19, 2013
Really? Nothing since Jan 2012? Egads!
Hi all,
Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I didn't realize it had been so long.
As I said in my last post, I did move. The new place promised not to do the ridiculous increases as the old place (32% increase in rent over 2 yrs). Well, the day before Thanksgiving (great timing, right?) I was informed that my rent was going up 15%. I really wish I could afford a house. Anyway, I'm still here but if they do that again I won't be able to afford to stay. We'll have to see what happens next year.
On a positive note I've finally started pushing forward with my small business and have listed and sold my first item on eBay. I hope to get another dozen or so listed this weekend. It's not going to make me rich but will, hopefully, compensate for the years of pay cuts and the increases in rent.
I'll update soon (I promise this time) with a link to my eBay store.
Now on to the more important stuff. I'm going to borrow from the Librarian in Black and list my "best of 2012". I know it's 4 months late, give me a break, it hasn't been easy :)
Book – Divergent by Veronica Roth
Movie – Hunger Games
Band – Fun
Song – "We're Not Young" by Yahoo's SketchY Comedy Series (a spoof of Fun's "We Are Young")
On a side note, make sure you watch Fun's "We Are Young" right before
"We're Not Young" to get the full effect of the spoof :)
Serious Technology – 3D Printer
Less Serious Technology – Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer (make sure you read the comments. LOL.
Conference – Phoenix Comicon (Couldn't afford a conference but I did get to a convention)
Personal Accomplishment – 1 Year post bankruptcy. Living cash only, no credit cards, etc.
Professional Accomplishment – Winning both Hall of Fame Award and Outstanding Achievement
awards in my library system.
Library Innovation – 3M 7-bin book return sorter
Indoor Event – 3rd Annual Gadgets and Gaming Day Fair
Outdoor Event – Scottsdale Culinary Festival
Treat – Parcel Day Applesauce (From the UnOfficial Hunger Games cookbook)
Photo of me that you will never see – me preparing to rub noses with Vivian (my turtle)
Meme – Grumpy Cat
Well, that's 2012 in a nutshell.
Thanks for reading!
Michael
Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I didn't realize it had been so long.
As I said in my last post, I did move. The new place promised not to do the ridiculous increases as the old place (32% increase in rent over 2 yrs). Well, the day before Thanksgiving (great timing, right?) I was informed that my rent was going up 15%. I really wish I could afford a house. Anyway, I'm still here but if they do that again I won't be able to afford to stay. We'll have to see what happens next year.
On a positive note I've finally started pushing forward with my small business and have listed and sold my first item on eBay. I hope to get another dozen or so listed this weekend. It's not going to make me rich but will, hopefully, compensate for the years of pay cuts and the increases in rent.
I'll update soon (I promise this time) with a link to my eBay store.
Now on to the more important stuff. I'm going to borrow from the Librarian in Black and list my "best of 2012". I know it's 4 months late, give me a break, it hasn't been easy :)
Book – Divergent by Veronica Roth
Movie – Hunger Games
Band – Fun
Song – "We're Not Young" by Yahoo's SketchY Comedy Series (a spoof of Fun's "We Are Young")
On a side note, make sure you watch Fun's "We Are Young" right before
"We're Not Young" to get the full effect of the spoof :)
Serious Technology – 3D Printer
Less Serious Technology – Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer (make sure you read the comments. LOL.
Conference – Phoenix Comicon (Couldn't afford a conference but I did get to a convention)
Personal Accomplishment – 1 Year post bankruptcy. Living cash only, no credit cards, etc.
Professional Accomplishment – Winning both Hall of Fame Award and Outstanding Achievement
awards in my library system.
Library Innovation – 3M 7-bin book return sorter
Indoor Event – 3rd Annual Gadgets and Gaming Day Fair
Outdoor Event – Scottsdale Culinary Festival
Treat – Parcel Day Applesauce (From the UnOfficial Hunger Games cookbook)
Photo of me that you will never see – me preparing to rub noses with Vivian (my turtle)
Meme – Grumpy Cat
Well, that's 2012 in a nutshell.
Thanks for reading!
Michael
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