10 Top Tips for Attending an ALA Conference by Jo Alcock

Jo Alcock (judge)w/Battle Decks judges/participants showing a large group of people smiling at the camera in 3 rows with the first row of people sitting on the floor.
Jo Alcock (judge)w/Battle Decks judges/participants CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The Shifted Librarian (link below)

To learn more about Jo please read her short interview.

ALA conferences are truly like no other library conference (not any I’ve experienced anyway!). I’m a UK resident and our large library conferences have maybe 300 delegates that’s not even 2% of the typical numbers attending ALA Annual so there’s quite a difference in size!

I was really fortunate to have been able to secure funding from the John Campbell Trust and support from my employer to attend my first ALA Annual conference last year, and absolutely loved every minute of it. I thought I’d write some tips for first-time attendees (this is from an international perspective but many will be applicable to anyone).

  1. Find out more about the host city to make the most of your visit I found some great restaurants to try and also managed to fit in visits to local attractions before and after the conference.
  2. Use the online conference schedule before you leave I didn’t get chance to spend time scheduling whilst I was there so was really grateful that I’d picked a few sessions that I definitely wanted to attend (and some extras that I’d quite like to attend) before I left.
  3. Consider travel time between sessions I hadn’t really realised just how far apart the sessions were and missed most of a session I really wanted to attend because I messed up my scheduling and travel plans. Some hotels are over the other side of the city, and even those in the main conference venue might be a good 10-15 minute walk (the convention centre at New Orleans is over a mile long!). Use the conference shuttle bus to get between venues (this is a great way to meet new people too), but make sure you know the shuttle timetable so you know where to be and when to leave to get to your session on time.
  4. Vote with your feet don’t be afraid to switch sessions if something isn’t what you had hoped, or leave early if there’s another session you want to attend. It’s always polite to sit near the back if you think you might leave early, but there’s so much going on that people really do understand and won’t take it personally.
  5. Don’t try to do the whole exhibition in one go it’s a large exhibition so I found it best to split it up and view certain sections at a time between sessions.
  6. Don’t be afraid to schedule in down-time you really will need it!
  7. Take advantage of the free food/drink I didn’t manage to maximise this and it was definitely a mistake. Vendors often have sponsored breakfasts or drinks receptions (sometimes with buffets), this can really save some money!
  8. Carry snack food with you it can be difficult to schedule in eating, especially if you have to find somewhere to get food and queue up too. Sometimes you will want to hook up with friends to eat, but other days you just might not have time, so carry some cereal bars or crisps (potato chips) to keep you going. A water bottle comes in handy too I was constantly refilling mine throughout the day.
  9. Be comfortable – you’ll be walking lots during the conference, and you’ll be in a variety of different environments and temperatures. Wear layers, and comfortable shoes; I wore Fitflops in New Orleans and they were perfect during the day (though probably wouldn’t be suitable for the more formal dinners if you choose to attend those).
  10. Be flexible with your plans both for the sessions and in your free time. There will be loads of great opportunities so grab them whilst you can. Chat to everyone you meet; librarians are such friendly people – and the ribbons on people’s badges (which show which groups people are members of) can be a useful way of knowing a little about them or a potential conversation starter. Most of all – ENJOY IT!

The best piece of advice I can give anyone considering attending an ALA conference is to #makeithappen! Grab any opportunity you can to get yourself there, it really is worth the investment. I loved it so much that I’m going back again next year – I was encouraged by many people I met at ALA Annual to apply for ALA Emerging Leaders and I was delighted to be offered a place on the 2012 class (now I just need to source funding). I hope to see some of you at ALA Midwinter in Dallas and ALA Annual in Anaheim! :)

Image Credit:

2011 Battledecks contestants, judges, emcee, Vanna, and timekeeper

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via The Shifted Librarian

6 Reasons to Write

Computer on Library Table
Laptops: for the Wandering Writer

Periodically the question of why people should write comes up, there’s several benefits to writing on a regular basis, here’s six reasons I write:

Better than bookmarking.

There’s a reason my website has several resource guides and posts about specific references, I hate having to hunt for links and I’m often out and about without the luxury of my personal computer. I also dislike signing up for third party services which may or may not vanish overnight. If I really want to keep track of a resource, or information on a subject long term I create a post or resource guide. This gives me access to the things that I think are important from any computer with web access and total control of if my list of links. When I write about links in a post I tend to annotate links that lead to something especially interesting or important. I don’t have to remember where I found things long term because I have it available through my webpage.

Finding your voice.

One comment which is often made about new writers is that they sound like someone else, and while their writing topics are interesting, the writing itself lacks an original voice. This is a difficult one for me because my default mode of writing for many years was writing detailed step-by-step instructions for laboratory procedures. This experience honed my instruction writing skills but hampers writing interesting presented content. I tend to get list happy from time to time which probably releases some pent up instructional writing desires.

Organizing your thoughts.

One of the main reasons I write posts like this is to organize my thoughts on a subject into a cohesive whole so that I can then explain them to someone else. If I can’t express myself in a page or two of writing on a subject how can I speak about it with someone else? It’s interesting to write about a specific topic because it forces you to do a little extra research, extend your knowledge and really think about the stance you are taking.

Other people might be interested too.

One thing that always surprises me is which posts are the most popular. You never really know what topic (if you write on a variety of topics like I do) is going to appeal to people. Given the semi-permanence of leaving a comment you might not get much if any feedback through your blog, that doesn’t mean that no one’s reading you. It’s always a pleasant surprise when you meet someone for the first time and you find out they read something that you wrote. Maybe you happened to touch on the one resource which solved their research problem, or maybe they liked the way you covered a topic. On the Internet you never know who or how many people your voice might reach, it may be one person, or it may be a couple hundred; writing should be mainly for yourself but I think if you help just one person with something you’ve written you can count that as a major win!

Practice makes perfect.

I recently came across an essay I wrote as an undergraduate that I was very proud of at the time and cringed. Fortunately I’ve written quite a bit between 1997 and now, other may not agree but I think my writing quality has definitely gone up over the years. The more you write in any medium the better all of your writing will become. One advantage to writing blog posts is the ability to correct errors as quickly as you can login and type the corrections. If you want to be a better writer the number one thing you have to do to improve is plant yourself in your chair and write.

Sleep, I like it!

This one may seem like a non sequitur but I’m one of those people who has a hard time shutting their brain off at night. I can and have laid there perfectly still breathing deeply for over an hour while my brain refuses to shut up about a subject. Whether it’s writing a blog post, jotting down research notes, or just a note on something I want to look up, writing helps quite the noise in my head so I can sleep. Sleep is good, it keeps you sane, at 6 or less hours of sleep there is a noticeable decrease in mental function of all people (no you cannot train your body to function at full capacity on less than an average of 7 hours of sleep per day, although a combination of naps and night time sleeping works just fine.)