PLA Blog

One of the more useful presentations at today’s Rural Library Sustainability Forum was a talk by conference junkie John D. “Danny” Hales, who shared his handy tips for making the most of this year’s ALA.

Hales, director of Suwannee River Regional Library in northern Florida - and a member of the WebJunction advisory committee - was speaking to the fortunate 180+ rural and small-town librarians (from 34 states) who are attending the conference as guests of WebJunction. But his advice is equally useful to any of the other 25,000 others - newbies and conference veterans alike - converging on the Capital city this weekend. Here are a few of Hales’ tips, some tongue-in-cheek:

• Tip the maid. You’ve got the funds to spare if you’re here on WebJunction’s dime, Hales said. But it’s also, simply, the right thing to do.
• As you go through the program planning out your weekend, always pick two workshops scheduled in the same time frame. That way you’ll have somewhere else to go in case the program you’re in is boring.
• Speaking of which, don’t hesitate to leave a session if it stinks. No one will care. Just get up and go somewhere else.
• Check the cog notes online or at conference headquarters for updates. There may be last-minute scheduling changes or cancellations.
• About the 223-page ALA Program Guide: Don’t think you have to cart it with you all over DC. Tear out the maps and bus schedules and leave the rest of the guide in your hotel room. Travel light (or try to).
• Get to all your sessions early and introduce yourself to the speaker. Offer to help pass out handouts or something. The speaker will be grateful, and you might learn something interesting and unusual.
• Drink lots of water. Carry a bottle of water with you all day to keep yourself hydrated and energized in this hot DC weather. It wouldn’t hurt to bring along a few snacks too.
• Recon, recon, recon … plan your trips in advance, from hotel to hotel or from even from room to room. You’ll save time, and you’ll reduce frustrations.
• Always know where the bathrooms are.
• Take your business cards along with you everywhere. Pass them out to folks you meet and use them at the Exhibition Hall to win prizes.
• About the Exhibition Hall: You KNOW you’re going to collect a lot of freebies (isn’t that part of why you came?) Go ahead and hoard away. There’s a post office right at the conference center; the folks there will gladly help you mail all your goodies home. You don’t have to stuff it all in your suitcase if you don’t want to.
• The free shuttle service between conference events is good. It’s even better Saturday afternoon and all-day Sunday (the drivers will have figured out the route by then).
• Schedule yourself some down time. Go to your hotel room, lie down on the floor and put your feet on the bed. Or use one of the Pilate balls in the Exhibition Hall booths. You need to be good to your body this weekend.
• Remember the 5, 2, 1 rule: Get 5 hours of sleep, treat yourself to 2 good meals each day, and take at least 1 shower.
• Go visit a DC site or do something else away from the conference at least part of the time. Make a point of getting away from your fellow librarians to get a different perspective.
• Get to know the PLA staff. Ask for help. Ask for advice. “They really can get you the good stuff.” 
• Don’t be intimidated by the eggheads and the prima donnas. At ALA, all librarians are equal, whether you’re from one of the big hotshot libraries or from some small burg in the middle of nowhere.
• Talk to people, introduce yourself to unfamiliar faces, and network as much as you can.  Join committees and be useful. Don’t waste your time with the slackers. Identify who the real go-getters are and align yourself with them. Think of ALA as a family, Hales said. “It’s sort of a dysfunctional family, but a family just the same. And just like your own family at home, they know that you’re good. But they also know when you’re not, and when you don’t produce.”

Tags: ALA2007, conferences, WebJunction

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.