PLA Blog

Ugh! First day and things are not off to a good start. My laptop battery is kicking the bucket, the S key is sticking, and I’m told the conference does not have wall-to-wall wireless access! At least the travel portion (walk –> subway –> airplane –> rental car) has gone smoothly. OTOH, I did run into a very senior (in status, not age) colleague from work on the plane and was able to get some good insights into career stuff from her.

Anyway, I just arrived from Washington, D.C., where I am an adult librarian for the District of Columbia Public Library (aka DCPL). I’m relatively new to the field, I just got my MLS last summer after 10+ years in graphic design/editing/publishing. My perspective on the conference will be that of the new librarian working in a largish urban system. I will probably try to hit events that can help me at a branch level, rather than the system-level, since that’s where I will have influence in the immediate future.

This will be my third libraryish conference (2007 ALA and 2007 Computer in Libraries being the other), but several years ago I helped launch a conference/trade show (Screenwriting Expo), so I’ll also be looking at PLA through the lens of event planning. Oh yeah, and since I paid my own way to the conference, I might be a bit more critical than I would be if I’d gotten the training money I applied for. My coverage of the conference will be a mish-mash of sessions, but probably no children’s/YA or tech topics — just to warn you.

Anyway, on site now and checked in. First impressions: traffic is a breeze here, downtown easy to navigate, parking plentiful and cheap (compared to D.C.), convention center nice and spacious, the attendee bag isn’t too stuffed, although I could do without the two James Patterson books…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under PLA Blog. 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.