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Notice Anything at ALA11 Conference?

June 28, 2011 by loretta_gharst ( No Comments )

[Click on link to listen to lunch time jazz music at New Orleans Convention Center at ALA11 while you read this post.]

My conference experience ended Monday afternoon after 3 days of thought provoking sessions and what were to me mind blowing exhibits brimming over with possiblities. Over all I had the feeling that good changes were happening and everywhere I saw signs that the pieces of the puzzle of 21st century library service were being assembled and would soon be coming together. For example I noticed:

Mobile Apps are a good thing. (I wasn’t sure before.) The ALA Conference Mobile App was an outstanding success eliminating the need for me to carry around the hardcopy paper Conference schedule and the Exhibit directory. Trust me, it was very easy to install and a pleasure to use.
Respect at last. At the Gulf Coast Libraries Recovery project session we were reminded that earlier this year FEMA changed its policy and recognized “libraries as essential community organizations.” This was very significant as it relates to post disaster funding eligibility and finally brought an acknowledgement of the library presence as a significant player at the government table.
Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) who authored the National Broadband Plan had an exhibit booth and the Sunday afternoon Presidents Program discussed “Library Broadband Connectivity Issues in th 21st Century.” The National Broadband Plan identifies libraries as “community anchor institutions” but to fulfill that role they must have adequate bandwidth. To move services to the “cloud” libraries need bandwidth. To use the cool new online catalogs/interfaces librarians need bandwidth.
Literacy+ = Transliteracy. There were 4 events with “transliteracy” in the title. Defined as “the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media” libraries sponsor transliteracy by having the equipment, bandwidth and providing access to resources such as the NTIA Digital Literacy Portal launched Saturday at conference. I think the significance of this for libraries is that we have always supported literacy and are not stopping that but are beginning to adapt our support in response to the reality that literacy is now transliteracy.
Vendors are listening and delivering. ILS catalogs/interfaces that are beautiful and practical, able to seamlessly search multiple resources, provide social networking features for patrons, enhance the ability of libraries to link with other community agencies to provide content; new pricing and access models for electronic resources that recognize the need for both publishers and libraries to be winners – reasonable (hopefully) compensation for one and reliable consistent (hopefully) access to content for the other.
Librarians are smart and resilient. They can and have learned from natural and budget disasters and come up with creative responses that result in improved library services. If we as a profession can keep our focus on solutions then we can only succeed and thrive.