Post #4 Librarian Migrations

After an exhausting five days in Washington D.C. I return with many spoils from the great librarian migration of summer 2007 (aka ALA annual conference) .  With the amount of stuff I brought back I feel as though I have covered a lot of ground these past five days, armloads of books, tons of free bags and a new knowledge of many aspects of librarianship.  Of course I also returned with a few things that I could have done without, such as sore feet, a lighter wallet and a pesky cold.

I went to some great programs and I would be remiss if I did not mention them here.  That is what a blog is for right?  The two that I learned the most from were Midlly Delirious Libraries:  Transforming Your Library from Top to Bottom, and Using Technology to Market to Young Adults.  The Mildly Delirious Libraries program was presented by the West Palm Beach Public Library and their librarians, graphic designer and interior designer were all there ready to share their story about how much a new outlook and a facelift to the library changed them for the better.  Their full power point and presentation can be found here.  Overall I was really impressed with their presentation and the ideas that were brought to the library profession.

The second program that I really appreciated was Marketing Technology to Young Adults by Dr. Michael Stephens and Kimberly Bolan.  Kimberly presented intregal aspects of marketing that are so critical to accomplishing successful programs.  She even has a blog and I must say I am a big fan.   Dr. Stephens took over the rest of the program full of high energy and humor.  His part of the presentation focused on aspects of technology that teens are using and then presented other ideas of how to connect with the teen presence or lack thereof in the library.  If you have some time you should read Dr. Stephens’ blog Tame the Web,  just to warn you though there’s a lot of information here so take it slow.