#WILU2023 takeaways

I wish the presentations were already posted online as there were tools and tips I was too late to get via my phone but here it is: What I Did At WILU2023. Rather than one Very Long Post or one-per-session, I thought it'd be easier if I wrote up my notes and linked to those…

Wow – #WILU23

I've already talked about feeling like a newbie at a conference, and yet... this was one of the best professional development opportunities I've been to in decades. Seriously. I took pages of notes (coming soon to a blog post near you!) on topics ranging from rethinking the first year introduction (and creating an after hours…

This land acknowledgement is your land acknowledgement

For the past few years I've seen an increase in land acknowledgements at the start of conference and workshop sessions. You know what I mean: This [building, event] is on the unceded and ancestral land of the [native tribe name] and ongoing members; the work of this presentation was doing on unceded and ancestral land…

Feeling like a newbie again

Today I'm heading to Montreal for the WILU Conference. It's only thanks to my LIRT Liaison Committee co-chair (the amazing Sarah Schmidt) that I heard about this conference and, well, the combination of topic and location made me eager to attend. Having said that, I'm less eager to feel like such a newbie again. It's…

Back in person #NEAISL23

No, not for work. For conferences - specifically, the NEAISL conference. Our hosts had planed to host in April 2020, but, well, a little thing called the pandemic lockdown interfered. It was a great way for me and the other librarians to reflect on what we'd done during the lockdown to reach students and faculty…

The Struggle is Real

There was this great article in the Walrus about tote bags that got me thinking about the ones I've gotten from conferences. There are the ones I've gotten for attending (what I think of as the GWP) and the ones vendors have available (great for carrying books, but also promoting their products). I've also purchased…

Challenging Times

I've been very lucky in my professional career with only two book challenges, neither of which went anywhere. And neither case went through our challenge policy procedure for very legitimate reasons. In the first case, an administrator challenged a book that their church had asked members to look out for because it said things about…

The future of ALA

I've been thinking about this for a number of years, and after two years of COVID cancellations followed by the in person experience I'm still wondering what are the people at ALA thinking? Just over a year ago, this post about ACRL's conference appeared: Service Ceiling: The High Cost of Professional Development for Academic Librarians.…

The strangest #AISL22 ever

(for me, anyway) Usually this is the time when I'm going through my chicken scrawl, typing up my notes and trying to make sense of what presenters are doing in their schools that I can transfer to my school. Not this time. After Tampa presented a virtual #AISL21, the call went out to all members…

100 Days and counting

In 100 days, AISL's 2021 Conference will start - all virtual, as it was last year. However, this year it will be three days, not one, and there will be a fairly robust technology platform. How do I know all this? Because I raised my hand to volunteer... became tri-chair... due to someone dropping out…