Il Primo Post

Il Primo Post!

The day went very well. I worked on my Web site and getting things in order with Blogger & the like. So, really, I didn’t get to the conference hall until 2. On the way there I met Jennifer who is a private school librarian in Dallas. It was great talking with her because she was the first librarian I’ve met here in New Orleans. We talked about the challenges she faces and the joys of working with high schoolers (seriously!) She also let me in on a little school librarian secret—teachers are fun J

When one walks into New Orleans’ Ernest M. Morial Convention Center, one is immediately greeted by its vastness. The convention center is really a hall of halls. The lobby is a massive, horizontal track that buttresses a number of halls with affectionate names like I2. At one end, there is a food court, and at the other there is a hotdog-like vending station. In between is where one main component of content lies. We have registration, information, and numerous ALA program booths.

At the ALA International booth, I met two lovely academic librarians—one from New Orleans and the other from California. The Californian was very insightful in regards to IFLA and funding. She indicated that librarians within her system will consistently receive grant funds for travel if they are presenting. This is maybe a “Duh” moment, but it really drove home this concept to me due to my interest in international librarianship.

After circling the lobby multiple times, I decided to investigate the makeshift ALA bookstore. I was fortunate to participate in a demonstration of the ALA Read CD. The CD contains license-free materials to create your own READ posters—you know, like the ones in public libraries that feature celebrities with their favorite book. The workshop was lead by Tina Coleman and a very capable graphic designer. By taking a picture of a librarian in the audience, the designer created and printed an 8.5x11 “poster” of the librarian. Using Photoshop Elements the designer took less than thirty minutes to create a professional looking document.

I also had my résumé reviewed. It was a great process. I met with Ms. Koda, an employee of the Cleveland academic library system. She suggested tailored specificity. She said to make each individual résumé unique to fit the outlined position. She indicated moving items from chronological order to subject order, and she said that moving the most important information to the beginning for each individualized résumé would be a particularly strong strategy for applying to academic institutions.

In the evening, I met a number of ALA New Members Roundtable. I met a gentleman involved with Pitt's Chartres DL project. He indicated that they used an application profile based on Dublin Core. He also said that their site has had some challenges due to using frames—which I found interesting, especially given accessibility issues, but he went on to say that the project went to such details with added metadata not only to say a single stained-glass window but to minute details of each window. Wow!

I also met three interesting librarians from Michigan. One works in academic, another as an intern and part-timer, and another who just recently began working for the company who sells the ILL program ILLIAD.

Finally, I met Brice who extolled the benefits of Cataloguing Cultural Objects (CCO). He had just finished a conference on CCO, and he was so excited by the opportunities within the field and the power that CCO offers metadata specialists that he purchases the seminar manual directly after the conference. To be honest, he spoke so eloquently about CCO and its connection with CDWA-lite that he’s piqued my interests as well.

I ended the night adding metadata to my photos, creating a short video, and writing this blog.

Good night & good luck