Monthly Archives: June 2008

ALA Annual 2008 101

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Welcome to Anaheim!

Welcome to Anaheim!

Yesterday, Friday, June 27, 2008, was my fourth day in Anaheim and my first day at the ALA Annual 2008 Conference. Joe Osborn and I attended YALSA 101 (from 1600-1700) and Intellectual Freedom 101 (1700-1800).

YALSA 101

YALSA 101 was an introduction to the conference and YALSA as a division. I went to the ACRL 101 program last year, and I found that YALSA 101 this year seemed much more lively and easy-going.

YALSA 101

YALSA 101

During the program, the current president of the division highlighted some of the cool programs YALSA is sponsoring during the conference such as Teen Spaces: Between Home and School, a program about creating both physical and virtual spaces for teens, and the YALSA Bloggers Meeting. She also highlighted the fact that YALSA and ALA are member-driven, and volunteering is easy to do: just fill out a YALSA committee form on the YALSA website (search for “volunteer form”). Overall, I found the YALSA 101 program to be helpful, even though this conference is not my first. I liked the culture and content of YALSA so much, I even joined the division online as I was sitting in the audience. Continue reading →

Delicious Library 2

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I’m currently in California, been here since Friday (June 6), and will remain here until June 29. We’re here for conferences, mainly, as this week is WWDC08 in San Francisco, a conference for Apple Software Developers like my boyfriend, and the last week of my stay in this state is the (previously mentioned) American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim.

I am not attending WWDC with my boyfriend, but he will be attending ALA with me. Even though I did not sit through the Keynote and watch SJ deliver the next surprise, I’m still pretty gaga about Apple. I use a MacBook Pro, and I’ve preferred Apple computers since I started using one this time last year. As a recent convert, the differences between Apple’s OS X and Windows XP/Vista are obvious and fresh in my mind. I don’t miss my old large and clunky Dell laptop. When working in the library, I can use both freely, but I prefer a Mac.

Everything I produce on the computer seems all the more valuable if I do it on a Mac. Programs are simple and intuitive: their functionality adheres to the metaphors that inspired them.

One wonderful application for the Mac is Delicious Library 2 by Delicious Monster. Delicious Library 2 allows the user to catalog everything: books, movies, albums, software, videogames, toys, gadgets, tools, and apparel. (The first version of Delicious Library only allowed the user to catalog books, movies, and albums.)

Delicious Library 2 Screenshot

Delicious Library 2 Screenshot

What’s particularly awesome about this application is that it does not require the user to do much work, as far as typing in long strings of numbers or metadata for each object. If the application is installed on a Mac with a webcam, it can be used as a barcode scanner. The barcode scanner picks up the UPC or ISBN and looks it up in Amazon’s database, and then collects the metadata from Amazon associated with that item (e.g. publisher/label, release date, genres, format, dimensions, number of pages, retail price, current value, purchase date, ISBN, Dewey Decimal, EAN, and country for books). And if a working webcam is not available, it is also possible to search by a known metadata field such as title, author, or ISBN. The application also works with a bluetooth scanner, the Microvision ROV Scanner with Bluetooth, which would greater enable cataloging of a larger collection, such as the collection of a small library.

Last Year’s ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC

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My experience at last year’s ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, was guided by the 2 credit course I took with Scott Nicholson, IST 600: Leadership and Organizations. Scott gave us some tips and required us to meet with a leader in the field at the conference. I met with Sari Feldman, Executive Director of the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library, who has since been elected PLA vice-president.

Another perk of having taken that course in preparation for the ALA Annual Conference was that hotel accommodations were included with participation in the course.

Friday, June 22

I got to the hotel later than expected. There was a mix up from either the university or the hotel, but all was well 20 minutes later. One thing I didn’t do, as others suggest as well, is to check hotel reservations prior to arriving.

When I arrived, I met my roommate, Dawn Cadogan, shortly after making it to my room. We went to the Washington Convention Center via the metro to get our badge holders (and Dawn’s badge).

The Washington Convention Center

Welcome to Washington, DC!

When we got there, we discovered that many, many, many people had the same idea. It was crowded, but the lines moved quickly. There must’ve been hundreds of people ahead of me, but it took less than 15 minutes to get to the head of the line. Once I got there, I was greeted warmly and taken care of quickly.

By that point, it was already late and we were hungry. We entertained the thought of going to the Film and Libraries program, but our hunger won out. Near the registration booths, Dawn, her coworker, and I found another booth we put to great use. ALA offered dining suggestions. We asked the lady behind the booth where we could find good food at decent prices, and we were directed towards Chinatown. (It was really helpful as none of us knew our way around DC.)

We went out to eat at Tony Cheng’s in Chinatown (right near the Convention Center), and by the time we were done, it was too late for the film program. We wandered around Chinatown for a while and then came back to our hotel. Continue reading →

ALA Annual Preparations

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The last week of this month is the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California. Luckily, I’ll be in attendance for the first three of the five days the conference takes place (June 27-29).

In anticipation of the conference, I’ve compiled a list of programs that sound interesting to me. Continue reading →