Now seems like a good a time as any to write a review post of the past year. Things have been up and down for me professionally, but I think overall the year has been kind to me.
Let’s talk about the conferences I attended.
I started the year off working on a presentation for a graduate seminar in Milwaukee. It
went alright. I played the stereotypical Californian – managed to sleep past my presentation time. Oops? The session itself was less theoretical than other sessions – I think this has to do with the topic of educational tools.
I also presented at a teacher academy at my work. The session was very well attended and we got some great feedback from people about our topic. It was a topic near and dear to my heart: pathfinders. I oddly like looking for new sources of information for people so that was great to teach teachers new tools they can use for their students.
The two biggies of the year were this past fall: Internet Librarian and CLA.
At Internet Librarian, a friend and I presented on Digital Etiquette and communication tools. Essentially, we talked about what people should do and how they should act when they are online and communicating with students. It was a very stressful presentation, until I was in it and I just relaxed and went with it. It was also my first experience with a conference. As in, really attending and participating in all conference activities. It was great and I got to meet a ton of interesting people.
CLA was a bit more laid back than Internet Librarian. I didn’t have a presentation, just a poster session to prepare for. However, it was attending this conference that encouraged me to become more involved with the librarian community. Very few of the sessions presented felt fresh or innovative. Topics were rehashed and very little new information was presented. The contrast between CLA and Internet Librarian was so strange – Internet Librarian looked to the future, CLA felt stuck in the present.
I look forward to attending more conferences this year, and hope I can make it to ALA Annual in New Orleans.