ALA Midwinter Meeting

This past weekend I attended my first professional conference, the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association. I found myself coming down with a head cold during the conference, which limited what I could do, but I still got my money's worth.

On Friday night I went to the opening ceremonies, explored the preview of the expo area and helped run a session called "Games, Gadgets and Gurus." I was a guru, which meant I had volunteered to be available to talk to other librarians about the wonders of Facebook and what it could do for them. It was a good time. I also got to play a little Rock Band before the night was over.

On Saturday I spent my time collecting books. Most of the publishers have uncorrected proofs (aka galleys, advance reader's copies) available for free. This afternoon, however, there was the added bonus of several authors being onhand to sign their books. This "spotlight on adult literature" (to differentiate it from the large number of children's and YA titles available) began at 2pm, during the last half hour of Al Gore's speech about global warming. So I did the only smart thing--skipped the speech to be first in line for the free books. It worked out pretty well.

On Sunday I was more careful with the book collecting, since I wasn't feeling well. Later in the afternoon I went to the only talk of the conference that truly interested me--Yohannes Gebregeorgis talking about his Ethiopia Reads program. What he as done to increase literacy in the country of Ethiopia. Besides establishing libraries in schools, he has also instituted Donkey Mobile Libraries, which are just what they sound like--carts of books pulled through the Ethiopian countryside by donkeys. You can learn more here.

In the end, what I took away from this conference is what every conference attendee throughout the history of conferences has treasured above all else--swag. Now that I've had a few days to organize and total my haul, here is what I collected:

71 books
27 adult level books (10 signed)
44 YA/kids books

7 bags

5 pens

5 posters

3 packets of tea

1 mug

1 neon green Mango languages t-shirt

1 amazing purple hat

1 fuzzy green teddy bear

1 pair orange ear buds

1 promotional prize pack for a YA book

1 green origami pig

Pretty nice haul, huh? As I work my way through the pile of books, some will turn out to be worth the effort of hauling them across town, and some will not. Watch for posts coming up reviewing the ones I think will be worth your time.

-Kim