I really enjoyed Understanding the Integrative Role of an Academic Library for Undergraduate Student Library Workers. My first professional gig was as a circ/student worker supervisor so that is a subject near and dear to my heart. (Now I am a crusty reference librarian whose only interaction with student workers is shaking my fist at them from the reference desk, which is even nearer and dearer to my heart.) I think this presentation did a great job of establishing the many benefits for the students of student employment in the library and this will be a great message to take back to the PTB as budgets tighten and student jobs potentially end up on the chopping block.
I also attended Mapping Your Path to the Mountain Top, which I though was more feel-goody than useful which was not was I was expecting from that particular panel. They showed a lot of talking head video clips and asked for a lot of audience interaction, which made it a little too “active learning” for my tastes. Various people shared their impromptu mottoes for success and other off-the-cuff advice. Luckily I learned everything I need to know from Ghostbusters, so my motto for success is “When someone asks you if you’re a god you say ‘yes’!” though points would also have been awarded for “Don’t cross the streams” or “When the light is green the trap is clean.” What does any of this have to do with your career success? Good question. Um, publish a lot and try new things.
The All-Conference Reception was crazy. Once you’ve seen a few hundred librarians busting a move to Seattle WoPop… Well, there are some things you can’t un-see. After eating one of every free food item (on principle) and downing a free beer I descended to the Science Fiction Museum where I basked in the aura of Kirk’s command chair, the Rocketeer’s rocket pack, and various costumes from the greatest movie ever, Bladerunner. There was an entire room dedicated to movie robots like Robbie, two terminators (one with the only pair of actual terminator feet ever produced!), and the most important fictional robit ever; Bender Bending Rodriguez. As if that wasn’t enough, there was a whole other room for toy robots, at least a few of which I owned as a precocious youngster and a heap more I wish I owned now. No collection will ever be perfect (A complete set of Chig armor from Space:Above and Beyond but not one scrap from any version of Stargate? C’mon!) but the SciFiMu was as close to perfect as any museum in this or any other timeline will ever get.
On Sunday I went to Subject Librarian 2.0, where I accidentally tweeted my flickr and mashed-up my tag cloud beyond repair. Actually it was about how subject librarians should be focusing on high-level interactions with their departments while their day-to-day tasks devolve on paras and robits. This presentation was thought provoking and it is good to have something to aspire to, but I don’t see their theoretical subject librarian existing in any widespread sense anytime soon.
The conference ended on a high note with Ira Glass, the man behind the radio program This American Life. He did a great job of demonstrating story structure while recounting many of the recent highlights of his program. He sat on stage with a variety of radio equipment and basically did a live broadcast which was quite interesting as well.
I enjoyed meeting everyone, learning new things, and seeing the sights in Seattle. I look forward to meeting/speaking/ or working with all of you in the near future. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog entries! I hope I was able to provide a little color commentary and help you get a feel for what being here was like. Please feel free to contact me at rperret@uidaho.edu.