As I’m currently working on my CILIP Chartership, I’m getting into the habit of reflecting on any professional activities. I also think it’s good practice after a conference to reflect on what you learnt (in terms of the conference content and also the logistics and organisational aspects), and had an interesting conversation last night at dinner about how useful it was to record the lessons learned after each conference (we also discussed how at a conference it was common to have more showers than meals!*). So here are a few points I have been mulling over after ALA Midwinter 2012 – things that I hope will help improve my future conferences (and may help others so I thought would be worth sharing).

• It really is all about the connections you make and the experiences you have at a conference. Yes, I attended some interesting sessions, but I took the most from the ad hoc conversations I had, often at the social occasions or just when a group of us happened to meet up over drinks/dinner. It will be interesting to see how this might change in future if the trend for shrinking numbers of attendees at conferences continues.
• Don’t let finances be the only reason not to do something. I almost didn’t apply for Emerging Leaders in case I couldn’t get funding, but I decided to apply anyway to see what happened and I’m so glad I did. I was fortunate enough to have been awarded an EBSCO Scholarship to support my attendance, which really helped. I’d strongly recommend applying for funding opportunities, there are many options out there and they really do want to help support people who want to attend professional development events but may not have the funds to do so. 
• The ALA Emerging Leaders program really is as good as everyone told me, if not better. Not only do you get excellent leadership training and an insight into the way ALA works, you also get to be part of an incredibly exciting and dynamic cohort of librarians. I’m so looking forward to both my group project (which I’ll blog about separately some time) and communicating with the wider group of Emerging Leaders. It also opens a number of doors for you – people are interested in hearing more about your project, and current leaders are interested to hear your ideas. I have also heard about a similar model being used at a regional level, and it’s something I am hoping we might be able to adopt in the UK (adding yet another thing to my ‘I want to make this happen’ list).
• Plan your expected schedule ahead of the conference, but don’t be too rigid – have some backup sessions and don’t worry about sticking to your planned schedule. If you’re having a great conversation or someone invites you to something outside your schedule which you think would be interesting, then go for it (except for sessions you have paid to attend, you are speaking at/organising, or are required to attend of course!). 
• Attend some sessions outside your immediate area of work, or just things that sound interesting. I went to Susan Cain’s auditorium session which was fantastic (and even went to the book signing afterwards), and really enjoyed Lisa Loeb at the wrap up party. 
• Schedule some down time for yourself, especially if you’re an introvert and need to recharge away from other people. Head back to your hotel for a while or just take a walk outside, you’ll feel so much better afterwards. This time I learnt from my mistakes at ALA Annual 2011 and made sure that every day I took a break, usually between the daytime activities and the evening activities. I also spent quite a bit of time in the Networking Uncommons area in the conference – I learnt how to play Apples to Apples (an ALA version even!) and really enjoyed CraftCon which I helped organise. 
• This one is specific to ALA conferences (or maybe US conferences, I’m not sure), but don’t worry if you aren’t at the *whole* session. Be kind and courteous to others at the session (sit near the back and keep quiet when arriving/leaving), but people really don’t mind as they understand there are numerous clashes and so much to fit in. Also sometimes something isn’t what you hoped it would be – if that’s the case, go somewhere else. The conference experience is what you make it and it’s a waste of your time to attend a session you’re not enjoying. 
• Find out if anyone you know is staying at the same hotel as you and attending any of the same sessions/events, especially in the evening. I don’t like to walk on my own in cities I am unfamiliar with, but cab rides can be expensive, so it’s useful for me to find someone I can walk with. This is one I need to get better at!
• Use the conference shuttle buses. Not only does this save some of your energy (and your feet!) but you also meet some really interesting people on the bus. I need to get better at this more informal networking – I tended to wait until people spoke to me. 
• Don’t be afraid to speak to people you consider role models or ‘library superstars’. They’re usually very nice and will be glad you made the effort to say hello. I still need to work on this as am often too starstruck and kick myself afterwards for missing the opportunity to speak to them. 
• Take things to last you at least 36hrs or more in your carry on luggage when flying. One friend this year didn’t get her luggage for a couple of days, and I’m currently sitting in DFW airport for goodness knows how long (they keep delaying my flight further – in fact this sentence was interrupted with news of yet another delay!). Fortunately I packed an international charger in my carry on and have found a socket so I have plenty of power for keeping my occupied on my iPad, and have lots of gluten free snacks with me (though they are rapidly depleting, I’m hungry!). I don’t have spare clothes but seeing as I’m flying home that’s not too much of an issue. I have some toiletries with me to freshen up too so shouldn’t be too smelly!

ALA Midwinter was really enjoyable – it seemed much more manageable in terms of size and organisation of my schedule, partly I think due to the smaller scale compared to ALA Annual, and partly I think (well, I hope!) because I’m getting better at organising myself before and during a conference. ALA conferences are so tiring, and because they are over a weekend it essentially means you pretty much work for two weeks with no breaks. I’m really looking forward to this coming weekend when I am planning to sleep and very little else! Having said that, I am also feeling invigorated – I have lots of actions to follow up and ideas to pursue thanks to some awesome library colleagues. Roll on ALA Annual in June! 

*We were discussing the quota of drinks, showers and meals – I think I may have had more showers than meals, though I had problems with having no hot water in my room at times so the scale may be tilted towards drinks! If you are wondering, the frozen mango tequila cocktail on my final night was my favourite.

Tomorrow morning (at the obscene time of 3am) I’ll be getting up and getting ready to fly to Dallas for ALA Midwinter 2012. I’ve packed my shoulder pads, I know who shot JR, and I’ve been humming “da daaa, da daaa, da da da da da da”. (I’m afraid that’s all I know about the Dallas TV show and though it was tempting to purchase a series to watch on the flight, I opted for The Big C instead).

Here’s highlights of what I’ll be up to during the conference (my full conference schedule is available here though it doesn’t include all the social meetups).

• Wednesday 18th – arrive in DFW airport, find way from airport to Dallas (fortunately I should have a kind helper in the form of @daveyp to assist with this!), find hotel, eat, drink, sleep.
• Thursday 19th – sleep, register for conference (hopefully – not sure when registration opens), attend Emerging Leaders pre-social in evening.
• Friday 20th – Emerging Leaders all day session to kick off the program, followed by a leadership talk, LITA happy hour, and Emerging Leaders meetup and social
• Saturday 21st – Library Boing Boing brainstorming, Susan Cain auditorium session (writer on introverts), games and gaming forum, CraftCon. NMRT social and tweet up in evening.
• Sunday 22nd – EBSCO scholarship breakfast, NMRT/LLAMA new leaders discussion, CraftCon. Hacklibschool/Library Boing Boing social or ASCLA reception in evening.
• Monday 23rd – Exhibition browsing, Midwinter Camp.
• Tuesday 24th – collapse with exhaustion and head home.

I’m really looking forward to meeting my fellow Emerging Leaders and getting started on my Emerging Leaders project for NMRT, which I’ll be sure to blog about if I can. Hope to see some of you there!

I’m a creature of habit, so I’m continuing the tradition of posting an end of year blog post (see 2008, 2009, and 2010). It’s actually really useful for me to look back and see what I did each year. So, what has 2011 involved?

1. My ALA 2011 badge complete with ribbons!, 2. Louisiana State University, 3. Osney Building at University of Oxford, 4. CILIP signage Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been asked to take part in a panel discussion as part of the European Librarians Theatre at Online Information next week titled ‘Everyone is talking but is anyone listening?‘. I’ve got some ideas from my own experience and conversations with others, but as I’ll be representing the views of the UK I wanted to open it out and ask you to help me.

If you work in a UK library, please complete the form below (or complete the online version) to let me know your views. The feedback is anonymous – though if you have something you are particularly proud of which you would like me to mention as an example of good practice – please feel free to include links in your response, leave me a comment on this post, or email me.

EDIT: Thanks for the responses, I have now removed the form as the panel discussion has passed.

ILI 2011 (apologies for poor photo!)

Last week I attended my first full Internet Librarian International conference. It’s an event I’ve often followed virtually and this year was really pleased to be able to attend and present on using web tools to improve productivity for librarians (see previous blog post for more information).

I attended really interesting sessions, met great people and had engaging discussions.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve recently written a couple of guest blog posts for Kiyomi Deards, who I keep in touch with via Twitter but whom I haven’t actually met in person yet (I think she kept avoiding me at ALA Annual in June, I’m hoping to track her down at ALA Midwinter in January!).

Kiyomi asked me to write a guest blog post and complete an interview as part of her leaders of tomorrow series on her blog. I decided to write from an international perspective about my experience at ALA Annual, and share my top tips. Hopefully they will be relevant to anyone attending a large conference for the first time, whether it’s ALA, SLA or any other library/tech conference. The blog posts are now both available on Kiyomi’s blog:

• Leaders of tomorrow: Jo Alcock
• 10 Top Tips for attending an ALA Conference by Jo Alcock

ALA Emerging Leaders

Just a brief blog post to share some exciting news – I’ve been offered a place on the 2012 class of ALA (American Library Association) Emerging Leaders program. For those who don’t know what it is, here’s a bit of information about ALA Emerging Leaders:

The American Library Association (ALA) Emerging Leaders (EL) program is a leadership development program which enables newer library workers from across the country* to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. It puts participants on the fast track to ALA committee volunteerism as well as other professional library-related organizations.

(taken from the ALA Emerging Leaders webpage)

What it basically means is that to participate I will need to attend the ALA Midwinter event in January (Dallas) where I will be introduced to ALA as an organisation, meet my fellow Emerging Leaders, and join a group to work on a project within ALA. I’ll then work with that group from the end of the conference until June when we will attend ALA Annual (Anaheim) to present our findings. After that, each Emerging Leader is expected to continue to support the organisation – it’s often referred to as a fast track to getting involved in ALA.

It was recommended to me by so many people at ALA Annual last year, and I’m really excited about being a part of it. I can’t wait to meet the rest of the Emerging Leaders (some of whom I’ve already found on Twitter at #el12ala)!

*It is open to non-US residents too! I may need to ask for this to be altered – I wonder if I am the first international member involved in this?

CILIP AGM 2011

I recently attended my first CILIP AGM. I helped organise the CILIP West Midlands AGM earlier this year but this was a much more formal affair. I learnt a lot about CILIP and its governance, so thought I’d reflect on my experience and share my thoughts (well, actually it was my soon-to-be mentor for CILIP Chartership who prodded me to record my thoughts and gave me some starter questions whilst it’s still fresh in my mind).

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, what a day! I really enjoyed Library Camp UK 2011 yesterday, and wanted to jot down some quick thoughts from a personal perspective whilst it’s fresh in my mind.

One of my sessions - really enjoyed the conversation at this one

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  by  Bev and Steve (Almost back in the USA) 

Tomorrow I’m joining 174 other people interested in libraries at the first Library Camp UK. I’m hoping it’s going to be a little more civilised than the photo above – at least it should be drier as it’s indoors. It’s being held in Birmingham so I don’t even have to travel far (although getting up early on a Saturday will be a bit of a shock!). Read the rest of this entry »