I always love the idea of first time attendees orientations, but I’ve never been to one. I found out about ALA’s long after my first conference, and many don’t have them. So, I went to check out the ACRL one first thing. Here’s what they covered:
Betsy Wilson, the Chair of the National Conference Coordinating Committee, introduced the conference
- Described this conference as very different from all others: no business meetings, all about learning, networking, getting new ideas
- Introduced the basic layout: three keynote speakers, 5 invited speakers, then the presentations that people proposed: panels, papers, posters, cyber zed shed, etc.
- Friday birds of a feather dinners
- Talked about Seattle and things people could do for fun, particularly for music.
- Saturday evening is the conference reception at the Experience the Music Project/ Science Fiction Museum, designed by Frank Gerhy
- Virtual conference, so all recorded. Physical participants will have access, others have access now
- Flickr and Youtube groups, Facebook page, Twitter hashtag
- Placement center
- Free resume consultant center
Erika Linke, ACRL president
- ACRL is about community, come to the conference for community, opportunity, and networking
- Learning, growing, sharing… this is why people are members of ACRL
- Communities of practice: sections, committees, discussion groups, interest groups
- Discussed appointments process
- Application form: say a little something about yourself to help with finding fit for committees
- Join discussion lists to hear what people are saying, so you can contribute dialog
- Board looking at priorities for the next 1-3 years
- ALA Connect software to make it easier to communicate
- Also a melding of Facebook and LinkedIn (create your own communities)
Mary Jane Petrowski, ACRL Associate Director
- Talk about other ways people can get involved, without participating in committees
- This spring, a 3 year membership survey
- Annual academic library trends survey (goes to library directors)
- 23 awards, can nominate people in the fall
- Think about sharing your thoughts through writing and teaching: actively looking for folks to teach in elearning program, also ACRL publications, and the ACRL Blog
- Can create your own home/niche within ACRL
Merinda Hensley, 2nd time national conference attendee and chair of ACRL new members discussion group
- Graduated in 2006
- Exciting place, and beginning of a journey
- She said she’s starting to find her niche and hopes we will as well
- Talked about triad of academic librarianship: research, librarianship, service
- Research: her first presentation was a poster on a web portal she developed as a graduate student. Pointed out there are 20 research intensive sessions
- Service: asked to work on conference planning committee to look at the poster sessions. Diverse topics covered.
- She is the convener of the ACRL New Member Discussion Group
- The group meets at annual and midwinter and discuss different topics each conference. Picked topics that resonate with new librarians.
- Librarianship: will come away with new ideas. “you took on more work, so good job.”
- Challenged us to attend a session totally outside our comfort zones, to learn
- we are support system for each other
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Co-Chair, ACRL National Conference Innovations Committee
- “A bunch of little things that don’t fit anywhere else”
- Described a scavenger hunt game we can play throughout the conference to possibly win some cool tech prizes
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