ALA snuck up on me this year, despite falling later on the calendar. This year is also a big one for me, as I had a pre-conference, discussion group, and a book-signing on my calendar.

Kaeley McMahan (my pre-conference co-presenter) and I flew in and are rooming together. It’s a first for me to have planned to actually travel with someone to Annual and has been a lot of fun. We ran into some colleagues at the airport, so we had a small party of of folks to help make sure we all made it to our final destination. Once in town we checked in to the hotel and conference, walked around a bit, and practiced for our pre-conference.

And we practiced some more Friday morning before grabbing a quick lunch and heading over the the pre-conference hotel. Our topic was Instructional Design for Librarians and we tried our best to model what we were teaching. We had a full house (we think 53) and the three and a half hours went by more quickly than we thought they might. The group was great and we got very positive feedback, which was really nice.

Afterwards we headed to the LITA Happy Hour. I saw a few familiar ALA faces, but Kaeley and I mostly unwound with our colleague Susan Smith. I’m hoping to get to connect with folks more when I’m back to my normal self on Saturday. We headed out from the LITA Happy Hour, had a leisurely dinner on the river, and came back for a fairly early night.

This morning was a big LITA day for me, mostly in the same hotel. The LITA Joint Chairs committee met where I was able to catch up with a few folks and make sure the Distance Learning Interest Group had all its paperwork in for renewal. I really enjoy being present at that table.

After that, I headed upstairs for the Distance Learning Interest Group where Lauren Ray and I facilitated a 90 minute discussion on distance learning technologies. It went well and I bet we could have kept talking for much longer if we all weren’t scheduled for other things.

Next up, my first physical BIGWIG meeting. I’ve always had conflicts, and am excited to be able to actually be there this year. Tonight is the ProQuest reception and the Scholarship Bash. Hope to see some of you there!