Some observations about ALA DC 2007 - to be expanded...

First some facts:

"This was the largest attended ALA conference in history," said Deidre Irwin Ross, director, ALA Conference Services.Record attendance More than 28,635 almost 30,000 librarians, exhibitors and library supporters attended the 128th ALA Annual Conference at the Washington Convention Center from June 21 to 27.

As of May 31, 2007, ALA membership was 65,605. This compares to 66,382 at the same point in 2006. Total ALA membership includes the following: Personal Members – 61,806 (compared to 62,293 in 2006) Organizational Members – 3,537 (compared to 3,821 in 2006) Corporate Members – 262 (compared to 268 in 2006)

From ALA Council of Kansas
http://kalac.tscpl.org/2007/06/ :

Division Membership – Comparisons May 31, 2007 – May 31, 2006
1)ACRL 13,639 13,068
2)PLA 11,049 11,655
3)AASL 9.422 9,904

4)RUSA 5,533 5,283
5)YALSA 5,527 5,122
6)LAMA 5,406 5,076
7)ALCTS 5,174 4,894
8)LITA 4,281 4,061

Council other notable conference 2007 Facts:·

450 international librarians from 87 countries will be attending the ALA Annual Conference this year.

Over 2,600 attendees are self-identified first-timers at the ALA Annual Conference.

Why I go:
Great speakers including:- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Julie Andrews -- Ken Burns - all of whom I did not see.

My goals = Try to focus on my two areas of specialty.
1) Cataloging issues and Diversity
2) Reconnect with old colleagues and make some new ones.

For Cataloging issues – went to several OCLC programs, and authority control programs – info on RDA .. went to a meeting at the library of congress!!

For diversity Many Voices, one nation, Spectrum Luncheon with Nikki Giovanni, I spoke at "10 years later – spectrum scholarship where are they now", and they had a great Book Mobile – diversity fair.

Brief mental notes I made about ALA 2007 annual

1) I thought it was interesting that some bloggers mentioned " what are us 2.0 people doing at a 1.0 event" – It made me wonder about future ALA conferences - will they be partly online or webcast in the future?

2) It seemed that diversity took a back seat at this conference to Leslie Burger's Emerging Leaders Program. She started the program last year with 100 soon-to-be librarians, mainly bloggers, not so diverse and with a mandatory requirement of being under the age of 35 or under. There were never 100 Spectrum scholars picked in a single year. I feel that the emphasis that ALA wanted to make was on generational access issues - not diversity. Both I think are equally important. So I was disappointed at this ALA turn in policy.

3)Before Leslie Burger, Carla Hayden was always awesome and supportive of the Spectrum Scholars by the way.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens now under Loriene Roy – She has appointed an American Indian as the new Director of the ALA office of diversity…and she has a cataloging background - how great is that?!

4)I feel the digital divide will increase by not having more web savvy bilingual librarians. I am in Reforma and it is not a very 2.0 community and that worries me - as these librarians need to help the minority communities get up to speed with technology.

5)Another sign of the times - The Hollywood librarian had 6,000 people. The diversity program, Many Voices - One Nation, at the same time was almost empty. Jose Aponte - Director of San Diego County was the MC - he is super fabulous and always brings the message back to - we are here to serve for the people. He also MC'd the Spectrum Luncheon and said the best thing I heard at the whole convention, "Do something terrifying everyday!"

6)Lita seemed everywhere in the programs - although when I looked at the numbers, it is a membership of only 4,000 whereas other divisions have around 9,000 members. RUSA didn't seem to have that much going.

7)SRRT – is small, but I love the fact that they took all the ALA resolutions that were passed and walked over to congress and passed them out office to office. I had a friend involved with that mission - I applaud this action.

8) On the plane on the way to ALA – met a great guy and his wife. He is the blogger Bombasto!

His blog was on point as to what was going to be there at ALA it says:

If you’re staying, you can attend LITA’s BIGWIG (Blogs, Wikis, and Social Software Interest Group) Social Software Showcase unconference, implying that while this shindig is taking place during ALA in Washington DC, it will be a virtual meet, complete with a Twitter feed, Meebo access, and Flickr goodness so you can “be there” and participate in the discussion and presentations via your favorite online apparatus.

The ALA conference materials also advertised:

If you are going, join me at the Library 2.0 (Ning) mixer, the iSchool’s alumni & friends reception, the Facebook Librarians after hours mixer, or perhaps in one of the 300+ programs available….

It’s a 2.0 Library World!