Heather’s Commuter Conference: ALA Annual 2013

At one point, I was a conference hound, but since the birth of my second child, I’ve backed off significantly.  Now, after a loooong [for me] hiatus, I’ll be back at Annual this year!  I’m excited to see old friendly faces and have some new conversations.  AND, for the first time, I’ll have a face-to-face meetup with Karen and Christie!

This year will be a real working conference for me.  I’ve been honored to be the Youth Participation Coordinator for YALSA as a part of the Local Arrangements Committee, and will be bringing a small group of my own teen book group down to “The City” for the Best Fiction for Young Adults Teen Feedback Session.  If you’re attending this year, I strongly urge you to make it to this session, as it’s a great opportunity to peek into the minds of a diverse group of teens regarding some of their favorite new fiction – – and what they wouldn’t recommend.  You’ll also see me dropping off handouts and making sure presenters have what they need at various YALSA sessions.

I’m really hoping to see Elizabeth Wein, author of Code Name Verity, my favorite book of last year, whose new book I’m anxiously waiting to get my hands on.

With so much of my conference events lead by my tasks for the Local Arrangements Committee, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to plan for exploring the events outside of the teen services realm.  It’s always so interesting to me to pop into a session and learn about a totally different aspect of librarianship.  There’s so much diversity in our profession, and we can learn a lot by branching out and peeking into a session beyond the ones were we know we’ll have a buddy to sit next to.

Another big difference for me between this year and some others is that I’m local to Chicago, so no fun hotel parties for me; it’s back home at night.  Though I’m very appreciative that I can attend this year, going to a conference in your home town is really a different experience — more like full time work all weekend plus all of the regular home stuff than the three day learning/sight-seeing/networking party that it might be in, say, New Orleans.  So, if you see me yawning at the early session, it’s not because of the late night, it’s because I was on the early train downtown.  I still plan to swing by the lake, because there’s nothing like Lake Michigan in the summertime, and am looking forward to squeezing in as much as I can between trips in and out of Union Station.

Filed under: ALA Annual 2013, Professional Development