June 30, 2008

My Recent Wordle


My Recent Wordle
Originally uploaded by desertlibrarian
Here's a wordle of my latest blog postings, heavy on the SLA stuff. Thanks to nengard for the info on the tool; it's pretty nifty!

We'll return to posting about librarians, pop culture, and systems stuff tomorrow :-)

June 27, 2008

SLA: Wrap-up

Due to a camera glitch I have few photos of the conference, but thankfully plenty of other folks stepped up! Here's some collections:


And, of course, you can just search Flickr for all images tagged sla2008...

This posting wouldn't be complete without a link to the video of SLA Librarians Gone Wild! (And this was taken early in the evening. Trust me, it got wilder.)

SLA Day 5: Wednesday

Wednesday morning came much too early after the dance party Tuesday night; the Astronomy Roundtable, which I moderated with help from Michael Blake, kicked off at 8am. Bless SPIE for sponsoring the coffee service (thanks, Kevin)! After some Info-Expo non-conflict time, which I used to finish packing and check out of my hotel, it was time for the IT Division Board Meeting. I'm just dipping my toes in (as chair-elect of the Information Systems section), so this was my first IT board meeting; it's made up of a lively bunch, that's for sure! Next year should be interesting :-)

Then it was off to the Closing Session with a closing keynote by Seth Godin (better notes than I took by jbaumga here). Funny and informative, all at the same time! I twittered the things he said I liked the most (and borrowed this idea from nengard):

After he was done, it was time for the Annual Meeting, and watching folks flee the session was quite interesting. I hung for a bit more and then headed off to the hotel to meet my folks and start my vacation!

SLA Day 4: Tuesday

(Way behind in posting; will catch it all up today!)

Today kicked off with the PAM Business Meeting; I said my two cents (well, a bit more than that) as Division Treasurer noted it in more detail over on the PAMBlog. I ran around for a bit afterwards catching up on email and getting more coffee; then I headed to the Tech Support Roundtable where I hobnobbed with a bunch of other systems/IT librarians and learned a lot. (Thanks to Anna Burke for the Office 2003->2007 how-to link, and I also learned about summize from another attendee whose name I've sadly forgotten.)

I am here... Then I played hooky for a little while.

After a lovely lunch at the Sound View Cafe (mmm, crabcakes) I headed off for the Blogger's (and Webmaster's) Social, hosted by Blogger Extraordinaire Nicole Engard. Fun and socialization was had all 'round (we overflowed the original table and pretty much took over the bar area!) and I can highly recommend the mango mojitos and the satay.

Prom Party Thus fortified, it was off to the Sheraton to set up for the IT/PAM/LMD dance party, "Under the Sea Prom Night". What a blast! Photos are starting to show up scattered about the place; here are mine and Jill's , more will show up soon I'm sure!

I didn't quite make it to midnight; the energy reserves failed around 11:30 and I staggered back to the Roosevelt to try and get some sleep before the early start of Day 5!

June 16, 2008

SLA Day 3: Monday

Today kicked off with a great session called "The Science of Coffee" by Dr. Joe Vinson. Entertaining and also packed with real science. Check out his Coffee Science and Information Center web site! Then it was off to the exhibit halls again to finish schmoozing with and thanking the PAM sponsors.

After lunch, it was the PAMwide Roundtable; new format this year, a series of short presentations. Flora Grabowska talked about open access publishing initatives; Susan Koskinen talked about SCOAP3; Pat Viele discussed information fluency in physics; then Tony O'Rourke updated us about the IOPScience developments. (Tony's always a fun speaker.) After the break, Mandy Taha, the 2008 International Award winner, spoke about science in Egypt and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. (Be sure to look for her handouts on the SLA web site!) To round out the session, Joe Murphy talked about Library 2.0 issues.

Then, after a short break, it was off to Von's Grand City Cafe for the PAM Bookgroup and a yummy dinner. Thankfully everyone seemed to enjoy the book I picked, and I've gotten the nod from the chair-elect to run book group again next year :-)

Then it was off for the PAM Open House, over at the Sheraton. I could hear the noise as I got off the elevator! What a great party!

Monday in Seattle was gorgeous weather-wise... just lovely. I had to go shopping to get a short-sleeved shirt, I was so hot in my heavy winter shirt... gorgeous surprise!

SLA Day 2: Sunday

Sunday morning came much too early after the late night Saturday; at 7:30am I was at the Leadership Development Institute. I learned a lot about the SLA Innovation Laboratory and was really floored by everything that's in there - congratulations to the SLA staff who put it together! Then it was time to dash across town (so, of course, I dashed in the wrong direction for about five blocks, so it was a much longer dash than originally planned) for the Newcomer's Lunch at Tulio's - very nice, and very well attended by a batch of first timers! Afterwards was the PAM Board Meeting, also at Tulio's.

Then it was back to the convention center for the Networking Reception - damn tasty nibblies this year, I have to say! - and then it was off to the Nite Lite Lounge for a LSW meetup. My goal to find a dive bar to be rowdy in seems to have succeeded! A subset of us went out searching for food, and let me tell you, finding an open restaurant at 9:45pm in Seattle on a Sunday night is hard. Thankfully the Fox Sports Grill took pity on us, and fed us - best! restaurant! evah! It was weird eating dinner hours past my usual bedtime, but it certainly didn't affect my sleep :-)

SLA Day 1: Saturday

(finally have a few to catch up on blogging!)

Saturday was all about the flying and the ferrying. Had a good flight in and arrived stunned to sunshine! Got to the hotel - nice enough room, and less than a block from the convention center - and was able to get registration out of the way right off the bat. Then it was off to the Washington State Ferry for our Early Bird dinner out to Bainbridge Island. What fun! The ferry ride was quite enjoyable (I spent most of it looking at the water... what a novel occurrence!) and dinner at Madoka was lovely. It was a good start to the conference.

June 14, 2008

The sun is shining, and I am stunned

So, Seattle is gorgeous in the sunshine! This is, and I kid you not, my first trip up here in the summer and what a difference! I'm staying in the Roosevelt Hotel, and first impressions are quite good. It's also less than a block away from the convention center, which is fabulous. I'm going to head over to Pier 52 and take a ferry to Bainbridge Island for dinner - whee!

Hello, SLA. Commence conferencegoing!

Currently in Seattle: 63° and sunny. Currently in Tucson: 106°. Whoa!

June 11, 2008

Put a bell on that librarian!

OK, on the off chance you've always wanted to meet me and will be at SLA, here's where I'll be. Look for the purple hair and ever-present cup of coffee.

Saturday 14th: Arrive in Seattle, check into hotel, head to PAM Early Bird Dinner. (NTS: Bring dramamine for water taxi ride.)

Sunday 15th:
7:30-noon, SLA Leadership Summit meeting
12-1:30 PAM Newcomer's Lunch
1:30-3 PAM Board Meeting
3-5 Info-Expo Reception
5-7 Opening Session
7-9ish LSW Meetup @ Nite Lite Lounge; join us!
After that, IT Mystery Night Open House

Monday 16th:
9-10:30 The Science of Coffee (but of course!)
Non-conflict time - will probably be either in the exhibit hall or Blogger's Alley
1-2:30 PAM RT and IT Business Meeting (split, because I want to hear the PAM International Award Winner's talk - she's from the Alexandria Library!)
3:30-5 either Wonderful Wacky World of Wikipedia or Games for Training
6-7:30 PAM Book Group
8ish-9:30ish PAM Open House
After that, IT SciFi Night Open House

Tuesday 17th:
7-8:30 PAM Business Meeting
9-10:30 either New Faces of Special Libraries or Using Tech to Deliver Training
11-12:30 Tech Support RT (geeky librarians venting together!)
Non-conflict time (same as before)
3:15-4:45 Social Tools and the Enterprise
5:30-7:30 Bloggers and Webmasters Social @ Wild Ginger
8-who knows when: Under the Sea Prom Dance! After helping set up, I'll be at the front door from 8:30-10, then jammin' down on the dance floor. (Look for the loud fish shirt and tiara.)

Wednesday 18th:
8-10am Astronomy RT
Non-conflict time
12-1:30 IT Board Meeting
2:30-4:30 Closing Session

After that, it's time to run away for some vacation time with my family! But if you see me, don't be shy - come on over and say hi. See you there!

June 10, 2008

Uh oh.

I am gonna be in so much trouble...
  • Forecast high today, Tucson: 105° (we've hit 102° so far)
  • Forecast high today, Seattle: 55°. Long-term forecast suggests temps might actually get up into the 60s.
*whimper*

June 9, 2008

Monday humor

From the interesting online comic Cat and Girl...

Librarian sticker

Ha, I say, ha! (thanks, Tad!)

June 6, 2008

Random Musings: Friday Edition

Just wanted to share some tidbits from the week, from all over the tag map:

* My Drupal site is now live. Finally. *wibble*

* "Bikes, books and busting stereotypes," over at the Gloucester Advocate, is a great article about the Biblio Turismo tour and the folks behind it. What a neat idea!

* As an astronomy geek, Tag Galaxy is just - well, it's just darned spiffy. What a nifty cool groovy way to search Flickr images.

* Real Job Titles for Library and Information Science Professionals. Well, the title sums it up pretty well. If your job title isn't here, contact Michelle and she'll add it!

* As a gamer geek married to a World of Warcraft addict, the fact that a Librarian Guild has formed in WoW just makes me feel, well, all warm and fuzzy.

Weather update: hello again, triple digits! Today they're saying a high of 99°, but I think that's just to line up with the forecasts of 100° Saturday, 101° Sunday, and 102° Monday. Who knew the forecasters were funny this way?

June 4, 2008

Resources for SLA2008

Gearing up for Seattle, for the 2008 Annual Special Libraries Association conference - woo hoo! Busy as ever but it's going to be a good time. A couple of references I've recently bookmarked:

* The conference wiki

* Not for Tourists - Seattle edition

Lots of info in both these resources.

88° and sunny... the forecast for mornings for the foreseeable future.

June 3, 2008

New Survey for Librarians

Help a girl out! I'm interested to see if there have been any changes since the last time I asked librarians what patrons thought of them, back in 2001. So I've set up a new survey to find out. Please consider taking a few moments and sharing your thoughts with me!

Thanks!

June 2, 2008

Monday tidbits

Just some random bits to share:

* The new Indiana Jones movie has a hilarious scene in a library (well, I thought it was hilarious) involving a motorcycle and a reference question.

* From Playing for Keeps, by Jane Waterhouse: "Kitty Katz, everyone's idea of a librarian---each angular, beige part of her neatly tied with pearly ropes from which hung glasses, cardigan sweaters, even keys." (p.231) As Pat (who sent it to me) says, "I don't feel beige..."

* My Drupal site goes live (finally!) in the next 24 hours. *wibble*

Back to the nervous triple-checking, and closing my window; it's already 86° heading for 102°.