Blogging at the Annual Conference

At this time next week, we’ll be in the middle of ALA’s Annual Conference. Held this year in New Orleans,  the Conference promises to be hot…. but also a great opportunity for learning, networking and renewing commitment to what libraries are all about. During the conference, we will not have our regular, daily posts. Instead we will have multiple shorter posts each day.

In addition to myself, seven other people have committed to doing short posts throughout this conference so blog readers can have a feel for what is happening in New Orleans.  They represent some of the wide diversity that is found among ALA attendees:

• Mary Ann Scheuer has just finished her 4^th year as an elementary school librarian and is attending the annual ALA Conference for the first time this year.  She also writes the Great Kids Blog “where you can always find new books to read with your kids!”
• Abby Johnson is one of our regular bloggers. As you can read in our blogger profiles, Abby is the Children’s and Outreach Services Manager at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library in New Albany, IN. You can also find her blogging at Abby (the) Librarian.
• Cat Urbigkit from Pinedale, Wyoming wears several hats. She is a trustee for a public library system in western Wyoming, a first time ALA Conference attendee and an award-winning writer & photographer — she’ll be doing a book signing at the Boyds Mills Press booth on Saturday afternoon. Check out her page, Welcome to Cat Urbigkit’s Paradise Sheep.
• Dan Rude is the Marketing/Membership Specialist at ALSC. He posts regularly on the ALSC blog and will bring an insider’s perspective to the ALSC blogging at the conference. Read more about Dan here.
• Kacie Armstrong is a Branch Manager for the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio.  When attending ALA Conferences she enjoys going to sessions on leadership, management, and children’s/teen’s issues. Because she will be involved in an upcoming building project, she also hopes to spend some time at the conference talking with vendors about teen/children’s spaces and furniture
• Cynthia Robbins is a publisher’s representative. She works as a Library Specialist and National Accounts Manager at Globe Pequot.
• Lisa Taylor is one of our regular bloggers. As you can read in our blogger profiles,  Lisa is a senior youth services librarian at the Upper Shores Branch of the Ocean County Library in NJ. You’ll also find her blogging at the popular Shelf Employed.

We’d love to know what interests you about the ALA conference. What do you hope we snap a picture of or write a quick post about? Let us know!