Went to the hotel fitness center this morning. Yesterday I lifted, which I could do endlessly. Today was a day to run, and my body was like, “Do you know what you’ve been feeding me for two days? No. This isn’t happening.” #PLA2018, where Marisa makes all the bad health decisions! I powered through, because librarians know who to persevere, but I’m at like 40% energy level for the rest of the day.
First session was great – The Future is Now: Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality in Public Libraries – but I could NOT stop yawning and had to keep forcefully drawing my attention back. Should have stopped for a coffee on the way. The session was a great introduction to available VR and AR technologies, with suggestions for where to start and supplementary tech products needed, as well as great tips for pricing and budgeting. I was super duper excited for this one, as I’m about to put together a grant application for a tech-oriented makerspace and homework help center, and I feel like I have the background knowledge to at least start my research now. BONUS – I realized that this Discovery Center should really be a joint project between Youth and Adult Tech Services, because teens shouldn’t get all the fun and there are so many programming opportunities for all ages. And there are a ton of ways our Local History Librarian would be able to create SUPER cool content using VR and AR technology! I met up with “my people” from my system for lunch, and I planned to bombard Lindsay, our adult computer lab and Tech Trainer supervisor (that’s not her official title, but it’s what she does and I’m tired, so it will suffice), with suggestions for how we could work together on this, and she was like, “Oh, I was at that session, too!” Nice to be able to cut to the chase, and were totally on the same page, so bully for us!
In addition to the keynote speakers and hour-long presentations, there were also a TON of 20 minute mini-presentations on the PLA stage in the exhibit hall, and the few of these that I saw ended up being some of my favorite sessions. They’re more concrete and specific – things you can walk away and implement as soon as you get back to the library. If your state library association does regional or chapter conferences, these are probably very similar to what you’d get there. Today I saw a mini-session on librarians serving as digital media mentors from an ECRR perspective, and it was fabulous. The biggest takeaway is that we should approach digital resource evaluation the same way we evaluate “traditional” resources. The presenter (Connie Strittmatter) was just totally reassuring – this would have been a great session for a tech-phobe librarian to see.
After lunch I attended a great session on coaching (vs. managing) which reinforced some books and articles that I’ve read recently on the topic. Then I missed most of the later session because I was catching up with a colleague from a former library. And you know what? That’s perfectly okay, because those personal connections are an important aspect of any event like this.
Also important – self-care. Like many librarians, I’m an introvert. An outgoing and very loud introvert, but an introvert nonetheless. I’ve been taking care of myself by telling my FOMO to take a seat, please. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve retired to my room early the past two nights and gotten more sleep than I usually do at home. I can tell it’s not enough to refill my tank, though – I’m great at chatting with people when they’re next to me in line, but as soon as they ask where I’m from or what my name is, I’m like, “Whoa, let’s slow this down a little bit. I’m not ready for that kind of commitment.” So if I happened to blow you off after we chatted for like 10 minutes and seemed to have a connection – sorry. It’s not you, it’s me.
That said, tonight’s the last night, so if my co-workers want to hit up the reception or shut down the bar, I’m totally going to push through and soak it up, because I don’t know when I’ll make it to another PLA!