Social Sunday

Wow! Another day of beautiful weather in D.C. and a great day spent at the ALA conference! The conversations of yesterday are transitioning into the social aspects of library programs, services, and spaces. I did quite bit of social networking in my first life today, and I shared information with new colleagues and learned quite a bit from them about various vendors, programs, and Anne of Green Gables folklore!

I began the day by eating breakfast with Stacy (at the crack of dawn for the second day in a row-what a trooper!) and then I attended Stephen Abrams' program about the new technologies and their impact on library public relation plans. By the end, my brain was full and all I could think was "I have a lot of work to do." In my mind, leaving a session in an idea-induced haze is what I want from a program at ALA. (BTW, one link you can't overlook from this handout is the site where you can make your own Simpsons Avatar!)

I attended two more sessions today, and one was about Transforming Your Library Space, from a completely new building to remodeling on the cheap. The most moving experience of the conference thus far was the viewing of a video about the Robin Hood Foundation that is funding the L!BRARY project to renovate/revitalize libraries in the NYC school system. I also toured a few more of the exhibits and I found some very interesting things to consider for transforming our own future space!

This evening I attended the 2007 Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder banquet and I felt honored to witness the awarding of these prestigious medals and honors. All of the speeches were moving and, as usual, shed another perspective on the works being honored. By the way, if you haven't actually watched the Weston Woods film based on Mo Willems' book, Knuffle Bunny, then you must check it out!