Posts Tagged 'iassist'

Wrap it up and stick a bow on it: IASSIST & ALA 2012, Part 1

Published July 12, 2012 conferences , Uncategorized 1 Comment
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I’ve been slow about writing conference wrap-ups! I guess it is because my summer conferences are pretty much back-to-back with IASSIST at the beginning of June and ALA at the end. The other issue may be that my conference experiences are changing. I’ve been spending less time in programs and more time in meetings. I called ALA the “grown-up version” this year because I spent so much time in meetings and much less seeing celebrities and partying. Ahem, I mean networking.

IASSIST 2012

IASSIST is the data professionals conference and it kicked off with two mega-meetings of the Administrative Council on Sunday and Monday. I’m on the Administrative Council by virtue of being a co-chair of the Professional Development Committee. My work on Prof Dev focuses mostly around creating workshops for the annual conference while the other chair is really into the big picture ideas like, “Where is IASSIST going? Who is IASSIST anyway?” We play to our strengths as I sometimes get frustrated with big picture discussions and tend to gravitate more to project development.

However, IASSIST needs to consider big picture ideas now because so many people are interested in data. We need to capitalize on the momentum to make a place for ourselves in the data world.  Take this for example: while we were holding our meeting, the LITA Forum 2012 announcement came out, and the program is entitled “A New World of Data”. Some of the sessions look like they would overlap with IASSIST with a library focus. I don’t think the issue is necessarily competition, but rather how the organization communicates that we are a broad umbrella for all types of data professionals from librarians doing data discovery to DDI specialists to data archivists. How do we communicate more effectively with LITA and others who are working with or interested in data? It’s a quandary.

As always there were many excellent sessions and lots of good conversations. Here are the highlights from just a few.

Julia Lane, Senior Managing Economist, American Institutes for Research (AIR) kicked off the conference describing a project to build a data system to bolster a science policy data infrastructure to support better reporting on nature and activities of R&D efforts. The project is based on three principles: activity should be based on need; need to leverage existing data; and use 21st century methods. You can see the outcome of project at http://readidata.nitrd.gov/star/
Jen Green, Nicole Scholtz, and Samantha Guss talked about collaborative models for robust data support by comparing the University of Michigan’s new Clark Library, New York University’s Data Services Studio, and Yale’s Center for Science and Social Science Information. All three use the information commons model to try to support more complex needs of data users. In addition they are able to bring together data librarians, statistical support, and IT computing assistance into one area. I would love to see something similar at UNCG, but we don’t quite have the user volume to support such intensive use of a data-related area. Great models for other libraries though!
Carol Perry and Michelle Edwards at the University of Guelph talked about having a Researcher Day in which researchers on campus can gather to have workshops on data management and talk about their data needs. This helped to launch a working group that focuses on research data management.
On the final day, Stuart Macdonald from EDINA at the University of Edinburgh presented on the AddressingHistory project. The project brings together historical Scottish Post Office Directories and historical maps. Beyond being one of my favorite presenters ever (Scottish accent and funny guy), I’ve been seeing this project slowly developing since IASSIST 2010 at Cornell. It is great to see an end-product. I was also really excited to see that they are starting to support augmented reality, which would appeal to a wider audience. I hate to see efforts like this whither because of lack of use simply because they are too esoteric or academic. With an augmented reality app the site could appeal to people more generally interested in the history of Edinburgh.
IASSIST is a great organization and conference because it is small and a close-knit group of data heads. It is quite unlike ALA where you can get lost in the shuffle at times. It is also awesome because the conference planners really like banquets on boats. This year’s was cruising the Potomac. Sweet.
Next post will cover the wild and wonderful world of ALA. Stay tuned for Part 2.

oh this is fun … vintage data pecha kucha

Published June 13, 2012 conferences 3 Comments
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Walter from York University just sent me a recording of my pecha kucha from IASSIST 2011. Good lord I was nervous, but man was that fun!

IASSIST needs to start recording more of its events and presentations! Maybe that is a job for membership.

IASSIST sings! @iassistdata #iassist2012

Published June 12, 2012 conferences 2 Comments
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This is a test of my ability to work my fancy iPhone.  I will transfer this file to IASSIST once I figure how to do so.

In the meantime here is a true IASSIST tradition (meaning something we have done more than one time): The Conference Song. Way to go Walter!

(Sorry for the shakiness and my snort at one point. I was asked to do this 5 seconds before it began)

The days are just packed … with data

Published May 30, 2012 conferences Leave a Comment
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IASSIST, the data professionals conference, is coming! It will be a packed week including two days of pre-conference administrative meetings. :)

And here are the sessions I have on my schedule. I’ll add notes/links to presentations as the become available, if you are interested.

Day 1, June 6

Plenary: Creating new types of data from documents and administrative records: a use case from science policy, Julia I. Lane, Senior Managing Economist, American Institutes for Research (AIR)

Session 1: Research Data Management: assessments and planning

  • DataONE: A Glimpse into the Practices of Data Managers, Eleanor J Read, University of Tennessee
  • DMVitals: A Data Management Assessment Recommendations Tool, Sherry Lake, University of Virginia Library
  • Data Management Planning for Secure Services (DMP-SS), Fortunato D Castillo, UCL Institute of Child Health
  • Data in Common(s): Collaborative Models for Robust Data Support, Samantha Guss, New York University

Session 2: Institutional Repositories and Data

Session 3: Pecha Kucha A

Day 2, June 7

Plenary: Managing Federal Research Data, Mike Wash, Chief Information Officer, US National Archive (NARA)

Session 1: Collaboration and Data Support

  • The Power of Collaboration Throughout the Data Life Cycle: Case Studies From OCUL and Beyond, Amber Leahey, Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University Libraries
  • Johns Hopkins University Data Management Services: Reviewing Our First Year, David S Fearon, Johns Hopkins University
  • Establishing collaborative networks in supporting data, Carol M Perry, University of Guelph
  • Integrating Numeric, Statistical, and Geospatial Data Services for Graduate Students, Maria A Jankowska, UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library

Session 2: Supporting online access to geospatial, micro-, and qualitative data

  • VizLab: A Tool for the Interactive Exploration of Geospatial Election Data on the Web, Adam Schaal, The Center for Socio-Political Data, Sciences Po University,
  • Open source solutions for open microdata: The IHSN Tools, Matthew Welch, The World Bank
  • Implementation of DDI in the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico, Eric M Rodriguez, National Institute of Statistics and Geography

Session 3: Data Professionals

  • Archives as a market regulator, or how can archives connect supply and demand?, Laurence Horton, GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
  • Spline and demand: a profession interpolates, Jennifer A Green, University of Michigan Library
  • The State of Education for Data Curation and Librarianship, Susan R Rathbun-Grubb, University of South Carolina, School of Library and Information
  • Data Management Training to Support Faculty Research Needs: Lessons Learned, Ryan Womack, Rutgers University Libraries

Day 3, June 8

Session 1: Data management and curation interest group presents: Managing government data assets

Session 2: Data Stewardship: Increasing the Integrity and Effectiveness of Science and Scholarship

Plenary: Expanding Access to the Agricultural Resource Management Survey: USDA’s Experience with Remote Data Analysis Using the NORC Data Enclave

  • Mary Bohman, Economic Research Service Administrator, USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
  • Joseph T. Reilly, National Agricultural Statistics Service Acting Administrator, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
  • Mitch Morehart, Deputy Director for Data and Staff Analysis, USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)

hey, hey data peeps! propose this! @iassistdata #iassist

Published January 4, 2012 conferences Leave a Comment
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All my data gods and goddess need to step up! The IASSIST 2012 conference is right around the corner and we need some awesome workshops. The info is below and the deadline is soon (Jan 16). You can also still propose Pecha Kuchas, posters, and round table discussions until Jan 16 on the website. The paper deadline has passed.

Call for Workshops

Data Science for a Connected World: Unlocking and Harnessing the Power of Information

The 38th International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) annual conference will be hosted by NORC at the University of Chicago and will be held at the George Washington University in Washington DC, June 4 – 8, 2012.

The theme of this year’s conferences is Data Science for a Connected World: Unlocking and Harnessing the Power of Information. This theme reflects the growing desire of research communities, government agencies and other organizations to build connections and benefit from the better use of data through practicing good management, dissemination and preservation techniques. Submissions are encouraged that offer improvements for creating, documenting, submitting, describing, disseminating, and preserving scientific research data.

Workshops details:
The conference committee seeks workshops that highlight this year’s theme Data Science for a Connected World: Unlocking and Harnessing the Power of Information.  Below is a sample of possible workshop topics that may be considered:

  • Innovative/disruptive technologies for data management and preservation
  • Infrastructures, tools and resources for data production and research
  • Linked data: opportunities and challenges
  • Metadata standards enhancing the utility of data
  • Challenges and concerns with inter-agency / intra-governmental data sharing
  • Privacy, confidentiality and regulation issues around sensitive data
  • Roles, responsibilities, and relationships in supporting data
  • Facilitating data exchange and sharing across boundaries
  • Data and statistical literacy
  • Data management plans and funding agency requirements
  • Norms and cultures of data in the sciences, social sciences and the humanities
  • Collaboration on research data infrastructure across domains and communities
  • Addressing the digital/statistical divide and the need for trans-national outreach
  • Citation of research data and persistent identifiers
  • The evolving data librarian profession

Successful workshop proposals will blend lecture and active learning techniques.  The conference planning committee will provide the necessary classroom space and computing supplies for all workshops.  For previous examples of IASSIST workshops, please see our 2010 workshops and our 2011 workshops. Workshops can be a half-day or full-day in length.

Procedure: Please submit the proposed title and an abstract of no longer than 200 words to Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). With your submission please include a preliminary list of requirements including:

  • computer Lab OR classroom
  • software and hardware requirements
  • any additional expected requirements

Deadline for submission:  January 16, 2012
Notification of acceptance: March 2, 2012

Please contact Lynda Kellam, IASSIST workshop Coordinator, if you have any questions regarding workshop submissions at lmkellam@uncg.edu

IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working in and with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences.  Typical workplaces include data archives/libraries, statistical agencies, research centers, libraries, academic departments, government departments, and non‐profit organizations.  Visit iassistdata.org  for further information.

IASSIST 2012
June 4 – 8, 2012
Washington DC, USA

-IASSIST 2012 Program Chairs: Jake Carlson, Pascal Heus and Oliver Watteler

chronicles of a workaholic: vacay and #libday7

Published July 27, 2011 the profession Leave a Comment
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I like doing Library Day in the Life. I find it helpful to track my time and the project allows a large group of librarians to talk about our profession. I like vacations better and tend to take them at the end of July. If I participate in #summerlibday, it is usually for one post.

So, here is my one post.

Even though I am at home, vacation has ended it seems. This morning I worked on a chapter about professional involvement for an edited volume on kick-starting your library career. I should have written that one of the perils of professional involvement is having to write a chapter during your vacation (because you are so busy during regular work times that you can’t get it written).

I helped a colleague on chat with a data question and I have another one waiting me in my email inbox. I have been trying to avoid answering (or looking at email) as much as possible during vacations, but sometimes I am a weak, weak woman.

Next up is a webinar for the Help! I am an Accidental Government Information Librarian series for which I do tech support. I’m excited about the topic, Resources for Guard and Reserves Soldiers. I would have rescheduled for a different week, but schedules are tight and we had promoted it. The only frustration is that the university Blackboard administrators went ahead and changed our version of Elluminate to Blackboard Collaborate. I’m sitting here staring at an all new system. Yikes, spikes. (Post-session note: We had some tech difficulties starting out, but I learned a bunch about the structure of the guard and reserves as well as resources. Helpful stuff for any public services person.) If you are interested in the topic or the series, you can find the presentations and recordings on the NCLA Government Resources Section website.

Tomorrow I have a Skype meeting with a colleague from IASSIST, the data professional’s organization. We are the co-chairs of the Education Committee and need to plan for the year.

Friday I have another Skype meeting with the wonderful people at Adventures in Library Instruction. We are going to talk data and data literacy. If you haven’t come across this blog, I encourage you to check it out. They are podcasting on a variety of topics relevant to library instruction. The most recent is on Jason Puckett’s book about Zotero. I heard the podcast right before co-teaching a session on Zotero, and it helped me think through the structure of the session.

Monday I am meeting with a colleague in the Warren Ashby Residential College about library support for the college in the next year. This is the continuation of the in-house librarian program I have been doing for a year now.

Tuesday is ShareAcademy!! Woohoo! Can’t wait. Last year I didn’t present, but had loads of fun. This year Jenny Dale, Amy Harris and I are presenting … on presentations!

Wednesday I will be back at work for the day to answer email and prepare for Thursday’s presentation for BLINC on the new American FactFinder.

I also need to spend the next week and a half working on my fall class. I am teaching a class called the International System as an adjunct faculty for the Political Science department. The class is an introductory, core course on international relations theory. I love teaching IR theory at this level because you don’t get weighed down in the theoretical debates. This class is also necessarily historical since so much of IR theory developed in response to events, in response to the question “why?”.  Events like the Arab spring, the assassination of Osama bin Laden, and the global economic crisis are also good discussion starters and students are better able to see how international relations can be relevant to them. I last taught this class during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the level of interest in the material definitely increased once the bombing started. Sad fact, but true. Because this is a unique instruction project for me, I plan to blog more reflectively and more often once the class starts.

And then the next Monday, August 8, I am back from vacation!

Yes, I tend to be too involved in my work. And yes, I did get a real vacation earlier this week. I am better about keeping time for myself, for my family and friends, and for de-stressing. The reality for me, though, is that librarianship is a career and not just a job. I love what I do in my day in the life of a librarian.

Mieko helping me work on my class.

What happens in a room full of data professionals? Awesome sauce…

Published June 7, 2011 conferences 1 Comment
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And IASSIST. I love my data peeps in the International Association for Social Sciences Information Services and Technology, even if the ridiculously long name almost got me turned away from the Canadian border (“Sorry, customs officer lady, it simply doesn’t roll off the tongue”). IASSIST’s annual conference was in the lovely city of Vancouver and it was simply the best IASSIST ever. I was pretty busy this year and didn’t have the concentration to take great notes. Plus, there is always SO MUCH information that it can be hard to process things quickly.

Here are some major ideas/take-away points:

  • The conference kicked off with a kick butt workshop on survey creation with Tom Lindsay and Andrew Sell of the University of Minnesota. They started by reminding us we needed to step back from the creation of the survey instrument to think critically about the research question we have in mind. Only with that pre-thinking are we able to create an instrument that will be viable. It was an excellent workshop with lots of information. If you are interested in more information, email me and I can put you in touch with the masters!
  • Joe Hurley from Georgia State University talked about his use of UN publications as gateway/intro resources for non-data savvy users. He trained other librarians at his university on UN resources and you can check out his great libguide.
  • A group of data citation ninjas had a great session on data citation. I couldn’t capture everything, but I will link to their slides once they become available. Part of what made it a great session was the inclusion of a scientist in the mix, Heather Piwowar of DataONE, which aims to preserve access to science data. Hailey Mooney and Mark Newton did a fabulous study of the data citation practices and guidance in various citation style guides. Their matrix of specific elements was pretty complex so I’m looking forward to getting their slides.
  • Our data guru, Chuck Humphrey, talked about the research data infrastructure and IASSIST’s place in that. One of his big points was that we need to explore better ways to collaborate with the stakeholders interested or involved with data (in whatever field). I liked his idea of having a data summit on campus that would bring together researchers, data archivists, sponsored programs, institutional research people, and more to talk about the institution’s goals and everyone’s needs. We do this at UNCG on an ad hoc basis, but something like a summit would make it more systematic.
  • Richard Wiseman and Dave Rawnsley discussed the Mimas Census Dissemination Unit’s new project to update its interface for accessing UK Census data. Unfortunately, UK data files aren’t available to non-UK researchers, but it is always interesting to learn about how we disseminate data and how we think about data presentation and usability.
  • Andrea Reimer is a Vancouver city councillor who was integral to the creation of the Open Data Catalogue. She gave a fabulous talk/ call-to-arms about the need for open government data and open source software. With the creation of the catalogue, others in the city have been able to create a variety of applications (and apps) for various needs. An example is recollect.net, a reminder service for when to put your trash at the street (apparently it is more complicated than our recycling service, which stills gets me sometimes). It was inspiring for all of us to hear a non-data person talk about the importance of government data and understand the need for it to be disseminated in innovative ways (even if that requires government-private company collaboration).

Our session, Teach This!:

  • From Katharin Peter: She took a modified approach to the one-shot library workshop by creating a series of workshops called, Data in the Library. She found the most successful workshops had very specific names and covered a limited number of sources. She also had an interesting and successful collaboration with an OECD student ambassador. Even if the student isn’t sponsored by a global organization, peer collaboration is a great model for getting students interested in library instruction and resources. Katharin has another peer mentoring project in the works that I’m really excited to hear more about.
  • From Nicole Scholtz: She created a series of GIS workshops at the University of Michigan. I so wish I could take this series myself! During all of their sessions they have a rover, or back-up, in the classroom. For the kinds of resources we teach this makes sense. It can be incredibly difficult to demo and conduct exercises when it is just you with the students, even working on an easier source (like SimplyMap). But of course the difficulty is having a back-up person with the same level of comfort as the teacher (or close to). This might be a job for some of our super interns!
  • From Jackie Carter: Jackie joined our session from Mimas, a UK designated data center, at the University of Manchester. Mimas has some really interesting projects in development, but at the session she talked about data literacy and efforts to promote data literacy. Mimas has been involved with this project: http://www.esds.ac.uk/international/elearning/teaching-tools/index.asp to help create open educational resources (using real data) that could be adopted or modified by any instructor. Right now the focus of the site is mostly Economics, so I’m looking forward to seeing more disciplinary examples added.
  • My paper was a bit more theoretical and focused on the idea of the embedded librarian. You can see the slides below. It was well-received, but I haven’t fully developed the idea of embedded data librarianship really. Ideas welcome!

We also had a pecha kucha (and many of us spent half of the time trying to remember how to say pecha kucha). My slides and notes are below. Everybody did a fantastic job and I think the audience enjoyed them all. I am really in love with the pk format. It requires a level of preparedness that most people don’t put into presentations (and sometimes I  miss that!).

Tuesday = Data! #libday6

Published January 25, 2011 the profession 4 Comments
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This is my fourth go at Library Day in the Life and I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro.

In retrospect Tuesday was a day filled with numbers: crime rates in Cary, demographics of the Hispanic population, and the number of Southern Baptists in NC. Good times.

  • 8:15: Arrive and COFFEE!
  • 8:30: Looked at air travel to IASSIST in Vancouver for our annual data conference.
  • 9:00: Met with Susan Farr, our documents manager, about upcoming personnel stuff.
  • 9:30-10:00: Found a flight to Vancouver. Not the greatest flight, but it gets me to where I’m going and I won’t have to pay for an extra hotel night.
  • 10:00: Worked on notes and handout for Political Science 302
  • 10:30: Researched question on whether Brazil is a consensual democracy for psc 350 student. The consensual democracy idea is contrasted with majoritarianism. Check out Patterns of Democracy by Lijphart if you are really bored and want to know more.
  • 11:00: Looked up sources for English PhD student studying the rhetoric of presidential speeches. Not quite sure what he was asking, so hopefully I’ll get more info back from him.
  • 11:15: Spent lunch reading through some interesting blog posts. Here are my faves:
  • 12:00-12:15: Wrap up lunch and head off for Political Science 302
  • 12:30-2:00: Political Science 302. I’ve taught this class three times now and I love it, even though it is the most basic demonstration class you could ever do. I have plenty of activities for the students, but I can’t really just let them jump into SimplyMap and World dataBank without some guidance first. I guess that is the nature of some sources, especially numeric databases. Data libs and friends: How have you taught these in your sessions? If so, what activities worked?
  • 2:00-2:45: Consultation with an undergraduate research assistant looking up demographic statistics on Hispanics in NC. SimplyMap and American FactFinder go head to head for the love and approval of all.
  • 3:00-3:30: FREEDOM! I have hit a slow period in which I will get some more coffee (I am falling asleep as we speak) and catch up on random to do’s. Thank you RTM for being my brain.
  • 3:30-4:30: I started doing a quick check-in (look through my inbox, go through to do’s) but suddenly got an urge to write a blog post on the Assoc of Religion Data Archives. The PSC 302 prof and I were talking about it and I realized it had never been featured on the dataland blog. For shame!
  • 4:30-5:00: emails
  • 5:00-5:30: Listened to the ICPSR recording of the ARDA and Roper Center presentations. I had never gotten around to listening to them and I’m on a kick! A cool feature is the religion family tree. Sweet!

  • 6:00-7:00: Meeting of the UNCG LIS Alumni Association Executive Board. I’m the Communications Director, which means I maintain our blog, Minerva’s Library, and Facebook and keep the contact database current. I also tell Kathy Shields, our Assistant Communications Director, what to do :)   Amy Harris and Erin Sapienza are joining our Executive Board, which is super fun!
  • 9:00: Hopefully I can stay awake for the State of the Union Address. Granted these aren’t as much fun as the days when I would yell constantly at the screen (Ah, I kinda miss you Georgie…Only kinda).  I can’t wait to try out the enhanced SOTU materials on this website (fingers-crossed that it doesn’t crash!).

10 Reasons Why I’m a Sucker for a Good Conference

Published October 3, 2009 conferences , the profession 2 Comments
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Our state library conference as well as my first virtual conference, ICPSR’s OR meeting, are next week, and I am as giddy as a kid on Christmas Eve. Certainly no conference ever lives up to expectations (even Computers in Libraries), but I love attending them (I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it!). In the spirit of mad conference prep, here are my top 10 reasons why I love conferences. Feel free to add your reasons!

10. Travel: This has less to do with attending conferences than with getting to conferences. I’m the rare bird who loves the process of traveling. I love the build up and preparation, the early morning departures and the late night arrivals. I love the waiting and the movement. Granted, I once loved air travel a lot more, but a large part of me is excited about the process of traveling and nothing more. Conferences simply give me a destination.

9. Swag-bringers: When I first started attending conferences, I didn’t really take interest in the vendors. I don’t enjoy taking things I don’t need and I especially don’t need post-it notes or more pens. (Sarah Glassmeyer, a University of Kentucky law librarian, once suggested they should give out Advil, which is brilliant truth.)

I needed a couple of years in my job to realize the importance of the swag-bringers. You can ask them anything. Instead of having to send a long complicated email about how to do/fix/understand something, you can just make a list prior to the next conference and they will answer. And they reward you with swag. Actually they like you better if you ask questions before taking the swag. I think you get even better swag. Be nice to your swag-bringers; you will learn lots.

8. New places Oh yes. You know we all skip out on that least interesting session to go sight-see. The last day of Computers in Libraries is always a ghost town because everyone is packed into the Washington Monument. As a presenter, I’ve been dismayed by last day light attendance, but it is a fact of life. That’s why we like to go to conferences in interesting places and not in Hickory, NC. Oh wait…
I kid, I kid.

7. Old Friends: I should be a better friend and not use conferences as a means to meet up with former classmates and colleagues, but we are all busy people. And conferences are by far the best way to meet up with your BFF librarians from your past. In addition to catching up, you have plenty of fuel for discussion–from that awesome session to the crazy vendor antics at the bar to your crazy antics after the bar…

My favorite tactic is for everyone to spread out and attend different sessions. Even if I get the snoozer, my friends will have lots of exciting stuff to tell me about the other sessions. Plus, I am notoriously bad at picking sessions. If you go to a conference with me, don’t ever let me pick the sessions. You will regret it. Anyone have any great tips for choosing the most awesome session ever? Please let me know because I need some.

6. New friends: I love meeting new people especially those in completely different jobs from mine. Hanging out with your polar opposite provides invaluable perspective and insight. After listening to public library problems, I’m always a bit more comfortable with the relatively secure position of the academic library. You certainly realize how petty or stale the debates can get in your own world. Plus, these new friends often become old friends, especially if you attend the same conference frequently (Hello, Computers in Libraries).

5. Discussions: Maybe my Generation X age is showing through here, but I’m not a huge fan of listserv discussions. Or maybe it is my Millennial tendencies because I tend to lose track of the topic being discussed (even with gmail so nicely threading things). Or maybe I feel like I am wasting time reading a discussion about the new APA when I need to be planning the class I’m going to teach in 5 minutes.

I don’t know, but I certainly prefer bringing these discussions to conferences and having them in person. One of my favorite experiences at ACRL this year was being in a focus group discussion with other librarians under 35. It was brilliant because we were told to let it fly and we did. Because no one was taking tabs on who said what the ideas were free and the criticism was constructive. While in most of my experiences these discussions have been informal (usually a group in the back of the bar at 2:00 am), I have high hopes for the future of round tables, discussion groups, and unconferences. They all seem to have the same goal of getting people together to just talk.

4. Learning: My boss probably would like this higher in the list, but if you read the rest I think you’ll understand why it is number four. I love to learn about new things and while formal conference sessions can be hit or miss sometimes, it is undeniable that I learn a tremendous amount when attending a conference. From small groups to the exhibit hall to formal presentations, conferences are about the creation and dissemination of information. I certainly love that.

3. Rejuvenation: I appreciate my students, faculty, and colleagues, but at times I need a break from all of them. The beautiful thing about conferences is being able to recharge and refocus on your profession. A political science faculty member once told me never to check my work email during a conference. His reasoning was that you need the time to rejuvenate your interest in your field, to step back and learn and to remember the things that made you excited about the profession in the first place.

I have yet to follow his advice (although I set up an away message) because I worry that a patron may have a question only I can answer. But I am getting better at it. Luckily the web version of our crummy email system is at times uncheckable. At least that way I don’t have to feel guilty about allowing myself freedom and time to think.

2.Community: The past two years I have attended the annual conference for the International Association of Social Science Information Service and Technology, the primary conference for data librarians and archivists. A common refrain of attendees is “I love being surrounded by people who understand what I do.” Working in a niche position like data librarianship can be somewhat isolating especially when your colleagues don’t understand your work. Conferences can provide that community and support.

1. Bringing it all back: After it is all over, we need to bring it back to our libraries. I firmly believe this. To support the process of bringing it back our library has a Professional Development Blog and conference attendees provide informal brownbags. Sometimes it can take a few months to get your blog entry posted, but eventually is better than never. In addition to formal dissemination, it is our duty to convey information in informal ways. If I hear a great idea about another library’s use of twitter, then I need to let my colleagues know. This sharing of information is how we ensure that our libraries develop and adapt to the future.

Well, those are my reasons. Any others?

Oh, if you are attending the NCLA conference you should blog about your sessions. Contact information is available on the official blog. If you aren’t going, you can follow the events there or check in here!

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