And Miles to Go Before I Sleep ... SLA2007 Day 3
For some reason, I have been unable to sleep a full 6-8 here in Denver. It may be a touch of altitude sickness, it might be the sterility of my hotel room, it could be angst. But I hadn't slept well, and I started really feeling it on Monday. I was dazed, confused and barely sensate. So most of what I got out of Monday was general impressions.
The biggest impression -- Change, change and change. There is change going on and be prepared to change with it ... or you may end up begging for change. (Okay, that last part wasn't said, but given the extreme impetus for change, it's not a completely ludicrous conclusion).
Synergy Session: 3 superstars of the library/info industry on a couch, riffing on previously submitted questions: Stephen Abram, Eugenie Prime and Clifford Lynch
The gist of the Conversation - where we are as a profession and where we're headed
One of many money quotes (this one from Cliff): the Google experience isn't necessarily that you'll get everything on the Internet, it's that what you want/need, the thing that will satisfy your query, is only one more click away (unlike the library experience, where you have to go to a shelf, or ask a librarian or wait for ILL, etc.).
Eugenie talked about leadership and being willing to 1) question one's own paradigms in terms of service, tools, etc. and 2) go to where your bosses are and talk up the value of your library/information professions, because your bosses aren't coming to SLA - take the message to them.
Stephen talked about learning and play, among many other things. Mentioned second life, talked about the need to take game play and recreation and non-traditional learning/interactivity to stay on top of the technology wave.
You can get more details/impressions of this session here and here.
Future of News Librarians: Radical changes, proactive research necessary to keep news libraries functioning and intregral to newsrooms.
Yes, I'm being extremely reductive. I was flagging in a big way. And I was trying to grok the context - newspapers are feeling the heat and pressure is building for news libraries (and thus news librarians). Lots of buyouts are going on, and major restructurings of editorial staffs are occurring. So yeah ... change, change, change.
The Denver Post tour was lovely. At a later point, I'll create a Flickr set and post the URL to the blog. The News Division silent auction was raucous as always, and I happily staggered home with my Raleigh News and Observer mini-fan, with a $5 bid (thanks, Denise!).