Last week I attended the 27th Annual Computers in Libraries Conference in Washington, D.C. This was a fascinating experience and an incredible opportunity to interact with colleagues in the profession of librarianship. In addition to librarians, there were many conference attendees who worked in the IT departments of libraries as well as various Metadata Specialists and Information Architect professionals.
I relished the opportunity to meet diverse library personnel and discuss the conference topics with them. There were six tracks (Track A Mobile Trends & Practices, Track B Web Presence, Track C Inspiring Innovation, Track D Navigating Information Overload, Track E Content Management, and Track F Library Issues & Challenges) that you could attend. Luckily conference attendees were allowed to attend panels in each track. There were too many interesting panels to choose from! “Super Searcher Secrets for Success” and “Embedding Digital Literacy in the Curriculum” were two of my favorite panels.
Each morning of the conference began with a keynote speaker. One of the best keynote speakers we had was Michael Edson from the Smithsonian Institution. The keynote speaker’s presentation was followed by a brief coffee break where attendees could mingle and talk about the panels they had attended the day before. There were also “dine-around” sign-up sheets where conference attendees could find a group of librarians to try out a local restaurant with. The “dine-arounds” had set discussion topics and attendees could sign-up based on their interest in the restaurant venue or the topic of discussion. I choose a digital literacy discussion topic complete with a Greek restaurant venue. (Both of these factors proved to be great qualifying factors for my first “dine-around” choice!) The Computers in Libraries proved to be far more intensive and focused than the library conference that I had previously attended in 2010.
Every evening left me exhausted from a day of paneling, socializing, and walking around Dupont Circle. I sojourned at the Windsor Park Hotel which was located off of Kalorama Road. This hotel was in an excellent walking area and afforded me the opportunity to visit the home of Woodrow Wilson and the famed Anderson House. Embassy Row was also just a stone’s throw from the hotel’s front door. All in all it was a great trip and I was very happy to have the opportunity to attend! I am looking forward to sharing conference content with my colleagues and trying out some of the new conference ideas in our home library.
~Leanna Fitzgerald~
