Monday, June 30, 2008

Parting thoughts

Well, ALA was fun. I will remember to bring more sensible footwear next time, but otherwise I met a lot of interesting people and got to spend a lot of time thinking about the big picture regarding libraries.

Over the past couple of months I've had several such opportunities - the first was a leadership class at Harvard that approached the topic of management in a general sense, then I went to a week-long workshop sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries that focused in leadership in libraries. And now at ALA I've been spending the past few days talking to various library leaders on a subject that is dear to my heart: interlibrary loan and how it fits into the broader category of something we librarians now call Resource Sharing.

There's a lot to digest here, to be sure, but I know if I'm able to bring even a fraction of this inspiration back with me I will have succeeded.

Best Moment: When I was a little lost at the Disneyland Hotel, a helpful Disney employee asked me what the name of my meeting was so she could direct me to the right room. When I said 'Don't Run a Mickey Mouse Operation: Using the ILL Code to Develop Best Practices' (which was in fact the name of the meeting!), watching her smiling face fall just for that brief instant was worth its weight in gold.

Worst Moment: Missing the Book Cart Drill Team Finals because it conflicted with a Very Important Product Update that I couldn't miss. Seriously, WTF! Oh, well, maybe next year...

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