ACRL’s booth on the convention floor at the ALA Conference in New Orleans received quite a bit of traffic despite being located off in a far corner of the exhibits (although near the ever popular Internet Room). In this photo I’m at the booth with Lori Goetsch of Kansas State University, and a current member of the ACRL Board of Directors.
(click on thumbnail for larger image)
LibraryThing
There’s a good overview of LibraryThing in today’s free Wall Street Journal. LibraryThing is a social software site for books. I remember looking at it about a year ago and being like, yeah whateva. I don’t have much time to read never mind catalog, review, and tag my books. I’m not sure I care that much about finding other sick individuals who have the same tastes as me, and the whole privacy thing gives me the creeps. Yes you can use an alias but won’t you be found out eventually? And then there’s the P.J. O’Rourke problem–“always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” Maybe I’m just being grumpy and the site is incredibly popular, so perhaps LibraryThing deserves a second look. Any academic librarians out there using LibraryThing? Anybody use it in their library somehow? On the blog Thingology I noticed a detailed discussion (written by Abby, the LibraryThing librarian) about the pros and cons of subject headings and tags that I plan to incorporate into my lessons on subject headings. LibraryThing is worth checking out, but notice that the WSJ has the article under the headline “Time Waster.”
Your Next ACRL President Candidates
Yes, ALA’s 2006 national conference is only just about to end and new officers are only about to begin, but it’s never too soon for ACRL to start announcing who is running for top offices next year. I learned today at the conference that the two candidates for ACRL President Elect/President for 2007 are two distinguished academic librarians. They are Erika C. Linke, Associate Dean of University Libraries, Carnegie Mellon University and our very own blog team member, Scott Walter, Assistant Dean of Libraries and Visiting Assistant Professor of Teaching & Leadership at the University of Kansas.
It should be an exciting election and we wish both Erika and Scott the best on their campaigns. ACRLog will keep you posted on the election.
ACRL Baltimore National Conference Update
On Sunday morning I attended a meeting of the Baltimore National Conference Executive Committee. Planning for the 2007 conference is really moving along and shaping up nicely. ACRL members will be hearing much more about the great programming that the Conference will offer.
I thought you might be interested to know more about the numbers of proposals submitted for the conference:
If your proposal is not accepted keep the poster sessions and roundtables in mind. Deadlines for those programs come later in 2006, and will provide more opportunities for participation. Speaking of the poster sessions, anyone who attended the Minneapolis conference will recall the massive overcrowding at the poster sessions owing to a serious lack of space in the exhibits hall for the posters. The early word is that there will be much more room allocated for the poster sessions area which should provide more than sufficient space for the ever popular poster sessions.
Help With Publishing Can Keep You From Perishing
ACRL’s New Publications Advisory Board and the College Library Section co-sponsored the “Publish, Don’t Perish: Helpful Hints for Authors” program at the ALA Annual Conference. I attended along with several College Library Section colleagues as we were graciously invited to briefly describe the Your Research Coach program. I spoke for just a few minutes on my experience as a research coach, explaining how I’ve helped the partners with whom I’ve worked. There was lots of good advice and practical strategies from the speakers (Marie Radford, Rutgers University, Tony Schwartz, Florida International University, and Patricia Neal-Schuman, Neal-Schuman Publishers). Their suggestions for would be authors included starting small but thinking big, creating time for writing, dealing with rejection letters, communicating with editors, and much more.
One of the common themes among the speakers was the need for and value of seeking out help from others. Perhaps Tony Schwartz nailed it when he said “writing is a social interactionâ€. In other words, authoring, even if you are writing solo, involves others. Less experienced writers may be intimidated about asking for help, but the presenters’ message was that your colleagues are often glad to provide help – and help can come in many forms.
Even more could have been said about the essential importance of having a good, workable idea. As Walt Crawford wrote, “first have something to sayâ€. You need a good idea to write about before you start writing anything of substance. If an idea is not well focused or too far a field from your expertise the writing process is bound to become a struggle. The intangible factor is passion. Passion for your topic can make the difference between hitting a wall during the writing process and getting to the finish line. Attendees were clearly challenged by getting started, and several questioners wanted advice on good ways to kick start the writing process. In almost all situations where help is needed the source is likely to be a colleague (although Tony recommended seeking colleagues outside your institution who are not your friends and much more likely to provide realistic feedback). For those who need or want to publish or present more regularly – or just want to get that first professional article or presentation under the belt – the good news is that there is help out there, both in print and from colleagues.