Librarian Conference

I'm back online! I spent this morning catching up on all the news I've missed in the past week and a half.

To resume...
For this conference, I've decided that I am most interested in the Information Freedom Council (OIF) and the Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT). Other committees I plan on seeing are the Office of Legislation and the Office of Information Technology and Policy (OITP). Librarians and public policy do go together! On Friday, I get up early so I can hit the IFRT business meetings. I am glad that I have done the legwork to comb through the ALA Annual Conference schedule as well as hit all the websites for all the different divisions. I've also emailed people to get the schedules for these meetings. By attending these meetings and being so young and still a graduate student, I've given myself some visibility as well as scoring some appointments on the IFRT.

The keynote speech is given by Richard Clarke. He gives an excellent account of his reign as the anti-terrorism czar as well as an explaination of current events. Most of the librarians I have meet seem to be left-leaning, hate the Patriot Act and censorship. We give him a standing ovation. Also at the conference, they are screening Fahrenheit 9/11. Lion's Gate and Michael Moore have donated this screening to benefit the ALA's efforts to protect the First Amendment. In order to give us the screening, they have had to convert the film to HD video and Conference Services has had to order special HD video players to show the film. Luckily, the player arrive and are operational. The movie leaves many people in tears, and people are openly sobbing during the footage of Iraqi casulties.

The last day of the conference, I arrive at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando to see the departure of the ducks. Every day, the ducks march in at 11 am to sit in the fountain, and march back out at 5 pm. It's quite a spectacle and people come to the hotel lobby just to see the ducks on parade. That evening, I have been fortunate enough to be invited by one of my professors to attend the Inaugural Banquet. Dr. Turock is amazing. She introduces me to more people than I can remember as well as giving me some incredible connections. I learn that the Committee on Legislation and the OITP take an intern every year. These committees are usually appointed, and it takes a while to move up the food chain to become well-known enough to be appointed. An internship is a huge step in the right direction. I need to evaluate the goals of each committee to determine which one I want to try to get an internship on that furthers my interests as well as my future career goals.

Going to this conference has been great. I've met lots of great people, students and professonals alike. I plan on keep in touch with a lot of the student staffers I've met, and I'll start scheduling a reunion for us next year when the conference is in Chicago. We'll have a lot more options for food and entertainment than we did in the tourist area of Orlando.