ALA - Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

I’ve been remiss in writing about the other days of ALA because afterwards, I went to Chicago for a few days of vacation, then when I got home I had to dive back into my classes. In any case, here are somewhat abbreviated recaps:

On Sunday, I was up early so that I could make it in for the “Native American Heritage in the Nation’s Capitol: Representation, Repatriation, and Resilience” session. I was originally planning to walk to the train station so that I wouldn’t have to wake my hosts that early, but turns out Mike was up anyway, which meant I had the chance to read some books for about a half hour with Julie and Jason’s early-rising daughter. Made it to the session, which was a miracle because I am so not a morning person. The session was really interesting (and at times heartbreaking).

After that, I visited one of the poster sessions, had lunch, and wandered the exhibits hall for a little while. At 3 was the LITA Awards Reception, at which I was awarded the LITA/OCLC Minority Scholarship and met Fabulous George from OCLC. Next up was my first AILA meeting, although I’d met some of its members at the honor dance Friday. It was interesting and great to meet so many wonderful people. Originally, I’d planned to go to the student social, but by that time I’d filled my new-people quota for the day and headed home instead.

On Monday, I visited poster sessions and the exhibit hall again. Because of the OCLC lunch, I couldn’t really go to any of the morning sessions. I went to the lunch and was startled by the number of people that were there as well as the whole in-the-spotlight-in-front-of-everyone thing. After the lunch, Paige and I went to the Library of Congress, which was having an open house of sorts for ALA. We had the chance to visit the Asian Reading Room, Congressional Reading Room, and African / Middle Eastern Reading Room. The hallways there are kind of confusing. That evening was the SJSU SLIS reception, then back late-ish to Julie and Jason’s.

Tuesday was the tour of the Census Bureau Library. We had a talk by a historian from the Census Bureau, then spent some time perusing the library’s collection. Afterwards, I had lunch with Julie then headed back into DC to get my hair braided for the night’s inaugural banquet. Mike went with me, and it was kind of funny to be dressed so casually on the metro while he was wearing his tux. It was also kind of weird to wear my moccassins on an escalator when I put my outfit on. There was a Beatles cover band after dinner. Who knew librarians were such dancers?

I must say that ALA was a crazy whirlwind of activities. I think I can count on one hand the number of actual sessions that I went to, but I feel like the time I spent meeting new people was a big learning experience as well. It was especially great to end up spending so much time with Paige (we had fun!) and also with the members of AILA. There’s a sense of belonging there, and of being with people who share so many of my views and aren’t afraid to speak up. Thanks for welcoming me!