ALA Midwinter Conference Report
Dear Readers,
The ALA Midwinter Conference was held January 14-16 in Philadelphia. Marycatherine McGarvey, guest writer from the FastTrack program, was kind enough to reflect on her experience at the conference. Bibliofile thanks her for agreeing to write an article for us.
I attended the 2003 ALA Midwinter Conference because it was in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is only 21 miles away from my home, so for me it was very convenient. I am a member of ALA and the Freedom of Information Round Table. I believe that attending professional conferences is very important for students. They begin to network, and grow in the profession, while a student, and continue after graduation. Libraries, and librarians, like any non-profit organization, live and die on professional reputation, and conferences are one of the steps in that direction.
As FastTrack students, the Cohort does not get to be together very often. We are very close, maybe because we are the first Cohort to be almost graduating. At any rate, we do try to take advantage of any opportunity for some or our entire group to get together. This time the ALA Midwinter Conference was a great opportunity for this to happen. As a result, eight FastTrackers from the northeast corridor got together at the Pitt Booth and enjoyed the show, and believe me it is a show. The first thing that amazed me was the size of the Philadelphia Convention Center. The ALA only had half. The “Home Show” was housed in the other half.
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This was my first time at an ALA Conference, but this was not my first professional conference. Over the last few years, I have gone to Pennsylvania Library Association conferences, and many PA State library functions, but nothing with the breath of the American Library Association.
I arrived, prepared with comfortable shoes, casual clothes and a complementary pass from the vender “Web Feet” to get into the Exhibits. Of course, I did not pre-register. I just came at 10:00 on Saturday morning, got into line and waited to register for an hour. There I met a librarian from Prague, who graduated from the University of Chicago, and never missed an ALA Conference. We talked for a while until I noticed that the complementary vender pass line was not the line in which I was waiting. At this point, I was half way to the desk, and the comp line was even longer than my line, so I gave my pass to someone who had just arrived. With my University of Pittsburgh student I.D. the Exhibit Pass only cost $25.00. So I was all set to go. With map in hand, and no idea of where I was, I set off to maneuver the international crowds on my way to the University of Pittsburgh Booth.
Now, for me one of the best parts of any professional conference is the “Free Give-aways”. There were 1758 booths in the exhibit hall, each listed in alphabetical order in the conference book. In the actual exhibit hall, each exhibitor was randomly placed, not in alphabetical order, and the complementary map that each of us received with a tote bag at registration was necessary in order to find any one booth. So on my way to finding Pitt’s booth, I shopped for give-aways at each booth that I passed. I learned not to enter any drawings long ago, at a PaLA Conference. The only thing that you win is a slot on the phone list for book brokers. But pens, tablets, pre-publication book galleys, paperback children’s books, mugs, pencils, posters, book marks, everything that a public librarian can not afford to buy, is there for the taking when you visit the vender booths.
Eventually, I found Booth 754 (Pitt), dropped my load of goodies, said “Hi” all around and went to work recruiting more students for the Pitt program, FastTrack in particular. I would rather work a conference than just attend any day. I have only been to one conference where I did not work on a committee, and I felt obligated to go to more workshops than were interesting.
While at the Pitt booth, seven other Cohort 1 members and I met for lunch. We all did our part for recruitment. Spending the day with our professors Chris, Sue, Mary Kay, and Dr. Ron Larson, was quite a bit of fun.
After the exhibits were closed for the day, one of the librarians that I came to the convention with had invitations from Linworth Publishing, Inc. for the three of us to go to the Philadelphia Union League Club for a Champagne Supper. So I finished off my day at the ALA conference, at an almost Black Tie function, in my comfortable clothes and walking shoes. I would do it again in a minute.
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Last updated February 24, 2003