The conference got off to an interesting start: nine hours before my flight boarded someone nearly gave birth on the 4th floor. It was right at closing and by the time the EMT's got there her contractions were only 2 minutes apart. another librarian, one of the security supervisors and I kept her calm until they wheeled her off around 11:20. It's was quite the send off!
The night before publishing this, Angelica returned to the library and showed off the new baby Anthony.
Our flight (my girlfriend managed to book tickets on the same one) was massively overbooked and I got bumped till a later flight (for a nice chunk of change) which was then delayed by weather, so I arrived in Orlando late Thursday night. I had used annual leave for the day, which worked out well considering I spent it hanging out in the Delta Lounge.
The night before publishing this, Angelica returned to the library and showed off the new baby Anthony.
Our flight (my girlfriend managed to book tickets on the same one) was massively overbooked and I got bumped till a later flight (for a nice chunk of change) which was then delayed by weather, so I arrived in Orlando late Thursday night. I had used annual leave for the day, which worked out well considering I spent it hanging out in the Delta Lounge.
Friday
I attended an OITP meeting titled American Libraries 21st Century AL21C which was also attended by former Executive Director of METRO, Jason Kucsma.
Their site states: "The Office for Information Technology Policy advances ALA’s public policy activities by helping secure information technology policies that support and encourage efforts of libraries to ensure access to electronic information resources as a means of upholding the public’s right to a free and open information society. It works to ensure a library voice in information policy debates and to promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public" and this resonated greatly with me and my role at the NYPL. The discussion was interesting once the previous minutes and such were read and done with. The discussion included:
The meeting was interesting and gave me some intellectual freedom related things to look into. For my part I chimed in with related things our library has been doing like the book review phone in the lobby and our wide variety of technology classes to increase people’s digital IQ. At one point the question was raised of how to talk to people about internet security in a way that will make them take proper steps to safeguard their information but in a way that won’t make them flee from the grid in terror. I told them some of the things I tell people in my Computer Safety & Maintenance, Windows 7 and Facebook classes and they were impressed and wrote several of them down. In this way the NYPL and Mid-Manhattan Library provided valuable input and our library was represented.
From there I headed to the opening session with Michael Eric Dyson who gave an absolutely incredible speech. The video will be available in the next few weeks from ALA and is WELL worth watching.
Their site states: "The Office for Information Technology Policy advances ALA’s public policy activities by helping secure information technology policies that support and encourage efforts of libraries to ensure access to electronic information resources as a means of upholding the public’s right to a free and open information society. It works to ensure a library voice in information policy debates and to promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public" and this resonated greatly with me and my role at the NYPL. The discussion was interesting once the previous minutes and such were read and done with. The discussion included:
- Section 108 of copyright is coming up again. The meetings about it include only handpicked people, are totally off the record and FOIA doesn’t apply so no one can find out what is being said and plotted.
- Zero rated websites do not use data so children and adults in underserved areas can access these sites without needing a data plan. However, this means only sites that get zero rated are accessible to a lot of people. That’s not really net Neutral, but at the same time it can help some people in some ways. How do we weigh the dangers inherent in non-neutrality with the benefits? There is a lot of controversy surrounding this at present.
- Can we get libraries off commercial providers for access to internet? This would go far towards providing the zero rated access to the information we provide our communities while not taking the side of those who wish to dismantle net-neutrality.
- The Better Business Bureau is starting the Digital IQ program. More on that here. OITP is working on it.
- The internet of things needs Spectrum support. What policies do we need? Verizon is working with OITP creating Internet of Things Kits for libraries to use. Example: new book beacons: you walk by a shelf and get a message saying “Hey there’s a new book about yadda yadda here” These kits can let us do some cool things, but many undermine privacy a bit.
The meeting was interesting and gave me some intellectual freedom related things to look into. For my part I chimed in with related things our library has been doing like the book review phone in the lobby and our wide variety of technology classes to increase people’s digital IQ. At one point the question was raised of how to talk to people about internet security in a way that will make them take proper steps to safeguard their information but in a way that won’t make them flee from the grid in terror. I told them some of the things I tell people in my Computer Safety & Maintenance, Windows 7 and Facebook classes and they were impressed and wrote several of them down. In this way the NYPL and Mid-Manhattan Library provided valuable input and our library was represented.
From there I headed to the opening session with Michael Eric Dyson who gave an absolutely incredible speech. The video will be available in the next few weeks from ALA and is WELL worth watching.
He fired everyone up tremendously, just in time for the opening of the vendor floor.
We spent several hours in the vendor area. I touched bases with Mango and Lynda.com among many others. I especially plug those two, mentioning them whenever I teach. The vendor floor is always pretty crazy that first night, but we made something of a game-plan for the following days.
That night was the ALA Think Tank and Every Library fund raiser at Howl at the Moon. We went and met up with Davis Erin Anderson from METRO, and networked with a few others.
We spent several hours in the vendor area. I touched bases with Mango and Lynda.com among many others. I especially plug those two, mentioning them whenever I teach. The vendor floor is always pretty crazy that first night, but we made something of a game-plan for the following days.
That night was the ALA Think Tank and Every Library fund raiser at Howl at the Moon. We went and met up with Davis Erin Anderson from METRO, and networked with a few others.
Saturday
I hit the vendor floor hard, seeking contacts for my “What Are You Reading” blog series. Daniel Handler (AKA Lemony Snicket) was doing a book signing. I attended and asked him for an interview. Both he and his publicist were enthusiastic about it and took my card. The next day she wrote me and after the conference I sent them my questions. By the time I got back to work I already had the interview done and it was soon added to my other blog posts. He also signed (and bit for some hilarious reason) a book for me.
In the graphic novels area of the vendor floor I found the table with Congressman John Lewis’s book “March” on it. I spoke with the woman there and she said that it was very likely the artists for the book would be interested in interviewing, and the Congressman was a definite possibility, though she couldn’t guarantee it (as she put it “he has a rather intense day job”). Looking at the table I noticed there was a Bloom County book as well. I told her I grew up reading the strip and her face lit up. “You know who would probably LOVE to do an interview with the library? Berke Breathed!” I gave her several business cards with “What are you reading? Email me for a mini-interview” written on them to give to the artists, Congressman and cartoonist. I plan on writing some follow up emails/social media messages this week.
I made my way to the poster area to look at the poster sessions which were mostly about academic libraries, but still contained interesting information (I have several of them downloaded from the app as well). One was about a book I wrote a chapter for, which was edited by Davis from METRO and Ray Pun from NYU Shanghai. I stuck around there for a bit speaking with the people who came to look at the poster and chatting with some of the other contributors.
I made my way to the poster area to look at the poster sessions which were mostly about academic libraries, but still contained interesting information (I have several of them downloaded from the app as well). One was about a book I wrote a chapter for, which was edited by Davis from METRO and Ray Pun from NYU Shanghai. I stuck around there for a bit speaking with the people who came to look at the poster and chatting with some of the other contributors.
From there I headed to the Graphic Novels Stage where Margaret Atwood was scheduled to talk about her book Angel Catbird. I was front and center for the interesting talk, and managed to get a question in. Plus a few decent photos!
Afterwards I spoke with her about doing an interview. I had been in touch with the ALA press corp about doing some interviews and they passed my questions along to her. I figured it was a good idea to get my face in front of her though, and put a card in her hand.
When I left there I walked past the March booth and some of the people who collaborated on the book were back. One of them was so enthusiastic about interviewing that he started listing the books he was reading right then and there. He loves the idea of the blog and said he would try to get the Congressman onboard as well. He even said that if I come down to Washington D.C. he would give me a tour. Later I looked him up and discovered that not only is Andrew Aydin co-author of the book, but he is John Lewis’s Congressional Aide and Digital Director & Policy Advisor. The tour, then, would presumably be of Congress and/or Lewis’s offices. I’m sure that could be useful for future blogs at the very, very least. Cards were exchanged and I am going to be getting in touch with those I spoke with during this week.
When I left there I walked past the March booth and some of the people who collaborated on the book were back. One of them was so enthusiastic about interviewing that he started listing the books he was reading right then and there. He loves the idea of the blog and said he would try to get the Congressman onboard as well. He even said that if I come down to Washington D.C. he would give me a tour. Later I looked him up and discovered that not only is Andrew Aydin co-author of the book, but he is John Lewis’s Congressional Aide and Digital Director & Policy Advisor. The tour, then, would presumably be of Congress and/or Lewis’s offices. I’m sure that could be useful for future blogs at the very, very least. Cards were exchanged and I am going to be getting in touch with those I spoke with during this week.
Sunday
I attended “Library of the Future – Top Tools for Changemakers” at the Hyatt. It had some interesting parts but wasn’t what I was expecting. The hashtag for it was #Tools4Changemakers but the Hyatt didn’t have Wi-Fi set up and I had no reception in that room so I didn’t tweet anything (I often live-tweet from panels). My take-away from this session was as follows:
- Pima County (my old stomping grounds in Tucson, AZ) has a seed library that circulates 1400 seed packets a month! Most people actually do bring back seeds from their crops at the end of the season too.
- Get out of the library and talk to people. Collaborate with the public!
- Inntrepreneurs try to innovate within their bureaucracy.
- Failure is ALWAYS an option. It’s always uncomfortable but it is normal and healthy to learn from it.
- The hardest thing about failure is knowing when to cut the cord. When do you need to just let it go?
- “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently” Henry Ford
- Stanford school of design has great tutorials.
- www.libraryideatoolkit.org has more info as well.
- Sticky notes are great for introverts. Libraries are full of introverts.
- Business plans: put all the key concepts on one big sheet of paper instead of lots and lots of pages. This lets you share and gain insight from others as the process goes along and makes it way easier to pivot and evolve the plan at time goes on.
- Chart a program that failed and you can see where the idea was weak and broke own.
- Empathy (not assumption) is at the heart of innovation.
- Draw on sticky notes instead of writing on them. Your mind will take off way more than if it’s just a bunch of text and you can distinguish them much easier than a big wall full of text.
- SOAR analysis: Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results.
- Kind of like the optimists SWOT Analysis.
- We should do a program on how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign.
- Also how to sell on Etsy.
After that session was another next door that sounded interesting, titled “How to Implement Things When People Hate Change” which had the hashtag #HateChange. This time I was able to live tweet some of the key points. I ended up sitting next to Davis from METRO. The discussion was a panel and the moderator asked questions and then passed the mic around. My notes are as follows:
- Are Libraries change resistant as a feature or a bug?
- Libraries aren’t anything: it’s the people inside.
- Are we really more resistant than other industries? What can we learn from other industries about this?
- How do you determine when change is the wrong answer? When is change too hard, too expensive, even if it’s “better”?
- Make a business case for the new project. Run a cost benefit analysis.
- If you have a hard time explaining the benefits in a talking-to-a-5-year-old kind of way… trouble awaits.
- Don’t forget: you don’t need to know everything, you just need to know how to figure things out! That’s our jobs as librarians isn’t it?
- Are there commonalities in the type of resistance you’ve faced in your careers?
- There’s a fear of losing your job or not being viewed as the expert or having the public not see the library as necessary.
- Fear is always change’s companion. Manage expectations.
- Look at what had to happen for you to understand why this new thing is worthwhile and don’t expect people who didn’t take that journey to be right there with you until they do.
- The little micro-changes that you make can build up over time into a megachange, so keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be massive, but make sure the individual little changes all fit together towards the big change down the line. Help change the culture etc over time.
- The individual “fires” may be a red herring. Fire-fight a bit, but keep your eye on the prize.
- How do you make your organization more accepting of change?
- Make a safe environment. Allow people to voice their opinions. You will see who the unofficial leaders of your team are.
- Clarity: when people don’t understand why they need to do something that breeds resistance.
- Inspect the sticking points: see where resistance is to see how to smooth it, but also look at whether that part is necessary for the project at large.
- If you have to take a few hits along the way but you know something needs to be done, "don’t let the bastards get you down!" Really understand the environment you are working within, and what the ripple effects will be.
I returned to the conference center where I met up with my girlfriend who was in a meeting with Allison King from Mintel, and heard about some of the new features Mintel has to offer. Some features I knew from my time at NYU, but I wasn’t aware there were Mintel blogs, and Trendscapes (which maps trends) were new to me. The Explore feature also now allows you to search trends by demographic sectors themselves.
Towards the end of this meeting we were joined by a librarian I went to undergrad with, Dana Casper, who is the founder of the What Would Giles Do? Facebook group. The group is for librarians to network, share library related news and get feedback on ideas. We caught up and I showed her a few things in the conference center she had missed.
From there we went back to the hotel and dropped things off. My girlfriend prepped some things for that evening: she was the Chair of New Members Round Table’s social committee and their Annual Social was that night. Mango Languages was sponsoring it which was handy because their party followed and took place at the same venue, Tin Roof.
We put out some minor swag (mints, pens, ETC) on the tables at Tin Roof, and I helped keep the non-librarians from sneaking in (it is a popular venue). Awards were given, games played, torches passed and food eaten. We mingled a bit and networked and eventually it became the Mango party which we have attended every year since we started attending ALA.
Towards the end of this meeting we were joined by a librarian I went to undergrad with, Dana Casper, who is the founder of the What Would Giles Do? Facebook group. The group is for librarians to network, share library related news and get feedback on ideas. We caught up and I showed her a few things in the conference center she had missed.
From there we went back to the hotel and dropped things off. My girlfriend prepped some things for that evening: she was the Chair of New Members Round Table’s social committee and their Annual Social was that night. Mango Languages was sponsoring it which was handy because their party followed and took place at the same venue, Tin Roof.
We put out some minor swag (mints, pens, ETC) on the tables at Tin Roof, and I helped keep the non-librarians from sneaking in (it is a popular venue). Awards were given, games played, torches passed and food eaten. We mingled a bit and networked and eventually it became the Mango party which we have attended every year since we started attending ALA.
The Mango people are always great and this year I was able to tell them how much our patrons love their product, which was nice after they were so welcoming over the years.I usually end my classes with a mini-lesson on getting to the databases and I mention Mango and Lynda when I do. Through the night I heard some amazing stories about other libraries, found out that Steam now has Library/Educator licenses, and told several people they should look on the NYPL site’s career section as there were some sharp people who enjoy evening shifts.
Monday
Monday arrived and with it more sessions, though they were dwindling for sure. The first was really cool and full of good stuff, and below are the rapid-fire notes I took:
50 Tech tools in 90 minutes!
Presenter link: www.educatoralexander.com
Handout link: www.educatoralexander.com/uploads/8/7/3/1/8731656/50__tech_tools_handout.pdf
All the tools: www.educatoralexander.com/symbaloo.html
After that we headed to Library Camp which is a closing session in which attendees group up and discuss what they came away with from the conference. I live tweeted a little during it, and took the following notes:
There weren’t other sessions (open ones anyway) so we headed back to the hotel, sorted all the ALA whatnot we had accumulated, and packed most of everything up so we wouldn’t have to worry about it before heading to the closing ceremony.
Tuesday morning we made our way to the conference center and snagged some amazing seats for the closing session and the Presidential exchange of power.
Handout link: www.educatoralexander.com/uploads/8/7/3/1/8731656/50__tech_tools_handout.pdf
All the tools: www.educatoralexander.com/symbaloo.html
- Teacher Tools has forms & letters for anything you need already created and you can download them into Word!
- Catpin has bubble tests of all kinds!
- Puzzlemaker makes smoothies. Wait, no… puzzles.
- ViewPure shows you youtube videos WITH NO ADS!!! Or comments or literally any damn thing. Just videos.
- KeepVid is a way to download from Youtube
- Weebly is a great web design/hosting site (I use it).
- Spelling City makes spelling and vocab tests that talk.
- Online Stopwatch does a stopwatch or a countdown. Put it up full screen during tests.
- March 2 Success (login required) is an army site that does test prep for ACT SAT and several others.
- Kahoot online gaming system (requires a phone, ipad, desktop or SOMETHING to use) where students compete to answer the questions that come up. Keeps score and grades them but it’s a trivia type game. It has a mechanism to make sure they are playing that and not just messing with their phone.
- Socrative is the less colorful Kahoot.
- EDPuzzle allows you to upload videos from youtube or wherever, but then you can make it stop and do a quiz you create and then the video continues. Then it gives you a list of the scores, who completed it etc.
- Play Postit is even better than EDPuzzle!
- Poll Everywhere was the OG polling creator. More options when you sign in.
- TimeToast is an electronic timeline creator. Add photos, videos, whatever and they can be turned in electronically.
- Thinglink is a presentation tool. Upload a picture or video lip and you can add link buttons to them.
- Lunapic is a photo editor.
- Imagechef has a ton of images you can personalize and use. It has imagechef.com in the corner so it’s copyright cleared.
- Recite is a way to make posters.
- Flaming Text is a logo creator. Lots of fonts and stuff.
- Canva is the hot new thing! Allows you to make posters, flyers, there’s templates. Apply for a paid subscription for free with a school or library email address and tax exempt ID.
- Flocabulary has educational videos in hip-hop format. There’s some free ones but also paid ones. They have interactive lyrics, fill in the blanks, quizzes, teacher guides etc.
- Lodge McCammon has educational music and stuff. He was on Discovery Education. Some REALLY advanced!
- Crashcourse is by John Green. Educational videos.
- Make Beliefs Comix lets you MAKE COMICS!!!
- PowToon is an animated video creator. Every August they give out a million free teacher accounts with 60 student licenses for free. 8 Bit style!
- DVolver is another video maker. DON’T LET STUDENTS MAKE THESE THEMSELVES! There’s some… uh… sexy stuff.
- Tellagami lets you upload a picture and it makes a character and you can use that to make a video.
- Go Animate is another animator.
- Animoto lets you string photos and videos together to make movies.
- WeVideo does too.
- Photo Peach is so simple it’s for kids basically.
- Google Shortener shortens URLs like Bitley and Tinyurl, but also gives you QR Codes and stats on the site you shortened.
- Study Stack and Cram make free electronic flash cards. It keeps track of scores and there’s games and stuff. Works on phones too!
- Quizlet too but it has a lot of other stuff as well.
- Symbaloo lets you make a box of links which is what she used for the presentation. Use it as a homepage to have all your favorite places come up at once. You can share them too! There’s an EDU version. This is what she used to do the presentation!
- Sqworl is a mini version of Symbaloo. Gives you bigger links and there’s more visualization.
- Verbal Workout lets you search for a book and then it pulls vocab out and gives you pre and post reading assignments with a printer friendly list of vocab. Can select by chapters etc. Tells you where they are on the SAT list, where it is, a sample from the book and more. Free. Mainly fiction though.
- Instagrok makes concept maps. You can find already done ones too. Electronic concept maps can have videos, photos etc too. Can take notes on it. Also can create a quiz on the topic. Quizzes have a link to the sources online.
- Random has all things random. Random numbers, coin flips, all kinda stuff.
- Voicethread may not be free for long. Lets you record audio over videos, powerpoints, etc.
- Remind (has educator accounts) lets you text without a cell phone. Can set up announcements for future times. It will ask if you are sure you want to send if it is super late at night. Can be chat or one way only.
- Jing and Screencast-o-matic are free Camtasias.
- Screenleap lets you share your screen to any device over the internet.
- Flipquiz is a free online jeopardy. Only paid keeps score though.
- Diigo is an online toolbar. Keeps bookmarks, lets you highlight or put post-its on websites.
- ConvertCase fixes allcaps. (I raised my hand and told her that Shift + F3 does too, which she wrote down to add to her next talk)
- Wordcounter tells you how many times you’ve used CERTAIN words.
After that we headed to Library Camp which is a closing session in which attendees group up and discuss what they came away with from the conference. I live tweeted a little during it, and took the following notes:
- Patron sentences:
- “The library is the only place I can bring my kids and not have to say no.”
- “The library is the only place I feel rich.”
- “The library is a great place where I can bring my children and actually play.”
- Grace Lynn said “Look at your bookshelves. Are they mirrors or are they windows? You need both.”
- Family engagement is not a program: It’s a process.
- Science was, for most of human history, about decoding the world, but now it is mostly about encoding the world. –NASA Astronaut.
- Most small or indie authors would just donate their book/ebook to the library if they were contacted. Money saver.
- Someone tried to flush blue jeans in a library bathroom. Yikes.
There weren’t other sessions (open ones anyway) so we headed back to the hotel, sorted all the ALA whatnot we had accumulated, and packed most of everything up so we wouldn’t have to worry about it before heading to the closing ceremony.
Tuesday morning we made our way to the conference center and snagged some amazing seats for the closing session and the Presidential exchange of power.
Jamie Lee Curtis gave an excellent, heartfelt, entertaining speech. She spoke about her education, her relationship to what she called “Show-Off Business” and her parents.
Her new book has a pop-up at the end, but she knows enough about libraries and schools to know that such things do not generally last long so she had her publishers make two versions: one with and one without:
I had planned to get my card into her hands in person by buying a copy of the book and having her sign it, but apparently this year you needed a wristband to get a book signed. The wristband was available the day before at one of the booths and there was a notice in that day’s Cognotes about it which neither of us saw. While that didn’t happen, I had previously reached out to the press people and they sent her publicist my questions. I am planning to reach out to her via social media and see if perhaps I can make something happen.
This year’s ALA had some valuable and interesting sessions, and I managed to contact a number of celebrities on behalf of the library for our blog. There is an excellent write up of the conference in this post by The Librarian In Black as well.
This year’s ALA had some valuable and interesting sessions, and I managed to contact a number of celebrities on behalf of the library for our blog. There is an excellent write up of the conference in this post by The Librarian In Black as well.