Professional Conferences, Summer 2014 Edition

Posted by melissaicd on May 26, 2014
Posted in: advocacy, ALA, APALA, education, librarianship, outreach. Tagged: , , , , .
Image of the splash icon of the Knowledge + Alliance Initiative.

Knowledge + Alliance Initiative: Essential Information Workshop – Los Angeles

On Friday and Saturday, May 30-May 31, 2014, I will be traveling to Loyola Marymount University to co-host the two-day Essential Information Workshop-Los Angeles (EIW-LA). For the past couple of months, I have been working as the Curriculum Coordinator and conducting collaborative work with Gwendolyn Prellwitz, Assistant Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Diversity, and Jennifer Masunaga, Loyola Marymount University Reference and Instruction Librarian and EIW-LA Logistics Coordinator.

The work we have been doing to develop the EIW-LA event has been the most rewarding, most exhilarating part of my career as a librarian to-date.

Connected to this is a poster proposal that I am working on with Isabel Gonzalez-Smith, Coordinator for EIW-Chicago, to participate in the Library Research Seminar VI at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I hope our proposal gets accepted!

After the EIW-LA events, I will be looking ahead to attending ALA Annual 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Knowledge Alliance Initiative will figure prominently in my plans and attendance at this year’s ALA Annual Conference, though I still need to finalize all the specific events I am obliged to attend. And the ones that I prefer to attend on a just-because-I-want-to basis. Of course, hanging out with people I love are high on the priority list! As are hearing Dr. Jane McGonigal, Stan Lee, Lois Lowry and Jeff Bridges, B.J. Novak and Azar Nafisi. In Conferences past, I had prioritized work and obligations over networking, socializing, and my own personal knowledge and learning. This time, I am hoping I will be able to see all the speakers I intend to see.

Because my dear spouse and our youngest child will be coming along, and we will be staying till the morning of 4th of July, I will be making a point of enjoying time and sun with them. OT: Our oldest child will be going with her theater group to Ashland, Oregon for the annual Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We’ll do something fun and with her when we get back from the conference.