The ALA Conference is just around the corner... right after the 4th of July weekend, which makes the whole first part of July a little nuts. This week, Friday is a holiday for the 4th (which is Saturday), and I'm taking Monday off too. Then that Thursday I'll be leaving for the conference. Life in the fast lane.

All 40 student-to-staffers have been e-mailing back and forth using the student2staff list Don Wood set up, trying to plan going out for pizza on Thursday night. However, I won't be there, because I am the excited holder of a ticket to see NPR's "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" at the Chase Auditorium in Chicago! If you could hear Karl Castle saying those words in your head as you read them, then you know what I'm talkin' about! One of the ALA arms (I forget which) purchased all the tickets for the show and are re-selling them at a premium as a fundraiser. Wait Wait is in turn making it a library show. It should be quite a hoot. Anyway, I think there are at least four of us who are going to Wait Wait, so we'll hopefully get dinner together before the show.

That was, incidentally, something I hoped to try to organize today... we'll see what kind of response I get.

Now on to business. I will be working with the Office of Information Policy. They'll have two meetings about copyright that they'll need my help with; one on Friday and one on Sunday. Then they'll need me Monday from around noon - 6:30 p.m. for their programs on that day. So far it sounds like I have Saturday free, which is pretty amazing. I'm a little chagrined because there's a preconference on Friday that I would LOVE to go to, about XSL. I really need to learn XSL for work, but I feel obligated to help with OITP first, and they need me on Friday. I'm still debating whether I could go and just leave early; depends on the location of things. We'll see.

I can't believe the onslaught of e-mails I've been getting from different arms of the ALA reminding me to do this and that. I've just been forwarding the interesting ones to one e-mail account, and hopefully at some point I'll find time to sit down with a calendar and see if I can work out a schedule. What makes it crazier is that I'm on several listservs, so I get the same announcement multiple times. So maybe it's not that bad. But oh yeah -- I have to remember to RSVP for an FSU alumni thing! That will definitely be neat.

Well, 10 p.m. and I'm exhausted as usual. More to come!

A little introduction

Each year, 40 lucky students in graduate library science programs across the country get to attend the American Library Association Annual Conference for free -- that's right, folks, free -- in exchange, that is, for our labor. (Who said anything in life is truly free?) Each program can send one student; it is up to each program to choose which student to nominate for this experience. I feel pretty lucky that the College of Information at Florida State University chose me for this experience. (Thanks, Christie and Pam!). 

ALA is covering my conference registration, hotel stay, and provide $200 for incidental expenses; the College of Information agreed to pay for my airfare and other costs, up to $350. In exchange, I will work approximately 16 hours during the four days of the conference. Not a bad deal at all!

Each student is assigned to work with a particular part of the ALA organization; I will be working with the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). It looks like I'll be helping out with the programs OITP members will present throughout the conference. Since I am a newly minted digital librarian at Southern New Hampshire University (I started working there in March, and will finish my last class of grad school in August), this is an excellent fit.

Pre-conference programs begin Friday, July 9, and the conference wraps up on Tuesday, July 14. Look for me to start blogging like crazy on Thursday night!