Wednesday, April 14, 2010

ALA: yay or nay?

ALA's annual conference is around the corner and I'm still on the fence about attending. I haven't attended any of the conferences in the past, the big difference being this time around that it's practically in my backyard so I wouldn't have to worry about travel or hotel, etc. It won't be this close again for at least several more years, so that's another reason why it might be nice to go, but on the cons side it's a little more than $200 that my work won't be reimbursing me for and I'll have to use my own personal vacation time to attend. So I'd be paying a couple hundred bucks and using my vacation...to do something work related? Hmmm...

The peanut gallery isn't making the decision any easier, as I've been told by friends and coworkers that this is both an event that "can't be missed" as well as being "as dull as watching paint dry." Quite the conundrum.

5 comments:

  1. Spouse used to bring home good swag... Probably not worth $200 and vacation time, though.

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  2. just freakin go... unless the $200 really is a lot of money... but if you would normally spend that same amount on a night of drinking a decent lunch and a good dinner, then go. I would love to go to ALA just to nerdwatch. I would take pix of all the librarians who looked interesting (whether nerdy or not) and post them on my blog. I would tweet and eat free food and get drunk participate in the secret librarian battle decks games where you bring a pack of catalog cards and draw to see the high call number.. the loser gets rapped on the knuckles with the bundle of cards. the dirty rules let you cut a knuckle the edge of a single card or scrape the knuckles by fanning with the whole deck. yes, I just made this up based on what we played with baseball cards when I was little. you could actually get pretty cut up playing this game. but go, already. stock up on pens. and wear one of those QR-code thingies that point to your blog because everyone else will have one (nerds).

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  3. Yes, the lure of free pens and other junk is mighty powerful and secret librarian torture games sound pretty good too. These are the things ALA should advertise about it's lengthy conference packet!

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  4. I've been to one ALA conference and one PLA conference before the economy took a dive and such things were halted.

    Pros
    -you might find an interesting workshop
    -you get lots of cool free shit (tote bags to last you five years, pens, posters, books, etc., etc.)
    -people watching is epic
    -going to lunch with someone cool, then getting drunk and forgetting about your afternoon session and wandering the exhibit hall getting more free shit (which may or may not have been the same stuff you got before, but who cares, because you're drunk)
    -you are not at work, so, if you skip out early, you don't have to feel guilty, as long as you got your free shit from the exhibitors.

    Cons
    -you might go to a really cool workshop and find out that you end up singing "If you're happy and you know it" and sneak out early when everyone closes their eyes and makes a wish
    -getting trapped in a lunch with a librarian that at first seems cool, but really is a leech, whines about her job, and hopes that you can get her a new one and then she won't leave you alone for the rest of the conference because it seems that you're in the same hotel together and therefore, signs point to the fact that you are her new BESTIE!
    -using vacation time to potentially be more irritated than you would be at work

    I'd say go, you get cool free stuff. That tipped it for me.

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  5. I'm going! But only on an exhibit only pass.

    Wonder if anyone would be up for going clubbing afterward...

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