New Orleans! ALA! Excitement!
My parents sent me to the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans this past weekend for my 25th birthday.
And it. Was. AWESOME.
You'll probably hear more later, but I'm just gonna jot down some impressions for now:
- The whole city has a strange and somehow comforting smell. Like water and botanical gardens and moss and living things.
- As I walked towards the conference, one local turned to another. "I remember the last time the lye-barians came to town. 'Member?" "oh yeah, that was when..."
- Authors! They are awesome and friendly and funny and generally happy to be there, where they are appreciated.
- Storytellers. They are even more amazing than authors. I was entirely entranced. I also joined the National Storytellers because, well, they are amazing.
- Panels. Ask questions, get interesting answers. Everyone thinks my questions are interesting and worth their time to answer. I think everyone else's questions shine interesting light on subjects. And no one thinks it is at all unreasonable to spend a couple of hours discussing alternatives to Dewey, or how to make sure your LGBTQ collection gets circulated, or whether it is worth convincing college freshmen that if they use the library's "digital branch" (i.e. website) they have actually gone to the library, or... any number of other intriguing things that people not 'in the field' generally don't feel like spending hours discussing.
- I can make friends! One person gives tours of the grand canyon. I snuck her in to hear the storytellers. One person works for google, teaching people how a google search isn't the be all and end all. One person wants to convince me that Catholics don't hate me. One person does information accessibility activism for people with print disabilities. Multiple people do things I've never heard of for organizations I've never heard of, and it almost all is fascinating.
- Beignets (apparently pronounced "ben-yayz." whoops) are a fun form of fried dough. dense and served in orders of 3 on a plate piled high with powdered sugar. Also-- "Will you have coffee or chocolate milk with that, mam?" so I had chocolate milk. YUM.
And it. Was. AWESOME.
You'll probably hear more later, but I'm just gonna jot down some impressions for now:
- The whole city has a strange and somehow comforting smell. Like water and botanical gardens and moss and living things.
- As I walked towards the conference, one local turned to another. "I remember the last time the lye-barians came to town. 'Member?" "oh yeah, that was when..."
- Authors! They are awesome and friendly and funny and generally happy to be there, where they are appreciated.
- Storytellers. They are even more amazing than authors. I was entirely entranced. I also joined the National Storytellers because, well, they are amazing.
- Panels. Ask questions, get interesting answers. Everyone thinks my questions are interesting and worth their time to answer. I think everyone else's questions shine interesting light on subjects. And no one thinks it is at all unreasonable to spend a couple of hours discussing alternatives to Dewey, or how to make sure your LGBTQ collection gets circulated, or whether it is worth convincing college freshmen that if they use the library's "digital branch" (i.e. website) they have actually gone to the library, or... any number of other intriguing things that people not 'in the field' generally don't feel like spending hours discussing.
- I can make friends! One person gives tours of the grand canyon. I snuck her in to hear the storytellers. One person works for google, teaching people how a google search isn't the be all and end all. One person wants to convince me that Catholics don't hate me. One person does information accessibility activism for people with print disabilities. Multiple people do things I've never heard of for organizations I've never heard of, and it almost all is fascinating.
- Beignets (apparently pronounced "ben-yayz." whoops) are a fun form of fried dough. dense and served in orders of 3 on a plate piled high with powdered sugar. Also-- "Will you have coffee or chocolate milk with that, mam?" so I had chocolate milk. YUM.