I’m baaaccckkk!!! I haven’t been to any conferences in about a year and a half, and that was sufficient to actually make me look forward to attending an ALA Midwinter. I even managed to make it to the 8am Committee/IG Chairs Meeting by 8:05. Hey, I had to get my Diet Coke, okay? And I paid $3.50 for it in the Convention Center, so it deserved my due attention.
This meeting is, obviously, aimed at committee/interest group chairs, but anybody can come really — anybody who can make it to an 8am meeting, anyway — and it’s a good way to get updated on LITA news at the beginning of the conference. Various tidbits:
Someone asked about the online communities pilot that ALA did about 6 months ago — what was the upshot of that? The online community option is available now; just contact Mary Taylor about getting one set up for your group. Some people who have already used it commented that it’s very useful for document sharing.
The deadline to request A/V equipment for Annual conference is now March 1. It would be very helpful if program planners could actually get these requests in to Valerie in the LITA Office by February 15.
This led to the (quite reasonable, I think) request that a current version of the program planning calendar be put up on the Web site.
Rob Carlson is moving to the position of Manager of Web Development in ALA IT as of January 30. I’m disappointed that Rob will no longer be our own personal possession, but glad that we’ll still benefit through his presence in ALA dealing with the Web site. Thanks, Rob, for doing such a fantastic job for LITA and for your unflappability.
We will be hearing soon about the process to change to the new Content Management System, Serena Collage. Among its very nice features are automatic link updating, the availability of statistics reporting, and an edit button right on the each page for people who are authorized to make changes.
I’m in withdrawal from playing World of Warcraft, folks (I got my new Tauren Druid character up to level 27 at 11:30pm the night before I left home), so I’ve got to occupy myself with something. And so far the Convention Center $25-for-the-conference wireless deal is working well for me. So you’ll be hearing more from me whether you like it or not. Don’t mess with me — I can change into a bear and a lion.