Did you go to ALA?

I often get asked by non librarian folk if there is an annual gathering of librarians in which we get to talk about “librarian stuff”.  If you are also wondering, the answer is: yes. I had the pleasure of attending the 137th  ALA Annual Conference with several of the women from the DHC Fellow cohort. This year’s conference was held at McCormick Place, a massive convention center in Chicago.

DHC Fellows Lyla Medeiros (Left) and Jennifer Kishi (Right) at ALA 2013

As a representative of DHC, several Fellows and I attended the Dance Librarians Discussion Group (DLDG) roundtable. We introduced ourselves and spoke a little about the projects we are working on for DHC at our host archives. In addition to the DHC cohort, there were representatives from Yale University, NYPL for the Performing Arts, UCLA, and Chicago State. It was fantastic to meet and chat with the other dance librarians that attended.

With somewhere around 25,000 people attending ALA, the experience was overwhelming at times, but fun none the less. In addition to the DLDG, I also attended the ALA Job Fair and strolled around the exhibit hall where everything from high tech book scanners to library furniture was on display. I even saw a few friends from my alma matter Indiana University and of course I picked up some librarian swag from Baker & Taylor…

Librarian Swag: The “Cat Bag”

More about my project work at UCLA in my next post!

~Lyla