The NELA Conference

Wow! It’s been a busy month since I last posted.

I attended the New England Library Association Conference in Manchester, New Hampshire on October 19-21. There were lots of good programs including 3 organized by NETSL. I want to thank NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group) for sponsoring one of the programs. They paid for Victoria Reich of Stanford University to fly to Manchester to talk about the CLOCKSS (Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program on Monday morning.

Monday afternoon, Danny Joudry , Assistant Professor at Simmons College GSLIS and Diane Baden, of Boston College Libraries discussed some Hot Topics in Tech Services. Diane reviewed RDA and Dan talked about the education (or in some cases lack of education) of catalogers. This panel was followed by the first-ever reception for NETSL members. Good food, stimulating company and a free drink. What more could you ask?

On Tuesday, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Research Scientist at OCLC, presented Why not the Library First? and suggested ways to return our libraries to prime source status.

Another fantastic program that I attended was sponsored by the Information Technology Section called The Internet is NOT Flat with Ethan Zuckermann, cofounder of Global Voices. Ethan is one of the best speakers I have ever seen. His presentation was incredibly well-organized, thought-provoking and fun. His topics flowed smoothly from one to the next. If you ever have a chance to see him in person, I strongly recommend it.

Blogs posts of all NELA programs, along with links to presentations and handouts, are available at the NELA website. What a great way to catch up on programs that you missed.