American Library Association Conference

Attending the annual ALA conference in Anaheim was exhilarating, meaningful, and very enriching. To be surrounded by 20,000 library people, authors, and vendors was confirmation that the world of information and resources is alive and well, and my profession continues to flourish despite what the budget-cutters may believe.
Sessions were available for school, academic, museum and other special interest librarians, often held at the same time to make us choose which excellent session to attend. The publishing vendors gave away thousands of books, perhaps galley proofs, but still giving us an opportunity to read something new by a favorite author before it hits the shelves.
The musical performances were outstanding, I really enjoyed the Rock Bottom remainders with Steven King, Amy Tan, Mitch Ablom, Dave Barry, Max Groening, Roger McGwin and many others who continued to play long past closing time. Betty LaVette, the closing performer was moving and has a great voice. Yes we all know Motown, but she was Motown before it became popular. I thought it interesting that she saw the British Invasion of the 60s to be a competitive threat to her career, as they took so much attention away from the R&B singers.
Well organized, excellent services and many opportunities for collegial sharing, I am thrilled to have a chance to attend, and I thank AkASL for the financial help as well as ALA for the experience. I am going next year, if I am able, Chicago is a favorite of mine!

Moodling Around

Using Moodle as a course delivery system is quite interesting, while not replacing real-time, face-to-face contact, it is a wonderful way to give and get documents, share resources, administer quizzes, upload content, and many other things. So much easier (& cheaper than Blackboard),  using it in teaching Alaska History for Educators has helped me learn more about Moodle, and value its strengths. Tomorrow I am to to train teachers how to use it, so it will become even more important to learn how to use it. Some teachers do not want to learn another system, interface or web-based teaching tool. I can't say I blame them, with all of the user-unfriendly programs that ae a part of their day, this is one more burden. We will try to make it fun, bring candy...games...puppies...