in ALA2006, Libraries/Info Sci

ALA 2006 – Day 3

What a day! I’m exhausted, and it probably shows in the quality of my blogging of today’s sessions.

I started the day by visiting some more vendors, in particular Lexis Nexis. They weren’t able to answer most of my questions about training options, as the pavilion was focused mostly on the product a step down from what we use at work. But I got some brochures, and sat in on a brief session about using their search of congressional records.

Afterwards, I dashed upstairs to the Professional Blogging session. Then time for lunch, which I attempted to eat at Mother’s on Poydras. But the line was ginormous, and I wouldn’t have gotten to eat in time for the next session I wanted to make. So I settled for a quick, less notable (but still good) sandwich elsewhere.

After lunch I got to the session on Exploring the Technology of Gaming, which I loved. Seeing my hobbies and profession come together is always interesting. Afterwards i ran into Stephanie from back at the Fairport Public Library, where I got my start shelving books in high school. Funny to think how much that affected my path in life.
Went back to the exhibit hall, mingled with people there. Finally met Rochelle! And I got to chat with John Blyberg a bit, who is a really really smart guy. I wish I had half his coding skills.

Rochelle and I headed over to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s speech for PLA (which he commented sounds awfully like an acronym for a militant liberation organization). Joking aside, his speech was remarkably moving. He broke down almost into tears multiple times over the situation in New Orleans. He reminded us all that in the convention center where we’ve been learning and socializing this week, people died less than a year ago from a simple lack of water. Their bodies were left unclaimed for days. Much of the outlying areas of New Orleans still look exactly as they did on day 1 after Katrina. Downtown may look good, but the city is anything but normal. Don’t forget them, don’t let New Orleans dwindle into an anecdote. I almost skipped this session, and I’m very glad I changed my mind.

After that sobering note, Rochelle and I visited the bar in her hotel in the French Quarter. Had a drink at the revolving carousel-style bar, which is remarkably disorienting but still pretty cool.

I had a late dinner with Jenny Levine, Kathryn Deiss (both of whom have great new jobs at ALA!) and gaming guru Eli Neiburger. We ate at a delicious place at the corner of Andrew Higgins Drive and Tchoupitoulas Street. But I can’t rememember the place’s name, other than it began with the letter C. Driving me mad! (Update later: Cochon! That was it.)
We stayed for a long time, ordering small plates of lots of different foods to pass around. The conversation never stopped, and it was really great to just sit down and chat with them.

By the time we left it was pouring rain, so we had the restaurant call us cabs. I took one on my own, as Loyola isn’t near their hotels. Had a fun conversation with the driver, after he stopped making fun of my inability to pronounce local road names 😛 Turns out he was stationed in Huntsville on the arsenal a while ago. Small world! The taxi was converted from an old police car, so still had a bright spotlight the driver could aim. He used it to play tour guide on the way, which was sort of fun.

Got back here, chatted with my suitemates for a bit, planned out stuff for tomorrow, and now to bed. I’ll miss seeing everyone here, and I wish I could stay and go with the group to work on local libraries, but I will be very glad to get back to my own bed tomorrow night.

I also added a few more pictures to the flickr set, but didn’t take very many today.