Along with our LITA hosts (Thanks to Irmgarde and Paul!) we prepared to present a range of information, beginning with Diane who provided thorough and practical pc, printer, network and Internet troubleshooting tips, and an excellent primer for how to communicate with IT support when you can’t fix it yourself. Next Brenda gave an excellent overview of MaintainIT project and provided an opportunity for people to break off into smaller discussions (you know I liked that part!) about successes and challenges. She mentioned that their upcoming webinar is going to be co-presented by a teenager who helped develop the library’s PC reservation system! Then I finished with an overview of some of the great tech tools and best practices to come out of WebJunction, including TechAtlas and some of the brainstorms and action planning tools from the Rural Library Sustainability Project. My overall message was about how we need to stop reinventing the wheel and to bring unlikely collaborators into the work of technology planning and maintenance. I reminisced about when technology in the library involved signing patrons up to use the one branch PC to type resumes, in the day when the 3 typewriters in the neighboring carrels were still far more popular. Now our jobs are driven by technology inside and outside of the library, and we need to be accountable to our communities as stewards of that technology. We need to “pull open the circle” and recognize those in our library staff, our trustees, and our broader communities who have a role to play in keeping our computers up and running.

I have to say that the collaborative experience of developing and presenting with this panel, as with the 2.0 Cafe, made me feel even more excited to come back home and continue the work of getting ready to launch the next WJ platform. I can’t wait to pull open the circle of WJ!

Three of the awards were presented at Friday’s Member Reception. Award winners include Michele Leininger, Stephanie Gerding and Stephanie Race. All three have been actively involved in a number of WebJunction projects both online and f2f.

Stephanie Gerding is a nationally renowned consultant, librarian, author, and trainer from Arizona. She was Arizona’s Spanish Language Outreach Coordinator, Rural Library Sustainability Coordinator/Trainer, host of last year’s ALA Rural Café, WJ contributor, and truly committed collaborator.

Michele Leininger is the Continuing Education Consultant at the State Library of Iowa, Iowa Community Partner Team Lead, Coordinator/Trainer for Rural Library Sustainability Project. She has served as a mentor to all the State Community Partner Team Leads.

Stephanie Race is Assistant Director, NEFLIN (Northeast Florida Library Information Network), Florida’s Rural Library Sustainability Coordinator and Trainer, super WJ Advocate, and committed blogger of WJ resources and events on NEFLIN’s Blah, Blah, Blah Blog.

Two additional awards were presented on Saturday night at the joint Spanish Language Outreach Program and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries reception. Carla Lehn, from Library and Development Services at the California State Library, was recognized for her work with ARSL and with Rural libraries across the country. Elena Tscherny from the DC Public Library was nominated by peers and awarded for her work with the Spanish Language Outreach project and with REFORMA.

Our Diversity Fair Scholarship winners Miguel Vicente and Katie Cunningham presented their amazing outreach programs at yesterday’s OLOS Diversity Fair.  Miguel served as a trainer for the Spanish Language Outreach Program and Katie participated in a workshop in her area.  Both were selected to attend ALA and present posters at the Diversity Fair based on the successful outreach programs that have implemented for their Spanish-speaking communities. If you are interested in learning more about Miguel’s work at the Athens Regional Library in Georgia, view the webinar archive of the SLO June webinar. For more information about Katie’s outreach efforts at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio, check our case study about her project.

I had an excellent day at ALA, meeting and interacting with hordes of great librarians. A highlight was the Library 2.0 Café where we enjoyed a fruitful experience melding our Anaheim World Café session with a live Wimba webinar. None of our worries about the hotel internet connection materialized, allowing the technology to slip into the background while we concentrated on the conversation at hand. Stay tuned for a link to the session archive and a more indepth post from Jen.

Though the lack of technical glitches was probably my biggest victory of the day, the most fun I had was during Jen, Jim, and my impromptu boa and fan giveaway. What started as a way to lighten our load while shuffling conference materials to the exhibit floor quickly turned into a mini meet-and-greet. The boas didn’t get many takers from the sweaty crowd waiting for shuttle, but the fans were well received by ALA attendees (as well as the area cabbies).

The experience also brought home a concept we discussed at the Café session today: 2.0 doesn’t have to be complex. In a world of tight library budgets, improvisation has its place, too.

For example, take the goal of keeping cool in this LA heat. Sure, we could strive to develop a lightweight, solar-powered, personal air conditioning unit. And maybe with unlimited resources and a couple years of time we might even succeed. Or, we could just staple some tongue depressors to cardstock and start down the the path to cooling right now.

The showcase cooling system may someday have its day in the sun. But for now the low-budget fans are meeting the need.

Originally uploaded by Library Journal. (I’m not sure why it won’t play from our blog, but if you click the link, you’ll get there. Fixed!)

Hey, check it out this delightful convergence!

LJ filmed me talking about twitter and put me on their flickr stream and then their website #ALA2008 conference coverage.

Helene Blowers showed it to me over dinner from her mobile phone.

I’m posting it here from my flickr account, using the blog this function.

All this talk about twitter and twitter itself never came into play as it came back round. Ain’t the 2.0 conference thing grand?