the good and bad of ala

it's been a while, but i have a valid excuse. i have been so busy at work, and over last weekend, the american library association's mid-winter meeting was held here in boston. i went for work and just had so much to do!

the bad:
i attended an alcts (association for library collections and technical services) symposium on "living digital." i did not like it. first, it separated people into these new buzz terms: "digital native" or "digital immigrant." the only people using those terms are older librarians! these aren't legitimate ways to classify ourselves or our users! basically, if you were born after 1980 and have always had technology in your home or classroom, you're a digital native. if you were born before 1980, you're an immigrant. even though i was not born after '80, i consider myself a native because i've been using a computer since kindergarten and grew up with a video-gaming system in my house. i call it close enough. but mostly, these terms just create an us v. them attitude. it gives librarians an excuse to not embrace technologies or to think that today's students don't do work like "we" did. i will say, ann wolpert, the director of mit libraries spoke on a panel and she was fantastic and one of the few speakers who seemed to have a lot of sense. otherwise, everyone speaking was a "digital immigrant" speaking about THE OTHER! shouldn't they have been a little more even-handed and less "books are disappearing" doom and gloom? there was not one "digital native" speaking at the event!

the good:
i ran into a former co-worker from atlanta, georgia on the exhibit floor. we went out for drinks. it was great to see her. i also had the opportunity to attend a special event at the eric carle museum of picture book art in western massachusetts. he's the author/illustrator of the very hungry caterpillar. check out the web site--it was cool! and while i was there, i got to meet and hear norton juster, the author of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE children's book, the phantom tollbooth. and he even signed the copy i've had since 1989 :)


but i've been worn out from all this and so have nothing else to really blog about at the moment. lee and i haven't even been eating dinner together very much, so i have no good food news either!

p.s.--i should say here that i have nothing against older librarians. or even old libraries! i just feel that some librarians are alarmist about print collections. they're not really going anywhere any time soon. i know--i've pretty much only worked in historical/special collections libraries...