American Library Association Exhibits

On Monday, I took advantage of a free bus trip (sponsored by my county library system office) to the exhibits at the American Library Association Conference in Washington, D.C. This was my first trip to ALA. There was too much to see in the time allotted, so we scanned the list and made our choices.

I made it a point to visit the booth for my university. As an online student, I hadn't met anyone from the SIS Department. It was a pleasure to meet the associate dean.

I also went to the LibLime booth, because I have an assignment using its Koha Integrated Library System.

Another stop was the Innovative Interfaces Inc. display, where I saw a demonstration of WebPacPro, the online catalog which will soon be used in my library. One of the highlights is the ability for a patron to pay overdue charges through the system.

Google had a great set-up where you could use their features to answer research questions for a prize. Too bad, we were running out of time and had to move on.

At the end of the afternoon, exhausted, we trudged back to the bus with our canvas bags heavy with all our "freebies."

Now I'm looking forward to the ALA mid-winter meeting, which will be held in Philadelphia.