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Wired West: Volume 11, no. 4

An Excellent Adventure in the Emerald City

By Karen Sawatzky

SLA2008! I recently attended the SLA conference in Seattle, thanks to a grant from the Western Canada Chapter of SLA. This was an exhausting, exhilarating conference! Who knew librarians could party - I mean network - like this?! I attended educational sessions, queried vendors on their products, and mingled with other librarians and library technicians (solos, like me, as well as those who work in team environments) and, of course, did a little sightseeing as well.

The anticipation started a few weeks before even leaving for Seattle. I started receiving invitations to vendor demonstrations, dessert parties, and opportunities for fabulous prize draws (I so wanted to win the iPod Touch, but I didn't) by mail and email. I responded where I needed to, and put the rest in a folder to bring to the conference, so I wouldn't forget anything. About a week before, I joined the SLA2008 Twitter community, and reading tweets of who had left or was about to leave made it even more exciting.

After arriving in Seattle on Saturday, and settling into my hotel, I headed for Ruth's Chris Steak House for the get together organized by Susan McConkey. Susan had anticipated maybe 4 or 5 people would show up - instead we overwhelmed the lounge! It was obvious a number of people were already acquainted, but for me, it was an opportunity to learn some names before the conference began.

Sunday afternoon I attended the newcomers reception. Those of us who were attending our first SLA conference got to hobnob with board members, including president Stephen Abrams. We had an icebreaker bingo to complete, which ensured we all talked to lots of different people. The hardest squares to fill were someone who was a twin, and someone who had a sports car! I guess that kind of says something about librarians!

Sunday evening marked the beginning of the networking receptions. Every evening I found somewhere to go and meet other conference attendees. One highlight was the LexisNexis dessert party, held at the Music Experience Project, which the group I was with then followed by crashing the Elsevier party at W Hotel. A live jazz band, open bar and great food - what more could you ask for! And then there was the "prom", the party organized by the Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics Division (PAM). I had heard that this was THE highlight of the conference, and I couldn't miss it. I wasn't disappointed!

Okay, so enough about the parties! Believe it or not, I also attended several educational sessions, choosing those with a focus in the areas of leadership, new technology, and teaching adult learners. As a solo, these are areas that I need to work on.

The Solo Librarians Division sponsored a session on leadership called "Building on Your Natural Abilities". The speaker emphasized the need to be trustworthy to increase credibility. "Do something brilliant" was another piece of advice. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was intuitively following this already. (It's so easy to appear brilliant when no one else can do what you do!)

The Legal Librarians Division sponsored an "Emerging Technologies" breakfast. I sat with a West Law representative and a librarian from Hewlett Packard. I was disappointed with this session, as I didn't find anything "emerging" about any of the technology discussed. The Hewlett Packard librarian's comment was, "The bacon was good." I did get one idea: one of the presenters talked about "just in time learning", i.e. teaching something just as someone needs to learn it. I'm going to take this concept and apply it by creating very short videos to demonstrate key concepts so my clients can do things when I'm not there.

Another area I'm always trying to improve is how I instruct my firm members. I attended a session titled "To Teach so They can Learn", which was led by a psychologist who works with educators, Dr. Ilda Carreiro King. This was definitely the best of the sessions I attended. Dr. King had some very helpful suggestions about adult learners which I will incorporate into my own methods.

Aside from visiting the first Starbucks in Pikes Market (and, of course, purchasing a thermal coffee mug with the original artwork), the absolute highlight of the conference was getting the opportunity to talk to other law firm librarians about how they served their clients. I met many people from the chapter, especially from Vancouver. I got a lot of affirmation that I'm doing the right things here, as well as some tips on how to build stronger relationships with my clients and some new ideas.

The travel grant meant I was easily able to convince my firm to cover expenses over and above the grant. They are now prepared to fund me fully for other out-of-town conferences. If you're a new professional, I highly encourage you to apply for this. SLA 2009 in Washington, DC sounds like it will be a time to remember!

Karen Sawatzky is the Library Manager at Pitblado LLP in Winnipeg, and was the 2008 recipient of the WCC Annual Conference Travel Award.

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