#alamw12: Member POV - Hello, goodbye, see you next time

Photo by dianecordell (www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/).

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After getting home from the conference, I had posted on Facebook yesterday that for anyone else having conference withdrawal, #libchat was about to start on Twitter (libchat is a weekly, informal discussion on Wednesdays from 8–9:30pm EST for any librarian or info professional to participate in; people submit questions to the moderator and each gets 10 minutes of discussion time—see the explanation on HackLibSchool).

Anyhow, my non-librarian friend saw this post and commented, “dude, people have conference withdrawal?” and also, “that is…freaky, I seriously got bored to death just thinking about someone else getting withdrawals from a conference…” Of course this is funny, and it does seem silly to actually even say “conference withdrawal,” but I always experience it after ALA conferences, and I know others do too. I think it’s a different experience than most other types of professional conferences, especially in more recent years with people seeming to be even more excited about connecting not just professionally, but also personally. I have so many friends spread across the country (and the world, too) that I usually only get to see once or twice a year. It’s sad to say bye as everyone leaves. The last day of the conference is always bittersweet. It’s usually the day I have some of the best conversations because fewer people are around so it gets more personal and in-depth, but then you have to say bye.

Conferences, just like with ALA in general, as my former Emerging Leaders teammate Abby Johnson, said (and I love this quote), “ALA is not your mom.” You really do have to make the conference your own. It’s not just about going to sessions and listening to people talk. Those are good for learning, sometimes, but I get the most out of the informal discussions, the more grassroots-organized events (for example, the Unconference, or Library Camp), and the socials. I have an overwhelming list of projects I am going to be undertaking with other people that I am thrilled to be overwhelmed by. If you don’t step outside of your comfort zone and meet other people and try new things, you may as well just stay home and read about the sessions.

So, wrapping up another great conference, I got to see old friends, I got to make some new friends, and learned a lot in the process. I’m looking forward to Annual and getting rolling on all the awesome stuff I have in the works. See you in Anaheim!

Nicole Pagowsky is an instructional services librarian at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She is the creator of Librarian Wardrobe (librarianwardrobe.tumblr.com) and tweets (@pumpedlibrarian).