My first session of the conference was the ACRL University Libraries Section’s (ULS) Committee on the Future of University Libraries, which took place Friday afternoon, June 24. About 14 people participated with several more via phone.
Saturday’s LITA-sponsored program “You Mean Libraries Will Be Able to Deliver Electronic Content Better Than iTunes and Netflix?” provided an update on the Presidential Task Force on equitable access to electronic content.
A panel of policymakers, librarians, and disability experts will report on recent efforts to increase access to information for people with print disabilities during the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) program, “The Right to Read: Increasing Access to Information for People with Print Disabilities,” to be held Sunday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in MCC-Room 397.
Feedback. Saturday’s 2011 ALA Annual Conference tweets definitely had feedback as the theme—on the “hot spots” (or lack of same) within the convention center; on the breathless (and seatless) popularity of some sessions; on this conference of library colleagues itself… .
On Friday, the Reference Services Section (RSS) and the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) co-sponsored a day-long preconference called “Strange Bedfellows: IT and Reference Collaborations to Enhance User Experiences.”
Five years after ALA held its first-ever “Libraries Build Communities” volunteer effort in New Orleans, more than 220 ALA volunteers from across the U.S. gathered at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for what has become the annual “Libraries Build Communities” event, a daylong community service effort from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. on Friday.
Interview by Jonathan Kelley
Charles Brownstein mans the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Booth #1749, located in the graphic novel aisle of the Exhibit Hall at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference.
Dan Savage, author of the syndicated column “Savage Love” and the editorial director of Seattle’s weekly newspaper The Stranger, described the rapid evolution of the “It Gets Better” Project that he and his husband Terry Miller began as a way to speak directly to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth.
