SLA2009 wasn't my first conference, but it WAS my first SLA conference. I can't think of a better place to be introduced to the experience of SLA than Washington, DC. It is my third-favorite city after Boston and Omaha. There is an AURA that permeates the entire area and its surroundings ... but I digress. My three takeaways from this experience (well, four if you count the fact that hotels don't like debit cards):
- Never underestimate the power of revealing more of yourself than you think you should. I made connections in classes and in the KM Roundtable discussions that will help improve how I serve the faculty and students of the business college here at Creighton. In fact, I can't wait to have lunch with our Entrepreneurship professors to expound on what I learned!
- Embedded librarianship - a concept I've been following and espousing (am I using that word correctly?) for a couple of years. After listening to the presentation from the group at Catholic U., I think I may have come up with some ideas to advance this idea more concretely and maybe even get some co-located office space in the business college.
- I absolutely LOVED the session on Critical Thinking. It's something my husband and I (both in education) continuously admonish our children (and our students) to do... but usually it's from the standpoint of common sense. "Use the sense God gave a goose" pretty much sums up our attitude. But after listening to Rebecca Jones and company, I realized that we are only touching the tip of the iceberg - in essence, keeping the status quo.
So, if I can reframe my questions and assumptions about how KM/KS is necessary and should be used in academe, maybe I'll be better able to impact my "sphere of influence." (Hat tip to Dale and Guy!)
As the title of this post suggests, I came away from the conference with much more than three items/ideas/a-ha's. Synthesizing them all and adding all those business cards to my LinkedIn profile will be my great delight over the next year.
Cheerio! --ctc