Iowa Library Association conference

I also attended the ILA conference. As is often the case many of the most interesting moments occurred in conversations with colleagues during the breaks and meals. I was responsible for coordinating the ILA/ACRL membership booth in the exhibit hall and I spent a fair amount of time there in conversation and using the wireless connection in the hall.

Diane Lewin from III was right across from my booth and I had a couple of good conversations with her about practical (Encore versions, our future server needs) and far-reaching (the future of integrated library systems and the competition from open source developments and bibliographic utilities) topics.

Most of my academic library friends immediately wanted to talk about the economic situation, an especially unpleasant subject for friends from the Regent’s institutions who are trying to deal with the latest “budget by headline” 10 percent cut.

I found Free Range Librarian Karen Schneider’s talk on Friday morning to be both entertaining and informative. She used the concepts of waxing and waning to discuss the current status of some library services from her perspective.

She was on her way to California to start a new job as director of a small private college library (20,000 volumes, only 10,000 cataloged) and, not surprisingly, sees library services waxing and physical collections waning.

While there are many things that we at Preus Library need to do better, I came away from this conference feeling, once again, that we are more fortunate than many other Iowa academic libraries and that we are doing many things very well.