TLA wrap-up, some brief thoughts.

The Texas Library Association 2009 conference concluded today; I attended a highly technical talk given on the MARCedit program by its creator, which was pretty cool. Much of the discussion was WAY over my head, but it was good to be exposed to the material. I also got an informed opinion on how to handle MeSH headings, and it was good advice that I will heed, and MARCedit can help manage it.

In general, I actually got a lot out of a few Web/Libr 2.0 talks this time around, not least because the speakers didn't trash library traditions or hector us to "evolve or die!" or anything like that. THAT approach usually gets my back up and puts me on the defensive. This was not the case. The presenters I watched, both prominent Library bloggers, let their humanism show and I very much appreciated their re-affirmation of core library values and commitments. It put me at ease to hear them describing wanting to use technology to re-connect people back to the reading life of books, and to foster community around reading experiences. I really needed to hear that, and it did not go unnoticed.

I will probably soften/moderate my criticism of Libr/Web 2.0 from now on by way of response. I'm enjoying reading Slow Reading by John Miedema; Mr. Miedema is a self-professed former proponent (or at least believer in) of the all-digital future, that print would be rendered obsolete by technology, etc. He no longer accepts that view, while I never did. Some of his revelations are almost amusing to me as a result. I'm glad he changed his views, but I can't help snickering sometimes at why he ever thought that way in the first place. While no doubt some of his revelations were profoundly significant to him, to me they often produce a "well, duh..." response. Still, like I said, I'm glad he turned around and joined the Humanist side contra the ueber Technocrats.

I continue to be deeply impressed by LibLime, and their support for Koha and now Biblios.net; They are shy to say so, but Biblios.net is basically an open source bibliographic metadata web Database that could potentially rival OCLC. In any case, I'm thrilled by the SLIS-educational potential of both Koha and of Biblios.net; I'm thrilled that new catalogers just graduating and seeking jobs can now use Biblios.net to build a profile of sample records and save them in Biblios.net to present to potential employers to demonstrate a knowledge of the rules and an ability to apply them. They could even get creative and catalog their own YouTube videos. That would impress me if I were looking to hire a new MLS as a Catalog librarian. It's an exciting time to be in libraries, definitely.

I thought about getting up early to attend the NextGen Reference talk, but I just couldn't drag myself out of bed this morning. I'm not sure if anyone from my institution even bothered to attend TLA. If they did, they did not attend any of the sessions I did, nor did I see any of them in the hallways of the GRB between sessions, nor on the Exhibits floor. I did see a TWU graduate student from the SLIS program whom I have been mentoring of late; this student decided to do her practicum with our tech services department. I helped her with the cataloging aspects of tech services, eventually letting her do original cataloging on a VHS tape, and also assign LC subject headings to some Texas State Documents that lacked them, which was a good intellectual exercise.

It was a very worthwhile conference, and I'm very grateful my director and assistant director gave me the leave time and funding to attend. I plan to head back to North Texas by Sunday. I am doubtful that I will attend either the next TLA in San Antonio, nor the next one after that in Austin. I will go again when it swings back around to Dallas, assuming I'm still in the same position by that time, which I probably will be, if all continues to go well.

I remain skeptical of RDA and am going to continue researching the topic; I got some good tips at TLA of some RDA skeptics besides Michael Gorman (who I nevertheless adore and respect). LC treats RDA like the US Gov't treats AIG...as "Too Big To Fail". Psychology of past investment, all that. We'll see.