Cindi over at Chronicles of Bean nails it. It is time to participate!
This was my first ALA conference and I’ve never felt like I got a lot out of most of the other conferences I attended. This time I got out there and met some awesome librarians, and made some new contacts and some new friends, and had a great time.
I have a lot of respect for “vintage” librarians who paved the way for information freedom and access, but they did not pave the way for rapid innovation, experimentation, and play. The new playing field for information freedom and access is there. Let’s play! And be edgy and experimental, and make mistakes, and learn from them, and not be perfect all the time. I heard this over and over from a variety of speakers; It’s not all recursive argumentation derived from one source. It emanates from all areas and arenas of librarianship, from being stifled and controlled and not being allowed to talk in the library, or play in the library, or experiment in the library. We have to get out there and try something new, and particpate in the culture of change by putting ourselves out on a limb.
PAR-TIC-I-PA-TION, or 37 pieces of library flair from Cindiann
http://alreadygone.blogspot.com/2007/06/par-tic-i-pa-tion-or-37-pieces-of.html