Just had to write... a great professional trip to Chicago!

So I went to Chicago yesterday - train left at 7:30am, and I took the train back, returning into Ann Arbor at 12:00am.  A long, long day.  But a good one;  my time there couldn't have been better spent.

I had the opportunity to present at the Educause Midwest Regional Conference, held at the InterContinental Hotel right down town.  My supervisor at the library and I participated in a poster session, where we displayed a poster we'd created and talked to people about it's contents.  Our poster was on assessment of handouts that we provide at the Knowledge Navigation Center, Faculty Exploratory and Tech Deck.  We complete four focus groups earlier in the term to evaluate how people learn new technology and what they like and dislike about the handouts we currently provide.  Of course, the like the longer handout, but want a shorter handout, videos, an interactive handout, and activities.  Needless to say, this was the first phase of our research. 

It was interesting, because during the hour-long poster session I learned several things.  First, I learned more about our project, just by talking about it and answering questions.  I was able to better synthesize what we'd actually done and what we could do in the future.  Second, I learned that not a lot of others have done this sort of assessment of their materials.  To me, it seemed a fairly small task - a few focus groups and analyzing a fairly small amount of data, but it's just something that people haven't done.  Finally, I learned what it was like to be at a conference.  I was a bit nervous at first, but found the whole experience to be great professional development. 

After our session, I traveled down to the Harold Washington Library YouMedia Center   I had a chance to see not only a big, beautiful, old public library (which, ahem, needs to do research on how it uses it's huge amount of space), but also a youth media center in action.  And wow, what a place.  The walls are a bright green, there are flat screens on every wall, a young librarian (a 2008 SI grad) was working with some boys on redesigning and creating their youth center blog while another set of kids practiced their spoken word and recorded music.  IN THE LIBRARY.  This reconfirmed my beliefs that public libraries not only have to redefine themselves, but can and should.  The YouMedia Center was one of the most lively places I've ever seen and kids actually want to be there.  In my mind, this should be a model for other public libraries who are "fighting to survive."  This place isn't just surviving, it's thriving.  And your library can do this too... the MacArthur Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) are scaling this up, and offering an RFP that will end up funding 30 libraries nationwide.  They see the value in sustainable, progressive public libraries, and they're showing it can be done. 

It was so inspiring to see this and it gave me a lot of hope for our profession if we are willing to be creative, step outside the box, help people think about libraries differently, and make this change happen.