Thoughts from My First TLA Conference - Wednesday, April 20, 2016

I can't help but compare TLA to TMEA. They are similar types of conferences. Both seem well run, with a variety of speakers but TLA has the ritz factor. The small touches that probably help explain the extreme differences in price go to TLA. There are Ozarka water dispensers every few feet in the halls (maybe that's just this convention center?), amazing free snacks/dinner thingies.

I know I'm a bit everywhere - maybe sleep deprivation? But here's another observation. Diversity is a huge issue with librarians. Since I'm doing my degree online, I had no idea how...same...the majority of librarians seem. Not that we aren't all different people with different experiences, but I walked into a session with ~500 people and only 3 were men, and maybe a dozen were people of color. I hope this is changing institutionally. I need to do some research about this stuff. I have more thoughts on TLA, it was a really positive experience for me and I can't wait to see what future conferences hold.

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