The Liminal Librarian

I’m about to leave BEA 2010, which is my new favorite nonlibrary conference of all time. Yes, partially because of all the free books and ARCs you can carry. But really: A conference all about books? Authors, authors, everywhere? A most awesome librarians lunch where I got to hear Adriana Trigiani (who is hysterical), Joshilyn Jackson, Susan Isaacs, and more — and got copies of their newest books? Priceless.

Then, there’s New York. The Strand. The food…

So what’s yours?

I know I haven’t blogged much (OK, at all) lately, but I’ve been thinking a lot about our need to take a lot more from fields outside librarianship in order to evolve — and survive. So, what are your favorite nonlibrary conferences?

Not to pick on NSLS.info again, but I’m catching up on reading my Friday newsletters. And hurrah! I’m on today’s, which talks more about the impact of budget cuts. (That’s not a hurrah for budget cuts, but for whittling down my email.) They explain:

There are several things we have done or plan to do in order to offset the budget cuts, including not giving any staff raises this year. We will also be cutting down on food provided at staff, board, and other meetings, travel, institutional dues, public relations, paper mailings, and supplies. We’re also looking for a more economic way to handle our phone system; more calls may be forwarded to voice mail. Unfortunately, the search for our vacant Member Liaison position has been put on hold. In the area of professional development, program fees will increase and the number of “big name” presenters brought in for programs will be reduced.

I guess I’m semi- “big name” — I do have three of them, after all! But I’m thinking we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this, and am wondering what the impact on conferences, professional development funds, travel, and association membership will be as new fiscal years and budgets roll around.

I’ve been thinking lately about speaking and libraries and the effects of the economic crunch on library conferences. By this point in the summer, I’m usually confirmed for at least 3-4 presentations or workshops for the fall — and right now, I’m scheduled for a big, fat, zero. Now, it could be that I’m just not so interesting to hear anymore, but I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the craptacular economy than anything else. Invited speakers are a logical place to cut back.

Then, I just read in LJ that the Ohio Library Council has cut its entire convention this year — largely because people just can’t afford to go:

OLC made its decision in the wake of a survey of library directors that showed that very few could afford to send their staff to the event. “In light of the recent developments in the state’s public library funding and the drastic adjustments that all libraries have been making to their operations, the OLC made the most fiscally-responsible route for both members and the organization,” OLC said in a news release.

Ohio of course is an extreme case (and if you want to help, check out some of the links over at Pop Goes the Library). I presented there a few years ago and remember the conference organizers as committed and energetic people, so it’s disturbing to read this.

Then again, ALA attendance appeared to be great, although the number of vendors was down. Are smaller conferences going to be more heavily affected? Have those of you who do the conference circuit noticed huge drops in attendance, or a decline in speaking invitations?

I was watching What not to Wear last night, and the person they were making over turned out to be the personal assistant to one Dr. Lois Frankel, “a noted author and speaker.” So, I looked up Dr. Frankel online and found her current speaking fee schedule, which makes something of an interesting counterpoint to the most recent discussion on speaker compensation (or lack thereof) in libraryland and how we encourage people to participate.

Now, if only I could just get a couple of you to pony up Frankel-ish fees to bring me to your event. Anyone? Anyone?

“RWA is four days of introverts acting like extroverts, and we’re all exhausted.”

(via Smart Bitches)