Oh Thursday I’ll be heading to ALA Annual. I wish I could muster up more excitement about going to Anaheim, but the location doesn’t exactly thrill me (nor does the amount of flying and driving it will take to get there). Then again, ALA isn’t really about the location so much as the people. And there are lots of people I’m looking forward to seeing there. I really hope to get the chance to meet some of the students from the course I taught for San Jose State University since most of them live in Southern CA and I know a few are attending ALA. I couldn’t have asked for a better, more insightful and enthusiastic group of students.

Here’s my schedule so far. Adam and I are staying at the Marriott right by the Convention Center, which is a nice change from last year when we were a zillion miles from the Convention Center in DC. I’m covering the exhibit hall again for American Libraries so that means lots of time chatting up vendors and eating free twizzlers and peanut butter cups.

Thursday, June 26, 2008
Arriving Thursday afternoon
Dinner with the hubby

Friday, June 27, 2008
12:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Mover and Shaker Lunch
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Jim Rettig Advisory Committee Meeting
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Web Junction Member Reception or perhaps dinner

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Spending the day covering the exhibits for American Libraries with my intrepid editorial assistant/husband.
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: EBSCO Academic Libraries Lunch
7:00 PM: Dinner with a friend
11:00 PM: Facebook Librarians After Hours @ Pop the Cork Wine Bar (if I’m conscious)

Sunday, June 29, 2008
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Readex Breakfast (I’m giving a talk called Academic Work is Social: User Generated Content in Support of Research and Learning)
Lunch: No plans, but will probably eat lunch early-ish so I can get to the TTT nice and early.
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM: LITA Top Technology Trends
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM: Bookcart Drill Team Championships (covering this for American Libraries)
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM: OCLC Blog Salon
Afterwards: ???

Monday, June 30, 2008
Morning: Check out of hotel
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: ACRL National Conference Committee, Virtual Conference Subcommittee Meeting
Lunch: No plans
Spend a bit of time at the exhibit hall
Leave for LAX for red-eye to NY.

I’ve had pretty low expectations of my conference experiences the past few times and they’ve actually ended up being pretty darn great. Here’s hoping for more of that since my expectations are rather low this time around as well.

Hope to see you there!