Oops! I couldn't do it. I couldn't write the blog posts this weekend. That is the truth of too much stuff going on - you can only do what you can do. I did have an amazing time in LA, however! I flew down, did lots of riding on the train across that big city, and went to my first ever board meeting for the California Library Association board as their student representative (I'm not on the website yet, but will be soon I hope). I look forward to figuring out ways to advocate for, represent, and support CA library students - contact me if you have ideas or questions!
On Sunday, I did some homework - working on an assignment reviewing Tween Media Materials, a discussion post, and some group planning for a Children's Area project - and looked at Board documents. It's an interesting world, up there in the management sphere. I have never had access to it before. In college, I worked for a student-run coffeeshop and we had some interactions with the college administration, but this was new. The room is full of directors and other higher-ups in the library world, and we are discussing large sums of money. Looking forward to posting more!
Sunday night I went to the awards ceremony for CLA to accept the Begun Scholarship, and I got to see the other awardees and shmooze it up with some really great people. I also saw their new PRExellence awards and look forward to shaking it up in the library design world.
I did some livetweeting for the American Library Association Student Chapter of my time there, but I guess the actual conference is beyond the week in #HLSDITL. I can say that as a student, there is nothing better than going to conferences - use your loans to go them, get money from your school (I got money as a member of ALASC/regular session student, but look for some fundraising!). It's totally worth it to meet people face-to-face, learn about current issues in the library world, meet management and other library decision-makers, etc. I went last year and made connections that lead to a mural workshop in Oakland and saw SJSU professors who have since then become like a mentor.
I'll leave this post with a picture of the Student Interest Group, who I encourage you heartily to join if you're a CA resident/student and CLA member. I'm looking for ways to advocate for and unify CA students, so please reach out to me!