Ebooks, the American Library Association Conference and Summertime...

This past week, the American Library Association Conference was held in Anaheim, at the Anaheim Convention Center.  I was in attendance, along with librarians from all across the country.  After lots of meetings, lots of discussions about books, reading, authors and Ebooks, along with many visits with vendors, I came away from this year's conference in a relatively good mood.  Some ideas are percolating, and there are some really interesting possibilities coming soon...

Lately, I am somewhat conflicted about conferences and their value.  The networking opportunities and the vendor exhibits are always worthwhile, and hearing the current "buzz" in the field on things like Ebooks and digital content is important and invigorating.  HOWEVER, I seem to come away from conferences absolutely exhausted, regardless of travel.  And the actual programs and speakers at conferences haven't been working for me lately.  This ALA was no exception - programs that looked new and interesting often turned out to be just another take on "How we did this well, and you could too.." 

Am I getting cynical?  Maybe. 

Am I suffering from "Conference fatigue"?  Maybe. 

Do we need to rethink conferences and how to give attendees the best value for their attendance?  Maybe. 

I do think that there is room for improvement with the program for most professional conferences.  At least at this ALA we were grappling with the Ebook issue - we may not have resolved anything yet, but we are engaged and there is work being done.  Let's hope ALA's efforts bear fruit, and the large publishers figure out that Libraries are an amazing marketing tool for their authors and books, no matter the format.