At SLA last month, I attended a tour of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s map collection with the Social Science Division Geography and Map Section. I decided to attend because I’ve always enjoyed G&M Section programs in the past, even though I’m not a map librarian, and because I always learn something when I get to visit another library behind the scenes.

I did, of course, learn a lot from seeing the different kinds of maps in the collection, how they were stored, and learning about conservation and digitization projects. The best part of the tour for me, though, came from a casual question I asked as I was about to leave: “Do you have any postal maps?”

The answer to that question led me to a resource that my library patrons can use, a potential collaboration, and to thinking about what other postal history-related collections might be tucked away in unexpected places.

On my library’s blog, I wrote a post about what I found at the Free Library of Philadelphia and more about finding postal history information in libraries. That post was featured in our member newsletter, and literally overnight became one of our most-read blog posts.

I was frustrated because I couldn’t find a way to comment on posts from a page I’m an admin for as myself. I finally found the solution and thought I’d share it.

No matter how much I clicked on the “Use Facebook as SLA Social Science Division” and “Use Facebook as Tara” links, whenever I liked or commented on a Social Science Division post, it came up as a like or comment from the Social Science Division – making it look like the division was having a conversation with itself. I had resigned myself to the fact that I could no longer comment as myself once I became an admin. (At least until the next time Facebook changes its interface…)

I had complained about this “feature” to several people, when Morgan Grimes pointed out to me that there is a way to toggle between posting as the page and posting as myself.

For each page you are an admin for, you need to adjust the settings so that you don’t comment as the page by default.

First, go to the page, and click on the “Edit Page” button in the upper right.

Next, click on “Your Settings” in the menu on the left.

Then you can uncheck the box that says “Always post and comment on your page as…”

Now the links to toggle between “Use Facebook as SLA Social Science Division” and “Use Facebook as Tara” actually work!

I lead a bimonthly phone meeting for a group of philatelic librarians, and we’ve been thinking of trying to use the web to include library representatives from outside the U.S. I also lead a bimonthly phone board meeting for my SLA division board. While neither group has moved to web-based meetings yet, much of what Ruth shared can be applied to phone meetings.

Here’s a summary of her advice with a few comments from me:

• Unlike in face to face meetings, people can leave early without being rude, so engage attendees early. (This is less true for small meetings, but attendees sitting in their offices will probably be checking their email or Facebook during the call if they get bored.)
• Use a world clock if your audience is in multiple time zones.
• Take questions in advance so you can be prepared to answer them during the meeting.
• Practice the web features of the meeting software ahead of time. (Or, make sure you know how to use your teleconferencing system.)
• Send out a reminder notice the morning of the meeting.
• Ask attendees why they chose to join the meeting so you know what they want to get out of it.
• Use the mute and chat box to manage discussion. (On a conference call, make sure attendees know they can mute their line when they are not talking to eliminate background noise.)
• Set a date and time for the next meeting.
• Thank people for attending and share your contact information.
• After the meeting, send out highlight notes for those who didn’t attend. This informs them and encourages them to attend future meetings. (I send out notes to the entire group after each of my calls. It helps keep those who couldn’t attend updated so they can jump in at the next meeting.)

SLA has a really packed schedule and doesn’t leave much time for eating or sleeping.

But, sometimes we need to take a break from talking to each other and go to some different conferences. I came across two blog posts on this subject this week:

On Library Attack, Kendra Levine writes about going to conferences in her subject area – to learn about what is going on in the research community, and to make new partnerships for herself and the librarian community. She points out that no one will see librarians as an important part of the research community if we don’t see ourselves that way.

On 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, a group of writers talk about their favorite “non-traditional” conferences. While this post isn’t specifically related to libraries, it makes the point that there are lots of different kinds of conferences out there.

In my new job at a non-profit, there are few relevant academic conferences and there is less money for travel and professional development, but I’ve still been able to get to relevant events. I’ve been to stamp shows – where I’m mostly working at a booth, but I host a meeting for other librarians and try to get to as many seminars as I can. I’ve also been to a symposium that includes both academics and hobbyists (a really interesting mix).

What non-traditional conferences do you attend – non-library conferences, or non-traditional library conferences?

Write a conference report. Your boss may ask for this – but even if he or she doesn’t, write one. I once had a boss who would stop by my office after a conference and ask how it went. I learned to come back from every conference with a quick sentence or two about the value of the conference. Your conference report could be as brief as that, or maybe something longer written in your diary, filed with your conference materials, or posted on your blog. Consider writing something for an association newsletter or blog, which will also benefit your colleagues who couldn’t attend the conference. Writing about the conference experience will help you digest what you learned, and give you something to say when people ask about the conference.

Follow up with colleagues. You probably met some new people at the conference. Did you promise to send them anything? Do they have blogs, Twitter feeds, or LinkedIn profiles you can follow? If you want to stay connected, don’t wait until you have a drawer filled with business cards from people you don’t remember.

Let people know what you learned. If you are able to accomplish something at work based on what you learned or who you met at a conference, let your boss and co-workers know. It helps them see the value of professional development activities.

I was inspired to write these tips partly because I just got back from the SLA Leadership Summit (watch for more blog posts about what I learned!) and partly by a post from the Embedded Librarian.

The post actually offers a related pre-conference tip:

start telling your colleagues about SLA annual conference as soon as you register. This way (ideally) they will be more interested in what you’ve learned there once you return.

I don’t blog the same way I used to. I don’t post as many personal things, mainly because I have other, more appropriate channels (like Facebook) for those. I don’t post as often as I used to, which could be because I have other channels, or could be because I’m busier than I used to be. I don’t follow blogs the same way I used to; I’m more likely to find an interesting post via Twitter or Facebook or even a Google search than I am to find it by reading my RSS feeds. (Perhaps relatedly, the popular feed reader Bloglines announced it is shutting down on November 1.)

But, there are some things for which my blog is still the best channel. I think (based on the number of comments I get) that more people follow my blog, or find my posts somehow, than did in the early days. I’m used to thinking of myself as a pretty small-time blogger, but I have been around for a while. (I was somewhat surprised to find that DIY Librarian is included in the pioneers section of Crawford’s book – but I have been blogging since mid-2003!)

Mac Slocum quotes from an interview with Anil Dash about why blogging still matters:

That was the promise we had when we all first discovered the web. Someday it would bring us all together and we’d be able to have these conversations. It’s not perfect. It’s not ideal. But in some small way here’s somebody like me — with no portfolio, I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, I didn’t have any fancy social connections when I started my blog — and it has opened the door to me having a conversation as a peer, as somebody taken seriously, in realms that I would have never otherwise had access to. That’s the greatest privilege in the world.

My blog has allowed me to have conversations, both real and virtual, with people I wouldn’t have otherwise had a connection to. In the early days of this blog, I contacted Jessamyn West of librarian.net (one of the true library blog pioneers) for advice, and she wrote back to me.

Next week, I’ll be speaking on a panel at PaLA about blogging and personal branding. Back when I started this blog, it was still unclear whether blogging helped or hurt your professional reputation. This blog has helped me professionally, and I hope to demonstrate how with a little self-awareness blogging can help other young professionals too.

APS booth at StampShow 2010

I’ve written before about my experiences attending technology conferences as a librarian outsider. Last week I got another perspective on conferences and trade shows as I sat on the other side of the booth at the American Philatelic Society‘s StampShow in Richmond.

It was an exhausting–but exciting–four days. Many APS members came to the booth looking to meet “the new librarian.” It was great to meet so many library users in person, because most of them use the library remotely.

I got used to saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll see if I can find out,” pretty quickly. When interviewed for this job, I said that I would learn about philately in part from library users, and I learned quite a bit at the show, both from talking to people at the booth and from listening to my coworkers answer questions.

I’ve gotten a taste of being behind the scenes at conferences before, by doing program planning for APLIC and for the SLA Social Science Division, but now that I’ve done everything from shake hands with a famous keynote speaker at a fancy dinner to pack up the booth at the end of the show, I have even more appreciation for what it takes to put on an event like this.

I look forward to this conference every year, and I think this year’s conference will be particularly good. While APLIC is geared toward population information professionals, the range of topics for this very small conference is impressive: data confidentiality; author’s rights and open access; delivering user training; China demographic data and GIS; ROI for libraries; and tours of ICPSR, the University of Michigan’s vast data archive, and the Ann Arbor District Library. (I’m not responsible for this great line-up, just for getting it up on the web site.)

I’m also looking forward to having the conference on the University of Michigan campus instead of in a big-city hotel. It’s always an intimate conference and I think it will be even more so this year.

If you’re interested in attending, the 3-day conference is a bargain – $200 ($75 for students) includes all the sessions and tours plus a banquet.