Thursday, June 17, 2010

I will never use Travelocity again


Was I ever surprised when I arrived at the New Orleans Airport to go home after the SLA conference. Seems the booking made on travelocity.ca (leaving at 4:05 pm) was changed at some point and I was now supposed to be on a 9:55 am flight.

I had to pay $50 to rebook. Delta agent pleasantly told me I would have had the same price if I had used their web site directly. Also that I need to get the $50 back from Travelocity.

Oh Joy

Oh Bliss

 

At least there were still seats on the original flight and  I am headed home.



Monday, June 14, 2010

SLA2010 – New Orleans – Day 3 – Monday June 14


Business Research

  • All US sources
  • All US everything
  • Slides online – note to self – look for them

Left and went to another session…

Knowledge continuity and Opportunities – Future of knowledge Managers

Speaker Patrick Lambe, Straits Knowledge

  • Interstitial library -  books that fall through the gaps
  • KM needs to work in the gaps and help close them
  • His study is available for purchase
  • 15 roles for Knowledge Managers – many are or should be general management competencies
  • He has written articles on this
  • beware success stories- concentrate on daily experiences and patterns
  • quick wins are temporary
  • easy wins are not scalable

Embedded Librarianship in the Field

Reese Dano and Gretchen McNeely

  • not really relevant
  • too many buzzwords
  • what does “dimensionality” really mean??
  • how many times can a speaker say “disparate” and “overarching” in the same talk?

Left and went to exhibit hall …

Success Stories of Solos

Patrick Clapp moderated and organized this session. His speakers all had to cancel out on him, so he asked me if I could talk about my success at negotiating my termination and my new job. So, I did.  Calling my part “everything is negotiable” I quickly reviewed

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asking Xerox for more than the offered severance package and asking ArcelorMittal Dofasco for more than what was offered when I got my new job there.

And then the rains came down. View from my hotel room.

 



Sunday, June 13, 2010

SLA 2010 – New Orleans - Day 2 – Sunday June 13


The temperature has gone down a little – only about 101 today. Breakfast buffet in hotel was much better today as there were not 100 teens in the line-up.

Fedex Kinkos

As secretary of the Solo Librarians Division I had to make sure this morning that I had the agenda and minutes printed and available for the group. To this end, I went online to the FedEx Kinkos site as there is a location right in the hotel where the meeting was going to be held. I uploaded the files and found out that they don’t accept Canadian credit cards. After being transferred around on the telephone I found someone who told me how to at least submit the job and then I could go over later and pay. I did this, however, the job was all screwed up and I only got half of it. I will need to do it all over again for the business meeting.

My message to American companies -- the world does not end at your borders. Not by a long shot.

Solo Division Board Meeting

The Solo Librarians Division Board Meeting was at noon today. We had a great discussion on the future planning for conferences and conference sessions. We hope to see a lot more people at the luncheon tomorrow. I think I volunteered to be a speaker on a panel session :0

Exhibits

I spent all afternoon at the exhibit hall. I had not intended to do so, but there were a lot of people to talk to. Swag is pretty good this year.

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Keynote

Mary Matalin and James Carville were the keynote speakers. She was very interesting and articulate, he was very funny and very driven to improve New Orleans. I could have listened to them much longer.

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Solo Librarians Division No Host Dinner

Nine solo’s went to dinner at “The Gumbo Shop” in the French Quarter.

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The food was very good. I had Shrimp Gumbo, Crayfish Ettouffee, Macque Choux Corn, and a Praline Sundae. YUM!!



Saturday, June 12, 2010

SLA2010 – New Orleans – Day 1 – Saturday June 12


Hot Hot Damn Hot

104 F – glasses fog up every time I leave a building!

2011 Philadelphia Planning Session

  • Four Solo Division participants
  • Still on track for a Lean Six Sigma session with yours truly organizing it.
  • SOLO is the host for the Joint Reception in 2011 – must find a local solo to help
  • Keynote speakers announced - Thomas Friedman (opening), James Kane (closing)
  • Variety of room layouts planned. Some good, some not so good.
  • Planning on inviting community leaders and managers to conference for a Forum designed for non-members – interesting concept
  • Will post SOLO plans when they are clearer

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