Today is my last day at the conference. Up until now, I haven’t had the time to visit the exhibit hall so I reserved the entire morning to do that. It never ceases to amaze me how many companies have business interests in the world of libraries. A lot of people out there make money from providing services and products to libraries. I didn’t have time to carefully walk through the entire exhibit hall, but I did make sure that I visited several in particular. It was nice to talk to vendors directly about their products and services. It felt different from my previous conferences because I’m actually a librarian now instead of a student. I guess it makes sense that vendors would be more willing to talk to someone who actually works for a library than a student. Also, I went into the hall today with the goal of not picking up more free stuff than I could fit into the leftover space in my suitcase. I’m happy to say that I managed to meet my goal and still come away with some nice stuff 
The only other event I attended before leaving for the airport was a discussion group sponsored by LAMA. The topic was “Minding the generation gap in libraries.” The room was packed with both library directors/supervisors and newer librarians not yet in management. A lot of interesting things came out of that discussion, but the most often repeated points centered on…
-the importance of respect amongst library staff members
-ways of changing library culture so change and forward movement is possible
-the importance of leaders to “set the tone” in order to change a library’s culture
-methods of mentoring newer librarians
-the idea that the reluctance to change and move forward in many librarians can’t always be attributed to the age of the librarian, since many older librarians are, in fact, open to change and excited about new directions for libraries
-the idea that the resistance to change is often times related to a fear that one won’t be able to learn a new skill or technology
-finally, the idea that the identifying common goals and working on projects together can help new and seasoned librarians bridge the so-called generation gap if there is one
One younger librarian spoke of her experience at her first library job and the resentment that a colleague of hers had towards her. She said that this resentment from her colleage made her work situation so unbearable that she ultimately left her organization to work elsewhere. It was nice to see so many directors and supervisors so interested in making their libraries a better work environment for both newer and seasoned librarians.
To wrap things up, I’d say that the ALA Midwinter 2007 conference was excellent. Seattle seems like a great city to live in and I had a great experience here. I especially enjoyed meeting so many interesting, friendly librarians from all over the country. Also, I was able to attend a lot of meetings, discussion groups, special events, receptions, etc. I feel like I learned more about how ALA runs and hopefully that will continue as I work on my Emerging Leaders project during the next 6 months. I’m already looking forward to attending the ALA Annual Conference in Washington D.C.