by Greg Stoner
This July, with extremely generous support from both VALL and my
employer, I attended the AALL Annual Meeting in Chicago. As I had previously
attended the Annual Meeting only once before (in 2010), I was particularly
excited to be able to participate once again. The theme of this year’s meeting,
“Make It New: Create the Future,” also really resonated with me as it
emphasized the ever-evolving and important role information professionals play
in defining our roles and helping to identify and shape the services we can
provide in our institutions.
During the conference I attended a number of sessions: some focusing on
areas I felt I knew a great deal about, as well as others where I admittedly
knew very little. Several of the sessions I attended were related to topics
that I found particularly relevant to my current work, such as programs dealing
with the evaluation of electronic research resources and the utility of usage
statistics and other metrics in determining value. The variety of programming
was particularly noteworthy as I felt I gained valuable exposure to new areas
of interest and further insight in other areas of benefit to me, my colleagues
and my firm. I also valued the opportunity to spend a good bit of time in the
exhibit hall, learning firsthand about various research resources and services
and discovering new products and solutions that may be useful in the future. In
the end, I was mentally exhausted but all the better for it.
I also thoroughly enjoyed attending the annual meeting as it reinforced
a conclusion I drew when I first attended the meeting as someone just entering
the law library field (see http://valltalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/mapping-future-at-aall-annual-meeting.html).
I’ve progressed in my career during the past few years, learned a lot, and met
a ton of amazing helpful, supportive and encouraging people along the way –
many of them VALL members! I’m still impressed by what we do as professionals
and encouraged about what the future holds for our profession. I’m honored to
be part of this community and appreciative of VALL’s support of my attendance
at the meeting.
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