Notes from NELA - Part 2

It was a long drive to Connecticut, but it was a very good NELA Conference, so I'm glad I went. The NELA games (Monday night) were their usual combination of competition & chaos with a lot of silliness thrown in. The NH team excelled at duckpin bowling (that is our starting frame pictured), but we were ultimately defeated by the frisbee skills of the Vermont team. There were lots of great programs at the conference, most of which will have info posted on the conference website soon. Many of the programs were blogged as they happened, so I have linked to the blog posts where possible.
A few of the standout programs for me were Looking Good on a Budget: Principles of Design for the Artistically Challenged (presented by Darrell Eiffert from Lane Memorial Library); Born Digital (presented by Janet Eklund and Charles Shipman of the NHSL - I will be writing more about this project in a later posting); and To NELLS and Back. I also heard very good things about OS Smackdown. The Conference also gave me a chance to talk to the folks from Lyrasis (the entity that swallowed NELINET) about the products and services and discounts that might be available to NHAIS libraries through LYRASIS -- more on that after the promised follow-up calls happen.

Notes from NELA

The New England Library Association's 46th Annual Conference is in full swing here in Hartford. I attended several good programs yesterday, including a discussion session with ALA President Camila Alire and a talk by novelist Elinor Lipman, but the highlight was the banquet. The Emerson Greenaway Award was presented to Connecticut State Librarian, and former New Hampshire State Librarian, Kendall Wiggin. Many NH librarians, including NHLA President Steven Butzel and current State Librarian Michael York were in attendance. Congratulations Ken!