by Jennifer Devine, Head Editor, INALJ Maryland
Why you should and how you are able to partake in American Library Association Annual Conference when not attending
If you’re like me and you’re not attending or able to attend the ALA Annual Conference this year you are still probably flooded with information from your e-mail, on Facebook, twitter, other social media platforms (links are included at the bottom) and hearing about co-workers and friends who are attending the ALA Annual Conference. There are many reasons as to why you may not be able to attend. For me, while I would like to attend the conference in Las Vegas, which would be an awesome venue to go to, but despite being a sub part of the Library field, I am actually in the Archival field. Therefore, this year while paying for the conference may have been a slight issue I chose not to go so that I could go to Archival conferences this year, which both venues are much closer to me. Other reasons why you may not be able to attend include cost of the conference, cost of air fare and hotel, time off work, and family/child obligations. Despite my personal reasons I still would have liked to have attended the conference.
Therefore, instead of ignoring the fact that the ALA Annual Conference is going on there are ways that you can still partake virtually. During this time twitter will be your best friend. This year follow the hash tag alaac14. From the hash tag you can follow everyone that is tweeting live from the conference using the hash tag. You can also look up the presentations at the conference and find there has tags as well to follow. You can also follow the Facebook event or the ALA Facebook page. Many of the panels like LITA will live stream their presentations. After the conference and sometimes before many of the panels will upload their slides! You can also follow the conference on the ALA UStream channel. If you’re not into following the UStream or are unable to you can read about the conference from cog notes.
If you’re on twitter, Facebook or other social media platforms your followers will be able to keep you updated as to what there attending and tweeting or Facebooking about at the conference. ALA Annual Conference is also on Google+, Flicker, Pintrest and tumbler. There are plenty of ways to stay on top of what is going on intellectually at the conference. As information professionals these mediums help us to be aware of problem, changes and issues which are being presented at the ALA Annual Conference. The few main things that you will miss by not being able to attend the conference are the exhibit halls, the venue, presentations and meet ups that are not being streamed and most of all networking. While theses are added benefits being able to follow the conference through social media and live streams allows me and others who are not able to attend the ALA Annual Conference for their own various reasons to still be apart of the conference virtually.
Links to be able to follow the American Library Association Annual Conference Virtually and through Social Media Platforms:
UStream: http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/alaac14
Cog Notes: http://ala14.ala.org/cognotes.
Twitter: #alaac14
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanLibraryAssociation
The Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/551745778246833/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/events/clv7irgrh7kb5c5753dko1i1udo
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/alaac14/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/alaannual/
Tumblr: http://ala-con.tumblr.com/