Conferences, Virtually attending

If you are unable to attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting, but still want to experience it virtually, just dim the lights in your office, crank down the temperature to 55 F, and spend the day Tweeting non sequitur notes to yourself (e.g., "Lack of consistency in ebook lending policies," or "I wish they would do something about the temperature in these conference rooms.")

Travel, Professional

Library webinars are supplements to (not substitutes for) travel to conferences and professional development workshops. Challenge your library director to stretch the “social boundaries of the online community with a live, off-line event” where you can network and learn with your colleagues.

ALA, Not attending

If you are not able to attend the American Library Association’s Annual Conference, you may live vicariously through conference tweeters, webinar sessions, and conference synopses on library blogs. Also be sure to treat yourself to a virtual "exhibit hall" experience by wandering through your home library, stopping to have superficial conversations at your coworkers' desks, and then wildly shoving fistfuls of their office supplies into your tote bag.

Name tags, Decorating

It is never polite to ask library conference attendees what insecurities their excessive name tag ribbons are masking.

Conferences, Ducking out of

If you are going to skip out on library conference sessions or avoid the event completely, be sure to periodically post generic fake tweets (“Geeze, this conference room is sooo cold!” “Long line at the restroom!” “This session is so interesting!”) from the beach, mall, or bar where you are spending your day.

Thank you, Saying

Nothing says, “Thanks for covering for me while I was away at a conference” to your library’s staff like a free Innovative Interfaces ink pen/highlighter combo that you pilfered from a vendor booth.

Ask the readers: Do you have a favorite vendor pen? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Conferences, Reporting on

Upon returning from a professional library conference, your post-conference report should include at least two things you learned from the experience. For example: 1) Never admit to a room of 450 people that you like the smell of Taco Bell's food. 2) Old people seem to have a lock on the lifetime achievement awards.

Conferences, Returning from

Upon returning from a professional library conference, your post-conference report should include more than a list of restaurants you visited and a random collection of vendor brochures.  Also leave out the part about waking up in an alley nine days after the conference officially ended.

Conference, Putting the "er" in

A good librarian will go to library conferences and sit through mind-numbing presentations made by other librarians.  Repeat this mind-numbing ritual over and over again for three solid days, and you will be mentally ready to go back to your job at the library.

Editor's note: Your esteemed editor will be taking a break from the blog to attend the Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Washington, DC.  In the meantime, you can follow your colleagues' notable breaches of library etiquette via Twitter at: http://twitter.com/politelibrarian.

Perverted, Being

Librarians who attend the Public Library Association's National Conference should be on the lookout for the most perverse group of librarians that ever existed... those that present at library conferences with no consideration of tenure and promotion. /shudder/

ALA, Going to

Don't feel guilty about spending your library's money to travel to ALA. It is the one time of year when your colleagues and staff actually get to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the library without you in it. Everyone will agree that that is money well spent.

ALA Annual Conference, How to pack for the

Before heading off to the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim, be sure to pack the following items:

• Your favorite library-themed t-shirt

• Your laptop (for live blogging the Distance Learning Interest Group's business meeting)

• Your knitting (for times when you're not live blogging)

• An extra empty suitcase (for all that vendor swag)

• A bottle of your favorite liquor (for the "Web 2.0" drinking game)
  

Conferences, Blogging

Blogging at a library conference is a great way to avoid going outside and seeing exciting new places. Don't worry, you can always read about those places on other people's blogs after you get back home.

Expert, Becoming an

Develop an area of expertise and see the world on someone else's dime. By becoming an expert on something, you can get yourself invited to be a plenary speaker at library conferences, library school graduations, and circus freak shows.

Editor's note: Unfortunately for the editors of A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, sarcasm is not a qualifying area of expertise.

Networking, Conference

If you happen to get lucky with another librarian at a library conference, hang your lanyard on the hotel doorknob to keep your roommate from coming in and catching you in the act. No one should be subjected to seeing two librarians awkwardly trying to integrate their systems.