Be sure to read your copy of American Libraries this month! Paul Signorelli and I wrote a piece titled “Are You Following Me?” about learning and leadership in libraries. Anyone involved in training should read this–more importantly slip a copy under your manager’s door!

If you are not an ALA member you can access full text of American Libraries. You’ll just need to install the ebrary plugin.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the article as well as where you see training sitting at the library table.

Last month I was elected to be on the board for the Charlotte Chapter of ASTD. I’ve been a member of ASTD on and off for about nine years and am excited about serving on the board for such a great chapter.

Tomorrow I am headed to Arlington, Virginia for the ASTD Chapter Leaders Conference. The lineup of speakers is impressive, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Bob Pike–the guru of all things training/learning.

Opening General Session: Afterburner
Working together to sculpt a masterpiece—tips from fighter pilots on achieving optimal team performance

Keynote: Andrea Nierenberg
The Art of Networking and Relationship Building

Closing Keynote: Bob Pike
Sculpting a “Successful Attitude”: How You Think Does Make a Difference

There are lots of concurrent sessions as well.

I’m also looking forward to seeing my friend Paul Signorelli and meeting some new faces in learning.

8:30am

• Wake up. Get dressed. The usual. Plan to go in a little later today because it’s going to be a long day. If only I’d known what was to come.

9:00am

• Leave for work.
• Remember that I need to research taking the bus because gas is not going to get cheaper.

9:20am

• Arrive at work.
• Last night I had a chance to read the first few chapters of Total Relaxed Organization: The Field Guide. Am inspired and ready to get caught up on the hundreds of message piled in my inbox since ALA.
• Start processing email. Delete. Delete. Delete. Respond. and. so. on.
• Print name tags for a workshop.

10:38am

• Receive an email that Main Library has been evacuated while simultaneously hearing a knock at the door telling me we need to evacuate the building.
• Don’t grab anything because it’s never a good sign when a building is evacuated and the fire alarm has not been set off.
• Find out that a suspicious package was found on a nearby street and the bomb squad has been called in. Several buildings evacuated as a precaution.

Photo from Charlotte Observer. Read full story here.

11:00am

• Waiting.
• Ask nice police officer nearby about the body I saw yesterday (interestingly enough in the same area where the package is). He tells me it was natural causes. They think it was a heart attack. Sad for the person but relived that it was not a crime.
• Make mental note to work on lowering my cholesterol.

12:00pm

• Wishing I had grabbed my wallet when I left so I could go get lunch.

1:00pm

• Getting really hot.
• Wishing I hadn’t worn black today.
• Wishing I had a bottle of water along with my laptop so I could connect to wireless and get some work done.
• Seriously though…I did get a chance to catch up with coworkers I rarely get to see or talk to. Despite the fact that we were all stuck outside for just over three hours, everyone was in good spirits. We even started collecting books for customers who wanted to turn them in.

1:50pm

• Get the all clear to go back in the building.
• Briefly check email. Nothing urgent.
• Grab my wallet and go get a sandwich for lunch.

2:15pm

• Smell smoke on my way back in the building. Realize that the fire alarm technicians are testing the fire alarms. Never a dull moment.
• Back at my desk. Eating. Catch up on twitter, friend feed, email.

2:30pm

• Respond to emails about new training system and decide to call the contact person.
• Call my boss at home to see how he is doing after surgery and to ask a few questions that can’t wait.
• Begin an email to upper management about training.

3:00pm

• Create a report of training attendance and no shows for the current year and previous five years.

3:30pm

• Complete the report and email. Send.
•  A knock on the door. I have a reference question…what park nearby is good for kids and has a train? Being a member of the mommy mafia, that’s easy! Dan Nicholas Park.
• Complete a draft of another email and send for review.

4:00pm

• Realize I need to start getting ready for ASTD meeting tonight.
• Make sure my calendar is up to date.
• Synchronize my PDA/phone.
• Check my mailbox, pack up the things I need to bring home.
• Fix hair.
• Receive a chat message with a subtle reminder…”can you please resend your document.”
• Call WebJunction about my August webinar.

4:40pm

• Time to go. Update my out of office response.
• Drive to South Charlotte for ASTD meeting.

5:30pm

• Arrive at ASTD meeting. 30 minutes to network. Then an hour-ish for dinner. Then an hour program.
• Meet a theatre employee of ImaginOn, which is part of the library (It’s a small world!). But wait! She also knows my husband, and knows my BFF who is ironically named Lori Reed. Yep spelled exactly the same. (It gets very confusing in chat and on Facebook.)
• Meet some instructional designers from Time Warner Cable. Talk with them about what their jobs are like and what their graduate programs in IST were like.

6:45pm

• Announcements begin. Somehow I volunteer to run for a board position for next year.
• Program begins about elearning–what we are doing that’s wrong and what we can do to make it better. More about that in a later post.

8:30pm

• Program over. Last minute conversations over. Drive home.

9:00pm

• Arrive home to total darkness and peace and quiet. The entire house is asleep except the cats.
• Check email again.
• Start writing this post.
• Begin my application for a training program at the state library.
• Respond to email about MaintainIT webinar I’m doing next month.
• Collaborate with the brilliant trainer Paul Signorelli via Google docs on a project we’re working on together. It’s actually kind of cool. I never realized we could both work at the same time in the same doc and see each others updates. Note to self to use this more at work.

9:30pm

• Son wakes up screaming. Husband gets him back to sleep.

9:45pm

•  Son wakes up screaming. Husband gets him back to sleep.

10:00pm

• Son wakes up screaming. Asks for mommy. Husband brings him downstairs.
• He feels hot but does not have a fever.
• Hold him for a while andtake him back upstairs to bed.

10:15pm

• Repeat.

10:30pm

• Repeat. Decide it’s time to invoke the mommy mafia.
• Type up a quick post listing symptoms.
• Within minutes receive responses ranging from ear infection to growing pains.
• Give son ibuprofen and cough medicine as he now says his mouth and throat hurt.

11:00pm

• I’ll spare you how many times this goes on. You get the point. I imagine it will be a looonng night.
• IM with Paul some more. Random topics. It is so great to have this network of trainers all over the country!

1:30am

• See a comment come in from another amazing trainer Marianne Lennox. Last night I convinced her to write a day in the life post. She has done a photo journal of her day and I think it is the best day in the life post so far! Marianne you need to start a Flickr meme.
• Writing a summary post
• Calling it a day. Root canal scheduled for 9:50 in the morning.

It’s been nearly a week since I returned from ALA, and I am still exhausted. As I mentioned before this was my first library conference and I could not have picked a better conference or location.

I arrived in Anaheim Thursday afternoon, registered and received my orange tote, unpacked, ironed, and sorted out the 60lb box of handouts and presentation supplies that I had shipped to my hotel. Later that evening I had dinner with Helene Blowers and Melanie Huggins (both former PLCMC colleagues) in downtown Disney.

Friday morning I presented along Betha Gutsche, Catherine Vaughn, and Thomas Galante at the preconference session: Competencies For Your Staff: From Implementation to Integration. You can find links to all the handouts and presentation slides on the ALA Presentation Wiki.

It was a packed house! Lots of great questions and interaction between the participants. A big virtual round of applause to Janie Hermann for coordinating this session and Pat Taviss for moderating. When you have this many trainers facilitating a session you can be assured that it will be energizing and engaging with active participation.

Friday was my daughter’s first birthday and I tried not to think too much about it. I ran into another former PLCMC colleague Warren Graham and his wife. Ironically it was their son’s first birthday too.

This made me miss my little one even more. But it wasn’t until my husband uploaded this video to Flickr that it really hit me! I have lots of thoughts on having a career and being a mom but that’s for another post.

Friday night Paul Signorelli organized an informal dinner for a group of fellow library trainers. We had some wonderful conversations about learning, the need to stop reinventing the wheel, and whether customer service can actually be taught in an online classroom. Interestingly enough I “met” Paul through a comment on this site back in February. Since then we’ve emailed and IM’d quite a bit. By the time I met Paul at dinner it was like seeing a familiar friend. There are stories like these throughout ALA and I’m sure other conferences. For me this example helps cement the value of online social networking. Especially when library “trainers” are so scattered throughout the field. It helps to stay connected with others who share the same day-to-day experiences as you.