Lessons from the PLA Exhibits

Alas, I am but an academic librarian and was not afforded the pleasure of attending the meetings & roundtables at PLA. However, since it WAS in Minneapolis and I happen to work very close to Minneapolis, we (a few of my librarians and I) were afforded exhibit passes. Take Friday off to romp among library vendors? Absolutely!

Mind you, this was not a coy ploy to squeeze office supplies from vendors. We had business with a few integrated library system vendors, as well as with a federated search engine vendor. We sat through nearly two hours of talks about the brilliance of products. Everything started to look the same....

I came out of the exhibits loaded with goodies (beyond pens, I had many catalogs in which I buried my nose most of the weekend) and some words to the wise. Please take note, lest ye find thee at a large library exhibits function in the future:

1. Wear comfortable shoes. I cannot stress this enough. If it means that you must wear jeans so that your tennis shoes don't look tacky, do it. No one is looking at feet in an exhibits hall, anyway.

2. Take a big backpack with comfortable straps or a roll-along bag. The bags that are given out by vendors are cheap, hold very little, and generally have tiny strings that hurt shoulders. I took my backpack with wheels and had plenty of room for my goods plus easy access to other items.

3. Take along drinks & snacks. The vending machines outside of the exhibit hall sold soda and water for $3.00 (egads). Most vendors have candy, but after time that gets old.

4. Don't forget your business cards. I probably gave out 50.

5. Address labels are also useful. Yes, you'll get a nice ID card with a magnetic strip to swipe at most vendor kiosks, but not all vendors use it. You may also want to sign up for give aways or mailing lists, and writing out an address takes FOREVER.

6. Be prepared to be warm. Hundreds of people will be occupying the same space, and you'll be on the move most of the time.

7. Plan ahead. Use the conference website to identify key vendors that you HAVE to see, vendors that you WANT to see, and vendors from which you can get loot. Please note that author signings are scheduled at specific times, in case you want to hit those.

8. Save vendor visits until the last day of the conference. Most will be dying to give away pens, etc. on that day. Most of the book vendors we visited were also giving away books so that they didn't have to pack them up.

9. If you travel to a conference, prepare enough room in your bags to take the stuff back with you. The line to Fed Ex was unbelievable. You may want to consider the costs of mailing a box vs. paying for an extra suitcase/extra weight.

10. Keep notes on how the vendors treat you. The Hoovers rep barely looked up when we stopped at the booth. We had to swipe our own cards for further information, and she offered no information on resources or products. (This attitude is pretty typical of the service we currently receive from them, and we won't be subscribing again next year).

11. Visit exhibits with a friend (if possible) so that you can discuss the products that you reviewed with someone. Over drinks.

12. Be prepared for a deluge of e-mail and mailings from the vendors with which you swiped your card. You really didn't think it was JUST for the IPod, did you?

On Cleaning, Part I: the Bathroom

Cleaning the bathroom is my least favorite chore. It almost always has been. When my sisters and I were children (are we still children, Mom?) we took turns doing chores, and I feel like I always ended up in the bathroom. Of course, I didn't, but selective memory works for stories like this.

Even now, the bathroom is an abomination. I cannot stand the site of dirt, dried toothpaste, soap grime, and other unmentionable *yucks*. The smell of a bathroom, too (and I really don't mean THAT smell), but the smell of lotion and soap and air freshener and shampoo and on and on. It's overwhelming.

And what is MORE overwhelming? The smell of bathroom cleaners. They all nauseate me, but especially the all in ones that contain some awful mix of ammonia and bleach that sends poison darts right into your tear ducts. Heaven forbid they get on my skin, because I turn red from the irritating chemicals and my fingers feel like chalk for several hours.

To top this misery off, today was a clutter clean-out day. The sink area was beginning to look like a drop-off site for CVS leftovers. I promised Jimmy-boy that I'd clean it. And he laughed. LAUGHED, I say.

Lessons learned from today's mis-adventure:

1. Medicine has expiration dates. I never really looked before, but I had some going back to 2003. No wonder I don't always feel better.
2. Lotions also have an expiration date. It may not be stamped on the bottle, but the separation or discoloration of liquid is a good indicator.
3. Band-Aid wrappers can be deceiving. What actually looks like a complete Band-Aid may actually be only an empty wrapper that is closed but not sealed.
4. The toilet is in organic shape, with bowels and elbows.
5. Just as the elbows of children must be cleaned....
6. White vinegar is an excellent cleaner. It's organic, streak-free, and leaves a beautiful shine on metal parts.
7. Spilled face cleaner, even if it's a whole bottle on the cabinet floor, can be cleaned with water and elbow grease. Lots of water and elbow grease.
8. Only a person with two or more heads needs two brushes and two combs.
9. A bad hair day will not be solved by buying a new hair product, using it once, and then dumping it in the cabinet.
10. The best cleaning product ever invented by man (even if not environmentally friendly) is the toilet wand that clicks to pick up a brush and clicks to dump it in the garbage. No smelly cleaner, no fuss.
11. Aim.

That is all.

The Lost Art of Correspondence

I miss letter writing.

When I was a child, I wrote letters after birthdays and Christmases to the aunts and uncles and grandmas that sent or gave me presents. I was not a big fan of a letter that just said "thanks much"... I liked the (albeit childish) elegance of "how are you" and "yesterday at school I", etc.

I've read many blog posts and news articles about e-mail taking over the world and that no one really knows how to write a letter any more. I'm not sure that's entirely true - I think many folks know how to write a letter, but they don't have time to do it.

I wrote a letter today (although it was several days late) in support of a library science minor at my alma mater. I did not brag to the person requesting the letter (although she may very well read this blog) but it's quite possibly the best letter I've ever written. I love writing letters in support and recommendation. They are positive, poetic, mighty, and full of zest.

The world needs more zest. In letter form.