what's the dewey decimal number for rockin' good time?

well, i get to go to my first ever CAL conference this weekend. for all of you who aren't cool enough to know, CAL stands for colorado association of libraries. hundreds of librarians in one hotel in the thrilling and exciting denver tech center, and man are we going to throw down! i'm talking scheduled lunches, vendor information booths, workshops and presentations all afternoon, dinners with nationally known librarians as keynote speakers! it's going to be crazy!!!

okay, i'm being a little facetious. it should be cool, though. as usual, even at the ripe old age of 30, i'll be one of the youngest folks there. and, also as usual, women will outnumber the men 3 to 1. i'm sure to get a comment that goes something like this... "oh, my! it's so exciting to see young men in this profession!"

i will admit, though, that it is better than it was 4 years ago. most librarians have a working knowledge of technology now, and are using some pretty cool applications to do really exciting things - electronic reserves, live online reference, animated online tutorials, etc.

libraries ain't just books anymore, y'know.

i do have one gripe, however. for many years the conference has been up in the mountains at keystone or snowmass or some place cool like that. the year that i finally get to go, it's down in the denver tech center. the denver tech center! what type of crap is that?! they may as well have held it out in limon.

oh well, at least i'll get some killer free schwag - pens, pencils, letter openers, post-it-notes, bookmarks. i can hardly contain myself.