To start off the day, BLACKHAWKS celebration! Yes, today was the day of the parade, and all had been warned of the hassle it would be with shuttles to and from the conference. As usual, I walked across the street from the hotel and began to see mass numbers, the like I was still amazed at. 
I vaguely remember the crowd in St. Louis, when I was there for NCTE and the parade was me in the middle of things. THAT sea of red was amazing before and after. This was no backseat either. I saw amazing amounts of people crowded in spaces I thought would never work. Yet, despite the heat, maybe the three hour wait?, the picturesI had of fans was amazing, 
the pictures of the team came out perfect, and I couldn’t believe I had timed it right to be there, in the middle of 2 million fans, and (yes 2 MILLION!) and also able to catch the convention, business as usual. Life was good!
My original plan was to attend the Conference 101 by the New Members Round
Table Session, 1:00 – 2:30 PM but by the time I was there, the line was out the door!
Soooo, in place of that, I wandered the Convention Center and settled on the 2:30 – 4:00 PM Session, International Librarians’ Orientation, that seemed to fit! I was amazed at how many people were from other countries at ALA! Pakistan, the U.K., Canada, Egypt, Australia, Ghana, Nigeria, and more, 14 pages of a spreadsheet we were given, all people from other countries! AMAZING! TONS from Canada! We were given a raffle ticket and there was a gift bag in the middle of each table, and we had a chance at winning. We thought that would be pretty good since only 3 people were at the table at first, then by the time the ceremony started, a packed table! What was nice was this was similar to the orientation I received and try to participate in, within Mexico City, so it was nice ALA was being made familiar thanks to this orientation, and I was able to get into this one!
The International Relations Round Table does a GREAT job in getting information to everyone, our folder was packed with the poster sessions, workshops, and other functions that involved all things international.
It was exciting to meet and greet those around us, and have the possibility of seeing ALA through the eyes of an international librarian. 🙂 To sing up for a free bimonthly e-newsletter involving all things international, the following address allows you to do that:
and the website for the International Relations is the following!
Website: http://www.ala.org/iro
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ALAIRO
in Spanish!: http://twitter.com/ALA_en_espanol
and on Facebook! : http://tinyurl.com/ykes8d7
The next big event was the speaking of Steven D. Levitt, (Author of Freakonomics) for the official opening session of ALA! 🙂 I knew nothing of Mr Leavitt, so look for the next post highlighting his speech!
PAVEing a Blog 