On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 6:50 AM, Edward M. Corrado <[log in to unmask]>wrote:



> I could have done what
> others did and purposely avoided scheduling meetings around that time
> and rescheduled the one that was but I didn't. Yes, I have bazillions
> of other things to do and the registration time wasn't convenient for
> me, but everyone else has bazillions of things to do as well. It would
> not have been luck that got the people in who registered before me a
> slot - it would have been a combination of their good planning and my
> poor planning.
>

Honestly... I just laughed at this scoldy Malthusian post. This is Code4Lib
Insider Baseball. I wonder if anyone would have said this when C4L was
founded. It presupposes so much. Among other things, that a person who
would be a good fit for this conference would avidly hang on C4L's every
word or movement well in advance, and understand all of the games. Then we
wonder why there are so few women working in library IT, available for
speaker panels, featured on important panels, blah blah blah. I feel I've
been hearing what Edward said my entire working life, first in aircraft
maintenance and then in libraries.

The responses to my off-the-cuff suggestion on randomization are
insightful. I like the new ideas flowing. But at least I have said my
piece. I do like the suggestion about capping institutional attendance. It
is amusing to see that institutions sending more people than work at our
library. Institutional diversity would seem to be a  C4L value.

Speaking of C4L insider baseball, hmmm! Beat you at your own game? We just
sold off a pile of card catalogs (we had to keep the shelflist, since half
of our collection hasn't been converted, and it will be a while--your
library's end-of-year chowder for purchasing misc stuff is my library's
entire operational and personnel budget--and I speak from experience in
both institutions). Perhaps we should use the proceeds to fund next year's
Karen G. Schneider Scholarship (make that, The Illustrious Karen G.
Schneider Scholarship for Excellence in Librarianship), for women from
Newfoundland working in academic library technology in California's Bay
Area, preferably those with extensive experience in LMS migrations,
EZProxy, LDAP, and NCIP. I haven't had time to follow C4L very closely
(q.v., "Running 5-Person Library"), but I did notice a thread about a
specialized scholarship that would suggest this might be acceptable.
Although, of course, there will be a reason that I should have understood
that it really isn't acceptable.

As noted before, our AD for Lib Tech would love a good tech conference in
the next six months.  She has ER&L (her first), but would like something
geekier. We appreciate the spirit of the "start your own C4L," and you do
have to ask, why doesn't the Bay Area have one? But--and I've worked in the
big places with the cushy padding, so I am aware that when you work in
aforesaid places, you really don't understand where we are--that's not
feasible at present; she's taken on something else important and "external"
and that's about it for the next 18 mo, given an overflowing plate.

Recommendations welcome. Enjoy C4L. Thank you for a "community" [followed
by a qualified 'sic'] where one can speak one's mind. That is all.

Karen G. Schneider
[log in to unmask]
Former C4L Attendee
Former C4L Keynoter
Former C4L Keynoter Who Survived Socially-Awkward Hecklers
Inspiration for C4L "Sarge"