In October, we had the pleasure of attending the 2012 Annual ALAO Conference. It was great talking with fellow attendees at our booth and we enjoyed the empowering perspectives and ideas shared by the conference speakers.
When library conference speakers bring in ideas and values from beyond the walls of librarianship, they help us see our world in new ways. At the ALAO conference, keynote speaker Lisa Hinchliffe highlighted a number of fantastic resources:
- Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
- The Cluetrain Manifesto
- Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster
Lisa’s emphasis was how academic libraries can be indispensible to the higher education mission, as reflected in the title of her keynote, “First Be Valuable and Then Be Valued: Academic Library Impact.” This is an extension of the ACRL initiative on the value of academic libraries. Explore this topic further with the following key resources
- ACRL Value of Academic Libraries
- Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report by Megan Oakleaf
- Academic Library Value: The Impact Starter Kit by Megan Oakleaf
If you missed the conference but want to see some of what was talked about, see tweets from the conference, compiled by Meghan Frazer. Thanks, Meghan!
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