All Sessions

An unconference is a participant-guided experience that harnesses the unstructured conversations people usually have between conference sessions into the conference itself. Unlike most conferences where talking heads and group leaders decide what is important, unconferences are organized by the crowd. Unconferences are about sharing the knowledge and passion we have for our profession and taking what we learn into the world to make a difference. Everyone has something to share. Everyone has something to learn. We can all change the world.

Empowering Voices, Transforming Communities: join these conversations and leave Midwinter with new tools to become a better advocate. Libraries rely on partners within the community to advocate on their behalf more than ever before. But how can libraries stay relevant to these stakeholders in an environment of ever-changing priorities? Join visionary professor David Lankes, author of “Atlas of New Librarianship” ( (http://www.newlibrarianship.org), in two afternoons of innovative and interactive conversations about harnessing the evolving role of libraries, and strengthening the librarian’s voice to help shape community perception.

Facilitators from the graphic recording company, Sunni Brown (http://sunnibrown.com/), will help create visual images of the plenary conversations that conclude each afternoon. The Saturday, January 21, 2012, session focuses on “Understanding Your Communities.” The Sunday, January 22, 2012, session focuses on “Transforming Librarianship.” Both run from 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Sessions are open to all Midwinter Meeting attendees; please add them to your Scheduler to indicate that you plan to attend. Attendees will also receive a coupon for 5% off the price of David Lankes’ galvanizing “Atlas of New Librarianship” (ACRL/MIT Press, 2011) at the ALA Conference Store.

The conversation continues on Sunday afternoon (http://alamw12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1073).

Join OCLC and fellow members for breakfast and an update on OCLC strategy from Jay Jordan, President and CEO. Then, share roundtable conversation with colleagues who share your interests, hosted by OCLC staff. Choose your roundtable topic when you register:

• Cataloging and collection development: Connexion, WorldCat Cataloging Partners
• Developer community: EZproxy, WorldCat APIs
• Dewey
• Digital collections: CONTENTdm, WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway and the Digital Archive
• Discovery services: FirstSearch, WorldCat Local, WorldCat.org
• Electronic resource management: WorldCat knowledge base, License Manager
• OCLC Strategy
• Research and Advocacy
• Resource sharing
• Virtual reference
• Web-scale Management Services

Empowering Voices, Transforming Communities: join these conversations and leave Midwinter with new tools to become a better advocate. Libraries rely on partners within the community to advocate on their behalf more than ever before. But how can libraries stay relevant to these stakeholders in an environment of ever-changing priorities? Join visionary professor David Lankes, author of “Atlas of New Librarianship” ( (http://www.newlibrarianship.org), in two afternoons of innovative and interactive conversations about harnessing the evolving role of libraries, and strengthening the librarian’s voice to help shape community perception.

Facilitators from the graphic recording company, Sunni Brown (http://sunnibrown.com/), will help create visual images of the plenary conversations that conclude each afternoon. The Saturday, January 21, 2012, session focuses on “Understanding Your Communities.” The Sunday, January 22, 2012, session focuses on “Transforming Librarianship.” Both run from 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Sessions are open to all Midwinter Meeting attendees; please add them to your Scheduler to indicate that you plan to attend. Attendees will also receive a coupon for 5% off the price of David Lankes’ galvanizing “Atlas of New Librarianship” (ACRL/MIT Press, 2011) at the ALA Conference Store.

The conversation begins on Saturday afternoon (http://alamw12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1072).

MAES Discussion Group: Join us in conversation as we explore best practices in creating institutional infrastructure for effective and sustainable measurement, assessment and evaluation of library services.

Join your fellow LITA members in a conversation about how LITA responds to and involves its membership in the larger information, association, community-building, and technology-related landscape.

Please join us in a discussion about subject librarian roles in academic libraries.
Our conversation will explore the following issues, and more: How is the subject librarian role changing? What traditional subject librarian activities should be cast off (if any)? What are potential new roles for subject librarians? What activities should be the highest priority for subject librarians?

Join fellow conference goers for the first ever ALA Midwinter Conference Camp. The goal of this Camp is to get people together to talk about anything library or conference related with a focus on reflecting on what inspired you at the 2012 Midwinter conference. Come prepared to share your experience and/or lead an informal discussion on a topic of your choice. Everyone is welcome!