While I was in D.C., a library director whom I'd just met wondered why there weren't more younger people at the Academic Law Library of 2015 workshop. I didn't have a ready answer, and I've been thinking about it ever since. There were actually a number of reasons.

First, I confess that my (possibly superficial) impression of the pre-workshop listserv discussion was that many of the issues on it were things that had been hashed and rehashed for years with little action. No thanks. (I have subsequently heard good things about the workshop, so I'm happy my impression was incorrect or that the listserv didn't otherwise accurately preview the workshop.)

My other personal issue with getting to the workshop was working with a shortened travel schedule, because I also went to CALI. The best I could do with that was get to D.C. in time for the late morning CONELL exhibit hall.

Finally, and perhaps most important, I've only now noticed in the workshop description that the target audience is listed as "academic law library senior managers." This does not describe me, nor many of my most talented peers--future directors and AALL presidents certainly among them. Granted, 2015 is not far in the future and there are some young-ish librarians that fit that description, but if one is really interested in the future of libraries, one should make sure that ALL the librarians who will be making and living it are invited.

...

I'm aware there was also some to-do about where the young law librarians were at the business meeting and member forum during the conference. (I'd been planning to go but didn't, because I ended up working the Gen X / Gen Y Caucus booth. Oh, irony.) I do think it takes a few years to figure out the association and gain a level of interest to support attending the business meeting. I went to part of one my first year (and haven't been back since), and it wasn't really clear to me that I was supposed to be there, to be honest. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in having had that experience.

Meanwhile, what I'd like to know is, where are the older law librarians showing an interest in the younger generation? Yes, quite a number support CONELL, but that's for newer librarians, not necessarily younger ones. Bob Oakley was a marvelous supporter of the Gen X / Gen Y Caucus from its first meeting, and I think of him fondly every year during our meeting. Jim Milles attended last year. This year, board member Chris Graesser attended our meeting (and witnessed our first election), and president Catherine Lemann joined her for our social. I may be missing some stealth boomers, but that's not very many.

Like the business meeting, Caucus meetings and socials are open to all law librarians. The former is now a must on my agenda for next year. I sincerely hope there will be some more generational cross-over in the other direction too.

From the creator of The Machine is Us/Using Us, comes A Vision of Students Today. The production values and camera work leave something to be desired, but the concept is brilliant.



The first thing it brought to mind for me was the difference between the AALL Gen X/Gen Y Caucus meetings and the rest of the annual meeting events: we immediately, instinctively (I've never heard the suggestion for arrangement made out loud) re-arrange the chairs into an enormous circle. Granted, circles are impractical for many conference activities, but it's still interesting.

Expect to see this one circulating wildly. For more from this professor and his students, check out Kansas State University's Digital Ethnography site. (This is the URL that appears near the end of the video.)

Thanks to Chronicles of Bean for the tip.

Note: I received this via email forward a few weeks ago. I've not been able to track the source, but if anyone knows it, please let me know so I can add a credit!
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When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up, what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill both ways through year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death!

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I've reached the ripe old age of thirty-something, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so damn easy. I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damned Utopia. And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't even know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. We wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves!

And there was no e-mail. We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen. And then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in a mailbox, and it would take a week to get there!

And there were no MP3's or Napsters. You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Try sticking an LP Album under your jacket, buddy. Or we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up!

We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting. If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either. When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was--it could be your boss, your mom, a collections agent--you didn't know! You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like Space Invaders and Asteroids, and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square. You had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever. And you could never win the game, the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died. . .just like LIFE.

When you went to the movie theater there was no such thing as stadium seating. All the seats were the same height. A tall guy sat in front of you, you were screwed!

And sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no on-screen menu. You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on.
And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. . .d'ya hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little bastards. That's exactly what I'm talking about!

You kids today have got it too easy! You guys wouldn't last five minutes back in 1987!