This is my first time at an ASIS&T conference, and so far it’s been an interesting experience. I don’t have a lot of time right now (wireless access at the hotel costs $10/day, and we’ve opted not to pay the fee, so myself, Ellen, Brittany and Jen have only the time we’re at the apartment we’re staying in to be online), so this will be very brief and impressionistic.
Between my own exhaustion and the lack of easy access to internet connections earlier in the day (it’s 11:15 pm Boston time right now), I’m afraid I won’t do much justice to any of the sessions I’ve been to thus far. I have taken some notes, which I’ll get up on the ASIS&T wiki once we return. (In the meantime, Ellen has put up her notes on the plenary session from Sunday afternoon.)
The best session that I went to today was titled “Toward a General Approach to Information Organization.” Four different speakers talked for about 15 minutes each about their research on information organization, but in a very general sense. One spoke about his research on how information organization is taught in library schools; another talked about five axioms he’s developed for how to think about the records we create. (The program synopsis does a better job than I can right now of explaining what the presenters talked about.)
In general though, as with everything I’ve experienced within the field of LIS, everyone is very friendly and approachable. ASIS&T as a society is very welcoming to new members (all of the committee meetings are open to anyone and everyone, and new members are especially encouraged to attend).