Gonna be honest y’all: When I’m not presenting, I’m going to be spending most of #alaac18 in a cafe working on projects. #somanydeadlines

— John Jackson (@johnxlibris) June 18, 2018

It isn’t my intention to be anti-social at Annual, but I have a few looming deadlines and a number of projects that I would like to start mapping out. The energy and distance that ALA Annual provides might just be the best environment to make that happen. Hopefully, I can find a late-night cafe near my hotel where that can take place.

When I’m not buried in my laptop, here’s where I plan to be. Hope to see some of you there!

Thursday

Arrive in New Orleans. Get settled into hotel. Maybe meet up with some friends for a drink.

Friday

8:30a – 4:00p: Assessment in Action: Demonstrating and Communicating Library Contributions to Student Learning and Success

4:00p – 5:30p: Opening General Session featuring Michelle Obama 

Saturday

10:30a – 12:00p: ACRL President’s Program: Beyond Resilience: Crafting a Caring Organization

1:00p – 2:00p: What Every Librarian Should Know about Young News Consumers

2:30p – 3:30p: Libraries and Learning Analytics: Identifying the Issues 

4:00p – 5:00p: Studying and Spirituality: Prayer and Meditation Spaces in Academic Libraries

Sunday

8:30a – 10:00a: Current Topics Discussion Group (ACRL ULS)

10:30a – 11:30a: Whiteness in LIS: Tracing its Impact, Mapping Resistance

1:00p – 2:00p: We’re All in It Together: Focusing Outreach & Assessment to Your Institution’s Strategic Goals (I’m presenting with colleagues at this one!)

2:30p – 3:30p: ACRL 2019 Panel Sessions Committee Meeting (ACRL) 

3:00p – 4:00p: Emerging Leaders Mix and Mingle or LITA President’s Program with Kendra Albert

4:00p – 5:00p: Escape the Library: Escape Room Design Workshop

Monday

Pack up my stuff. Grab a ride to the airport. Head back to Los Angeles

If you are one of the tens of thousands of people attending ALA Annual 2018 in New Orleans next week, I hope you will join me and my colleagues for a presentation Sunday, June 24 at 1:00 pm in Morial Convention Center, room 393. We are hosting a panel session for ACRL entitled “We’re All in It Together: Focusing Outreach & Assessment to Your Institution’s Strategic Goals.” Here is the summary:

“Assessing, evaluating, and articulating the impact and value of library outreach work is a growing trend among academic librarians engaged in marketing and outreach. In order to assess and determine the effectiveness of this work, it is important to plan and align efforts with both library and campus strategic goals. Four academic librarians who are members of ACRL’s Library Marketing and Outreach Interest Group (LMOIG) and the ACRL University Libraries Section (ULS) Academic Outreach Committee (AOC) will share their experiences aligning their outreach efforts to institutional strategic goals. The panelists will also discuss their assessment methods in relation to these goals. Attendees will be able to ask questions and have time to identify organizational or institutional goals to align with future outreach, along with possible assessment approaches to implement at their own institutions.”

Hope to see you there!