Conference Swag!

Hello! The 'gardeners are just back from the NJLA Conference, and what a wonderful conference it was!!! (And some of us are off to another conference - The Mid-Atlantic Library FUTURES Conference, May 7th and 8th at The Borgata in AC!)

I don't know about anyone else, but I sure have a lot of stuff, or swag, from it! Plenty of free pens, notepads, lanyards (even flip flops - really!) abounded in the exhibit hall from the vendors.

And, of course, t-shirts!

Well, if you have too many t-shirts, here's a fantastic thing to do with them! My friend Beth Cackowski (go NJLA IT Section!) reminded me about a book called Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, by Megan Nicolay.

I had seen this author on one of the morning shows once - Martha Stewart I think actually!

Check out this book and, voila! there you have it - something to do with all those free conference t-shirts!

• Make it into a skirt!


• A bikini!


• Turn a regular t-shirt into a tank or tube top!


• A handbag!


• iPod cozy!


• Leg warmers!


• and more............. (yes these are all real patterns in the book)!

I'm so glad Beth reminded me of that and I am passing the tip along to you! If you actually DO turn any of your conference t-shirts (or any other t-shirts) into something else, let us know! Beth was wise enough to choose t-shirts in larger sizes so she would have ultimate playing-around room with them!

However, I myself will not be taking scissors to my beautiful purple SUPER LIBRARIAN shirt!

I'm off to see the conference...

It's that time of year: The NJLA Conference!

The conference is one of my very favorite things! Last year was the first year that I found myself "behind the scenes" and I had the best time! I experienced the conference in a completely different way and got just as much, though different, things out of it! I had attended a few years prior to that strictly as an "attendee," but last year, due to my involvement on the NJLA Information Technologies Section, and the NJLA Member Services Committee, I found myself much more involved.

I spent a lot of time welcoming people at the Hospitality Table - boy, that was fun! And a lot of time at the Podcasting Station, which was also fun and very exciting!

I hope you'll stop by either one of those places, or both, if you're coming to conference....

I'll also be blogging the conference here for NJLA (really, I WILL! Which I intend to use to get back into blogging and stop being so lame!) so check it out! Really!

I hope to get to at least SOME of the programs - I am especially excited about:

• Of course, the IT and YA Programs, particularly Cool Tools and Just Push Play! with Steve Garwood; Let's Mambo at the Library, with Robert P. Rynkiewicz; and Harness the power of Social Software @ Your Library, with Liz Burns and Sophie Brookover!
• Our own Janie L. Hermann will be presenting 15 Fantastic Freebies in 50 Minutes, which I'm sure is going to be packed!
• And, especially the Helen Blowers presentations, Core Competencies, Core Values in the Era of Library 2.0 and Discovering Library 2.0 (Can you tell I'm a little bit tech-oriented!?)!

Gosh, I hope I can get to everything! That is usually the only criticism I hear and feel about the conference - too many good programs competing against each other in the same time slots!

One more invite: Lynn Schott and I will be hosting "Lunch Buddies" again at the conference - if you want people to eat lunch with, we'll be gathering people at the Hospitality Table - so come see us!