Librarian Wardrobe

I’m Tasha Bergson-Michelson, Search Education Curriculum Fellow at Google.  I am a proud librarian of almost two decades, and a Boolean and electronic sleuthing geek, through-and-through. I tweet occasionally @researchwell and am looking forward to getting @advancedoperatr underway shortly.

Since I started my first library in Japan, I have always tended to overdress for work (of course, in certain circles around here wearing shoes is overdressing). For this conference, though, I am hoping meet people who I’ve only seen online—and people I’ve never met before—so I am going full-on Googly: jeans, Google t-shirt, and a blazer for warmth…and “formality.”

(I like to travel light, but my itchy fingers may yet win and pack some of my usual wear, for evenings.)

I’m John Stevens, one of the Access & Information Librarians at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Vic, Australia. Like many people listed here recently, I’m also attending the ALA Annual 2011, and have had to contemplate humidity for the first time in a while. This is a sample of the kind of clothes I’ve chosen to bring to NOLA, considering this (the shirts ‘n socks are new, as I had to re-stock upon arrival because my checked-in bag ‘gone astray’ on the way from Australia… serves me right for stewing over my outfits so much, I guess).

This is how Dale McNeill, Director of Public Library Service at Queens Library will be packing for ALA 2011! Submission forwarded by Lauren Comito, who says, “[Dale] is one of the best dressed people in QL, and we all love the bowties.” Excellent!

I’m Jenna Freedman, Research and Zine Librarian at Barnard College. I blog at Lower East Side Librarian and am the primary if sometimes absentee tweeter at BarnLib and RadReference. You can review the 17 notes I inserted on Flickr into the photo above (can also click the photo to get to Flickr), but I’ll try to hit the highlights of my conference attendance packing advice here.

• I tend to be a casual, some might even say frumpy, dresser in the best of times, but in hot, humid New Orleans, I truly recommend joining me in dressing for comfort. Won’t you look better in a tank top than a silk shirt with enormous sweat stains anyway?
• It is not hot and humid indoors in most conference venues. It is freezing. I’m carrying a sweater and scarf in my backpack.
• Snacks! I’m bringing vegan snacks in particular, but even for omnivores it’s a good idea to travel with food. The convention center’s offerings are underwhelming and overpriced, and the cc isn’t near much either, to my memory.
• Propaganda: I’m making fliers for the zine reading I’m doing and for the Radical Reference meeting I’m helping coordinate. And I’m putting extra business cards in my backpack right now, which I often forget to do.
• Travel mug and water bottle. Enough said, right?
• Don’t forget your power cords and cables: laptop, phone, camera, etc.
• Back to clothes, I plan to pack lightly. A sleeveless dress, a skirt, a pair of shorts, two or three T-shirts, sweater. Plus running clothes and jammies. Footware: running shoes, cute low top sneakers, and maybe flip-flops. I haven’t decided yet about a bathing suit. I know this doesn’t sound all that light, but this is a three week trip for me.

The conference launches the Orderly Disorder: Zine Librarians in Circulation tour, which culminates in the Zine Librarians (un)Conference. If anyone cares, my ALA schedule is on my blog. I’d love to see y’all at the Radical Reference Meeting & Social Saturday, 5:30-7 at The Roosevelt Hotel Bar 116 University Place (free! vegan-friendly refreshments!); at Orderly Disorder: Zine Librarians in Circulation tour launch Sunday 6:30-8 Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, Nadine Vorhoff Library 100 Caroline Richardson Bldg., 62 Newcomb Place, Tulane University (Transportation will provided between the convention center and the library, pick-up at 6pm in front of Convention Center Hall E); and at Cataloging Zine Collections in Libraries and Info-shops (I’m presenting), Monday 4-5:30 Convention Center 297.

I’m Char Booth, Instruction Services Manager & E-Learning Librarian at the Claremont Colleges Library. I blog at info-mational & tweet @charbooth.

Packing for conferences is all about wise shoe choices, so I’m including a triptych of the four to five pairs that I’ll be bringing to New Orleans. Flips and boots are the other likely suspects.

To each its own function: topsiders for whatever, oxfords for presenting, disgusting Toms for running/spelunking.

To see the oxfords in action, you can catch me Friday the 24th at 9:30  keynoting the RUSA Preconference Strange Bedfellows: IT and Reference Collaborations to Enhance User Experiences, Sunday the 26th at 4 at the EQUACC Progress Panel, and hopefully (if I can swing it), at The Right to Read: Increasing Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Panel on Sunday the 26th from 1:30-3:30.

Happy conferencing, and don’t be afraid of heat/humidity: it’s a beautiful combination.

Special Edition Librarian Wardrobe continues with inside info and tips from some awesome librarians you have likely seen and/or read!

These bags are what David Lee King will be bringing his clothing and technology in to ALA 2011. Here is what he has to say about packing:

Here’s what I’ll take to ALA, and what I normally take on trips:

One carry-on bag, and my laptop bag.

• The carry-on bag is a Red Oxx Air Boss, from http://www.redoxx.com/ - and recommended by the fine dude at http://www.onebag.com/ - so I like to travel as light as possible (translation = I cram as much stuff as I can in that!)
• I usually double up days on outfits, and only bring 1-2 pairs of shoes, so I don’t really have much stuff to take.

Laptop bag:

• all the important stuff!
• translation: iPad, laptop, camera, external microphones, and a bunch of cables and adapters. The iPhone’s in my pocket.

You can see David Lee King present at ALA at Seriously Social: Leveraging Social Media on Saturday, June 25, 10:30am - 12pm in the Convention Center, room 383-385.