I am freshly returned from the Texas Library Association Conference in Houston. I do not know the numbers in attendance, but if my observations were correct, there were thousands upon thousands. Handouts from the sessions are available here for those of you interested (http://www.txla.org/conference/handouts.html). Here are a few things I noticed:
1. There were many of us using Twitter to provide some updates on sessions and hot books to be had.
2. Facebook friending (and posting) was occurring at an alarming rate.
3. Publishers were thrilled to see interest still in books as well as technology.
4. Authors were blogging and tweeting and posting to FB, too.
5. Librarians are eager to learn about anything they can use to keep teens (and kids) connected to learning. They brought along administrators and teachers this time. You should have seen the wide eyes when those first-timers saw the bounty of the exhibits and the conference sessions.
I guess this was an affirmation of a couple of things I hold to be true but needed some evidence: Web 2.0 is alive and well. These apps can exist nicely alongside books.
Posted by Teri Lesesne
