Returned from Tucson just to wash clothes in a hurry and get ready for Florida!

So, quick recap of probably the best library conference I have ever been to. Living the Future was sponsored by the University of Arizona in Tucson and there were probably about 180 people there total. So much more intimate than the big ALA annual meetings. We spent two solid days meeting and mingling and listening to presentations. I have never taken more fun notes at a meeting - there is hardly any doodling! Some highlights included:

• Peter Senge talked with us about people being born to learn. One of my fave quotes from this meeting was "I cannot hear your words, your actions speak too loudly."
• Almost all of the participants took part in the coLAB session where we all walked around and read snadwich boards detailing what everyone was involved in at work. It was fun to see what everyone else was doing in their library.
• Most of the speakers talked about the overwhelming amount of data out there in the world. Some spoke about getting rid of print materials, others talked more about collaboration and open resources that will be shared by all libraries in the future.

Overall, the conference taught me some new things and then others made me feel like my library is eons ahead of others. Even if no one knows about what my university does or how we provide research help, most were in total awe that we provide online resources and online resources only.

A cool plug for a journal I don't know HOW I missed: Southern Spaces. This combines two things I love: the South and technology.

I also feel that my attire was very sassy indeed.

As for the rest of the trip, we met up with our friend Alexander and his son, Nicholas for dinner one night at El Charro. Our friends Noah and Catherine came down from Phoenix and we hit the epitome of old-school tiki charm, Kon-Tiki for dinner, checked out the Titan Missile Museum and the Arizona- Sonoran Desrt Museum. We even got Alexander and his son to join us for the desert museum and then we took the backroads to a dive bar for Taco Sunday (Circle S Saloon at16001 W El Tiro Rd, Marana, AZ) and then a driving tour around Pinal Air Park where he works.

We tried really hard to find a historic district in Tucson called the Barrio Historico but with no signs saying that we were there, we just tried a walk around a block in a neighborhood we thought was the right one! There were green and yellow and purple houses so we were probably in the right area. Overall, I thought Tucson was awesome. It is much more funky and laid-back than I felt Phoenix was. It is probably too hot for us to ever live there but it was really a great place to visit!