Inspired, excited, exhausted.

I've just reviewed my notes from today's sessions - what a fantastic first day.

After the official opening ceremony Josephine Bryant, City Librarian from the Toronto Public Library, gave a thrilling talk on the amalgamation process that took seven seperate public library systems and created a super library system of 99 branches for the people of Toronto. An inspiring presentation with plenty of ideas we could apply here in our public libraries. I love the idea of the Booklovers Ball.

After a magnificent morning tea in the trade hall I attended stream two of the concurrent sessions which included:
Not the "R" word! presented by Kathryn Pearson and Meredith Martinelli - an interesting presentation on the organisational restructure at Macquarie University Library.
Then Robyn Benjamin talked about the restructure of the Technical Services Department at the University of Western Sydney (UWS).
Leanne Levinge and Karen Tang gave a great presentation about Quality Assurance QA and leadership to finish of this concurrent session.

Lunch was delicious! I sat with a Victorian visitor whilst I ate and discussed some of the "must see" sightseeing in Perth.
I also had a good chance to have a look around the trade exhibit. I have some great stash - my family were mightily impressed with the flashing dice from Thompson Gale.

Grant Stone gave a great wake up session on Laughter Yoga ("ho, ho ha, ha, ha!") and the image of librarians in movies and TV. Then Dr Dawn Casey gave a facinating insight into the world behind the scenes at the museum. I don't know why it never occured to me that have museums deal with controversy as libraries do. Her tips on dealing with contoversy were very well observed.
Before we stopped for Afternoon tea, Dr Casey launched the National and State Libraries Australian Indigenous Policy.

I then attended the first stream of the afternoon concurrent sessions which included: Librarians as learning advocates presented by Chris Kelly from Hume Global Learning Village; a fantastic partnership of learning providers, librarians and government to provide education services for the residents of the City of Hume.
Helen Partridge presented an interesting paper on the "digital divide", Understanding digital inequality in the smart city: a psychological model. Helen's challenge to the group, are we designing our digital services so that we are encouraging use, certainly gave me something to consider when I return to my regular job.
Unfortunately I have a bit of a cold and was unable to stay for the last session From stand alone to SWIFT, which I am sure would have been very interesting. And worst of all, leaving early meant I missed happy hour!
It was great to catch up with some old friends and collegues during the day's breaks. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Cathy Kelso
City of Nedlands Library Service, Western Australia.