I attended my first ALA Annual Meeting in Orlando recently. As a current library school student and a paraprofessional that works in the academic and corporate environments, I feel I had a very open-mind to the whole conference experience. After attending many smaller conferences such as ALA Midwinter, Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Meeting, and American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting, I knew what to expect, but was still surprised by the sheer size of the exhibits and plethora of learning opportunities.

One of my many involvements within ALA is the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA). I have been impressed with the trainings and sessions organized by LAMA. In addition, the people have been very welcoming and concerned with the development of new library professionals.

I would like to share some information and thoughts received from the ALA meeting in Orlando and specifically from several LAMA events and meetings. First, if you are looking for professional training opportunities please consider LAMA activities. LAMA is NOT just for directors. It is for anyone that wants to understand administration issues, improve leadership skills within an organization, or improve their own personal skills. The top two initiatives of LAMA this past year was to communicate the benefits of LAMA to all levels of library professionals from directors down to library school students and LAMA's main subject focus at this past ALA meeting and the Midwinter in San Diego were sessions that helped to develop leadership skills for EVERYONE. It was emphasized in the sessions that anyone at any level can be a leader, and that the title of "director" does NOT mean leader.

One session I attended in Orlando was LAMA's "Dialog with Directors." Look for it at future meetings since it was a great success. It allowed anyone who attended to talk with current directors (and several that were retiring) about preparing to be a director and a day-in-the-life of a director. It was an open discussion around a table that included about 10 directors and 20 people in various stages of professional development from a library school student (myself), to several people getting ready to take on directorships, to some interested in the future, to those who had no desire in being directors. The directors even stated that they learned a great amount about the thought process of people in various levels of professional development and felt they each gained some knowledge to take back to their libraries. Public and academic libraries were both represented in the discussions.

KEY LEARNINGS from the Dialog with Directors:

1. Don't be in a hurry to be a director. Develop library skills, management skills, and leadership skills first.
   
2. Build relationships within your department and throughout your organization, before a problem arises. If your first contact with someone is in relationship to a problem, you are in trouble.
   
3. Look for the communication channels that allow problems to be solved, rather than ignored. Rely on those channels when you are trying to repair others. Requires trust within an organization.
   
4. Leaders look towards the future & outside their departments. They want to know how the overall organization works and interacts.
   
5. Goals of middle managers looking to move up should include: avoiding the "my turf" management method, and learning to balance the day-to-day with a visionary approach. Look outside your department (turf) and understand the interactions of all departments. The success of the whole organization should come first.
   
6. Directors must develop external contacts because being at the top can be lonely. Successful directors have contacts well outside their own organizations to discuss situations, vent, and gain occasional encouragement.
   
7. Peers can also make good mentors. What do your peers do that has a failed or is successful?

If you are looking to improve your communication, management, or leadership skills, please consider trying a LAMA preconference or session at a future ALA meeting. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the wide range of professional levels attained by the participants. LAMA is NOT just for directors or department heads as is falsely believed by many.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all the NMRT volunteers at their table in the exhibit hall. They provided great advice related to the conference and getting more involved in ALA.