ACRL 2013: Fast Food

The drive from Missouri to Indiana took longer than I suspected. I was in the hotel room by 3:30 Wednesday, so even with picking up my badge I'd be able to squeeze into the first keynote at 4. But then an alarming discovery. The room clock showed 4:30. Like an expert three-card Monte player, Indiana's time shift from Central to Eastern had fooled me.

There turned out to be a silver lining. Not able to attend the keynote, I waited for the Exhibition Hall's 5:45 opening. Snackables were many and lines short. More people came in later. There is gloating satisfaction, perhaps with a taint of perversity, in seeing people in a long line that you have managed to avoid by a preemptive arrival. I figured they were just out from the end of the keynote and its associative ACRL housekeeping announcements.

Although this will dismay the organization, the non-Aesopian moral is that if attendees want short lines and first dibs on food, trade in the keynote for an on-time arrival at the Exhibit Hall opening.

ACRL Philadelphia: Why? Because We Like You

Free food is to be had at a library conference--candy and hors d'œuvres in the exhibitors' room and, for those lucky enough to receive an invite, a coveted meal at a vendor event. From one view this is a mild form of bribery, and from another this is the just reward for a librarian's legendary niceness.

"One in an ACRL Philadelphia series. Collect the whole set."