MLA 2020: Fred and the Avenging Chicken Spend a Week in the Basement

Time is an illusion, conference time doubly so.* Like pretty much everything scheduled for 2020, the MLA conference was disrupted by the Pestilence. First it was delayed for three months, then moved entirely online. This was the first online library conference that the Avenging Chicken and I attended, and the first one that MLA had put on. It was a very different experience. Part of the fun of a conference is visiting a new place, and going to new restaurants. This time we had to improvise. If you think the continuity looks a little strange, you're absolutely right. I combined the pre-conference July activities with the August conference, and I put all the presentations on one day and the vendor visits on another. It didn't really happen like this.

Disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, all people shown here were aware I was taking their picture and gave me permission, or were part of a large group (opening and closing ceremonies, for example) where they could be reasonably expected to be photographed. If anyone objects to their picture being included, please e-mail me at phred@phred.us.

And finally, for those people looking for similar Adventures at the koha-US conference in September and the international KohaCon in October in Wellington, New Zealand, I'm afraid there won't be any. One online conference Adventure is enough. I've used up all my jokes, so anything else would look like the Angriest Dog in the World.

So, will an all-virtual conference work? We're about to find out.	We get in the van and set out for our destination. Then we remember that it's a virtual conference and we aren't going anywhere.	We walk past the cat on our way to the basement. He's not interested in us. Again.	And we reach our corrected destination. It has a couple of computers, microphones, cameras, a phone, a barcode scanner, and a chicken. Kinda like a nerve center. With a chicken.
We attend the opening ceremonies.	And see MLA's plan for the future.	We have dinner at a local Chinese restaurant.	Second day! A day for presentations. We start out by reading the rules.
We talk to Laura Rey about how librarians can support veterinary disaster response teams.	Kaitlin Fuller talks about knowledge syntheses and how to demystify the process for graduate students...	...and hosts a discussion afterwards. The software MLA was using wouldn't let me put an image on my green screen. Still, a green screen is better than the view of my basement.	And we couldn't miss Roxann Mouratidis' presentation on open access journal articles.
We take a lunch break at a local sandwich shop. By the time we arrived, they were almost out of tomato.	Then attend Terry Selfe's program on library employee wellness.	And Bridget Jivanelli's talk on "PubMed & Poetry: Where Science Meets Creativity." Their medical poetry is more serious than mine.	We finish the day with Lindsay Boyce's presentation on ICU rounding. Before the pestilence I attended ICU rounds, so we swapped stories and ideas.
We have breakfast at a local restaurant known for its crepes.	They have a lot of choices!	Vendor day! We start out chatting to Dolores Deneault of Prenax.	Then with NLM's Patricia Gallagher. I ask her if she knows when Steve Greenberg will be online. She finds the information for me.
It turns out that there was something she didn't tell me: that Steve Greenberg is her husband and he was one floor below in his basement office. We talk about books, photography, and other mutual interests. He notes that we have identical chairs.	We say hello to Samantha Santiago from Wolters Kluwer.	We drop by the New England Journal of Medicine's booth to say hi to Mike Tavares. Actually, it's his living room with an NEJM table drape over a window. We are impressed by his ingenuity.	NLM Director Patti Brennan hosts a chat.
We rehearse for the talent show. In 2018 MLA's Annual Dinner had a talent show. I applied and performed. The next year they changed the name from "talent show" to "open mic night." I performed again. For 2020 they cancelled the show and dinner. Then they cancelled the whole in-person conference. We try not to take it personally. We had a song planned, but right now isn't really the best time to be singing about a disease.	Instead, we go to a local Thai restaurant known for its spicy food.	Last day! We have breakfast at a local outdoor cafe.	We wait for the NLM update. It appears to be considerably delayed.
And then it begins. Patti Brennan introduces the festivities.	They have many interesting plans.	The outdoor cafe is attached to a wildlife sanctuary, and we take a brief walk through it.	The gardens have exotic wild fruits that provide nourishment for the local wildlife.
This is what happens when you let dogs into the observation deck. Fortunately, it's a double pane and no dogs or other animals were hurt. Well, one of the maintenance crew did get a slight cut.	MLA President Lisa Traditi speaks at the closing session.	On the way home, we stop at a local grill noted for its cheesburgers, chips, and Pepsi. No Coke.	And we're back home! It was a good conference, but something was missing. Online conferences have great potential to include more participants, but they miss the serendipity of meeting the person sitting next to you at a program and discovering you're both working on the same kind of project, or hearing laughter from a room and going in to see what's happening. The Avenging Chicken and I hope that we can attend another conference in person someday, exotic though a week in the basement may be.

*I think that's from the Reader's Digest. They have a whole page for deep thoughts like that.