I’m Inspired

Well, the workshop in DC went well. They usually do. Actually, thinking back, they always do. I get quite nervous beforehand, especially the last day or two before I actually give one. Workshops are a crapshoot in terms of time. Timelines vary greatly depending on the size of the group who attend. Because I don’t just lecture for six hours, I have to guesstimate how much time each component will take. And being a German-heritage librarian (see remarks about OCD that follow), I can’t estimate most things worth @#&. And while people—especially librarians (who became librarians because of varying degrees of OCD)—like structure, they also come to conferences to network, and often don’t have much time to do that outside the sessions they’ve signed up for. Add to that the fact that at the end of six hours of concentration, most in the group are pretty much brain-dead and just would like to sit and kibbitz, or go home, or go out for a drink. Or several.

So I try to plan and yet flex. This is the part that makes me nervous. I’m no longer terrified of being in front of groups of peers—who are usually the harshest critics of one of their own. But I don’t want my workshops to look haphazard or unplanned. At the same time, I can’t be a controlfreak and keep everything to the minute. See what I mean about being nervous? I'm not really scared. I just want it to go well.

And it did. My biggest mistake was my shoes. My feet hurt so much (the four blisters were not a laughable situation!) after a day of nothing but standing and walking around a “classroom” that I couldn’t go sightseeing at all. At all! My hotel--the Washington Hilton--was a good 4 blocks from the Metro and way too far from the Mall to walk there. And Washington is one of my favoritest places to be Tammi Tourist. RATS!

But I am inspired. The people at the workshop were all younger than I am (I’m pretty sure). And they all thought that graduate education for librarians should definitely include something like what I was giving them. So I’m in the process of revising my brochure and preparing to send it to every library school in the country to see if any is interested in having me for a day. We shall see!