I'll be following the leaders at #AASL11 via Twitter!

I'll be following the leaders at #AASL11 via

Thanks to my school's support, I've been able to attend the biennial American Association of School Librarians (AASL) national conference in Indianapolis, Portland, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Reno, Charlotte, and now Minneapolis. The AASL Conference is the only national conference dedicated solely to school librarians. It's my number one choice for professional development, and I always return home brimming with excitement about new ideas to try in our library.

Yes, I have trouble deciding who and what to see and where to go during a conference -- there are so many choices!

This year, I can enhance my conference experience in the following ways:

I can:

• Plug into the Virtual Conference
• "Connect, share, and network" before, during, and after the conference, as a member of the AASL Ning
• Participate using Twitter.

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I'm drawn to these conferences because I want to listen to and learn from the idea leaders in the profession -- both the established voices, and the emerging ones as well.

I already follow most of the established leaders who'll be at AASL11, on Twitter. So you can be sure that I'll be following more closely during the conference.

How? Aside from using the #AASL11 hashtag search (available on the Ning too), I'll be checking my own personalized list of #AASL11 leaders who tweet regularly. (Suggestions for additions to my list are welcome.)

Here are some of the people on my list, and the reasons why:

@AngeReads @buffyjhamilton @vennlibrarian and @wsstephens are on the list because they're presenting Books, E-Link, and Databases Oh My! Collection Development in the 21st Century (BYOL), a full-day workshop I signed up for (can't wait!).

I included Workshop Presenters @leperez1 - Taking Wikis to the Next Level and @skjohns - How To Get Your Message Out to Your School Community.

I added @BreckSchool and @StPaulAcademySS because they're on my Independent School Tour.

And the Storytelling Festival looks awesome! I added Professional Storytellers Judie Moreillon @CactusWoman and Dianne de las Casas @storyconnection (too bad Jerry Blue doesn't have a Twitter account)

I've hand-picked some Concurrent Session Presenters (you'll note some duplicates from above):

• @mluhtala - Do or Die: Assessment and Relevance
• @shannonmmiller @skjohns @gwynethjones @wsstephens - Creating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• @blueskunkblog - School Libraries and Cloud Computing: Roles and Possibilities
• @pattylouis - Empowering Students through Self-Assessment

I'm disappointed that @AuntyTech won't be there, except virtually.

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Here's the link to the list feed: https://twitter.com/#!/mauilibrarian2/aasl11

And here's the live feed:




There are 22 on the list as of today. More will be added later, of course.

And yes, I'll be tweeting my own #AASL11 impressions as often as I can.

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@mauilibrarian2 

P. S. Are you a school librarian interested in AASL11?  and I'd be happy to follow and learn from you too.