Ben Ostrowsky

I arrived slightly late to the general session this morning, but found a seat and listened to the presentation. It all sounded good, but the real applause came when we saw a live demo of the serials prediction calendar -- an actual one-year calendar that showed you exactly when each issue was expected. Judging by the applause, I'd guess that this feature has been needed for a while.

My presentation went well, I think. At one point I tried to think of a segue and finally just said "Okay, I don't have a smooth segue, so I'll just admit it. Next, I'd like to talk about law enforcement..." I got lots of questions and suggestions, but my favorite was from an Albertan librarian who said "We don't actually have the Patriot Act where I'm from, but let me ask you this: Are you trying to get around the Patriot Act by offering anonymous library cards?" I repeated the question on-mic and answered: "Yes, sir, we are." Brought down the house. I think I got more applause on that answer than on my presentation!

After lunch at the cool kids' table, I attended bits of two other presentations before realizing that they weren't actually boring, it was just that I was coughing too much (and my knee was hurting too much) to pay attention. So I'm back at the hotel, a block or two away, and I'll try to rest up so that I can go back for the last set of sessions -- or at the worst, make sure I'm in shape for tomorrow.

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