Today was the "official" first day of MLA, so things finally got going in earnest. And yes, I did hit up the Casino last night, but didn't win any money. Too bad.
Our very own Honore Bray got things started by introducing the two "John Does" who were issued a National Security Letter from the NSA and subsequently placed under a gag order. The whole story was disturbing from a civil liberties standpoint. Not that I was a big Patriot Act believer before, this re-enforced the contempt I have for people who take away civil liberties under the guise of "safety."
After lunch, myself along with Branch librarian Fern Kauffman and Reference librarian Marje Doyle attended an update on the e-content downloadable service that Montana libraries are hoping to adopt. Both vendors we are considering were there, and the workshop quickly turned into both speakers giving their sales pitch for the group. It made up my mind on one of the providers, but I won't say who...
Then I gave my talk with Matt about Open Source software. It went really well, the room wasn't packed by any means, but we had lots of questions and a good discussion where we talked about file type standardization, creative commons, a little consumer rights, DRM, and more. You can get a good idea of what we talked about here. Feel free to add to this wiki if you are an open source devotee, The password to edit is "torvalds" Unfortunately none of my compatriots attended, and I felt it might be a little vain to make an attendee snap a picture, so you'll have to take my word that I really did it.
More tomorrow. Now I'm off to Chili's so I can get back to the hotel in time to watch the office.
