It seems I spent most of yesterday in some mode of transportation. Drive to airport, get on plane, van to hotel, train to downtown, bus to conference. I probably should have driven, but when I looked at the gridlock on the highway from the train window, I was glad I didn’t.

The ALA exhibit hall is huge. I’d forgotten how many children book publishers and furniture sellers flock to ALA. Not to mention clothing and jewelry vendors. Very different from SLA.

I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with Thomson Gale’s president and CEO, Gordon Macomber, who talked mainly about their new AccessMyLibrary initiative. It’s only been up for a week, but he said the response from librarians has been huge and very positive. Macomber told me that, even with only a week’s worth of data, they’ve observed more searches for popular culture topics using AccessMyLibrary than they see with their other products, such as InfoTrac. It looks to me like a good opportunity for libraries to make themselves more visible in their communities. If, of course, they subscribe to Gale’s content. So, in a sneaky fashion, I suppose you could chalk up AccessMyLibrary to Gale’s desire to sign up more libraries as customers.

I also met the new vice chairman and head of global academic and customer relations for Elsevier , Y.S. Chi. Before we settled into interview mode, he informed me this was his first day on the job. You have to give him credit for being willing to talk with any of his constituencies, particularly in the hectic atmosphere of such a large conference as ALA. I know lots of people in his position who wouldn’t be so forthcoming, who wouldn’t immediately jump into public contact. Apparently, he’d already had an earful from some academic librarians about their concerns. That didn’t surprise me. I think he’ll have learned a lot by the time he goes home from this conference.