Home again, Home again, jiggedy jig

Now that almost everyone is back home again...back to eating steamed vegetables instead of cream chowder, milk instead of martinis, I challenge all the ALA MW 2005 attendees to ponder for a minute:
*What did I learn at this conference?
*What new information has challenged my thinking?
*What positive changes can I make in my library because of what I've experienced?
*How can I translate my experience for the staff members who did not attend?

When I was a camp counselor--back in the day--we designated time for the kids to process their "mountaintop experience" on the lasy day of camp, before they went back to the "real world." It's hard to spend 5 days being fed knowledge from all directions, and then find yourself returned to an uncomfortable realization that everyone else not at camp has been living their regular old humdrum life.

And now you, too, have returned to the humdrum...except that that's the wonderful part that happens when we get together as an industry: the formerly mundane becomes exciting again, and lively staff discussion ensues.

Welcome home.