WAAL newbie

This is Brett Rohlwing chiming in. Just arrived this morning from Madison with my lovely wife in tow, I am attending the WAAL conference for the first time. I am a first-year student in the SLIS MA program at the UW, and a lucky recipient of one of the WAAL conference scholarships (for which I am thankful!) I attended my first meeting today, titled "Just Where Are We? Academic Librarianship in Wisconsin" with Kim LaPlante, Mary Rieder, Pete Gilbert, Pat Wilkinson, and Ed Van Gemert. Many of the things discussed were familiar to me from my class discussions. There was a lot of talk about changing needs in instructional services, the evolving needs and issues in academic libraries, and of course the influence of technology on the way patrons are helped and services are delivered. Still, one thing that hasn't changed, which Kim LaPlante touched on, is the necessity for enthusiasm in delivering library service. That will go a long way in keeping patrons coming into our libraries.