I must say that I really disagree with a recent post by Meredith Frakas. (I know…how dare I disagree with one of those movers and shakers in Libraryland!)

Now there is a debate raging about the value of speakers/presenters at conferences/workshops/whatever. By nature I’m really not a cranky or annoyed person, but some of the whining going on in the comments just made me want to say “Get it over it!” I’ve spent probably close to $2000 in the past month to speak/present at conferences and while money isn’t growing on the trees around my house, from the reactions I received from attendees of my presentations, it was money well-spent.

I will admit that I’m not entirely altruistic and am not presenting for the pure joy of it. And any person who is getting paid to present can’t entirely claim altruism either. I just don’t believe it…and you people know who you are. I present because I do have requirements for tenure as an academic librarian who wants to keep my job.

The thing I really disagree with it that whole thing about by presenting for free we are devaluing ourselves and our profession. This might be true if we’re doing this at non-library conferences. But when we share information with other librarians about innovations, new ideas, interesting ways of looking at problems, etc. we are actually adding value to the profession and helping others. I’m glad that people are willing to do so and still pay their way into a conference. The whole thing about getting everyone together to say no to not having expenses covered is frankly rather immature and selfish. How does this help anyone in the end and how does it add value to what we do when we cripple our state and regional organizations with demands for hotel, travel, food, drinks, massages, and fancy chocolates? (Hyperbole to prove the point here people.)

Okay, I will concede that maybe the registration fees could be waived or even drastically reduced. Early bird fees honestly are not that low for most conferences. An early bird fee that still runs in the $300 is still pretty expensive and it would be nice if there was some flexibility. However, for many organizations the other stuff is really not possible. It’s up to people putting in proposals to consider if they can really manage the expense of going. I hope that they can, because I know that I’ve heard some great presentations recently and am glad that these people were willing to pony up.

And it was rather glossed over that the committees that plan these things don’t get paid anything. Some of them do far more work than the presenters…particularly those presenters who do the circuit with the exact same content. (I groan when I see those names on programs because I’m easily bored…and some of those people are getting honorariums for being there and they really aren’t saying anything new.) These committees must have some belief that sharing and contributing and networking keeps the profession alive. And I doubt that presenters and attendees are really being thankful to them. Want to put money on the thought that most of what they get are complaints? The rooms are too cold/hot/moist/tropical/arctic. There weren’t enough vegetarian options at the reception/lunch/dinner/luau. Why couldn’t we have bottled water? Why are we polluting the environment with bottled water? The bathrooms were too far away. I’m sure you get the idea.

So let’s just heap one more huge complaint on top of everything else that people trying to organize good, useful, informative, exciting conferences are already getting. And if you think things are really being badly done, get on the next conference planning committee.

Sure, it would be nice to get some sort of “thank you”. At MPLA/ULA, the presenters got nice bags full of goodies and a thank you letter. I only did a poster presentation and got nothing except the entertainment of watching hotel staff drop plates all over the floor in the hallway where our posters were. (And that’s not a complaint because I got enough compliments and questions to keep me quite content.) The previous week, as an actual presenter of a session, I got nothing.

Maybe someday, I’ll be important enough to actually get honorariums. (Probably not. At least, I’m not holding my breath.) And I hate presenting because I get butterflies the size of elephants. However, I’ll keep on doing it because I strongly believe that it is important to share new ideas, blah, blah with other librarians and even those few outside the profession who decide to attend our conferences.

And to those who having to pay their own way to present still find the whole thing sticking in their craws, you have other ways to share you information. There are wikis, blogs, online conferences that don’t require travel, etc. The physical conference is not your only option these days and I encourage you to find other avenues. In fact, please do. Chances are some of us interested in what you have to say aren’t going to be in California or Florida or Australia.