This year’s AAA meetings have the highest number of registrants on record. As one of the student assistants on the Executive Program Committee, the level of interest was both reassuring and daunting. Last month, I traveled to Washington DC to the AAA offices to help with the enormous task of scheduling the academic program. It was great to see the “backstage” spaces of the organization and to understand the labour process of putting together the meetings.
Staff members, Jason Watkins and Carla Fernandez, had already been hard at work preparing for Dr. Monica Heller, Dr. Rob Albro and myself to arrive. In a complex web of flip charts, coloured labels and index cards we sorted and slotted an enormous amount of academic knowledge. I can’t say much more, but I can say SLA members will be intrigued to see the ways in which the conference theme Circulation has been taken up. There are also some other exciting program elements which I will talk about in upcoming posts. The full program will be online very soon!