Next, Jack had to make provision for mounting the procedures manual on the World Wide Web in the Fall of 1995. Helen suggested that all of this work on the procedures manual could make an appropriate poster session topic. This led to the team of Helen, Jack, and Henry working together on a poster session which is to be presented at the ALA convention in Washington, D.C. this Summer. Jack made several observations about the role of support staff in connection to his work on the poster session. Jack encouraged staff who are making a career out of library work to join professional organizations, read professional literature, and to attend conferences.
Poster sessions are also a good opportunity for travel.
Jack attended the ALA Midwinter meeting in New Orleans and reports that much of what he learned there is applicable to his job everyday. Only persons with a special interest in a poster session topic will seek them out in such a situation. On the other hand, if poster sessions are in a more accessible place, things can become congested and presenters can run into the situation of physically being in each others' way or having to shout over each other in order to be heard by interested viewers. Helen even described an occasion in which poster session presenters were faced with a situation which required them to use their own hard-soled shoes to hammer in tacks to support the posters. To avoid many possible problems, it is a good idea to keep things simple, Helen stressed.