Mefibrarians in the Loop

July 3, 2009 12:12 AM

Any Mefibrarians headed to Chicago for ALA Annual? Want to meet up?

Saturday or Sunday night would probably be good. I hope we can get something together, I must confess Mefi meetups are my favorite part of ALA.

posted by ulotrichous to MetaFilter gatherings at 12:12 AM (23 comments total)

Oh, fun! I'll be in town from Saturday until Tuesday. Never been to Chicago before, so others will have to recommend venues.
posted by amicamentis at 5:39 AM on July 3

My wife is going to be there, but she thinks us Mefites are weird enough on the screen.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:59 AM on July 3

I will be with you in spirit.
posted by jessamyn at 10:03 AM on July 3

I'm not a librarian, though I work for a library, and I'll be there Sunday and Monday. I'm giving a presentation on Monday morning and then heading home for my daughter's birthday. I'm free Sunday night if a mini-meet-up is planned.
posted by Toekneesan at 10:04 AM on July 3

I'm there Friday until Monday. I've also never been to Chicago before (wahoo! the Field Museum is on my list of cool things to see in life, so I'm glad to get the chance to go). As far as availability, Monday night I'll probably be busy but the rest I don't have scheduled in yet.
posted by librarylis at 1:23 PM on July 3

I'm not going this time, boo. Take lots of pictures!
posted by leesh at 1:54 PM on July 3

I'll be swamped next weekend, so I won't be able to set anything up. Will anyone else from the Cabal be around?
posted by eamondaly at 2:03 PM on July 3

I'll be there in spirit too. Delighted not to be going to annual, sad to miss a Chicago meetup with the guy who was my spelling bee cheat sheet!
posted by clavicle at 11:14 AM on July 4

I'll be there. Sunday night looks doable.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:30 AM on July 6

Won't be there, but I for one applaud your use of the mefibrarian tag. Is there a shirt for that?
posted by ikahime at 7:45 AM on July 6

So, since this has been pretty quiet, can we plan on Something Sunday night around 8pm?

Anyone have a good venue to suggest?
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:46 AM on July 8

Ok, Sunday Night at 8 PM sounds perfect for me. How about the Billy Goat Tavern? It's the dive that inspired the 'Cheeseborger Cheeseborger Cheeseborger' sketch reportedly, but it's close to most of the conference hotels and it's pretty cheap. If that's too seedy I'm always up for The Berghof, their beers are really pretty great and the peirogi are worth the trip; a little pricier though. Ceres Cafe has excellent value in booze but is a little further south. Any locals (mefibrarian or otherwise) care to chime in? I'll go ahead and post the date and see if we can't get a little cabal goin'. Looking forward to meeting yous!
posted by ulotrichous at 4:47 PM on July 8

Hehe. The Goat is where we locals have our regular meetups. I'm always hip to a beer and a steak n egg, but I think we're heading to Ravinia this Sunday. If it rains on the other hand...
posted by adamdschneider at 9:58 PM on July 9

I can be there Sunday at 8. Wasn't Billy Goat Royko's hangout? Where is it?
posted by Toekneesan at 11:33 AM on July 10

Well let's call it for the Billy Goat Tavern at 8 PM on Sunday 7/12 then. It's on Michigan Ave just north of the river but it is under Michigan ave. There's a stairway on Michigan Ave. in the middle of the sidewalk that has a Billy Goat sign on it; take those stairs down and it's easy to find. I look like my avatar, I'll rig up a little mefi sign of some sort. See you there!
posted by ulotrichous at 11:43 AM on July 10

I'll be there, as will my ALA roomie GenjiandProust.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:28 PM on July 10

Just got a call from my wife, who's asking me how she's going to deal with the fifty pounds of books and other schwag she's bringing home from the conference. Now I know why it costs two hundred dollars to attend.

/never attended a professional conference that cost me more than $50
posted by mrmojoflying at 10:48 AM on July 11

I am not myself a schwag-gatherer, but FYI I believe there's a post office set up in the exhibit hall so you can mail your schwag home.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:14 PM on July 11

Awesome meetup everybody! Thanks again to ulotrichous for putting this together. Crappy pix to follow.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:27 PM on July 12

It was great to see everyone!
posted by amicamentis at 9:17 PM on July 12

Can't get javascript to work so I've uploaded my pictures to my flickr page.
posted by Toekneesan at 6:39 PM on July 13

Yeah, I was having a problem with that too in Firefox, but I got it to work in Safari--it may be an AdBlockPlus problem.

In retrospect, I probably should have taken more than one very distant picture of the actual meetuppers. Glad to see that you picked up the slack, Toekneesan.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:36 PM on July 13

Thanks guys! It was great to meet you.
posted by ulotrichous at 1:00 PM on July 14