Insomniac Librarians Why sleep when there's field literature?

I can't help but wonder how much we all wonder.

Have we sidelined philosophical discussions to the point of irrelevance?

There are listservs, bulletin board systems, conferences and all sorts of outlets for our musings, but the format I find most comforting is the Library Camp. (http://librarycampnyc.wikispaces.com/) I found out about this year's too late, but I dished with someone that had gone, and it sounded like it lived up to my imaginings.

We serve our Patrons by sharing information or methods of finding informaton. We foam at the mouth if we spot barriers to access in the form of fees in especial.

But when presented with heavy fees for professional gatherings, workshops, memberships, et cetera, we seem to shrug our shoulders and accept the status quo. (SRRT's a noted exception to this - kudos, that's a big reason why I still belong.) I'm just thinking about the costs either I've absorbed or my Board has absorbed over the past year for professional stuff, and it's getting kind of ugly:

$44 ALA dues (Thanks for raising the unemployed/student/retired dues, by the way. Nothing like kicking those who can least afford a hike in the stomach. If the organisation truly wants more younger members, that ain't how to do it. Volume?)
$50 NELA ITS conference (Pretty darn cool, and worth every penny.)
$20 MLA dues (This is pretty darn cheap, and I feel like they do go out of the way to make the organisation accessible, so this hurts way less than ALA)
$120 gas + parking to Boston for an LIS lecture series (this was an awesome string of lectures, and it was a no fee thing, but I live far away and had to park a few times, so there's still a cost to it for me)
$50 gas + tolls + food to NJ for a neato nifty keen Open Source workshop

$284. That's a lotta dough. Not to mention I got to go to the Historical Novels Conference for free this year and have enjoyed a bit of PLA for free twice in the past. I've been to ALA midwinter on a free pass, too.

Luckily in the Great State of Massachusetts, the Regions still manage to scrape enough bone to present worthwhile continuing education programming at no cost to members, but I hear horror stories when I go home at night about the costs of learning.

I have to wonder, do normal folks step back from these membership fees or conference costs and swoon? How much feedback are we losing? Can we afford to lose it at this crucial point in time?

I know the value of networking. I love the exchange of knowledge that you get at a conference, particularly the informal variety. I realise that in order to participate, you have to show up and keep showing up until folks see your potential. But are our gate fees slamming the door in the faces of the people we most need to hear from?

Library camp gives me hope that the issues that need to be aired will be.

I just have to mull over other folks just not having the leisure time on their hands to come out to lunch or come and talk after a workshop since they've GOT to run and HAVE to open up that small library on time. This happens with urban Libraries too, thanks to short staffing. If folks are stretched at work, I can only imagine the likelihood of them blogging or following listservs at home after a hard day is going to be small. Is the banter and the learning that ought to happen taking place with the degree of frequency critical for innovation and growth?