Wanderings of a Librarian

2008-06-04

Chautauqua starts tomorrow

If you live in the St. Louis area, are you going to Chautauqua? It starts tomorrow at Kirkwood Park. More details on my other blog.     #    (0) comments

2008-04-23

Chautauqua

Chautauqua is an entertaining cultural event -- portrayals of historical figures by actors, usually in an outdoor venue. In early June, Kirkwood Public Library is hosting That's Entertainment! -- a Chautauqua put together by the Missouri Humanities Council. I volunteered in memory of my parents who were big supporters of the Pike County Chautauquas. The summer before he died in 2001, my dad sent me emails each day about what he learned at Chautauqua. I attended the 2005 Chautauqua in Pike County with my mother and kept an online diary.

I'm very excited about the That's Entertainment lineup -- Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Margaret Mitchell, and P.T. Barnum.

I was first tapped to find people and equipment for lights and sound, but it looks like most of that is going to get pulled in by the person in charge of the facility. So, instead, I'm going to work on the website.

We need money in case anyone is looking for a good cause. Our community was exceptionally generous after the shooting tragedy at City Hall. The normal sources for funds are pretty well dried up, having gone to support the families of the police officers and other victims. We could use some angels from afar. My hope is that Chautauqua will be a healing event.     #    (0) comments

2008-04-15

A passel of programs

The Computer and Information Technology SIG sponsored or cosponsored 17 sessions submitted to the Missouri Library Association Conference Committee. That's just over twice as many as last year--and I was happy with last year's number. It may be too many sessions, given limited time and space for the conference, but I'm hoping the Conference Committee will appreciate having a choice and being in the position to put things together in a way that makes an exciting conference program. Meanwhile, we're thinking about how to turn some of these into Table Talks or Poster Sessions if there's just no way that all of them can be program sessions.

So, here's how to get lots of progam proposals:

  • Brainstorm early, involving all the SIG officers and anyone else who wants to play along.
  • Encourage SIG officers to submit at least one proposal, either a presentation of their own or one by a recruited colleague.
  • Send the call for proposals to all relevant email lists.
  • Send a copy of the call for proposals to last year's speakers and encourage each of them, with a personal message, to answer the call.
  • Be bold -- we wanted a program that required a non-library expert and found a good one with a big name in local circles. Another program will happen only if the Conference Committee is willing to pay a lot of money for a big name, but if the circumstances work out, they might. Both of those required us to approach the speaker and to write up the proposals ourselves.
  • Be lucky -- at least one program came in through a different pathway than all of the above.

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2008-03-22

Foodsville

For food lovers, librarians or their patrons, Foodsville is a new social network for foodies built around a library of out-of-copyright digital cookbooks. If you join, friend me: gardenerjoy. Via Infodoodads.     #    (1) comments

2008-03-13

Call for proposals

The Missouri Library Association office provided us with a generic call for proposals late yesterday so many SIGs and Divisions sent out their call for proposals today. Here's the one the Computer and Information Technology SIG sent out to a couple of appropriate list servers. Please feel encouraged to answer the call yourself or to send it to others who might be interested in presenting at the Missouri Library Association conference.

What is your library doing with technology? Other Missouri libraries want to know!

The Missouri Library Association (MLA) is seeking proposals for presentations for the 2008 Annual Conference to be held October 1-3 at the Millennium Hotel in Downtown St. Louis. The theme for the Conference is “Freedom to Soar...with Books and More!”

The Computer and Information Technology Special Interest Group (CIT SIG) of MLA requests your proposal for a conference program on technology in libraries. The program can be a preconference, presentation, table talk, or poster session.

Please submit your technology-related conference proposal (program title, description, and presenter information) to my Yahoo email (joyweesemoll) by Monday, April 7, 2008. You will then work with me or one of the other officers of the CIT SIG to fill out the details required for the application (http://molib.org/Conference.html) that goes to the Conference Arrangements Committee and is due on Friday, April 11.

Joy Weese Moll
Chair, MLA CIT SIG     #    (1) comments

2008-02-09

Work and mourning

Yesterday I started a new job working at a special library in downtown St. Louis. I'm temporarily helping out while one of the librarians is out on medical leave. It looks likely that I'll work for the rest of the month, updating the Liber8 website , helping out on the Liber8 newsletter, and anything else that they can train me on fast enough for me to be useful.

Having a job to go to yesterday was a bit of a relief, given that I live in Kirkwood where a mass shooting took place at City Hall on Thursday night. Endlessly surfing the internet news reports to piece together the facts was not serving me well -- going to work was an improvement.

Kirkwood really is a small town.

I know the mayor because he owns a rental house on the same street as our old house. I disagree with him on several issues, but he is always a delight to chat with. The rumors in town today are that while he suffers from two bullet wounds in the head, neither are in the brain. At 69 years of age and not particularly robust health, recovery is not certain, but there is hope.

Sgt. Biggs wrote up the accident report when I was rear-ended last year. I remember him just as he is described in this memorial article on STLtoday, a calm and friendly presence, everything I want a Kirkwood cop to be.

I didn't know Connie Karr personally, but I was planning to vote for her for mayor in April. She often voted in the minority on the council, usually to make everyone take notice that there were ordinary Kirkwood citizens who weren't being listened to as well as they could be.

All the names of the other victims and the shooter were familiar to me from regular reading of the Webster-Kirkwood Times.

Perhaps the best answer to "why?" is this account by the former Kirkwood High School principal, Frank McCallie, of his interactions with "Cookie" Thornton over the years. The situation is complicated; there are racial issues but it's not just that, not even, I believe, primarily that. I believe that there is a lot of room for unity and for healing together as a community if enough of us choose to enter that space.     #    (1) comments

2008-02-02

2008 Calendar for MLA CIT SIG

Yesterday's post gave some background for this one, which is essentially a to do list arranged in the form of a calendar for the Missouri Library Association Computer and Information Technology Special Interest Group. Let me know if you catch any errors or anything missing. Also, let me know if anything is confusing. It's taken me three years to figure this out, I'm hoping to give other people a shorter learning curve.

Edit: The dates have been removed from this post since they are subject to change. Please see the Missouri Library Association website for official information.

January
Send in report to Executive Board for Feb 13 meeting

February
Due date for March MO INFO (announce email list server, CFP)
Stakeholders Planning Meeting in Columbia (this is the orientation meeting for the October conference)

March
This month we'll want to recruit speakers in advance of the April 11 deadline for submitting programs
Deadline for officers to pay MLA dues

April
Program/Event Request forms due to the Conference Coordinator
Deadline for May MO INFO (maybe nothing to report)

May
Stakeholders' Session Approval Meeting location TBD (this is the one where we find out which of our programs were accepted by the conference coordinator and a preliminary location for each one)
Send in report to Executive Board for May meeting (list of programs)
Executive Board Meeting (this is the one where the conference program is approved and might be an interesting one to attend)

June
When notice is received that the Executive Board has approved the conference program, let speakers know that their program has been accepted (or declined)
Deadline for July MO INFO (promote one or more of conference programs and/or encourage people to submit technology topics for Table Talks and Poster Sessions, due July 31)

July
Remind the nominating committee that a nomination for recorder is needed 30 days prior to the SIG annual meeting at the conference and that a written ballot should be provided at the conference (see Article V of the SIG Bylaws)
Send in report to Executive Board for July 25 meeting (probably little new to report)

August
Deadline for September MO INFO (promote conference programs)

September
Things to do before the conference:

  • Make evaluation forms for each program
  • Recruit a host for each program to make the introduction, help with handouts, handle the evaluation forms, and get an approximate attendance count for the session
  • Communicate with speakers about the room where they'll be speaking and any other details
  • Recruit someone to attend the New Members orientation at the conference to promote our SIG
Nomination(s) for Recorder submitted by the Nominating Committee to the email list server
Preregistration and hotel reservation deadline for fall conference
Send in report to Executive Board for October 3 meeting - and consider showing up in person at the conference

October
Conference, including SIG annual meeting
Post-conference things to do:

  • Thank all speakers
  • Thank all hosts
  • Examine evaluations and attendance numbers to learn what might work better next year
Deadline for November MO INFO (thank yous and other reports from conference)

November
Annual report of the SIG is due
Stakeholder Debriefing Meeting, several videoconferencing locations (this is where everyone reflects on what they learned - some very useful information can come out of this for future conferences)
Send in report to Executive Board for November 21 meeting

December
Deadline for January MO INFO (in practice, however, they really just want the annual report of the SIG which was already submitted in November)






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