Wanderings of an online librarian

Officially closed

2010-02-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

This blog is officially closed. Blogger is discontinuing it's ftp published blog service and I can't justify the effort to move this into a new format. I continue to blog periodically at The Spiral of Seasons.

Mosque library

2008-12-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to consult with a mosque about setting up a library. Of course, I've forgotten every cool thing I ever saw about setting up a small library. So, I'm soliciting advice, resources, information, networking contacts, and anything else that might be of use for this project. Leave a comment or send email to my yahoo account, joyweesemoll. Thanks!

NaNoWriMo and teens

2008-12-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

I meant to write this last month, but I was kind of busy writing my novel....

If you are looking for more ways to reach teens in your library, look into National Novel Writing Month. A lot of teens participate in NaNoWriMo either through the Young Writers Program where they get to choose their word count goal or through the regular NaNoWriMo, where they aim to write 50,000 words just like the rest of us.

How cool is it that the Young Writers Program has a virtual library with a very real librarian?

It makes sense that teens would participate in large numbers since many of them have more flexible schedules than many adults. But teens also have unique challenges -- many of which the library can help them address.

Lack of transportation. It's hard for teens to make it to write-ins. Even teens who drive might be discouraged from driving to areas they are unfamiliar with. (Parent: You're going to drive all the way across town to meet a bunch of strangers?!) The library can help by providing a location for write-ins, either teen-specific or for all ages. Your local population of teen writers have probably already figured out ways to get themselves to the library.

Lack of money. NaNoWriMo is free, but they do ask for donations. Every one who gives gets a halo over their avatar on the forums. Teens feel guilty and left out if they can't figure out a way to donate. Perhaps the library could set up a sponsorship program: "Sponsor one of our teens while they write a novel in a month! It only costs $10 to buy a kid a halo!" All you need to donate for someone else is their NaNo username and a credit card. I made a teen in Texas pretty happy last week. And, the Office of Letters and Light, the organization behind NaNoWriMo is a real honest-to-goodness nonprofit. When you donate, even for someone else, you get a nice response suitable for showing your accountant.

Also, of course, writers read. They read in their genres and they read books about writing and they read for research. NaNoWriMo is an excellent time to promote the library's collection of books to teens -- all free!

Parents who don't get it. A lot of adults, including me, think it's very cool that a teen would choose to spend their November writing a novel. But then, a lot of adults think the whole idea is crazy for any one, especially their teenage son or daughter, to spend so much time producing quantity instead of quality. There is also a big can of worms regarding the safety and security of young people involved in meeting strangers on-line and in-person through NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo helps out a bit with A letter to parents. Any thing that the library does to promote NaNoWriMo or to support their teen patrons engaging in NaNoWriMo will help comfort parents that their teens haven't gone completely over the edge and that NaNoWriMo is legitimate, if a bit strange.

The best thing that could happen for teen writers, although they may not realize it at first, is for one or more family members to do NaNoWriMo right along with them. "NaNo with your teen" could be part of the message that the library promotes to parents.

Lack of privacy. I don't have to worry about anyone reading my mess of a manuscript. Part of the point of the quantity over quality approach is to go at this with abandon, constantly reminding oneself that no one else is ever going to read this. I don't want anyone to mistake this for my best work. Teens worry about parents mistaking their fiction for their real life and judging them because of what their characters do. If the library helps to legitimize the process (see the above about parents not getting it), then perhaps parents won't feel a real need to read their teens' output. Also, it might help to have a display for teens and their parents about the writing process with a prominent section and quotes from writers about how it's good to write first drafts that no one else reads.

I'm a novelist!

2008-11-30T19:25:00.000-08:00

If a novelist is defined as some one who writes novels, you are looking at one! My NaNoWriMo novel is 50,346 words long and the last two words are "The" and "End." The manuscript is a total mess, but we're not looking at that now, we're looking at my shiny winner's badge.

NaNoWriMo and Research, Part 2

2008-11-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

Remember when I said that there is no time for research in November? If you are trying to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, taking the NaNoWriMo challenge, you really can't stop for research. However, that didn't keep me from one of my favorite procrastination activities: using the on-line request button of my libary's catalog to select stacks of books on my current research interest -- for the novel, the research interests are Cahokia Mounds and the New Madrid earthquake.

I picked up the black bag of books almost two weeks ago and filled the Mary Engelbreit bag a couple of days ago. Neither of the bags have been opened since I left the library. Opening the bags and looking through the books will be one of my rewards for getting to 50,000 words. My current word count is 47,018.

NaNoWriMo Write-ins

2008-11-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

My National Novel Writing Month project has a word count of 40,110, which puts me right on track to get to 50,000 words on November 30. This is only about the third day all month that I've been on track, but now that we're near the end, I'm pretty confident that I can complete it.

One of the reasons for my confidence is that I still have two more write-ins left. A big part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is that it takes what would normally be a lonely activity and makes it a social one. I have surprised myself by making more use of the in-person social opportunities than I have the NaNoWriMo forums. The forums are a bit overwhelming, especially when I'm already performing the overwhelming task of writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. But the write-ins have been a guaranteed way for me to get a lot of words written and to commiserate with people who have similar problems to mine (I keep running out of plot!).

From the first time I heard of NaNoWriMo, I have thought that libraries would be a good place for write-ins. Nearly all of the St. Louis area write-ins happen at restaurants. The only exceptions that I have noted are one person's apartment and a church basement. The restaurants have some advantages--easily available food and drinks, table space, reasonably comfortable chairs. But there's also a built-in disadvantage. We all feel obligated to buy a little something since were taking up so much space for so long. Libraries could provide the tables and chairs while allowing but not obligating the presence of food and drinks.

The most effective way for a library to become involved in the local write-in scene is to have one or more staff members participate in NaNoWriMo. Then, they could set up write-ins at the library the way the rest of us would set one up at a local coffee shop.

Barring employee participation, a library would want to contact the Municipal Liason. Volunteers in each region take the responsibility to be the ML -- a liason between regional participants and the NaNoWriMo organization. The MLs answer questions, provide encouragement, and set up at least one weekly write-in. The ML Contact Form has a drop-down box with all the regions that have Municipal Liasons. Early in December might be a good time to contact the ML of your region. Right now, they are madly trying to complete their own NaNoWriMo project while encouraging everyone else in their region to do the same. By early December, they might be willing to have a conversation with a library staff member about how the library could help with next year's NaNoWriMo.

Dewey, the Library Cat

2008-11-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

I'm enjoying Vicki Myron, librarian and author of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, on today's Diane Rehm Show. Play-back of the entire show is available on the website. Meryl Streep will be playing Vicki Myron in the movie!

The Outgoings of a CIT SIG Chair

2008-10-30T13:14:00.001-07:00

I've nearly completed my responsibilities as the 2008 Computer and Information Technology SIG Chair of the Missouri Library Association. Still left on the to do list:

Submit the Annual Report (I just sent a draft to the other officers).
Attend the Conference Debriefing Meeting.
Respond to the message I'll get asking for materials for the Archives. I expect to see this in January and it will require producing print materials since that's how the MLA Archives is set up at this point. Probably all that I will submit will be the minutes from our meeting since pretty much everything else we produce ends up in some other publication that is archived.

This seems like a good time to compile all of my CIT SIG posts together, creating a kind of instant hand book for future SIG Chairs. So, here we go.

2008-02-01, New year organization for a SIG chair

2008-02-02, 2008 Calendar for MLA CIT SIG (I printed this and kept moving it along in my Tickler file to help me keep track of what needed to be done)

2008-03-13, Call for proposals

2008-04-15, A passel of programs (with advice about how to get lots of proposals)

2008-09-18, Session hosts and evaluation forms

2008-10-09, MLA debriefed

2008-10-19, Many hands make light work (where I suggest that if we sponsor more than 4 or 5 programs that the officers split up the work of summarizing the session evaluation forms)

2008-10-30, MLA 2008 CIT SIG programs

MLA 2008 CIT SIG programs

2008-10-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the Conference Debriefing meeting on November 7, I compiled a list of all 16 programs that the Computer and Information Technology SIG sponsored or co-sponsored at the 2008 Missouri Library Association Conference. The times are as they appeared in the Conference Program (I know at least one was changed to a different timeslot during the conference). I thought this list might be useful to more people than just me, so on the blog it goes.

I put in the attendance numbers that I know of (if anyone attended the sessions without attendance numbers and has a rough estimate, let me know). I'm not sure how much weight to give attendance. I was at the session with the smallest attendance. It probably captured everyone at the conference who deals with the nuts and bolts and keys of computers and was likely very valuable to those 10 people. If nothing else, they had the opportunity to meet the other 9 people at the conference who work with the guts of computers. We were in a small room and didn't take up much space, so I think it was probably an important service of the CIT SIG to offer that program.

Wednesday, October 1

8:15 – 11:45 Get Your Game On! (preconference) -- Beth Gallaway (cosponsored by YASIG and YSD). Attendance = 14
2:45 – 3:30 Collaborating in the Cloud -- Robin Hastings. Attendance = 60
3:45 – 4:30 Beyond Library Learning 2.0 – Library Learning 2.1 – Bobbi Newman. Attendance = 50
3:45 – 4:30 Securing Public Access Computers – Sheila Dennehy. Attendance = 10

Thursday, October 2

7:30 – 8:15 Home is Where One Starts: Designing a New Web Home for Saint Louis University Libraries – Mikael Kriz. Attendance = 13.
8:15 – 9:00 Three Low-Cost Usability Evaluation Methods for Library Website Redesign – Kim M. Thompson, Hsin-Liang Chen, and Sanda Erdelez. Attendance=20.
8:15 – 9:00 Wireless Service for the Public: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Randy Raw (MOREnet)
9:15 – 10:00 Missouri Digital Heritage: A New Portal to Missouri’s History – Carl Wingo. Attendance = 30
11:15 – 12:00 Meeting without Meeting – Tom Peters. Attendance = 40.
11:15 – 12:00 Research 2.0: How Zotero Can Save Your Day or at Least Your Research – Joshua Lambert (cosponsored with MACRL)
1:45 – 2:30 Digital Television is Coming! – Jack Galmiche (President of KETC Channel 9). Attendance = 14

Friday, October 3

9:15 – 10:00 Information Literacy: Using Technology to Reach and Teach Students – Erin Lanham and Theresa Flett (cosponsored with MACRL). Attendance = 50
9:15 – 10:00 The Virtual Book Scene – Joy Weese Moll (cosponsored with RISSIG). Attendance = 60
10:15 – 11:00 Introduction to Learning Objects: Use in the Classroom and Consequences for the Library – Marcus Richter (cosponsored with RISSIG and MACRL)
1:30 – 2:15 Free and Open Source Software – Steven Pryor. Attendance = 20
1:30 – 2:15 Reaching Your Patrons in the Brave New World of the Social Web – Bobbi Newman. Attendance = 20

Many hands make light work

2008-10-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Note to future SIG Chairs: divide up the session evaluation forms among all the officers to tally and summarize. Four or five sessions is about as many as one person can analyze without the job getting tedious.

NaNoWriMo and Research

2008-10-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

Since NaNoWriMo is a contest to see if you can write a 50,000 word novel in a month, one of the primary rules is that you can't start writing your novel until 12AM on November 1. There are actually midnight writing parties! I won't be attending one of those. In fact, I may not start writing on November 1 at all because I have a community obligation in the morning and a family one in the afternoon and evening.

So, what are the some 30,000 people who have already committed to NaNoWriMo in 2008 doing now with all of that anticipatory energy that can not be applied to writing? Well, besides posting on the forums, they are plotting, world building, creating characters, and researching. A library that wants to coordinate a full marketing campaign with NaNoWriMo would want to start putting the pieces in place by the end of September, because lots of NaNoWriMo-ers spend some part of October researching for their novel.

The common wisdom is that a writer should not stop the flow of words in November for pesky little things like spelling, grammar, or research. It's perfectly acceptable to put a note to the author in the manuscript: more research needed here. Although, I imagine that there are a lot of writers who struggle with getting stuck on a research point. At that moment, they might use a research tool that they discovered was quick and easy during their October research -- perhaps the ask-a-librarian page of the website or an online database or encyclopedia provided by the library.

Would you like some practice answering the questions of budding novelists? Check out the Character & Plot Realism Q&A forum.

NaNoWriMo

2008-10-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Every year in November, thousands of people write a complete novel of at least 50,000 words. Accomplishing that task is considered a "win." Many people, of course, try and fail. Since this is my first time, I could easily end up in that second group.

This is the third year I've seriously considered it but the first year that I've reached mid-October with the plan still in place. Apparently, it helps if I don't think about it too long. In 2006 and 2007, I was coming up with story ideas in August. This year, I was too busy with Missouri Library Association Conference planning activities to contemplate the notion until this past week.

I've always thought that libraries and librarians could be doing more with NaNoWriMo, starting with offering space for local participants to meet in person and with advertising NaNoWriMo and the reference desk with signs that say something like "The Library Loves NaNoWriMo!"

I'm going to blog some of my NaNoWriMo activities in the hope that other library / NaNoWriMo ideas will crop up either in my mind or yours. I also created a special Twitter account for NaNoWriMo, WriterJoy, -- I didn't want to inundate all my librarian Twitter followers with NaNoWriMo updates unless they wanted them.

Working, again

2008-10-09T19:31:00.001-07:00

Oh yeah, and the reason I can't do all the items on my MLA to do list tomorrow is because I'm working again. I have been for a month or so, actually, I just didn't get around to blogging it.

I'm at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the Archives. The photographer whose work appeared in 25 years of Missouri Botanical Garden calendars retired last year. He turned his slides over to the Archives, so my project is to catalog them. We think there's about 2500. Then, we'll choose a couple of hundred to scan for the web site.

The timing is fortuitous. Next year is the 150th Anniversary of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Okay, if you live in Boston or England, say, that might not sound that old, but in St. Louis, we all say "wow!" when we hear that one of our institutions is turning 150! So, the Illustrated History website (which is already pretty impressive) will get a nice addition of more recent color photos just in time for the anniversary.

It's a pretty good gig. Basically, I get to look at pretty pictures of flowers all day! I'm working about 10-12 hours a week, 2 short days, and we think I'll be done this month or early next month. Oh, and I get to walk across the Garden each morning, lunch, and evening that I work.

MLA debriefed

2008-10-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

The Missouri Library Association Conference last week was the most fun I've ever had at a conference. Get involved, folks! It makes all the difference. It's even worth the pre-conference stress and hassles.

This week and month is the time to wrap up and debrief. The quickly-needed items for a SIG chair are to thank the speakers and session hosts and solicit feedback. That's done.

Since I ended up more-or-less in charge of the session evaluation forms, I need to mail the ones that didn't get picked up at the conference. That will probably happen Saturday. I also need to figure out how to summarize the things and share that information with the other SIG and Division Chairs. Maybe Saturday or Monday?

There's an item due for the newsletter next week. A few other things. Feels like a small but steady stream of to-do items this month.

And....We're Off!

2008-09-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Off to the Missouri Library Association Conference. As a member of the Hospitality Committee and the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC), my on-site responsibilities start tomorrow, the day before the conference begins.

At 10:00, I'll be driving one of several cars carrying programs and other goodies from Washington University where they've been collecting to the Millennium Hotel for the Conference. The CAC meets at 1:00, just to see how everything is going, and then we stuff bags.

The CAC meets every morning at 7:25 which I think is splendid idea, even if it is a bit early for someone who sets her own hours and almost never sets the alarm for earlier than 7:30.

Here are the places you're most likely to catch me during the conference because someone is depending on me being there. I'll be doing other things, too, but I'm going to choose those on the fly.

Wednesday, October 1
11:45 - 12:45 Welcome to MLA
3:45 - 4:30 Securing Public Access Computers

Thursday, October 2
8:15 - 9:00 Welcome to MLA
9:15 - 10:00 Missouri Digital Heritage
12:15 - 1:30 Librarians who Lunch
2:30 - 4:00 Hospitality Desk (call R at a quiet moment to remind him to pick up the CSA box!)
4:30 - 5:30 Annual Business Meeting
8:00 - 10:00 VP Debate

Friday, October 3
7:45 - 8:15 Executive Board Meeting
8:15 - 9:00 CIT SIG Meeting
9:15 - 10:00 The Virtual Book Scene (that's my presentation!)
11:00 - 1:00 Hospitality Desk

In between those times, I'm always up for a walk (bring a jacket! we're transitioning to fall weather) or coffee or a meal or a drink. OK. Maybe I should pack now.

Session hosts and evaluation forms

2008-09-18T09:57:00.001-07:00

I've been too busy working on things for the Missouri Library Association conference to blog about them like I promised! I'll try to do better because the two future chairs of the Computer and Information Technology SIG have said they think these will be useful when it's their turn.

Last year when I attempted to recruit session hosts, people to introduce each program session that the SIG sponsors and to mention the SIG in the process, I got no takers. This year, with three times as many programs, I managed to get them all covered. Here's what I learned--start earlier and ask twice! Last year, I started about two weeks in advance and took a non-answer as a "no." This year, I started about a month in advance and took a non-answer as "I haven't worked it out yet." In the end, everyone that I asked said "yes" and seemed happy to do it; it just often took a second prompt or a more detailed "how about hosting this session?" request.

This year the Conference Chair wanted to have evaluation forms for each session of the conference. In the past, that was something that one or two Divisions and SIGs did for their own sessions, but was not widely practiced. I had planned to steal the idea and form from MACRL (the Missouri Association of College and Research Libraries, one MLA division that has used session evaluation forms consistently for years), especially since one of our speakers last year hinted that she would like to have session evaluations.

So, once the Conference Chair came up with that idea, I volunteered, figuring that it wouldn't be much more work to handle the session evaluation forms for the whole conference than for just the CIT SIG's sessions. As it turned out, it was less work because I got a lot of help. The chairs of the SIGs and Divisions worked collaboratively to create the form. Margaret Booker, the MLA Executive Director, offered to print them and bring them to the conference.

We're asking our session hosts to handle the evaluation forms for each session. Since one of my other conference hats is working on the Hospitality committee, the blank forms will be in the Hospitality area along with a file box for the filled-out forms. Filled-out forms will go in a file labeled with the sponsoring Division or SIG. The Division or SIG chair will pick up his or her file at the end of the conference to analyze and summarize the forms.

I'd be curious how other conferences handle analyzing and summarizing forms. Our Executive Director, who summarizes the evaluation forms for the conference as a whole, recognized immediately that the real work would start after the conference and would be too much for her to handle, maybe too much for any one person to handle. Since the history in our organization was for Divisions and SIGs to do their own evaluation forms, if they wanted to, it seemed natural to ask them to take care of it. Of course, it hasn't happened yet, so I'm hoping that doesn't turn out to be too much of a burden for the officers of Divisions and SIGs. Since my SIG is sponsoring the most programs, I felt pretty comfortable taking the lead on this -- I'm not asking anyone to do more work than I am!

Chautauqua starts tomorrow

2008-06-04T17:51:00.001-07:00

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.

Chautauqua

2008-04-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

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.

A passel of programs

2008-04-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Foodsville

2008-03-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Call for proposals

2008-03-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

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

Work and mourning

2008-02-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

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.

2008 Calendar for MLA CIT SIG

2008-02-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

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)

New year organization for a SIG chair

2008-02-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

This is the first of two posts helping me get organized for my year as Chair of the Missouri Library Association Computer and Information Technology Special Interest Group (MLA CIT SIG). Writing it here allows me to share what I know with the other two officers (knowing they read my blog, for which I'm grateful, makes this a good communication tool for us). Also, I hope that having it out there may help other people who are active in MLA. Most of the information in these posts apply to every other SIG and, to a lesser degree, to the Divisions. It might even help people active in other state library associations. They're not all the same, but some of the functions are pretty similar.

My information sources are the information packet that I just received in the mail as a new leader of a SIG or other unit of MLA, the calendar I got because I attended a meeting of the Conference Arrangements Committee in January, a variety of items from the MLA website, and notes I took last year when I was Vice Chair, including this blog post.

This first post is some overview items which will provide background to the next post, a calendar.

Here are some assumptions that I'm making about me and the other officers of the CIT SIG. I'm writing them here because I know they'll correct me if I'm wrong and because it might be useful to other SIGs to see how our situation is similar to or different from theirs.

As the Chair and the officer with the most flexible time, I'm assuming that I will do much of the work while keeping up a constant patter of what I'm doing so that next year's officers will know what I did and be able to learn from my successes and failures.

Our Vice-Chair started a new position in her library a few months ago. She lives closest to Columbia, Missouri, where many of the meetings of the association happen and is the most technologically savvy of our current officers. I'm assuming that she has less time to devote to this, but would be willing to occasionally attend a meeting or perhaps do a technology project like get our web page up and running.

Our Recorder is a new librarian, eager to be involved. I'm guessing that she'll willingly take on the traditional jobs of Recorder in the SIGs -- writing the SIG reports for the association newsletter and taking minutes at our meeting in October.

Officers, I just learned from my packet, are required to be members of the Association (I would have guessed that) and to have their dues paid by March 1 (didn't guess that). Here's the membership form.

There are two activities that require attention every couple of months.

The first, I just learned from my packet, is to submit a report to the Executive Board two weeks before their meeting. We could, of course, attend the meeting, but a written report is all that's necessary. As chair, I plan to write and email these at the appropriate times.

The second, is to submit articles to the association newsletter, MO INFO, (published every other month) about our SIG and its activities. This isn't really required, but can be a useful way to promote the SIG. The first deadline of the year is February 15 -- that might be a good time to promote our new SIG email list server. The submission details are in pdf form on the website and were also part of my information packet.

Almost everything else we do as a SIG is targeted to getting good technology programming at the annual conference in October.

Okay, that's enough for today. Tomorrow, I'll post a calendar with the Executive Board report deadlines, the newsletter deadlines, and the many different activities for putting together conference programming.

Timely Topic

2008-01-31T12:46:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, I heard that our local hospitals are full and our local schools our empty due to a flu outbreak in the region. Today's Liber8 newsletter (pdf), brought to you by the library staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, covers the scarier scenario--what if it were the big one, a flu pandemic like 1918?