2-21-05: RIP Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson killed himself yesterday (BBC News story). May he rest in peace. Assuming that he wants to rest in peace. With him, you never know.
2-14-05: happy conversation heart day
I really have no love for Valentine's Day. But, if it's an excuse for a new Google holiday logo or to break out the ACME Heart Maker, I'm all for it. And conversation hearts, like libraries, are starting to get with the times. I bought a tub of the foul-tasting things the other day specifically for the hearts that say EMAIL ME, FAX ME, and PAGE ME. For the loving Luddites, there is also WRITE ME.
That's pretty unexpected, huh? A post about reading on a library blog. Well, I've been doing a lot more reading lately than I had been for a while. It's one of those enormously satisfying activities for me, like running, that requires minimal equipment, yet is simuntaneously enjoyable and good for me.
All that to say that I'm posting a link to Michael McGrorty's post about Michael Dregni's biography of Django Reinhardt rather than just emailing it to the person I think would be interested in it. I am doing that because it would be a shame to pass up an opportunity to point to McGrorty's excellent blog, Library Dust. I always save up the Library Dust entries in my aggregator for a quiet time when I can really sit down and read them, instead of employing my usual skimming technique, because they are always worth it.
I didn't bring a laptop with me to Tampa (gasp!) so I couldn't type up my thoughts while I was there, but I've gone through my notes and tried to pick out the highlights.
Gary Heil's keynote - I'm not sure if you can teach people to be leaders, but Gary Heil was inspiring. In fact, I think he might be saying that you can't teach people to be leaders. He says every great leader has a cause, and is identified with that cause.
Member Forum - SLA President Ethel Salonen led this forum intended to solicit feedback from the membership, but I thought the format was too open-ended. Only the people who came to the forum with an agenda already in mind got up to speak.
SLA Online University - SLA recently announced an educational partnership with Elsevier. The plans sound exciting, especially the partnerships with university programs, but I'm curious how much money this will cost both the association and members who participate. For the most part, I prefer to attend workshops in person or just read from a book (or web site), so the prospect of more virtual seminars doesn't get me excited, but being able to take for-credit courses at a discount sure does.
The Leadership Adventure - Presented by Leadership Outfitters, this was much better than similar workshops I've participated in, but by Friday afternoon we were all pretty tired and overloaded.
The rest - SLA attendees seem to be better than some at removing nametags when they leave the hotel, but you can still pick them out at a restaurant. Myself included, I'm sure.
The food at the final reception on Friday was really good, and they had an open bar! To think I almost didn't go...
The mix of librarians and pirates in the hotel as Gasparilla moved in was interesting, and true to their natures, both special librarians and pirates gravitated toward the hotel bar.
As usual, my favorite part of the summit was the informal stuff, like talking to people from other chapters over coffee in the morning, or getting to meet someone whose name you see everywhere.
After the summit, I stayed in Tampa for a little mini-vacation. Contrary to the locals' comments and the weather forecast, it was beautiful. Or at least it felt that way to anyone coming from Pennsylvania.
All content on this website, unless otherwise noted, was created by Tara Murray and is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
