It's legislative time in the city, Helena, that is.

Greetings from Helena, the lovely capitol of our lovely state. I am here with several other library supporters to meet and greet with our legislators and to encourage them to support funding for your libraries.
Did you know that in 2009, 4,429,464 people visited public libraries in Montana and 6,244,116 items were checked out? These numbers increased during the 2010 and continue to grow.
Did you know that if you checked out 1 book a month, borrowed 1 magazine, checked out 1 video and 1 audio book in the month, attended 1 adult program and 1 childrens' program, used the public computers 1 hour a day during that month and had 1 reference question answered you received $464 in services. That's a return of $215.81 on your investment of every $1 spent in taxes (see Montana State Library Investment Calculator). What a deal!

Missoula Public Library, think... more!

Montana Book Awards

I really enjoyed going to the Montana Library Association Conference in Bozeman this year. There were so many interesting sessions to attend that it was hard choosing between them. Still, I think that my favorite session was the Montana Book Awards Committee's presentation on their picks for the best books of 2009. My list of books to read definitely got a lot longer after I went to this session, and yours might, too, when you see their recommended reads:

Greg Mortenson -- Stones into Schools (sequel to 3 Cups of Tea)

Robert Greer -- Spoon (modern MT Western fiction)

Michael & Elizabeth Norman -- Tears in the Darkness (about the Bataan death march)

Ted Leeson -- Inventing Montana (traveler’s perspective on MT)

Donald Jones -- Born Wild in Montana (kid’s book with great photos)

William C. Pack -- The Bottom of the Sky (memoirs of Roundup in the 1960s)

Kevin Canty -- Where the Money Went (collection of humorous, MT-related short stories)

Richard Manning -- Rewilding the West (about a proposal to buy ranchland for a reserve in MT)

Phil Condon -- Nine Ten Again (a short story collection about people facing a great moment of decision)

Debra Oberbillie -- Bug Feats (for 9-12 yr. olds, great for reluctant readers, especially boys)

Wallace McRae -- Stick Horses (memoirs of Rosebud county)

Timothy Egan -- The Big Burn (history of forest service)

Craig Lancaster -- 600 Hours of Edward (Asperger’s syndrome)

Reif Larsen -- The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (go to tsspivet.com for more info)

Jamie Ford -- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (this is the 2009 Montana Book Award Winner)

MLA Conference in Bozeman

Greetings from Bozeman. We enjoyed the weather you sent our way. The conference has been great so far; went to a session on patrons experiencing homelessness and one with essential information on the movies that we show at the library. We were very excited to attend the Montana Book Award ceremony tonight at Bozeman Public Library honoring this year's honor books and winner, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The authors were all so great and there was a very nice turnout, despite the weather.

Just want all to know that we are all learning lots and doing lots of networking and enjoying the speakers and gee that Loriene Roy is hilarious, former president of the American Library Association and our keynote speaker.

Attending MLA 2009 Vicariously

I'm not at MLA this year, but somehow if feels like I am. Through a variety of sources, I've got a pretty decent idea of the goings on.

Marje, one of our reference librarians, is attending and has written not one, but two posts about the conference so far.

Paulette, our cataloging genius, drove up to attend the award ceremony for another reference librarian, Vaun, who was named Librarian of the year. Way to go Vaun! Paulette brought back photographic evidence as proof.

To Vaun's left is Don, a retired MPL reference librarian. This was the dynamic duo that answered all the questions Missoula could throw at them for years.

And if that isn't enough, I've been keeping up with the conference live via Twitter. From these posts I know the opening speaker was great, there was a pretty lively discussion of Intellectual Freedom, and there was a lot of what happens at every conference - waiting for the next workshop or speaker to begin.

With the wide array of social web tools, and a little bit of inside info, I'm able to keep up with a professional conference that I didn't attend. It's a grand new age of information. Has anyone else been following MLA from afar like I have?

Montana Library Association conference 2009

Greetings from lovely Kalispell MT, site of this year's annual MLA http://www.mtlib.org/ conference. The library director, Honore Bray, and I arrived late yesterday evening so that she could be up bright and early to introduce this morning's pre-conference speaker. I, on the other hand, after getting up early to work out and blog will soon be heading out to help with conference check-in and to read board reports in preparation for the MLA board meeting which will be followed by a meeting of the AskMontana virtual reference team. The conference gives us an opportunity to meet face-to-face with our colleagues from across the state to share ideas, war stories, and to have a little fun.
This year it will be my pleasure to introduce the winner of the Librarian of the Year award at the annual awards luncheon on Thursday. This year's recipient will be MPL's reference librarian, Vaun Stevens and I am delighted to be able to honor her service to the Missoula community and to Montana. However I will not post a picture of her lest she run me through the wringer. More from the conference tomorrow...

MLA Wrap Up

I swear I didn't forget about you all, but coming back to work after almost a whole week off at the conference left a lot of catching up to do. There were so many great exhibits and presentations this year, but I'll spare you all the details. For me the highlights were spending my birthday at the local Great Falls institution: the Sip 'n' Dip with fellow librarians (wait, since we were in a bar, does that make us hipster librarians?):



and my fellow geek here at MPL, Jim's presentation on physics and scaring young kids.



You'll notice I did not include playing at the dinner with the band, because that was a tad bit awkward since I'm used to playing original music that I've practiced, not improv covers of songs I've never heard of. But I think it still turned out ok. Kudos to the Montana Library Association and the city of Great Falls for a more than decent conference.

Montana Library Association

IMHO it was a great time in Great Falls. There were lots of good workshops, and yes, I can attest to Ben being there. Speaking of Ben being in attendance it was his birthday while we were there so... Friday night during the membership dinner there was a rock band playing as the "entertainment" so I (being the shy retiring librarian that I am) went up to the band to ask them if they knew Happy Birthday. I gave them a little background on Ben so they would understand that he was a fellow musician and the next thing I knew thay had invited him up to play a song with them. It took a few minute to line up their play lists to a matching song but we were treated to a great song with bass solos by our Ben. What fun we had and there are pictures to prove it.












On the serious side I really learned alot from my workshops and meetings and am looking forward to toning up, or would it be tuning up my services at the reference desk.

MLA 2008 Official Day 1

Today was the "official" first day of MLA, so things finally got going in earnest. And yes, I did hit up the Casino last night, but didn't win any money. Too bad.

Our very own Honore Bray got things started by introducing the two "John Does" who were issued a National Security Letter from the NSA and subsequently placed under a gag order. The whole story was disturbing from a civil liberties standpoint. Not that I was a big Patriot Act believer before, this re-enforced the contempt I have for people who take away civil liberties under the guise of "safety."



After lunch, myself along with Branch librarian Fern Kauffman and Reference librarian Marje Doyle attended an update on the e-content downloadable service that Montana libraries are hoping to adopt. Both vendors we are considering were there, and the workshop quickly turned into both speakers giving their sales pitch for the group. It made up my mind on one of the providers, but I won't say who...



Then I gave my talk with Matt about Open Source software. It went really well, the room wasn't packed by any means, but we had lots of questions and a good discussion where we talked about file type standardization, creative commons, a little consumer rights, DRM, and more. You can get a good idea of what we talked about here. Feel free to add to this wiki if you are an open source devotee, The password to edit is "torvalds" Unfortunately none of my compatriots attended, and I felt it might be a little vain to make an attendee snap a picture, so you'll have to take my word that I really did it.

More tomorrow. Now I'm off to Chili's so I can get back to the hotel in time to watch the office.

Live From MLA 2008

I've arrived in Great Falls for the 2008 Montana Library Association conference. We checked in, grabbed a (I'd like to say quick but it took almost an hour and a half) bite to eat and got down to business. I met up with my co-presenter for tomorrow Matt Beckstrom from the Lewis and Clark Library to discuss our game plan. We're presenting tomorrow afternoon on Open Source software and the benefits it can bring to libraries. I think we've sorted it out and now we're both updating slides and figuring out exactly what we're going to talk about. Things will go fine though, we both know our stuff.

The only downside is the spotty wireless here at the hotel. Both Matt and I have had problems keeping a steady connection. Next time, I won't forget to bring an ethernet cable. What was I thinking relying on hotel wireless?!?!

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish up my work in time to hit the casino/sports bar for a drink before I hit the hay. I bet I'll be able to make it. Until then, this is my view for the evening.

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

I just got out of the author lunch with Neil Gaiman which followed his morning talk on intellectual freedom. I have to say after all the hype I was a little worried about what kind of speaker he would be. You know the thing, famous author, writes well, not such a good speaker. Well, he was great. He told us a great story about being accused of selling out by posting his own short stories on his personal website and was called a "pixel stained techno peasant wretch." So funny, very intelligent, speaking from no notes, did an outstanding job. During the author lunch he spoke about himself as a reader turned writer. He described his attitude in regard to his life's goals at the age of 15 as "arrogance untempered by knowledge." They made a gift to him of the Book Babes calendar which, after a comment about a perfume developed based on a character in one of his books smelling like sexy librarians, was an appropriate choice. For all of those that weren't able to come, if you ever have the opportunity again, take it!!!!!
Among other good news he gave us was the news about his upcoming films. http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/films/ Be sure to stay tuned on those.
I'll be interested to see if his remarks in his blog about meeting and speaking to us will be as interesting as our blogs on him. http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/ ... and ... OMG he just walked past me on his way in to his afternoon talk. They're going to love it. I'm hearing uproarious laughter, he must be in and speaking.
Hope you're having a great day.

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

Things are beginning to wind down here. The exhibitors have packed up and moved their tables of goodies out. They've treated us all very well and were, as always, a welcome addition to the conference. We are looking forward to the membership dinner tonight and the presentations by Neil Gaiman tomorrow. There are still tickets available if you want to jump in your car tomorrow morning for a day in Helena with a public lecture and book signing at 2:30 p.m. at the Red Lion by Mr. Sandman himself. This will most likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity and you can be sure is worth the $20 ticket.
I went to numerous sessions today, all excellent. Tomorrow morning I'll be going to a session on graphic novels (fat comic books) that will be led by the YA librarian from Miles City who came to the Cates Scholarship party last night dressed as Death from Sandman. Silly me, I thought she was just Goth. She is really a scream and I'm looking forward to her talk.
It's all be fun, educational, exhausting, and great. Looking forward to coming home and sleeping in my own bed.

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

Yesterday's MLA board meeting had several high spots, reports on the legislature, highlights from the conference planners, etc. I think that the two most exciting moments were when we entered the room to sit at our places and found there our very own Nancy Pearl (she's a librarian) action figure dolls as gifts from the outgoing MLA president and when we got to preview the Book Babes of Montana calendar featuring librarians from around the state, male and female, that will be going on sale today. One of our group bought 15 of the calendars as Christmas gifts right off the bat. They are amazing, well done, and are truly a unique item. This morning all of the models for the calendar will be available for signing calendars at the official unveiling.
Today I am looking forward to the new member breakfast first thing, not the only reason I'm up so early, and the genealogy workshop later today. Tonight I will attend my first ever Cates Trivia event. Our director says I have to be on the trivia team for our library. I hope my brain cooperates.
Still having fun in Helena! No, really I am!

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

Our carload has arrived and we've checked into our rooms. Since we were all starving the first thing we did was find some dinner. Next on the agenda, now that our workday is over, is to hit the hot tub for some, definitely get into some more comfortable clothes for all, and relax for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, will be a great presentation on Bringing boys and books together that several of our staff will be attending. I, on the other hand, will be sitting in my room reading reports in preparation for the MLA board meeting that will begin tomorrow just after lunch. There are three members of the staff that are either on the board or on its advisory council. It's all interesting stuff and whether educational, like to workshop, or more administrative, like the board meetings, it all helps us do our jobs better on one level or another.
I've brought along one of the library cameras so hope to have a picture or two for you over the week.

have you been outside lately?

Some days, conversations at the checkout desk center around the weather. Today was no exception. I never have to wonder what it's like outside - y'all make great weather spectators. Not to mention commentators.

Personally, I'm a fan of fall and winter. I grew up in a cool climate, migrated to Alaska and (in a roundabout way) ended up in Montana. Cool/cold climes remind me of home.

It seems that Missoulians LOVE spring, thus making this a happy week for our little town. Warm and smiley.

But what about real Library News? This week is huge for Montana librarians. Our annual conference is just about to begin in Helena. MPL is sending about eight staff members to attend various workshops. If you visit us this week you may notice lesser known staff members filling in at public desks. Check the blog next week for some fun feedback from the Helena trip.

Curious about what goes on at a library conference? Check it out...

http://www.mtlib.org/conf/mla2007/index.htm

See ya next time...

C