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?

MLA conference 2009

Greetings again from Kalispell where we just finished a rousing Librarian Olympics as part of a fundraiser for library scholarships in memory of Sheila Cates. You will be so pleased to hear that your MPL team won two silvers and a gold with sterling performances by all our members.

The day was well spent with an outstanding keynote speaker and many worthwhile workshops. At the awards luncheon we were delighted to see Vaun Stevens receive her Librarian of the Year award with long-time colleagues, Don Spritzer and Paulette Parpart in attendance. We all enjoyed the reception announcing the winner of the Montana Book Award by Barbara Theroux, President of the MPL Friends of the Library which is (drum roll please) Full Court Quest (call #796.323 PEAVY ) a non-fiction account of the 1904 women's basketball team from Ft. Shaw that went to the St Louis World's Fair. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in Montana history and especially Montana native American history. It beat out some great books so must certainly be worth the read.

Tomorrow morning our wakeup call is for 6 a.m.

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...

Lib"Scare"ians

This year the library is filled with Halloween spirit. I'm pretty sure that in the close to 4 years I've worked here this is the most dressed up we've been. I took the easy road by just bringing in my Ronald Reagan mask. But that still counts, right?

Then I ran into Heather, who dressed up like Eddy from Eddy's coffee shop in our lower lobby!

And our staff room is filled with treats, my favorites? These awesome witch fingers that Kathy from tech services brought in. They're almost too creepy looking to eat, but they taste delicious.

Alexander Hamilton Opening Reception

Last night we opened our Alexander Hamilton exhibit in style. The theme for the evening was a 19th Century Christmas, and almost 150 people showed up to celebrate with us. We had lots of great cookies and cheese, along with a spectacular hot cider. There was no coffee because, as all history enthusiasts know, coffee was a fairly rare commodity in Alexander Hamilton's time.

The room was decorated with spruce branches and pine cones, which made it smell great.



Don, our own ex-reference librarian and curator of the exhibit, kicked things off with a quick speech and then we enjoyed music from members of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, including our very own Claire!


After a bit of music we were treated to a minuet performance by the Rocky Mountain Ballet. These girls did an amazing job, and even provided an impromptu history lesson between their pieces. I found out afterward this group will be traveling to China to dance in the opening ceremony of the Olympics when they come there. Wow. I guess we gave them a chance to warm up for the big dance.

A big thank you goes out to the opening reception committee who got everything set up: Vaun, Tove and Paulette. They spent the afternoon setting everything up, and it went off without a hitch.