Friday, January 20, 2012
The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
This conference highlight was off the beaten path. Fashionista librarians enjoyed an amazing Dallas Museum of Art exhibition of the 40-year design career of Jean Paul Gaultier. Featuring over 140 pieces and visiting only two cities in the United States, this zany show was featured on Sunday Morning during the ALA conference. Walking into the exhibit, I couldn’t tell if the models were mannequins --- or real, live humans… Minutes later, I discovered an interesting psychological trick played on visitors by the ever-jocular enfant terrible of the fashion world. In mid-February, the multimedia Gaultier exhibit packs up her whips and wigs to shine for San Franciscans at the beautiful de Young Museum.
Exhibits Round Table/Booklist Author Forum
Authors Helen Shulman and Hilary Jordan discussed recent writing projects with moderator, Booklist Adult Books Editor Brad Hooper. The authors expressed a shared passion for reading/writing. Titles written by Shulman and Jordan include Out of Time and When She Woke (respectively).
Grand Opening, Exhibit Hall
Attended the opening of the exhibit hall, which featured over 400 exhibitors. Learned about many impressive, new products by speaking with current and potential vendors, including LexisNexis, Penguin, Mango, MediaSurfer, etc.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
ALA Champion Connections Program
Selected to participate in the Champion Connections discussion of ALA governance and leadership, at the Dallas Convention Center. This is a special event designed for ALA President Molly Raphael’s diversity initiative, “Empowering Diverse Voices.” I applied for the program in the fall of 2012, and was proud to be among those chosen for inclusion. Among those acting as advocates/champions were: 1) Dr. Camila Alire, ALA past-president (2009-2010), Professor of Practice (adjunct) for Simmons College’s Ph.D. program in Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions, Dean Emerita at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado; 2) Diana Wu, an academic reference and instruction librarian, and recipient of one the 2007 Emerald Research Grant Awards; 3) Donna McDonald, ALTAFF Past-President and Director of the Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System; 4) Dr. Em Claire Knowles, Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College Assistant Dean for Student Services; 5) Kenton Oliver, Director, Stark County District Library and President Freedom to Read Foundation (worked his way up from shelver position in library); 6) Larry Romans, Head of Government Information and Media Services, Vanderbilt Universities Libraries; 7) Loida Garcia-Febo, President, Reforma (2009-2010), and self-described international librarian, researcher, speaker and writer of topics such as human rights, access to information, advocacy, services to diverse populations, and new professionals; 8) Marcellus Turner, City Librarian, Seattle Public Library; 9) Maribel Castro, the daughter of Mexican migrant workers, she is now the Coronado High School Librarian; 10) Sari Feldman, Executive Director, Cuyahoga County Public Library; and 11) Wanda Brown, President of the North Carolina Library Association and Associate Dean at Z. Smith Reynolds Library.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with Mary Jo Venetis, the opening speaker. Venetis described the path to leadership in ALA as being a path aided by mentors/champions. Though she now holds a Ph.D., Venetis began as a library page, working her way up to the position of Director of Academic Catalogs for the University of Dallas Academic Affairs and Provost. Venetis spoke of the leadership boost provided to her by Julie Todoro, Dean, Library Services at Austin Community College, and past-president of both the Texas Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (I actually spoke with Todoro in 2008, when she presented Pasadena City College’s Shatford Library with the Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. [The award recognized the staff/faculty of the community college library for outstanding programs that brought exemplary services and resources to extend the educational goals of the college.])
Venetis’ co-lead, Rose Dawson is the Alexandria Library Director (Virginia). She shares, “One can never have too many champions.” The champions with whom I met included library advocate Penny Markey and Sandy Wee, Millbrae Library (San Mateo County) Branch Manager. Wee suggested that I increase my involvement with California Library Association and ACRL. The first champion with whom I chatted was Rivkah Sass, Sacramento Central Library Director. Sass encouraged continued pursuit of my interests as they relate to my career and ALA involvement. Diane Chen-Kelly, an international librarian, recommended that I follow her path by running for a position on the ALA Executive Council. I appreciated her honesty and quick overview of how to achieve goals within ALA. Nancy Davenport, Director of Library Services for DC Public Library, shared management tips that will likely inform my work with the acquisitions team. I also received assistive management tricks from Venetis. I especially enjoyed Venetis’ emotive facial expressions and gentle pats on my arm as she hand-signed. Engaging with Venetis proved especially interesting. Our communication was exceedingly easy and mutually satisfactory. I left with a big smile. Follow-up thank you notes were a pleasure to write; I felt so much gratitude for the time shared by these compelling, motivated librarians.
Oxford University Press
Launch of University Press Scholarship Cocktail Celebration
An evening soiree at the Belo Mansion attended by many of the champions, including Penny Markey and ALA Past-President Dr. Loriene Roy. This fete featured hors d'oeuvres and several excellent violinists, one of whom knew my cousin, Alfred Mouledous, Tenured Professor of Piano at Southern Methodist University and, for the better part of a quarter-century, Principal Pianist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. This violinist mentioned my resemblance to at one of Al’s Texas exes (the prettiest one, I’m sure).
Sunday, January 22, 2012
LITA Top Technology Trends
LITA streamed this semi-annual panel discussion of tech trends in which panelist Sue Polanka, Head of Reference and Instruction for Dunbar Library, expressed an interest in the self-service trend and marveled about the ease of turning white walls into smart boards, allowing technologically-enhanced instruction anywhere. (This brought to mind a very intriguing 2008 TED Talk by Johnny Lee: http://www.ted.com/talks/johnny_lee_demos_wii_remote_hacks.html.)
OCLC Vice President and Chief Strategist Lorcan Dempsey spoke of users arriving at library websites via Google or sites like GoodReads, and wondered how libraries are represented on those sites. Panelists also considered the decrease in interoperability between Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
