When the message had gone out that MLA was looking for volunteers for the conference, they also included the message that they wanted people to be tweeting while attending. I volunteered myself to do this. So here are a selection of tweets and blurbs from MLA.
Friday luncheon keynote “Go Forth!” by William Kent Krueger
He who lends a book is an idiot. He who returns a book is even more of an idiot.
Anyone who says they only have 1 life to live does not know how to read.
stories help us endure chaos ~ Wm Kent Krueger
Always write something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. William Kent Krueger
Session: 50 in 60 Book Blast
In this session, each of the 5 speakers had a topic and suggested 10 books within that topic. If you want their full list, I’ve got it. But the topics were Paranormal (I was hoping "paranormal" was short for "paranormal romance" and this is not in this case), YA, Contemporary Women Writers, Scifi/Fantasy, and Nordic Mysteries.
At the
Member meeting, Robin Ewing, president of MLA, said upon gifting the winner a prize, "In a shocking turn of events, a librarian has a tote bag." It was funny.
Session: Not Your Mother’s Authority Control: Locating Information in the 22nd Century
What is Authority Control? The notion that you can bring everything by or about one person or thing into one place. In this session, the presenter reported that authority control means there is a “correct” term and sometimes these need to be updated. One way to easily do this would be to store authority data using Unique Resource Identifiers as permanent links to records.
Session: Board@Your Library? Hot Board Games for Cool Librarians
I caught the tail end of this session and jotted down all the games. Scott Nicholson (a keynote) also attended and said to ask groups already using the library if there is a particular game they they like to play.
Session: Collection Development of Award-Winning Books in MnPALS Libraries
Award winners are often purchased because it is policy, library literature recommends as best/common practice, typically they are considered to be examples of best writing/literature. However, college libraries choose materials based on relevance to curriculum, requests by faculty, or subject of book, with awards being quite low. Tammy Bobrowski found that 50% of university/college libraries regularly purchase award winning titles, and 28% of technical/community college libraries regularly purchase them. She had data regarding most frequently purchase titles and highest circulating titles.
Dessert Keynote: Engagement Through Games: Reaching Library Users through Playful Ways by Dr. Scott Nicholson
2nd outcome 75% gaming participants returned for non-gaming participants. Scott Nicholson
Top outcome 77% reputation of lib improved with participants. Scott Nicholson
Most important goal in offering gaming is to attract under-served group of users to lib. Scott Nicholson
Libs need "cradle to cane" programming to keep users. Scott Nicholson
Gaming in libs since 1850s, chess and pool
Games in libs (collections) v. Gaming in libs (services)
Session: To Boldly Go: Fantastical Journeys through Science Fiction Readers’ Advisory
She didn’t really give a lot of suggestions but went over tropes including utopian/distopian, alternate universe, steampunk, time travel, space opera, robots/AI, cyborgs, aliens, hard science scifi, idea-driven. Also went over the difference between fantasy and scifi. Melissa Gray's blog librarianinspace.blogspot.com and Diigo account http://www.diigo.com/user/scifira
Session: 40 Years of Collaboration: Minitex and Minnesota Libraries Then and Now
#Minitex "Then and Now" slideshow minitex.umn.edu/40th/Slideshow/
1971-2 #Minitex received 71,353 request for loans and copies. 2010-1 401,825 requests
1989# Minitex staff attended “word processing” training for the first time says Bill DeJohn
1987 #Minitex delivery moved from the Greyhound Bus system to a dedicated courier service
June 1984 Bill DeJohn became director of #Minitex
1975 #Minitex began using local couriers and overnight delivery of shared resources via commercial buses to libs, says Bill DeJohn
1969 MN Interlibrary Teletype Experiment, 2 year pilot project to develop recommendations for a long-range statewide ILL svc
Session: The Special Library as Information Commons
Coll dev at Arboretum library thinks in terms of the next 1,000 yrs knowing how important their 500yo catalogs are. Kathy Allen
If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. Cicero paraphrased by Kathy Allen
Working @ SL you learn from wide network: library, law, IT, marketing & training pros and are encouraged to learn more @jillinfopro
Mission: align the lib's strategic info solutions with the firm's goals so in addition to supporting practice AND business of law
SL needs to be seen as essential to an org's prime function, not enough to provide good svc or have well ordered collections.
Luncheon Keynote: Everything I Need to Know I learned from a Children’s Book by Anita Silvey
People remember who GAVE them a particular, meaningful book more than they remember the book's author. Anita Silvey
Children's books provide a personal, social and political reality. Anita Silvey
The character that has affected more [American?] women than any other is Jo March of Little Women. Anita Silvey
If a child steals a book from the library, that book must be very dear to them. Anita Silvey
Children read a story for plot or story or a character. NOT for metaphors, says Anita Silvey.
~ Sonja Isaacson
