Exciting news....keynote speakers!!

I am thrilled to announce that we will enjoy the following keynote speakers at RLC 2007:

Jenny Levine & Michael Stephens

Jenny and Michael are leaders in the library 2.0 world. Jenny blogs at The Shifted Librarian and Michael's blog is Tame the Web. Michael is particularly excited to join us as he spends the better part of his summers at his cottage near TC.

Maureen Burns

Our own ever-popular Maureen will join us on Monday evening for an inspirational and funny take on our lives in libraryland.

Jo Dereske

Jo writes the Miss Zukas mystery series and is originally from Scottville, MI. Her other books include the Ruby Crane mystery series and several books for young people. After her keynote, Jo will do a book signing.

Rural library branches

I am anxious to attend the Rural Libraries Conference this spring. With the Gates grant it will be even more affordable than in the past and so I am looking at how many staff and board members will be able to also attend this year. We have a new project at Lake Neverwuz Public Library that involves expansion. One of our businesses, Carolyn's Cozy Cabins is going out of business after 57 years and is planning to donate to the library 12 one bedroom cabins. Our board has been discussing this for a long time. Each cabin is 9ft by 9ft and we thought we could have 11 branches of the Lake Neverwuz library. Since they have to be moved to allow for the new Dollar Store, we thought we could have them place every 100 feet and put the 000's in one cabin, the 100's in another cabin and so forth. The 12th cabin could be used by the Friends. The cabins all look alike and were newly painted last year a lovely shade of mauve and orange with yellow doors as accents. I'm curious if you think this project will work. Is this something I should bring to conference and get reactions there from some of the experts. Is 13 locations too many for a service area that is a half mile square and serves a population of 723?

More on 2.0

By now you have all figured out that I have had my share of the 2.0 Kool Aid. I sincerely believe that libraries have everything to gain from 2.0 attitudes, approaches, and applications.

You will learn much about 2.0 at the conference. In the meantime, read what Michael Stephens has to say about getting started with 2.0:

http://tametheweb.com/2005/11/5_suggestions_for_upgrading_to.html

-Deb

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

This is great!
http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/2006/11/a_librarians_20_manifesto.html

From Laura Cohen who blogs at http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/

Dancing with the Stars

I am so excited about our newest program here at Lake Neverwuz Public Library. Recently, Julie's Parisian Dance School had a record number of dance students, 7 to be exact. They came to us with an idea to have a dance contest at the library and to have some local "stars" work with their students. It was my idea to call it "Dancing with the Stars" so my staff worked quickly to get our "Stars". Here is the roster and the dances that they will do for the competition which will be held at the library in the Winnebago Ballroom on the newly renovated second level. Cooperative Director Jim Seidl will work with Mindy Gates and do the Techno Tango; Ann Holt and Brad Pitty with do the Capital Salsa; Deb Bacon-Ziegler along with Red Lion will do the Knit/Pearl/Knit Waltz plus Roger and June Mendel will do Jive. Contact me if you would like details on how we put this together. Our Friends Group, along with Ruth Dukelow and Ken Miller will be sewing the costumes for our dancers. For other ideas about good programming for rural and small libraries attend next year's Loleta Fyan Small and Rural Libraries Conference at the Grand Traverse Resort. Remember your registration and meals are taken care of by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. You need to budget for travel and hotel accommodations. See you May 7-9, 2007 and bring your dancing shoes.

Fishing for comments

Hi All,

Marian emailed me yesterday. She is totally bummed that nobody is commenting on her posts. Given her recent self-indulgent rant thoughtful commentary on conference awards, I urge you to give it right back to let Marian know that you are reading her posts by offering a comment.

It is really very easy. Just click on the orange comment link at the end of the post, add your comment, enter the verification text so we know you aren't an evil robot, and click "login and publish" - that's it!

Heck, you might even invite her to a movie this Saturday night!

Deb

Grand Traverse Resort room rates

Reservation information will be available soon. For now, get these numbers in your 2007 travel budget:

Tower guestroom $129.00/night
Hotel guestroom $99.00/night

EXCITING NEWS - Attendees are responsible for travel & accommodations ONLY for 2007. Grant funding from the Gates Foundation allows us to cover the conference registration fee by subsidizing attendee meals and some facility expenses.

Deb

Pat Yourselves On The Back

Soon the Rural Libraries Committee will be seeking nominations for awards to be given at the Conference. This is a good time to honor those rural library people who do such a great job providing service to their communities with many times very little in the way of resources. Nominate someone from your library or maybe from another library in your cooperative. I,for example, have had some fantastic programs and services at Lake Neverwuz and no one has nominated me for an award. I thought my Pontoon bookmobile service, or the All Terrain vehicle homebound delivery service, or my Winnebago children's room addition to the library would have rated an award, but no, but I'm not BITTER. It doesn't matter to me if I'm overlooked, year after year after year ever since 1986. All that matters is that my patrons are receiving good service. No matter that I work overtime and get no additional pay and don't get as much as a daisy as an expression of thanks. It's not a problem, give the awards to others certainly more deserving, it doesn't bother me, who scrubs the library floor each Saturday evening rather than going to the movies, alone. Take care, remember, nominate someone this time, it may be the one thing in their lives that will give them hope to go on.