It was a beautiful day at the TLA conference. The weather was cool with surprisingly low humidity -- lovely, if a bit gray.
The morning opened with General Session I, in which our own beloved Dean Herman Totten received a TLA Lifetime Achievement Award. CONGRATS to Dean Totten!!
The presentation by Julie Andrews Edwards, renowned children's author as well as celebrated actress and singer, was also a memorable event. The crowd cheered when she described her celebrity as a tool for advocacy.
UNT-SLIS alumna Michele Lucero mediated a panel discussion on "Cool Jobs." Panel members included aviation librarian Ginny Jarvis; Judy Glick of Amigos Library Services; and Microsoft library manager Margaret Carroll. The questions discussed ranged from What is the coolest thing about your job? to How hard is it to get a job in a corporate library?. The speakers provided a wide range of perspectives from special industries, helping the session participants to see career opportunities beyond traditional public and academic library environments.
The Genealogy Round Table held two sessions on researching common genealogy reference questions and developing search strategies in the HeritageQuest database. Some of the resources shared were:
http://vitalrec.com
http://www.usgenweb.com
http://www.archives.gov
http://www.uscitydirectories.com
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAoGK)
The Librarian's Guide to Genealogical Services and Research by James Swan
The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val Greenwood
The Ultimate Search Book: Worldwide Adoption and Vital Records by Lori Carangelo. Bountiful, UT: Heritage Quest, 1998.
The Book Cart Drill Team Challenge was a ball. The Book Divas of CyFair ISD rocked the competition with their neon pink wigs and saucy choreography. All the teams showed lots of creativity, inspiration, and enthusiasm. It was a laugh and a half. What a fabulous way to trash any myths that librarians are boring people!
Houston LISSA also hosted a late lunch get-together for UNT-SLIS students and alumni, and we had a great turnout of friendly faces. Poom Taylor, Monica Rivero, and myself were joined by various SLIS students and alumnae, including Michele Lucero, Somer Newland, Paige O'Neal, Lisa McNamara, Amanda Pape, Susan Brasseux, Nancy Goralski, and Theresa Holden. (People were coming and going and I was up and down, so if you were there and I have not managed to include your name, I apologize!!) I hope we see many more of you at our coffee/snack meet-up Thursday from 3-4! Join us in the Cafe on the first floor of the Hilton of the Americas.
The exhibit hall was a zoo, a frenzy of color and sound, an overwhelming forest of vendors and information and free goodies. Publishing houses, software companies, universities, database providers -- something for everyone in any area of information science. Of course, since this is Erin speaking, I feel compelled to highlight the fact that NASA has a booth in the exhibit hall! They're providing lots of great handouts, stickers, and posters to advertise the wonderful wealth of education materials they provide. If you're attending, be sure to stop by their booth. If you're not attending, check out their website at nasa.gov: they've got images, trivia, experiments, lesson plans, and all kinds of content for all educational levels. If you are a school librarian or otherwise work with kids who might be interested in space, check out NASA's education resources; you won't be sorry.
I hope all the Houston SLISers are enjoying the TLA conference this week as much as I am! Please feel free to post comments about your experiences for all of us to share. Tell us about the sessions you attended, the fascinating things you've learned or resources you've been told about, the vendor booths that got you the most excited. Click on the word "comments" in the bottom line of this post (after the "posted by __ @ __" information) and talk back!
4 comments:
Hi, this is current student Amanda, and I will add a little about my experiences at TLA.
I got into town just in time on Tuesday to attend the welcome party at the Aquarium. It was a bit crowded as I don't think as many people were expected as were there, but there was some yummy cheese and nuts and other munchies, and we got to see the exhibits and ride the train through the shark tank. The evening was highlighted by a huge thunderstorm and downpour, and we waited half an hour after the end of the party for it to slow enough to run to our cars for the drive home (in my case, my sister's place).
I also went to the opening session yesterday. What a thrill to see Dr. Totten receive the Lifetime Achievement Award - it was obviously a surprise and he was very moved!). I also enjoyed the clips from Julie Andrews' film and TV performances.
Oh, and I also learned not to exit the General Assembly Theater from the upper exits. They only lead to the fire escapes, and then you have to walk down three-plus flights all the way to the first floor outdoor exits!!
I spent most of yesterday in the placement center, since I am graduating in less than three weeks!!! The center was not quite ready to be up and running as planned at 10:15 AM (they still had last year's data loaded). However, I managed to introduce myself and schedule interviews with two employers who were also waiting to input data into the system! I have another interview (so far) scheduled for Thursday.
Although you can't upload a resume like you could at ALA, the TLA placement center has the nice feature of being able to send messages to employers you are interested in, rather than just waiting for them to contact you.
I also spent some time in the exhibit hall, went to the UNT informal lunch (the $10 buffet at the Hilton Cafe is a good deal!), and watched the book cart competition (perhaps that should have been in the theater rather than the ballroom, with the former's stadium style seating!).
After the latter, I went to the meeting/social of the Public Library Division (I know the outgoing chair). I won a door prize - a green feather boa!
Then there was the President's Party, which had a Hawaiian theme. Hula hoop contests as well as best Hawaiian shirt and decorated flip-flops. Great food and a very good band, albeit a bit loud. Somer, Monica and I went next door to the Storyteller's Concert. We especially enjoyed the Texas twist Barbara McBride-Smith gives to Greek myths!
Hope to see many of you at the Alumni dinner tonight. If anyone has a cap, gown (5'9"), and hood they would be willing to rent for graduation, bring it, and let's talk! I'll be the one with the green boa!
Thanks for sharing, Amanda! As a current student, it's enlightening to hear about your experiences with the job placement center. Also interesting to hear about the Aquarium, for those of us who didn't see fit to go. *sheepish grin*
~ Erin Dorris
Erin, this blog does not allow anonymous comments - I happened to have a Blogger account, but that may be the reason there have been few comments by others. Just an FYI (and BTW I had a typo in this so deleted it previous to this).
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