ALA

Snell Leaders at New Orleans ALA Conference

We at Snell would like to wish our fellow staff members good luck as they head to the 2011 American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans this week. The conference will begin today and be held through June 28th and is one of the largest events for the library community. More than 25,000 librarians, educators, authors, publishers, literacy experts, illustrators and the leading suppliers to the market attend to discuss ways to improve the libraries. Maria Carpenter, Director of Advancement and Marketing at NU Libraries, will present on a fundraising toolkit for librarians she co-developed to help library staff and supporters understand how annual funds, special gifts (such as memorials and tributes), major gifts, and planned giving work. Maria is also an author of Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries, a standards and guidelines document for the Association of College & Research Libraries which will be introduced at the conference. Also from Snell Library, Amanda Rust and Annie DeVane will present a poster on their recent research for the Library’s new Drupal-based website. The aim of the survey was to determine what sort of staffing would be necessary for a large, heavily-customized Drupal Web site, and the results, therefore, give a brief overview of the current citizens of the Drupal library community. Karen Merguerian and Diann Smothers were also co-authors on this poster. You can view the poster and full survey results here: http://www.lib.neu.edu/ALADrupalPoster2011/ For more information on the ALA conference that will take place this coming week, check out the website http://www.alaannual.org/content/conference-overview

It's National Library Workers Day!

National Library Workers Day (NLWD) is a day for library staff, users, administrators and friends to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.

How will you tell your librarian how much you appreciate their work? Submit a Star by visiting http://ala-apa.org/nlwd/

When 10,000 librarians come to town

This past weekend, the American Library Association held its midwinter meeting here in Boston. Many of us at the NU Libraries took advantage of being here in the host city, and we’ve been meeting with colleagues, visiting publisher exhibits, meeting with technology vendors, listening to speakers, and attending workshops. Several librarians here at Snell serve on national committees. Regardless of how active we are, it’s always enlightening to step back and try to see our work from the perspective of the library profession. Going to ALA always makes me think of the library as something larger than the sum of all the tasks that take up my time on a daily basis.  I get a chance to think about the implications of what I’m doing, where my priorities are and should be, and what I can learn from other librarians who have gone ahead of me. For me, there were two special highlights from this conference: a great workshop on providing services to users with mobile devices like smartphones (view the slides here), and a reunion with a longtime friend and former mentor.  All in all, the ALA Midwinter meeting fulfilled its purpose: professional renewal through learning and conversation!

ALA Celebrity READ Posters

If you’ve ever ventured into a public library, you’ve probably noticed celebrity READ posters. I’m always intrigued by the stars chosen, and their favorite books. Some seem obvious, such as Orlando Bloom with The Lord of the Rings. Some seem more surprising, like Shaquille O’Neal with Undying Glory.

How do you think the poster subjects are chosen? Do you have a favorite literate celeb you’d love to seem emblazoned on your library’s wall?