MLA 2011: Dinner with Colleagues

Check out the Local Arrangements blog of the Minnesota Library Association annual conference for a great networking opportunity: Dinner with Colleagues. You can sign up to have dinner on Thursday night (October 13) during the conference in Duluth and meet working librarians in a field of your choosing.

Minnesota Library Association Conference Cresting the Horizon!

More info for the Minnesota Library Association conference is up:

• Pricing--They haven't started taking registrations yet, but you can see they don't have a student registration rate, so exchanging volunteer hours for free registration is a great bargain (not to mention networking opportunity, etc.). Volunteer info is below.
• Agenda with "At a Glance" or complete session info options. Note that I've been told the Wednesday night "Killer Cocktails" Readers Advisory Round Table happy hour would be a great place for us to gather as a student group.
• Conference hotels--Note that these are not required, just options, and there are a million choices in Canal Park or downtown that would be appropriate. Our student group can help match you with a roommate if you want to save some money that way. Similarly, I'm happy to help arrange carpooling.

Why should you attend this conference? If you want to work at a library in Minnesota, this is your chance to meet librarians from throughout the state who work in all different kinds of institutions and positions. If you're open to working at different types of libraries (or just want to know more about what's out there), this is the place that brings together librarians from across the spectrum. Volunteering takes you even deeper into the conference experience. Here's the scoop:

1. For a single day of free registration, the following volunteer requirement must be met:  Wednesday (2 hours), Thursday (3 hours), and Friday (2 hours). Volunteer opportunities include: introducing session speakers, staffing registration table, and more.
2. In order to receive the entire conference registration free (all three days), students must volunteer for seven hours, broken down as above.
3. Students wanting free conference registration must be members of MLA. This is still a bargain because a student membership is only $25.

For questions or to sign up, please contact Stephanie Hall (halls -at- pas.k12.mn.us). Stephanie and I have been in touch, and while she's trying to set her volunteer schedule now, if you're not ready to commit yet, you can contact her later to see what might be available for you. She seems very flexible and happy to have student volunteers.

As always, let me know if you have questions about anything, and I'll do what I can!

Weekly News Roundup

Apple has changed the way that ebooks are accessed on its devices
Publishing is living in a world not of its own making
http://www.idealog.com/blog/publishing-is-living-in-a-world-not-of-its-own-making

A Google a Day has been around for a few months now but here's an article about how it relates to libraries.
Teaching Search Engine Literacy with A Google A Day
http://dltj.org/article/introducing-agad4lib/

New York scheme for 143,000 kids to work off library fines: Read
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/25/us-library-fines-newyork-idUSTRE76O52520110725

Lots and lots of librarians are chronicling their week over at:
http://librarydayinthelife.pbworks.com/

And finally, this is a survey that the ALA is asking members of student chapters to take.

2011 ALA Student Chapters Survey
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/student-member-blog/2011-ala-student-chapters-survey

Weekly News Roundup

OCLC releases new membership research report: Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference
http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/2011/201144.htm

Library closures challenged in court
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8647491/Library-closures-challenged-in-court.html

Open-Access Advocate Is Arrested for Huge Download
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20compute.html?_r=1&ref=us

Textbook Rentals Come to the Kindle: Probably Not a Money-Saver
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/textbook_rentals_come_to_the_kindle_probably_not_a.php

Weekly News Roundup

An overview of a report about how the Internet affects our brains.
Is the Internet Bad for Our Brains? The Answer Is Subtle and Complex, But Quite Reassuring
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2011/07/06/is-the-internet-bad-for-our-brains-the-answer-is-subtle-and-complex-but-quite-reassuring/

Free As in Libraries, But Libraries Are Not Free
http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/07/free-as-in-libraries-but-libraries-are-not-free/

New e-book option!
Open Library offers libraries a third choice for eBooks
http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2011/07/open-library-offers-libraries-a-third-choice-for-ebooks.html

This could be a really great professional resource, once it gets going! We should all commit!
http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/07/02/reference-question-of-the-week-62611/

Here’s a nifty image ‘milkshake’ put together by a librarian. Lots of pretty books!
http://mlkshk.com/librarian