PLA Minneapolis

Well, the conference is over. I have to say this has been the best PLA I've attended. All of the sessions I attended ranged from good to excellent, and the presentation skills were much higher than in previous years. Topics I found particularly interesting included immigration issues, collection development for LGBT populations within a conservative community, coping with law enforcement requests, management/union relations, handling difficult customers, the library's role in disaster preparedness, and conflict resolution. Speakers included Warren Graham and Pat Wagner, both of whom have been guest speakers at OCL in past years.

I also took a quick tour of the Minneapolis Public Library and visited the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and saw "Jane Eyre" at the Guthrie Theater. The weather was occasionally cold and windy, but free of rain or snow, which was good, since I spent a lot of hours walking around the city and taking pictures of some of the sights for eventual posting on Flickr.

From Madrid to Minneapolis

Well, I spent a wonderful ten days in Spain. Spent a total of of about nine hours in the Prado Museum over two days, enjoying the works of Velasquez, Bosch, and Goya. Also managed the highlights of Seville, Cordoba, Torremolinos, Granada, and Toledo. The bus took us through Don Quixote country, including the famous white windmills. Toured an olive oil plant and a workshop where artisans make damascene jewelry. The food and people were terrific and I can't wait to go back. I'll post pictures soon.

I was back to work for one day before heading out to PLA in Minneapolis. So I've just settled into the hotel and will set out in quest of lunch soon. Tomorrow I'll see about getting oriented in the city--right now I'm too jet lagged.

Getting Started

Okay, I'm a little late to the game here, but ready to play! Exciting news on the branch front. We have the Branch Managers' meeting coming up in TR on March 14th. And our April meeting will feature and all-day training on Logic Modules/Outcome Measurement. We have lots of new Branch Managers on board and will be completing orientation for them on April 3rd.

In other news, I'm off to Spain on Wednesday, and following that with PLA at the end of the month.