Farrago
Checking up on earlier paths followed….
For anyone out there interested in being a library voice at the next World Future Society conference, the early bird registration — substantially cheaper than on-site — is up and ends mid-September (yes, these folks take early seriously). To get the session proposal form — or just get more information — go here. The announced theme will be “WorldFuture 2007: Fostering Hope and Vision for the 21st Century.” Sounds like a library to me.
It’s nice when paths come together… Doing my homework for something I attended back in May, I read master mediator Mark Gerzon’s new book, Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences Into Opportunities. When I finally had a chance to read the August issue of Associations Now, the monthly journal of the American Society of Association Executives, there was an article by Mark Gerzon, “From Me to We,” on “bridging leadership,” which he defines as “building partnerships or alliances that cross the borders that divide an organization or community.” It’s a role libraries and the people who make them work have often filled. He lays out four fundamental skills for leaders — in libraries, in associations — seeking to bridge member or community differences: integral vision (the big picture), inquiry (asking good questions), conscious conversaton (making conscious choices about how we communicate with each other) and dialogue (ultimately creating new options).
Then, the title of Gerzon’s article in Associations Now reminded me of another encounter — well before the Green Kangaroo set up a post in the intersection here. At the 2005 meeting of the Ontario Library Association, Craig Keilburger, founder of Free the Children, an international network of “children helping children,” provided a “get yourself up and do something” sort of opening plenary speech. An interesting story this — and it came with a great t-shirt: “We are the generation we have been waiting for.” Keilburger was then a student at the University of Toronto. He became an activist at 11 — when his local public library branch was threatened with closure, and the proposed new location was too far away for kids to walk or bike. He organized other 11-year-olds for a campaign. His next step came at about 13 when he saw a newspaper story about child slavery — and went off to his local public library to learn more. That led to Free the Children. The connection — twisting, I know — between these paths? Craig and Mark Keilburger pulled together a book: Me to We: Turning Self-Help on Its Head, including contributions from Oprah Winfry, Dr. Jane Goodall, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others. Response from Canadian libraries and librarians to Keilburger was strong, in the form of raising money to build libraries and hire librarians in places with few such resources. My friend Larry Moore, executive director at OLA, tells me that Keilburger knows libraries and library people are a major part of the solution — and would welcome contact with U.S. library communities.
Thinking about the children served by public and school libraries, I pulled a couple of items from my stack of “interesting stuff.” These two came off the ALSC-L discussion list.
Sylvia Vardell — a faculty member in the School of Library & Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University — has a blog focused helping adults find and share poetry with kids. Her latest entry is focused on the Katrina anniversary.
ALSC past-president Gretchen Wronka also posted an announcement to ALSC-L of a “low-residency” master of fine arts degree focused solely on writing for children and young adults. The program is at Hamline University in St. Paul (MN). If you’re interested, additional information is available here. The faculty includes a number of well-known authors of books for children and young adults, such as Kate DeCamillo.
Then, in the process of pulling these items from my ever-growing stack of “interesting things,” I spotted this one — from ACRL Forum. Northeastern University, along with the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, has launched a new online learning tool in the spring, with a “supplemental discussion blog.” The announced purpose is to explore “key concepts in new media and address a host of new media issues including the collapse of distinctions between media forms and the societal effects of new technologies such as blogs, chat rooms, TiVo, and Facebook.” Checking in, there are some interesting pieces to discuss and the fall term is just beginning…
Finally, in my incoming email, I just got a welcome invitation from Matt Ivaliotes — the individual in ITTS who is supporting ALA’s growing array of blogs and, soon, wikis — to join BUG, our internal “user’s group” for ALA staff working with blogs. This is good - good because I’ll learn how to do more things, and good that there are enough people interested that IT needs to organize us into a manageable, “tell ‘em all at the same time” information exchange group. There’s also a b2evolution upgrade — promising more “robust” antispam capabilities.
A lot of twists, turns and connections here. That is, truth be told, the way the intersection looks to the Green Kangaroo much of the time. Things bump into each other, ideas get exchanged, directions are adjusted, and so forth.
As usual, I’m behind — on posts, on projects, probably on life. I take one thing out of the “stack of interesting stuff” — and add two or three things. There are two projects where one existed before. In balance, it’s a stimulating way to live.
This has been the annual “transition” time at ALA. We measure time here in “member years” — from the end of one annual conference to the end of the next. New terms of office, new appointments begin after Council III at Annual Conference. The internal operations of the association — budgets, performance reviews and related work — are on a September 1 to August 31 “fiscal year” cycle. July and August are always a period of winding up and starting new: learning the work and communication styles and preferences of new officers, new board members, new committee chairs; providing “here’s where we are now” information to people joining in on ongoing projects and advocacy efforts; integrating new ideas.
At the same time, we all try to enjoy a little summer. About those heirloom tomatoes I planted in May… but that’s another post.