Melanie visits the Big Easy

Hello Faith-ites and blog readers! First of all, it was wonderful to see you all at Christmas. I had really missed this group and was thrilled to see how well the construction was coming along (once my head stopped spinning from the fumes). To anyone who has emailed me recently and not gotten a response - please try again. This semester hasn't been conducive to correspondence, but I really do want to stay in touch and would love to hear from all of you.

I'm writing because I have some exciting news. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an essay for a scholarship competition. The question we were supposed to answer was "describe one challenge facing the profession and how you feel it might best be addressed," so I wrote about digital preservation. (Ever found a stack of old letters and journals and wondered what there will be left of your emails, etc in the future? Well, that's happening in the library world on a grand scale.) Apparently it was a hit because yours truly was selected to be the IU student intern to the American Library Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans this June. That means they will send me there, put me up and feed me, in return for 20 hours of work at the conference and a presentation to my ALA Student Chapter when I return. I'm incredibly excited - it should be a wonderful experience and lots of fun, plus of course it's always an ego boost when someone picks you out of a stack and gives you funding. :)

Before you ask, yes, that does say New Orleans. The ALA Annual Conference is a big one - thousands of librarians descend on a city each year (last year it was Chicago). As a result, they pick the destination and start planning years in advance. When New Orleans was selected, it was understood that it would be hot and sticky - no one knew that half the city would have been destroyed by a hurricane. The ALA - event planners, leadership, membership, friends and most likely sympathetic outsiders - debated for months over whether or not to move the conference. The result was a decision to stay put. For any of you who have been wondering why, exactly, I'm going into library science, I think the ALA's answer pretty much sums it up:

"New Orleans was scheduled as the host site for the 2006 Annual Conference June 22-29, 2006, almost 10 years ago. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, ALA board members and staff re-examined the viability of the city to host the anticipated 20,000+ attendees. After almost two months of investigation, the ALA announced on October 21 it would keep the conference in New Orleans. Recovery efforts are well underway, and the ALA Annual Conference will help to provide the jobs and tax revenues needed to reestablish the city."

They didn't decide to stick with New Orleans because it would be too much work to move it, or because the planning committee had their heart set on beignets - they decided to stay because it was the right thing to do, and would help with the recovery effort. Job postings for librarian positions almost always ask for a 'service orientation' as a qualification for hire. It can be tempting to brush that off as meaningless jargon, but I don't think I will ever again doubt the library world's committment to serving the public.

More posts will be forthcoming on my own thoughts about travelling to New Orleans, but for now I'll sign off, reminding you to keep in touch and support your local Vicar.

Melanie