More Photos and Farewell
Jennifer Strange

Check out Dale's photos on flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14384940@N05/sets/72157604608690382/

I've really enjoyed working on this blog with Star, Ruth, Dreanna, and Jackie. Y'all have been a great team to work with!

We started on this blog at the same time my system started work on our PlanoReads blog. Both have been a huge learning experience for me. Thank-you to the Local Arrangements Committee and TLA for letting me experiment and learn about blogging!

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TLA '08 Photos Up!
Starr Hoffman

Well, here are the results of four days of running around TLA with a Nikon D40x around my neck. The first day's worth are edited, nice and pretty... the rest of them are just uploaded willy-nilly without editing. (I'm moving this week, so I opted for access over beauty. Sigh.)

I do have them tagged enough that you can break them out by day, if you so wish: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4. Also, you can find the Welcome Party shots here.

If you like, you should be able to download any images by clicking on the "all sizes" icon at the top of the photo.

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FIVE Diamonds for TLA
Jennifer Strange

The Pulpwood Queen gives the Texas Library Association Convention FIVE Diamonds in her Pulpwood Queen Tiara! Thank you so much for the privilege and the honor of being asked to speak! TLA was the highlight of my first ever book tour!

(Image courtesy of shyle zacharias at SRX)

Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs and Author of "The Pulpwood Queens' Tiara Wearing, Book Sharing Guide to Life", Grand Central Publishing Beauty and the Book, the ONLY Hair Salon/ Book Store in the country!

608 North Polk Street
Jefferson, Texas 75657
903-665-7520

www.pulpwoodqueen.com, for daily blogs and recap of TLA with photos!
www.beautyandthebook.com, official website!
www.southernauthors.blogspot.com, contributing author columnist!
www.ReadingGroupGuides.com, contributing author columnist!
www.hachettebookgroupusa.com, my publishers website!

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Shout Out to the Volunteers
Jennifer Strange

(Photo courtesy of Star Hoffman at UNT)

I have to give a shout out to all the amazing volunteers who helped at the conference. It takes a small army of you guys to put on a show this big. Thank you for the wonderful job you did and your willingness to pitch in where needed.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

(Photo courtesy of Star Hoffman at UNT)

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How Was It?
Jennifer Strange

So how did you like the conference?

I heard over 8100 people attended. That's more than the population of some of our Texas towns! From Star's posts it sounds like it was a fun conference.

The Local Arrangements Committee will be meeting on May 2 for a debriefing of the conference. Feel free to send me an email or post a comment and let me know what you thought. I'll compile a list of the suggestions and bring it to the meeting. If you want me to include your name let me know, otherwise the suggestions will be anonymous. So far there have been two suggestions:

-Create a wiki for people to post restaurant reviews, information on programs they will be presenting, and anything else needed for conference.

-"a big freakin' map to the convention center or a clear and obvious address to the place, right smack dab in plain and open view of all."

I was at the Meeting Rooms kiosk in the A Lobby. I hope you found your rooms! I know I'll be bringing the A area signage issues up at the meeting.

Some people said they would send me pictures so, hopefully, I will get them soon and be able to post them next week, either Tuesday or Friday.

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Day 4: Thanks for Coming!
Starr Hoffman

Well, it's been quite a conference. As always, I've been impressed by the size and variety this conference offers.

This morning, I attended (the titles link to my notes):
-- Beyond Gaming in the Library: Gaming for Information Literacy
-- All the Rage: YA Graphic Novels

My complete notes for all conference sessions I attended (including last night's interesting and hilarious General Session II panel discussion), are linked on this page. Again, if you've also taken notes from sessions you attended, feel free to link them below, or comment about things you learned.

Again, if you missed any of the handouts, you can find them here.

And don't forget to fill out evaluations for the sessions you attended, to help us pick the future programs you're interested in.

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Day 3: Sessions, Exhibits, & Doo-Wop
Starr Hoffman

It's Day 3 of conference, and you begin to see people grabbing their caffeine of choice with whiter knuckles than the first two days. The Starbucks has been a nice place to catch up on my internet-ing, and there's the nice relaxation station near Hall A, where you can get a short massage--and is conveniently located across from the bag check. A friend and I were discussing that the only other thing TLA needs to add now is a nap station!

If you think you can't get away to the Exhibits Hall... try to anyway! I didn't get to last year, and I had a blast this time. Lots of interesting products to see, and of course those prized advance reader copies, as well as a lot of gracious authors signing autographs. I got my copy of "American Born Chinese" (first graphic novel to win the Printz Award!) autographed by Gene Luen Yang this morning, and he was patient and gracious with all our fan questions.

So far today, I've been to:
-- Beyond Bytes and Books: Lee Rainie on the Role of Libraries in a Networked World
-- Wikipedia Smackdown!

Each link above will take you directly to my notes for each session. The powerpoint for Lee Rainie's session should be up on the TLA website tomorrow--if you're looking for any slides or handouts, keep checking this page:
http://www.txla.org/conference/Handouts08/handouts_08.html

I'm sloooowly getting my many conference photos uploaded (keep checking back--I should be finished with uploads by early next week).

Lastly, I hear that the Doo-Wop Sock Hop tonight is only $20, for a good cause, and most impressive of all, they opened for the Beatles back in the day. Sounds like it could be quite a romp!

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Days 1 and 2: Session Notes
Starr Hoffman

I've heard a bit of discussion from various TLA members who would like to read session notes for sessions they've been unable to attend. However, I didn't want to 'clutter' the conference blog with my long, meandering notes--I tend to be a blazing fast typist at conferences, making notes pretty lengthy. So I'm going to post links here to my session notes, which I have a habit of posting on my wiki.

Tuesday, April 15
-- Library Services to Immigrant Populations: Best Practices
-- Being PRO-active: Encouraging Professional Reading

Wednesday, April 16
-- General Session I: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
-- So Now it's Digital: What Next?
-- Gaming, Learning, and Libraries: Why Screen Time Can Be Well-Spent

Since we've got open comments on the conference blog, I encourage anyone who'd like to share their notes to post a comment with a link to whatever form your notes are in. This could be a great tool to share what we've learned with each other!!

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Day 2: Exhibits Hall
Starr Hoffman

I had never had the opportunity to get into the TLA exhibits hall at previous conferences--too... many... sessions!--so it was nice to have an hour there today. I was impressed--it really does rival ALA's exhibits, and I'm particularly pleased to have found an advance copy of Neil Gaiman's Coraline in graphic novel format. (Bat your eyelashes, and you may get one, too!)

I'm about to run off to my Government Documents Round Table meeting, so I'd better hibernate the laptop and head that direction. The facilities at the Dallas Convention Center have been great, but boy do they encourage a lot of walking! (I have more than worked off my Starbucks calories from this morning, let me tell you.)

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Day 2: So Now It's Digital: What Next?
Starr Hoffman

I just attended a session by Dr. Samantha Hastings, formerly of my own UNT and now in North Carolina. She gave an engaging talk about preservation of digital objects, questions we need to think about and strategies we can take to protect the objects we've spent our time, money, and energy creating or harvesting.

She discussed big preservation issues like migration of data, as well as issues such as who's maintaining our hardware, and do the people in charge of our servers really understand the importance of the data that they are protecting? One of the most interesting approaches she discussed was using a universal virtual machine (UVM) that has the ability to simulate any format or operating environment. She also stressed the importance of having a clear mission with good goals, to support your project.

I'm enjoying a little downtime now at the Starbucks kiosk near Ballroom C, which is not only feeding my caffeine habit, but provides free wifi access during its open hours. The connection is great for getting these blog posts and my email done, but word of caution: it's not handling my flickr uploads well, so you may need to wait to get back to your hotel room or home for those memory-hog applications.

Well, I'm about done here, so I'll head off to one of the sessions on gaming in libraries, and then maybe I'll take a quick jog around the exhibits hall.

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