Today's post is from Joyce at Haggard Library in Plano:

Looking for a restaurant with a great view and great food? Make your lunch stop at AIJA Restaurant at the Trammel Crow Building in the Arts District. Making a decision on what to eat will be the hard part. The $14 buffet has mouth watering beef, chicken, and fish entree dishes and includes a selection of sushi as well. Conclude your meal with a delicious desert and a walk in the Trammel Crow art gardens surrounding the building or tour the Asian Collection. The building is across from the Nasher Museum of Art.

Aija
2001 Ross Avenue
Mezzanine Level
Dallas, TX 75201
Phone: 214.979.3111

Today's post is from Kara Phillips , a librarian at Davis Library in Plano:

The Dallas Arboretum is a series of botanical gardens located on the southeastern shore of White Rock Lake. No matter what time of year, the Arboretum is always in bloom. With so much brilliant color, it is truly an experience! The 66 acre garden area is known for its plant collections, including more than 2000 varieties of Azaleas. It features scenic views of the lake and the downtown Dallas skyline as well as an outdoor concert stage, picnic areas, and a set of replicas of dwellings and other structures depicting prairie life in the “Texas Pioneer Adventure.” The arboretum is a great place for taking pictures or enjoying a beautiful day. Pack a lunch, grab a friend, and come enjoy a picnic in the gardens at the Dallas Arboretum. It’s worth the visit – there is always plenty to see. Admission is $8.00 for adults. For directions, hours of operation or detailed information about the gardens please visit: http://www.dallasarboretum.org.

Today's post is from Angela Skaggs at Angelo State University:

The TLA Automation and Technology Roundtable is accepting applications for a $700 stipend to attend the 2008 Annual Conference in Dallas, April 15-18. ATRT encourages all to apply, the requirements are:

1. Involvement in library automation and technology activities.
2. Membership in TLA, the stipend may be used to pay for membership if the stipend winner is not already a member.
3. Membership in the Automation and Technology Round Table, a part of the stipend may be used toward membership if stipend winner is not already a member.
4. Attendance at and recognition at A&TRT's annual business meeting during the TLA conference.
5. Volunteer four hours during the TLA Conference at A&TRT sponsored activities -- the New Technology Showcase or the Net Fair.
6. Submit a report evaluating the TLA Conference, telling whether it fulfilled expectations and what, if anything, you learned that you will be able to put to use in your library. This report must be written and submitted to the A&TRT Chair within 30 days of the conference.
7. Expectation of ongoing interest in and involvement with A&TRT activities.

Applications must be received by February 15, 2008.

Your application can be sent to:
Christina Hoffman Gola
Instructional Services
Texas A&M University Libraries
Email: chgola@tamu.edu
Fax: 979-458-0112
Phone: 979-862-1902

Today's post is from Greg Hardin at TWU:

Get involved in the 2008 TLA Annual Conference through volunteering!

We are actively recruiting volunteers for the annual conference in Dallas and will need help staffing tables, checking room set-ups, distributing signs, counting attendees, and addressing room & equipment glitches. The preliminary schedule for the TLA Conference is currently online at http://www.txla.org/conference/conf.html.

If you would like to get involved by helping the TLA Events Arrangements Committee through volunteering a small portion of your time at the 2008 Annual Conference in Dallas, April 15-18, 2008 then please sign up at: http://www.txla.org/groups/forms/Conf_volunteer.html

If you have any questions about volunteering for the Events Arrangements Committee please contact Greg Hardin, Events Arrangements Co-Chair.

The 3rd Annual Book Cart Drill Team Texas Championship is set for Wednesday afternoon, April 16th, 5-6pm. I can't wait for this event. It's always so fun to see how creative my colleagues can get. If you don't know what to expect at a Book Cart Drill Team event check out this video from the ALA national competition. If you are interested in participating be sure to read the team rules. The winning team from Texas will be invited to compete nationally at ALA 2008.

This event is sponsored by DEMCO, Inc.

Today's post is from Cindy Batman at the University of North Texas:

The program schedule is now available on the website for the TLA 2008 Annual Conference in Dallas so that you can see the program, preregister and sign-up for volunteer hours online. One of the services available through TLA Annual Conference is the Placement Center which coordinates interview appointments between employers and job seekers.

In order to use the Placement Center beginning April 1, the job seeker must be preregistered for the conference, and a representative from the employer must be preregistered for the conference. Once they are preregistered, they may start corresponding and the employers can start to view the job seeker information.

For those folks registering for conference onsite, they will need to come to the Placement Center at the Convention Center and register in order to use the Placement Center services either locally or via the internet. The employers’ postings may be viewed now on the TXLA.ORG web site under JOBLINE and View Listings.

The Placement Center is also hosting the following Resume Workshops where job seekers will receive advice on resume writing, common mistakes in resumes, and suggestions on ways to stand out from the crowd. These workshop presentations will be made by experienced library directors who will be available after their presentations to critique your resume.

Tuesday, April 15th from 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
(Presenter TBA)

Wednesday, April 16th from 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.
Cindy Scroggins, Director of the Baylor Health Sciences Library

Thursday, April 17th from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Marcia Trent, Interim Assistant Director of the Dallas Public Library

The Placement Center is being co-chaired by Jeff Levy, UNT Reference Librarian, and Cindy Batman, UNT Dallas Campus Librarian, call or email if you have any questions
•Cindy Batman cbatman@unt.edu
•Jeffrey Levy jeffrey.levy@unt.edu
•Leora Kemp lkemp@unt.edu

If you would like to volunteer in the Placement Center please fill out the volunteer form.

Today's post is from Leora Kemp, a librarian at the UNT Dallas Campus:

The International Museum of Cultures is a unique museum focusing upon contemporary peoples and challenges of currently existing communities in remote locations of the world.

International Museum of Cultures
7500 W. Camp Wisdom
Dallas, TX
Ph: 972.708.7406
Fax: 972.708.7341
Map

Hours:
Monday-Friday:10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday:1:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday:Closed

The Quick-Read-Guide to TLA 2008 Exhibitors offers TLA members an opportunity to read about each participating TLA 2008 exhibitor to prepare for visiting the exhibit hall during the TLA 2008 Conference in Dallas. Each company name is linked to their profile page so you can learn more about the company and contact the representative directly. Be sure to check back each month as more exhibitors will be featured in the February and March issues. A final list by booth order will be available in early April. A print version will be available at the TLA 2008 Conference.

(Written by Cindy Boyle at TLA)

I was going to hold off on this post until April but I realized that a lot of people are in the process of making plans and part of those plans include transportation.

(Picture provided by Lilly Ramin, UNT)

You have several choices for getting to the convention center:

Shuttles
If you are in a conference hotel there will be shuttle buses running throughout the day.
Tuesday, April 15 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Wednesday, April 16 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Thursday, April 17 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Friday, April 18 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

DART
If you live in the area and you are close enough to the DART light rail you might consider taking the red or blue line to the Convention Center. It is the stop after Union Station if you come down from the north and the stop after Cedars if you come up from the south. The cost for a day pass is $3.

Driving
If you want to drive in you can park at the convention center for $8 per entry. You can enter the convention center from Griffin. The lots around the convention center are privately owned and usually charge more than $8.

Leora heard back from the International Museum of Cultures we featured on Wednesday the 13th. You might be interested in contacting them and arranging a tour for your group:

"Thank you so much. This is wonderful. We are closed on Sat. and Sun. except for tour groups. We would be delighted to offer a special tour for librarians at a discounted cost."

Mary Fae Kamm
International Museum of Cultures
(972) 708-7406

Join your fellow runners for a marvelous time at Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake. Anyone registered for the conference is welcome to participate in the Hetherington Fun Run/Walk on Thursday morning, April 17th. The entrance fee is $18 and a shuttle bus will get you from the conference center to White Rock Lake.

Not a runner? Volunteer! Volunteers will hand out juice, help set-up, and encourage the runners. Please contact David Rathvon for more information.

This event is sponsored by ProQuest.

The conference committees have decided to celebrate viva la difference in reading by eschewing the same old One Book/One (fill in the blank) this year. Instead, celebrate your privilege of choice by reading whatever you want. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone came to this annual conference with a great, unique, and different book to talk about? Let’s aim for that!

A good place to start in creating your 2008 book list is this year’s conference authors:

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (Peter and the Starcatchers)
Tomie dePaola (My First Passover)
Kevin O’Malley (Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates)
Denise Fleming (The Cow Who Clucked)
Rosemary Wells (The Gulps Go Green)
John Erickson (Hank the Cowdog)
Jenna Bush (Ana’s Story)
Elizabeth Noble (Alphabet Weekends)
Deborah Crombie (Dreaming of the Bones)
Cornelia Read (The Crazy School)
Kathy Patrick (Pulpwood Queens’ Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life)
Gail Giles (What Happened to Cass McBride)
Maureen Johnson (Girl at Sea)
Susan Vaught (Trigger)
Will Weaver (Full Service)
Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) (2007 Michael L. Printz award winner)
Rod Espinosa (Neotopia) (TTR.08 artist)

Check out the program to see who else we have lined up.

(Written by Annie at Parr Library in Plano)

Today's post is from Joyce, a librarian at Haggard Library in Plano:

When you visit the $10 million building, Latino Cultural Center, designed by Mexican architect, Ricardo Legoretta, bring a camera for bright colors, purple, orange and terra cotta, surround visitors in the contemporary building.

Latino Cultural Center
2600 Live Oak
214-670-3320

Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

After your days of meetings and programs stop by the free Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival to unwind. This annual event is AMAZING. They have over 500 artists, performers, dancers, musicians, and food vendors lining the streets of Ft. Worth.

Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival
Thursday, April 17, 2008: 10:00a.m. - 10:00p.m.
Friday, April 18, 2008: 10:00a.m. - 11:00p.m.
Saturday, April 19, 2008: 10:00a.m. - 11:00p.m.
Sunday, April 20, 2008: 10:00a.m. - 8:00p.m

Concerts
April 17, 7:30 p.m.: Wayman Tisdale, Joe McBride
April 18, 7:30 p.m.: The Wailers, Cowboy Mouth, Terri Hendrix, Ruthie Foster
April 19, 7:30 p.m.: Son Volt, Dr. John, Quebe Sisters Band
April 20, 5 p.m.: Brave Combo, Grupo Fantasma

From the TLA Conference Overview page:

New for 2008, in an effort to help the environment and eliminate the problem of never having enough handouts available, the TLA staff will no longer prepare or ship paper handouts for conference sessions. Program speakers have been encouraged to prepare electronic handouts and submit them to the TLA Office for posting on the TLA website. An index of the 2008 handouts will be found at www.txla.org/conference/handouts.html beginning April 1, 2008. Additional handouts will be added as they are received. Attendees will be able to download the program/session handouts before or during the conference if they want to have them on hand during the presentations. Printers will be available in the Internet Room if downloading to a personal computer is not an option.

After registering, step into the TLA store. The committee has found some fun objects for you including:
Conference mug-white with the blue conference logo on the front
New scarves and neckties - very colorful with the names of writers on them
Small radio with the conference logo

If you're planning to get books signed at conference there are a few things you should know about the Authors Area:

*Each person can have five books signed per author.

*Some authors will sign name only and others will personalize. It depends a lot on time.

*There will be a handout at the Information Booth, giving the times the authors are signing. Also, there will be a big sign at the Authors Area.

*Authors are scheduled for up to 2 hours to sign. The schedule is very tight and the authors will not be able to sign beyond their time limit.

*For popular authors, people get in line hours before the author is scheduled. This is true for authors like Tomie De Paola, Rosemary Wells, Kevin Henkes-the Caldecott winner, Lynne Rae Perkins-the Newbery winner, and the Bluebonnet winner-Lucy Nolan Marshall.

The Authors Area is sponsored by Librarian's Yellow Pages.

Today's post is from Jeanette Larson of Larson Library Consulting:

Once again, ladies and gentleman, you are invited to take a chance on art and help Texas libraries at the same time. Our fabulous Texas-born author and illustrator Diane Stanley has donated an original piece of art from the book, Charles Dickens - The Man Who Had Great Expectations. The 13 in. by 12 in. original full color gouache illustration features a Christmas holiday scene. This would look great in any library or home. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the upcoming TLA conference or by mail (must be received by the TLA office by March 31). The drawing will be held at the conference in Dallas and you could be the lucky winner. But even if you don't win, Texas libraries that suffer disasters will thanks to the generosity of Diane Stanley and all of you who participate in the raffle. Go to www.txla.org/html/wells/gallery.html to see the beautiful piece of art and get additional details.

Visit www.txla.org/groups/committees/relief/index.html#activities to learn more about the Disaster Relief Fund and the libraries that have been helped by the fund (including many following Hurricane Rita). You don't have to be present to win (although we do love to hear you scream with delight) so sell tickets to your friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Please take a chance on art.