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.

Today's post is from Laura Jewell, a YA librarian at Davis Library in Plano:

Friday morning, April 18th, join Gene Luen Yang, creator of American Born Chinese; Tuan Nguyen of Tandem Publishing Group; and Laura Jewell, a Texas teen librarian for a discussion of graphic novels for young adults. Learn why graphic novels are all the rage with your teens and how to tap into that energy. The panel will discuss graphic novel trends, selection aids, fresh program ideas, dealing with challenges, reaching your audience, and why you should love graphic novels as much as your teens do.

All the Rage: YA Graphic Novels
Friday, April 18
10-11:20am

A couple of years ago, I trekked over to Tyler for a viewing of video presentation by Andrew Sanderbeck. My expectations? I thought it was time for a little road trip and this was an opportunity to have one with a bonus of something interesting to see and hear.

Surprise! The little bonus, not the road trip, became the main feature of the day, and beyond. I went back to my library energized and fired up. Customer service was his theme and it was presented in a fresh new way that made me eager for librarianship once more.

And now I have (along with you) the opportunity to hear Andrew Sanderbeck in person and live! Check your conference program for Thursday at 10:00 AM. Come and hear Andrew talk about Emotional Customer Service. I won't miss it. Hope you won't either.

Today's post is from Jennifer LaBoon, Coordinator - Library Technology for FWISD Library Media Services:

The 2008 TLA Conference Program Committee is excited to be sponsoring two sessions by Dr. Joyce Valenza, library information specialist at Springfield Township High School in Pennsylvania. Dr. Valenza spoke to standing room only crowds at the AASL conference in Reno last fall. Joyce will present "Web 2.0 Meets Information Fluency: Designing Projects for 21st Century Learners" on Wednesday morning at 10:15 and "Getting Them Where They Live: Designing Virtual Library Sites for 21st Century Learners" on Thursday afternoon at 2:15. Both sessions would be appropriate for those who serve millennials, and are not just for school librarians.

If you are already a Library 2.0 guru, you know this is not to be missed. If you aren't, all the more important reason to attend one of her sessions!

The awe-inspiring Springfield Township High School Library's virtual website can be viewed at http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/
Joyce's Neverending Search Blog can be read at http://schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334.html

See you in Dallas!

Today's post is from Cheryl Smith, Genealogy Librarian at Haggard Library in Plano:

What materials do you buy for your genealogy collection?
What materials should be bought for any genealogy collection?
How do you decide what to buy and what to pass on?
Where do you acquire these materials?
What databases should you subscribe to and what links should you know about?
How do you begin?

(Photo courtesy of jmark at SRX)

Shirley Apley, Fort Worth Public Library Senior Librarian; Dreanna Belden, University of North Texas Libraries; and Cheryl Smith, Plano Public Library system will discuss how to plan for acquiring genealogy materials; key genealogy reference materials will be suggested to purchase or add to your collection, and genealogical databases and Internet links that you need to know will be discussed. We hope to fill your head with many ideas to take back to your library, as we want to make sure you know where to begin and where to go for help if you need it. We are excited to bring you this program so feel free to come join us at TLA!

Collecting the Best of the Past: Genealogy Reference
Wednesday, April 16 10:15-11:50 am

Today's post is from Dreanna Belden at UNT:

That’s all I have to say about Dr. Stephen Klineberg, a demographer who has been conducting research and collecting data in the Houston area for over 26 years. I saw him as a keynote speaker at the Texas Association of Museums conference a few years ago, and I never forgot how tremendously effective he was. Imagine 300 people chowing down on lunch, preparing to hear a speech on demographic trends. Sounds like a recipe for a nap, right? This Harvard educated sociologist knows his stuff, and can relate it in a way that is entirely compelling, fascinating, and engaging. Plan on attending this session, “The Changing Face of Texas: Tracking Economic and Demographic Tranformations,” on Wednesday afternoon from 2:00–3:50pm in D162/164. I guarantee that this is not a session you want to miss.

Today's post is from Dreanna Belden at UNT:

Thursday, April 17 is a great day for the TLA conference, because you will not have not just one, not just two, but three great opportunities to hear the ever-popular, nationally renowned Roy Tennant. Explore a no-holds-barred look at the “Future of Catalogs,” with Roy at 10:00–11:50am in rooms D221/225/226. The “Future of Catalogs” was selected by Steve Brown as a President’s Program. And for those who are having trouble keeping up with technology, plan on attending “Riding Shotgun Down the Avalanche: Strategies for Keeping Current,” from 2:00–3:50pm, in rooms D170/172. And last but not least, Roy will dishing it out in General Session II with Stephen Abram, Joe Janes, and Karen Schneider on “Transforming Libraries.”

You will want to be there when these visionary library pundits bring it on!

From Susi Grissom, Travis Vanguard and Academy Librarian at Dallas ISD:

If you haven't checked out the YA author interviews on the YART public blog, click the YART BLOG link under TLA PUBLIC BLOGS on the right-hand frame on this page. You can read the responses of YART panelists Brent Hartinger, Robert Lipsyte, Will Weaver, Jim Murphy, Susan Vaught, Cinda Williams Chima, and Jacqueline Kolosov -- with the promise of more to come over the next few days. Feel free to comment to a posting, if you'd like. Enjoy -- and plan to hear each author in person next week in Dallas!

Today's post is from Dale McNeil, Director of Community Library Services Department at Queens Library (formerly of Dallas Public Library):

Many public libraries in Texas are masters at serving customers who speak English and customers who speak Spanish. And may are experienced professionals at serving customers who speak other languages as well. Serving these communities is nothing new (I remember a large Japanese-speaking community when I worked for Houston Public Library many years ago).

But there are challlanges and it's useful to talk about them with colleagues.

I'll review just a little data about languages in Texas, talk a little about the Queens Library, and provide some resources. Fifty minutes isn't long, so I'll start with questions from the audience. I do have a presentation, but it will just be available on the TLA website after the conference.

Be sure to either attend or look at the handout for "Serving Diverse Populations: Building an International Collection" which provides contact information for publishers/distributors of international language materials.

Just briefly, to serve populations speaking several languages:
1) Build political/stakeholder support.
2) Know the community: who's in your service area? what languages do they read? (reading knowledge and speaking knowledge are not the same)
3) Develop a plan and include priorities: which populations can your library serve? what services will be provided (books? DVDs? magazines? programs? classes?)
4) Partner with community agencies/media
5) Get the word out
6) Continually assess success

All during this process, you'll want to learn as much as you can about the customs, history, languages, education, and so on of the particular community you're serving. For example, people who read Chinese may be from mainland China, from Hong Kong, from Taiwan, or from many other places. The *spoken* languages of Chinese readers may be very different. Reasons for immigration may be very different. As librarians or library workers, we are mostly very curious and very polite; those are the two main qualities needed to interact successfully with people from other cultures. We're often not quite as good at *asking* questions as we are at answering them, but that's easy enough to learn.

I hope you have a great time at the TLA conference in Dallas, a city that was home to me for 10 wonderful years. And if you're able to come to my session, I hope you'll be inspired a bit, have a laugh or two, and learn a little something.

Serving Multi-Lingual Populations
Wednesday, 11:00 to 11:50am

This program caught my eye. You should put it on your agenda.

GeekBrief.TV: Podcasting about Technology
Net Fair I
Wednesday, April 16
2:00 – 2:50 pm

Hear first hand from Cali Lewis how to start podcasting. Learn from her experiences and gather valuable tips for creating a successful podcast. Also learn about various technology promotion endeavors and how you might adapt them to promote library services.

Cali Lewis is the host and co-producer of GeekBrief.TV, a video podcast covering the latest gadgets and tech news. She co-hosted Call for Help with Leo Laporte, a TV show in Canada and Australia for three months, and appears regularly on MSNBC, and other tech related shows.

GeekBrief.TV appeals to hard core geeks, but has found a home with casual consumers and strives to put an "everyone's welcome" face on technology.

She and her husband and producer, Neal, are about to embark on a year long road trip, covering 50 states in 50 weeks. They're going to be producing three different shows while on the road, and will be pushing the boundaries of technology.