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Thanks for Attending the 2009 PLA Spring Symposium! |
PLA would like to thank this year's sponsors:
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The Spring Symposium combines PLA’s highly-regarded educational programming with the opportunity to meet and mingle with your colleagues in a more intimate setting than the PLA National Conference. The Spring Symposium offers attendees the opportunity to attend one of seven day-and-a-half-long workshops. This allows for in-depth exploration on a topic relevant to public libraries, librarians, and staff members.
Special Events
Workshop Descriptions
Special Events
PLA thanks our special guests for helping to make Spring Symposium a success!
Opening General Session featuring Tom Chapin
Thursday, April 2
Tom Chapin
PLA thanks Bookpage for their support of the Opening General Session and Reception.
Musician Tom Chapin will headline the 2009 Spring Symposium Opening General Session. Tom has entertained, amused, and enlightened audiences of all ages with original songs in an array of musical styles. Tom's remarkable musicianship, great songwriting, and personal warmth shine through whether he’s performing in a concert hall, at an outdoor festival, in a school, in front of a symphony orchestra, or in an intimate coffeehouse. Following the program, enjoy refreshments and mingle with colleagues at a reception. This event is free for all attendees.
Opening General Session sponsored by Bookpage.
Author Luncheon
Friday, April 3
Read an account of the author luncheon at PLABlog
Ann Patchett
PLA thanks HarperCollins for their support of the Author Luncheon.
Ann Patchett is the author of five novels. In 1990, she won a residential fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. It was named a New York Times Notable Book for 1992. Her second novel, Taft, was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. The Magician's Assistant, her third book, earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Her next novel, Bel Canto, won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named the Book Sense Book of the Year and sold more than a million copies in the United States. In 2004, she published Truth & Beauty, a memoir of her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy. It was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly.
She has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times magazine, Harper's, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Gourmet, and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. You can read more about Ann at www.annpatchett.com.
Thanks to the Nashvile Public Library for welcoming attendees for tours of their branches!
Workshop Descriptions
Workshop 1
Everyday Library Ethics: How the Right Thing is the Better Thing for Your Library and Community
No Handouts available
Presenter: Pat Wagner, Management Consultant, Denver, Colorado
Library ethics is how you make and execute decisions, and treat people – every day. Learn how ethics impacts customer service and succession planning as well as finances, community outreach and your credibility with political and economic decision-makers. Fair-minded choices can build trust, respect and support for your library.
Workshop 2
Service Responses: Selecting and Implementing the Right Mix for Your Library
Service Responses handout (PDF, 1 Mb)
Presenters: Sandra Nelson, Consultant, Nashville, Tennessee; June Garcia, Consultant, Denver, Colorado
Can your library provide all of the services your residents want? Of course not! Learn how to use the PLA Service Responses in Strategic Planning for Results to identify activities, build responsive collections, and create dynamic spaces that will enable you to provide the quality services your customers need.
Workshop 3
Silk Purses and Sow’s Ears? Assessing the Quality of Public Library Statistics and Making the Most of Them
Silk Purses Agenda handout (Word, 100 kb)
Silk Purses Activity-Based Cost Worksheet handout (Word, 50 kb)
Silk Purses Friday Presentation handout (Powerpoint, 8 Mb)
Silk Purses Saturday Presentation handout (Powerpoint, 6.5 Mb)
Presenters: Ray Lyons, Consultant, Cleveland, Ohio; Joe Matthews, Coordinator, Executive MLIS Program, San Jose State University-SLIS, California; Larry Nash White, MLS Program Director, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina
Public library staff and managers consistently complain that library statistics are flawed. We spend a lot of time and effort collecting and reporting all sorts of numbers to all sorts of places. Why do we count what? Where does it go? Is any of it really valuable in decision making? Learn about the metrics being used and how you can use them correctly from the experts
Workshop 4
Today’s Library: From the Inside Out
Today's Library From the Inside Out handout (PDF, 3.2 Mb)
Today's Library Workbook (Word, 600 kb)
Presenters: Kim Bolan, Librarian/Consultant/Author, Indianapolis, Indiana; Tim Carl, Design Architect, Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson, Inc.; Marc Ciccarelli, Architect, Studio Techne, Cleveland, Ohio; Jane Dedering, Library Planner & Interior Designer, Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson, Inc.; Catherine Hakala-Ausperk, Deputy Director, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, Ohio
Librarians often ask themselves, “How can I keep up with the exciting changes going on in the library without money for a new building or a total makeover?” This session will tell you how! The panel will provide practical, how-to examples, ideas, and strategies that have transformed libraries across the country into vibrant centers of their communities. Attendees will learn planning and design lessons from a national consultant; “green” building tips from a successful architect; and “21st Century Customer” service practices that work!
Workshop 5
Libraries Connect in the 21st Century
Social Media and Your Public Library handout (Word, 40 kb)
PLA 2009 - Libraries Connect in the 21st Century blog
Presenters: Meg Canada, Web Services Librarian, Hennepin County Library, Minnesota; Leonard Souza, President, Acidblue, Ltd./Interactive Creative Director, Vision Airlines, Las Vegas, Nevada
Prepare yourself for an interactive presentation about innovative technologies, as well as how these technologies are removing social norms and building new societies. In an age where social networking supports communities, social media communicates messages, and text messages may just be the new email, libraries need a way to formulate a strategy to integrate and innovate. This fun session will educate you on today's gadgets, enable you to understand, plan, and implement social software, and give you an opportunity to ask questions and brainstorm some new technology-driven ideas for your library.
Workshop 6
Current Issues: A PLA/CPLA Workshop
No Handouts available
Please Note: Completion of this course can be used as credit toward the Certified Public Library Administrator (CPLA) program, but you do not need to be enrolled in the CPLA certification program to attend the Current Issues Workshop.
Presenters: James McPeak, Library Practitioner/Instructor, Kent State University-SLIS, and Motivational Speaker, Ohio; George Needham, Vice President, Member and Community Services, OCLC, Columbus, Ohio
This workshop will provide working librarians with the skills and knowledge needed to develop plans for based on a close integration of the library with the community -- to move from “That Library AND the Environment” to “The Library IN the Environment.” The course includes a variety of group exercises based on a case study about a medium-sized county library with multiple branches. Participants will apply what they have learned to their own institutions, identifying, describing, and addressing issues within their communities. Finally, the workshop will provide guidance on turning the message to build an environment-based vision for library service.
Complimentary on-site internet stations provided by Userful.