Our Vermont Library Conference web site was just posted, thanks to Jessica Allard and Larraby Fellows…Hurrah! Check it out:
http://www.vermontlibraryconference.org
We will be adding to the site regularly so come often and invite your friends and co-workers to also check it out.
Send any additions or corrections to Jessica Allard, Larraby Fellows or me.
Barbara Doyle-Wilch
Over the past few years the planning and preparation that makes the Vermont Library Conference a major continuing education opportunity for library staffs across the state have been carried out by relatively small teams of VLA and VSLA members whose hard work has compensated for there never quite being enough hands available for the amount of work involved in this project. In the past couple of years it has been extremely difficult for the VLA board to fill leadership and other positions key to mounting the Conference.Read more
Looking for a challenge? Longing for justification for all the reading you do? Here’s your solution: join the Rapid Reviews team now!
Picture yourself at the Vermont Library Conference this May, sitting in front, promoting the best reading around for an all librarian audience… We’re assembling a new team this year, and you could be part of it. Traditionally, the books for Rapid Reviews are adult fiction and nonfiction appearing in the current year—so May 2008 to May 2009. No best sellers allowed—since libraries know all about those titles.
If you have a special interest (new fiction, poetry, religion, etc.), please indicate that as well. Nominees should be able to meet twice between now and April 15, at a place and time to be determined based on the reviewers. If everything works for you except the meetings—go ahead and apply anyway.
This offer is open to anyone who loves to read—whether you’re a library director, a book store employee, college staff, whatever. Know someone on staff who’s a natural at promoting books? Ask them to apply, please! Send a letter of interest, a brief resume, and a written booktalk if you’re interested. The booktalk given orally should last no longer than two minutes. This is a one year position.
Amy
Amy Howlett
VT Department of Libraries
1 Hospital Court
Bellows Falls, VT 05101
(802) 463-0142
amy.howlett@mail.dol.state.vt.us
Check out the call for volunteers for the Vermont Library Conference that includes details about a range of ways to get involved, each with differing levels of commitment.Â
Please consider volunteering since the support of many VLA members is a critical component of mounting our conference. By volunteering you make an important contribution to a major in-state continuing education opportunity for people who work in and provide support to Vermont libraries. Your work also creates a great opportunity to connect with other library staff, build your professional network, and learn about what’s happening at the state and regional level. If you’ve not been involved with VLA at the committee, planning or leadership level, participating in the planning and implementation of the Vermont Library Conference is a great way to start. Just do it!
Judah Hamer
Volunteers are needed to support work on the May, 2009 Vermont Library Conference. Conference proposals are coming in, and we are lining up some great speakers and exciting events for May 12 & 13, 2009. Our keynote, Marshall Keys, is ecstatic to speak to the librarians of
Director of Cultural Activities
802-352-9315
802-238-7608 cell
The 2009 Vermont Library Conference Needs Your Help!
Volunteers are needed to support work on the May, 2009 Vermont Library Conference. Conference proposals are coming in, and we are lining up some great speakers and exciting events for May 12 & 13, 2009. Our keynote, Marshall Keys, is ecstatic to speak to the librarians of Vermont about library advocacy – a topic more important now than ever. It is our hope that the Vermont Library Conference is a meaningful, worthwhile, professional experience for all of Vermont’s librarians, library staff, boards, school boards, teachers, and administrators. We hope to broaden our scope and invite all the people who make our jobs a reality.
However, in order to put on a fantastic conference, we need your help. We are operating with a much smaller conference planning committee than in years past, and have identified areas in which we need your support. If you are interested in any of the jobs listed below, please contact me as soon as possible. You will be given all the information you need to fill these jobs – please don’t feel like you can’t volunteer for lack of experience. We will make sure you have all the support you need to do the job.
“Isn’t the Internet going to put public libraries out of business?â€
“Why do we need school libraries when everything is online?â€
“Why do we need a campus library when students can do their research on the Internet?†(Library Advocate’s Handbook, ALA).
Library advocates must adapt to a changing and not always sympathetic political and social environment. We need to be able to explain the role of libraries in the 21st century in order to maintain funding, to be a voice for policy issues ranging from intellectual property to intellectual freedom and protection of privacy.
It is our hope that the 2009 Conference will offer programs that give us the tools and knowledge to explain the importance of libraries to our communities, legislators and funders. We would like to build our own strength as advocates, and also help others – boards, friends, principals, administrators, and community members – to become strong advocates for libraries.
The VLA Annual Meeting took place on May 13, 2008 at the Vermont Library Conference in Burlington. The results of the election are:
Treasurer (2 years) – Wynne Browne
NELA Representative (2 years) Kip Roberson
The approved minutes of the May 2007 Annual Meeting and the Year End Budget Report 2007 have been posted (under Publications – Meeting minutes). The ballot for the Proposed Constitution and Bylaws changes will go out next week. Those members with email addresses on file will receive their ballot electronically. All other members will be sent a paper ballot. The deadline to vote is June 10th. VLA sections will be posting their annual reports soon if they have not done so already. The Government Relations Committee Report and the Intellectual Freedom Committee Report have already posted theirs.