I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Mary Baykan, director of Maryland’s Washington County Free Library, executive director of the Western Maryland Public Libraries, and Library Journal‘s Librarian of the Year for 2007, present the keynote session for the symposium, which Mary graciously gave us permission to record and podcast for your listening pleasure.

After an entertaining introduction by PLA president and California State Librarian Susan Hildreth, she spoke about how she found out she was librarian of the year, her experiences as the originator of the feat of advocacy now known as the Maryland Poll which measured the importance of libraries to Maryland residents, fun with legislative lobbying, about how librarians choose “to fight the bull” everyday, and so much more. She was entertaining, engaging, and very, very funny, definitely worth a listen!

While there are some interesting tidbits about upcoming PLA developments in the opening remarks, if you want to skip straight to the keynote, Mary is introduced around 10mins29secs.

The Urban Libraries Council report that Mary mentions towards the end of her remarks, Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Local Economic Development, is available for free online (.pdf, requires Adobe Acrobat to view).

Many thanks to Susan Hildreth for the awesome PLA Blog plug at the very end, and for the recognition of the work of our peeps and volunteers as well as our contribution to what she calls “PLA 2.0.”

 PLA Blog: Mary Baykan, 2007 Spring Symposium keynote [48:09] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (888)