PLA Blog

I am thrilled to be blogging this year’s ALA. My name is Nanette Bulebosh and I direct a small public library in Kiel, Wisconsin (population 3,700). This is my first PLA blogging experience. 

I spent most of Friday at Webjunction’s Rural Libraries Sustainability Forum at the Embassy.  I am one of the lucky 185+ librarians from around the U.S. who won an all-expense paid trip to ALA 2007, compliments of Webjunction and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is no way I, or my small library, could afford to pay for this trip without Webjunction’s support. This is true of the four other Wisconsin librarians who joined me at yesterday’s forum. 

I have long been impressed with and inspired by the whole Webjunction concept. Their website is full of resources on a large variety of topics, including fundraising, library advocacy, marketing, and technology. I’ve gone to download curriculum materials when designing computer instruction courses for my patrons. I’ve gone to the discussion boards for advice on solving a particular problem. And sometimes I go to rant about someone or something (stress on the job, tight purse strings on the part of public officials, etc.) with folks who, I know, are in similar situations and will understand my frustrations. 

As was made clear when we all introduced ourselves at the forum, sometimes small-town librarians are working in very isolated situations. We are often the sole voice in our communities advocating for libraries in the wilderness of municipal politics and tightening belts.

You couldn’t listen to all the stories about the creative and resourceful ways librarians are surviving, and even thriving, in these tough budgetary times and not be inspired. They are making a genuine difference in their communities.  I am always so darn proud of my profession when I attend things like this.

I’m attaching some photos from the Webjunction forum, as well as from last evening’s premiere of The Hollywood Librarian. What a treat that was! What an absolutely wonderful film!  Director Ann Seidl spent years raising the funds and building support for this project; she is clearly passionate about this project, which features librarians working in a variety of situations - from prisons to school media centers - and juxtaposing them with the myriad of librarian images, both good and bad, in American film.

For me the most moving segments of the film were the interviews with librarians and patrons in Salinas, California, where a financial crisis temporarily closed down three community libraries.

I’ll have much to to say about this inspirational documentary, but for now I just wanted to share some of the images I’ve been able to gather so far.  

Tags: ALA2007, conferences, event, PLA Blog, WebJunction

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under PLA Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.