New Interest Group
ASCLA has a new Interest Group: Serving Those with Alzheimer’s & Related Dementias. The leader of this new group is Mary Beth Riedner. Please contact Mary Beth for more information (mbried@comcast.net).
Library Consultants Interest Group — Seattle Wrap-up
ASCLA and ALA members enjoyed Library Consultants Interest Group (LCIG) interactive events and a membership meeting during the recent Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Experienced consultants, new consultants, and those interested in becoming consultants, joined LCIG members at the first Library Consultants Networking Lunch on Saturday and at the Library Consultants Discussion Forum on Sunday.
Forty-one people attended the Library Consultants Networking Lunch in the Visions Room at the top of the Renaissance Seattle Hotel. Participants were treated to a spectacular view of the city, a great lunch, and active learning activities. Attendees received a penny at sign in. As the lunch began, everyone shared a Penny Story with tablemates. For this icebreaker, the date on each person’s penny was the key for describing significant events from that year. Nancy Bolt introduced the Penny Stories exercise. She explained that having people talk about the events from a random year could be useful for groups of colleagues who regularly work together as well as for groups getting to know each other. The next activity involved Elevator Speeches. Nancy Bolt, Jeannette Smithee, and Carson Block role-played airline passengers responding to the “what do you do” question. After their demonstrations, everyone in the room circulated and shared short introductions with several others. For the final activity, Carson Block described, used, and coached the audience in using Twitter. He described how presenters and attendees utilize Twitter for event promotion, for taking quick notes, for prompting presenters, for back-channel comments, etc. Attendees used the tag #asclalunch to post comments such as — #asclalunch #alamw13 Library Consultants Networking Lunch very energizing
The Library Consultants Discussion Forum focused on ethical issues confronted by library consultants in their work. This discussion built on the ASCLA Library Consultants Code of Ethics. Panelists Gary Pitkin, Nancy Bolt, and Liz Bishoff each presented a consulting situation where they encountered information where they needed to make a decision about whether and how to act on the information in an ethical manner. After each panelist presented the situation, the audience was invited to give reactions on how they would handle the situation. The panelist then described how the situation was actually resolved. The Forum provided lively discussion for twelve attendees.
The Discussion Forum immediately followed the LCIG Leadership and Member meeting where several guests joined the Leadership Team. Jeannette Smithee, LCIG Leader welcomed guests and invited them to participate in the Discussion Forum and to become involved in the Library Consultants Interest Group. The team discussed nominations for the 2013-2014 team, plans for programs at the Annual Conference, plans for using a new database to manage the Consultants Giving Back program offered at ALA, PLA, and possibly other conferences, plans for pursuing a preconference on facilitation skills in 2014, and needs for other continuing education for consultants. Members of the leadership team at the meeting included Jeannette Smithee – leader, Allen Kleiman – leader-elect, Carol Desch – past-leader, Nancy Bolt – member-at-large and Stephanie Gerding – member-at-large. Jean Porter -secretary, was not in attendance.