Thanks god it's over!

I loved working on the Central Oregon Regional Conference...but I'm also soooooo glad it's over! I didn't realize until last night just how much energy was going into that. I've been working on this since March, and yesterday it all came to fruition. And it went well. No, not just well, exceptional! I stayed up pretty late compiling the evaluations, and so far, good reviews. Of course there are a couple people who were very unhappy...but they were mad at me 'cause we had no chocolate or candy out and that there wasn't cold caffeine (soda) in the morning. For crying out loud! If that's the worst thing they can complain about...I'm happy! :) If you're interested you can see our brochure here: http://www.dpls.lib.or.us/files/2006CORLCregister.pdf and see the wonderful job Ann did in designing it. My committee worked very hard, and we produced something great.

Our keynote was Michelle Jeske, web manager from the Denver Public Library. If you haven't checked them out, they're doing some amazing things. Not only do they have talking books to download, but movies as well. http://www.denverlibrary.org/ She talked about your webpage as a branch library. The theme for our conference was "Not Your Grandmother's Library" and her talk was exactly that. Are we staying on top of what our patrons want, not just what we think they should want. We also had Nancy Tessman from the Salt Lake City Public Library, which won Library Journal's Library of the Year, 2006. she was damn amazing too! Made me want to move to Salt Lake...and anyone who knows me knows that is something! :) There were quite a few other amazing speakers, Michael Porter talking about social software, Salvador Avila with library services to Spanish speakers, Sharon Winters talking about marketing your collection (if you're ever in Vancouver BC, stop by any of the Richmond libraries, they are exemplary...they're one of the continents most well marketed/designed branches! Yea Canada!).

Anyway, it went well. And now it's over. Phew. I just have the DPL Board meeting here tomorrow which is causing me stress, and then I'll be stress-free...for about a week! :) I just hope it doesn't snow enough to make the Bella ride this Sunday miserable.