Why I Attend Small Conferences

A recent post on Inside Higher Ed by Kevin Brown sums up nicely the value of attending a small conference, like the annual PaLA Conference. Brown, an English professor at Lee University, weighs the pros and cons of attending large conferences vs small conference:

Large, national conferences are important for a number of reasons... However,
for the rest of us, smaller local conferences make more sense and are more
enjoyable. They help us to build smaller communities within the discipline with
peers who hold similar values and who want to see everyone involved improve.

Read the entire post here.

SAVE THE DATE! June 15, 2010

"Information Commons in the Wild: Lessons from the Field"

Where: DeNaples Campus Center, The University of Scranton, Scranton, PA

Keynote Speaker:
Scott Bennett, Library Space Planning Consultant, Yale University Librarian Emeritus, and one of the founders of Project Muse, will lead a session designed to promote active learning about the design of an information or learning commons. Conference participants will then be asked to work together on some key questions that Scott will pose about the design of information or learning commons, concluding with a reporting out session meant to share the wisdom of the group.

Panel:
Don Smith, Dean of the Library at the University of Louisiana at Monroe
Katherine Furlong, Associate Director for Access & Administrative Services at Lafayette College
Sally Kalin, Associate Dean for University Park Libraries at Penn State University
Anuradha Vedantham, Director of the Weigle Information Commons at the University of Pennsylvania

Watch the CRD Web site for further details and registration information: http://www.lehigh.edu/~inpla/CRD/
For more information, contact Bonnie Oldham. You can also find us on Facebook.

PaLA CRD: help newer librarians become leaders!

(Above: 2009 PALS Attendees)

The College and Research Division (CRD) of the Pennsylvania Library Association would like to sponsor two attendees to the PaLA Academy of Leadership Studies (PALS) to be held June 6-9, 2010 at the Radisson Penn Harris, Camp Hill, PA. We invite nominations and applications from academic librarians who have less than six years of experience and who have the potential to become the next generation of library leaders in the state of Pennsylvania. The CRD will pay for Academy registration for the two librarians chosen and will work closely with them as they continue to enhance their careers. Further information about the Leadership Academy can be found at:

http://www.palibraries.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=102

If you are interested in applying or in nominating someone to be sponsored by the CRD, please send the following by April 1, 2010 to Tina Hertel at tina.hertel@lehigh.edu:

• A letter of interest
• A letter of nomination from your supervisor
• Current resume of the nominee
• Statement indicating PaLA membership or intention to join at the end of the program

Nominees will be informed of the CRD's decision by April 16, 2010.

Please call or email me with any questions or concerns about the process.

Thank you.

Tina Hertel
College & Research Division