Libraries Linking Centuries
The TLA 1999 Annual Conference
Preconferences • Speakers • Programs • Events • Authors • Exhibits
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Libraries Linking Centuries
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On the eve of a new century, the Texas Library Association is poised to look back on a century of progress since the endeavor began in 1902. The first TLA conference, held June 9, 1902, convened 15 charter members and 22 other attendees in Austin. Judge C.W. Raines led off the program of seven presentations with a "Paper on the History of Library Legislation." The program concluded with a closing address by Dr. A.C. Ellis, the university librarian of the University of Texas, on the promising topic of "Library Possibilities in Texas." The official report in the University Record (July 1902) remarked that "the day's pleasures were brought to a close by an informal reception in the University library, where music and a display of coins and medals, rare editions, pictures, posters, etc., added to the enjoyment of the occasion."
What a contrast to the modern TLA conference. The last Texas Library Association Annual Conference in this century will attract over 8,000 librarians to Dallas, one of only three cities in Texas large enough to accommodate the meeting. Those legions of librarians and library supporters will participate in preconferences, attend over 200 programs, browse over 700 exhibitor booths, enjoy special events and social gatherings, and meet dozens of published authors of books for children and adults. And the programs will reflect how the nature of the work has changed, with topics like helping students find electronic information, creating digital imaging projects, serving historically underserved clienteles, delivering distance-education projects, and managing the complex and dynamic organizations that libraries have become at close of century.
The more things change, as they say, the more they stay the same, and the mission of the Texas Library Association remains in 1999 as it was envisioned in 1902"to promote library service in Texas." One way or another, every one of the hundreds of activities and events, each of the thousands of interactions that will occur at the Annual Conference in Dallas, represents an attempt to further that mission.
The considerable continuing education opportunities represented by the TLA Annual Conference will begin on Tuesday, April 20, with a series of preconferences designed to address in-depth topics related to every type and phase of library service. Among the topics to be covered in preconferences are the role of storytelling in academic achievement, basic legal research techniques, an advanced course in implementing Z39.50, where to find government information online to serve the needs of K-12 students, information literacy and the Internet, and how to plan successful author programs for children and adults.
at this year's annual conference promise to entertain, fascinate, and challenge our ideas about what libraries and librarians can be now and in the future. The conference will open on Wednesday, April 21, with a morning general session featuring Margaret Wheatley, who will offer her own unique and refreshing view of organizational dynamics. Ms. Wheatley's theories are a weave of poetry, psychology, anthropology, and history. Thursday will return to the traditional afternoon general session featuring Michio Kaku, renowned physicist and the author of the bestselling Future Visions, who will describe the science fact of how technology will change life in the 21st century. Also at the Thursday general session, First Lady Laura Bush has been invited to attend to once again recognize the recipients of the third annual Texas Book Festival Awards. Other featured speakers include romance authors Francis Ray and Lorraine Heath at the Black Caucus Breakfast; bestselling novelists Elizabeth Berg and Jo-Ann Mapson at the Friends and Trustees Luncheon; and Texas singer/songwriter Tish Hinojosa who will present a blend of story and song at the closing luncheon.
New for this year's conference will be a gala Evening with the Authors dinner where TLA members can meet authors such as novelist Rudolfo Anaya, mystery writers William Bernhardt and Jim Magnuson, and children's authors Pat Mora, Javaka Steptoe, and Tomie dePaola, and hear them read from their works. An author will be seated at each table at this exciting event to be held at the newly renovated downtown headquarters of the Dallas Public Library.
With over 200 programs, conference attendees will once again have to make hard
decisions about which sessions to attend. Speakers at this year's programs feature
the best and the brightest in library work from Texas and the nation. Both candidates
for ALA President will be on hand to present programsJim Schmidt of San Jose
State University, will join Texas State Librarian Robert Martin for a program
on the future of library education (Wednesday, April 21, 2-3:50 p.m.); and Nancy
Kranich of New York University will explore the topic of digital libraries (Thursday,
April 22, 9-9:50 a.m.). ALA President Ann Symons will present "Celebrating
the Freedom to Read! Learn! Connect! @ the Library" on (Thursday, April
22, 2-3:20 p.m.) and REFORMA President and Colorado State University Librarian
Camila Alire will discuss services to Latinos (Wednesday, April 21,
10-11:50 a.m.).
Other programs offer something for every library interest, including a program
on library advocacy by New York State Librarian Janet Welch, Paul Crumlish,
director of the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Library, and Peter Pearson,
executive director of the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library (Friday, April
23, 10-11:50 p.m.); a discussion of how to link children to reading through
the eye of noted children's book illustrators Carmen Lomas Garza and Susan Guevara
(Wednesday, April 21, 2-3:50 p.m.); and tips on how to chart your career path
in libraries by ALA Executive Director and former public library director William
Gordon (Wednesday, April 21,
4-4:50 p.m.).
In addition to the standard program tracks that TLA members expect at the Annual Conference, new tracks have been added this year for the areas of distance education and preservation and archives. Examples of the former include a number of programs describing the joint University of North Texas/Texas Woman's University distance masters program, such as "Partnerships in Distance Education" featuring faculty from UNT and TWU (Tuesday, April 20, 3-4:50 p.m.), and "Collaborating to Create a Distance Learning Master's Degree" with Susan Hardwick of Southwest Texas State University (Friday, April 23, 10-10:50 p.m.). The many preservation and archives programs include "A Scrapbook Preservation Clinic" (Wednesday, April 21, 2-3:50 p.m.), and a session on disaster planning with Tom Clareson of AMIGOS (Friday, April 23, 10-10:50 a.m.).
The many attendees for whom meeting their favorite children's and adult authors is the high point of their conference will not be disappointed. This year's authors will include Newbery winners Katherine Paterson, Jean Craighead George, and Karen Cushman; Caldecott winner Paul Zelinsky; and Han Nolan, whose Dancing on the Edge won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Other popular children's authors will include Tomie dePaola, Pat Mora, Peg Kehret, Diane Stanley, Patricia Reilly Giff, and Chris Crutcher. Adult authors to be attending and presenting at this year's conference include Rudolfo Anaya, creator of several critically-acclaimed novels including the modern classic, Bless Me, Ultima; mystery writers John Bernhardt and William Magnuson; and romance writers Lorraine Heath and Francis Ray, Texas Panhandle crime writer D. R. Meredith, and novelists Elizabeth Berg and Jo-Ann Mapson. And this year's author ranks will also be supplemented by such notable book illustrators as Raul Colón, Carmen Lomas Garza, Susan Guevara, and Chris Soentpiet.
As satisfying as the programs promise to be, life is not all work, and neither is the TLA Annual Conference. This year's conference will offer plenty of opportunity to unwind in Big D, including special conference events, recreational activities, and just plain fun stuff. Must-attend social events will include the Welcome Party at the world-class Museum of African-American Life and Culture, the President's All-Conference Social at Union Station, Dallas's magnificently restored downtown train station, and the third annual Doo-Wop Sock Hop. Enjoy the return of popular annual events such as TPALS Golf Tournament, the Hetherington Fun Run/Walk, and the walking and bus tours of downtown architecture.
Attendees who would like to simply unwind will find plenty of places to enjoy some much-deserved rest and relaxation. The host city of Dallas boasts many fine restaurants, nightspots, live music venues, and attractions from West End to Downtown to Deep Ellum. If your taste runs more to art and history, Dallas offers a rich variety of destinations, including world class museums, historical sites, and other cultural sites.
In 1989 at Corpus Christi several dedicated volunteers of the Texas Library Association agreed to attempt to make standing in line for the autograph of a famous writer less of a headache. The volunteers quickly learned an assertive but tactful personality was needed and that librarians didn't think standing in line for hours was fun.
Since that year most autograph seekers have learned all the "rules and regulations" and they help keep this part of the exhibits hall a lively place. We take our autographing seriously in Texas. The volunteers try to keep the author's area a cheerful place and it works most of the time. The publishers really appreciate all the work the volunteers do!
The spacious exhibits hall in Dallas will be welcome. There will be at least 12 lines for authors. Figuring out a way to accommodate pre-lineup lines for Tomie de Paola, Katherine Paterson and many others are underway. Every year new volunteers learn how to organize the author's area and some of them come back to help again!
Clara Mounce, Jerilynn Williams, Ina Miller and Cecelia Alexander have been familiar faces for years. This year in Dallas we will introduce you to Sandy Sharps, Cindy Bickhaus and Caroline Kienzle. Watch for us!
Other noted authors who have expressed intentions to autograph include Joan Lowery Nixon, Kathi Appelt, Sherry Garland, Elaine Scott, Pat Mora, Paul Zelinsky, Jean Craighead George, Jack Gantos, James Magnuson, Karen Cushman, John Erickson and Hank the Cowdog, Patricia Reilly Giff, and others to come.
Clara Mounce, director of the Bryan Public Library, has organized the Author's Area at the TLA Annual Conference for several years.
The sophisticated and advanced nature of modern librarianship is nowhere more evident than in the Exhibit Hall. The over 700 booths that comprise the halls feature products and services that reveal the breadth and depth of activities occurring in libraries at the end of the century. The rich range of book publishers present show that print-based collections and services will not soon disappear. But the changing nature of libraries is mirrored by the fact that TLA has become one of the foremost information technology shows in the region and nation. Attendees will find the exhibit hall brimming with materials in digital formats, Internet services, library automation vendors, telecommunications vendors, and online information technologies. Other familiar products in the exhibit hall will include furniture, storytelling services, management consulting services, security systems, and many others. A map of the exhibit hall and list of exhibitors can be found starting on page 12.
Exhibitors made their first appearance at TLA's conference in 1922. With the participation of six industry groups, the conference added a new and vital component in TLA's effort to provide Texas librarians and libraries with the best possible materials and resources. Beginning in that year, the TLA membership recognized the invaluable contribution of exhibitors to the annual conference and, more broadly, to professional library work. On October 27, 1922, the membership issued a formal resolution in appreciation of the vendors and their "interesting exhibits."
Today, TLA's membership remains equally aware of the
important role exhibitors play in equipping libraries with both proven and cutting-edge
resources. The librarians have asked for uncontested time in the exhibits, and
Conference Planners are providing a time to spotlight the Exhibits on Day One
of the 1999 Conference. Although our longstanding goal to offer Texas libraries
the most diverse and high quality products and services has not changed since
1922, our numbers have changed somewhat over the years. With
an average 300% growth every twenty years, TLA's current exhibitor number is
about 430, with an estimated count of 530 expected 2002. Likewise, attendance
figures for annual conference have grown approximately at the same rate over
the last twenty years. Given this rate of growth, TLA 2000 should far exceed
these numbers!
Plan now to join your colleagues in Dallas for what promises to be an unparalleled
opportunity to learn, to network, and to prepare yourself for the future
of library service in the 21st Century.
As TLA President JoAnne Moore has expressed it:
One of the most important drawing cards for TLA's Annual Conference is the Exhibit Hall with its bounty of library books, media, materials, software, hardware, products, supplies, equipment, services, furniture and posters, and puppets and . . . Librarians have an opportunity to conduct business, to inquire, to investigate, to compare and contrast the products they are considering. They can see the latest, the best, and the brightest. They can see demonstrations and displays. This annual event provides them with 700 library related businesses in one place at one time. When faced with tough choices of where to be at conference, the Exhibit Hall is the place of choice.
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