This afternoon I drive to Norcross, kicking off over a month of travel here and there (with many mini-trips built in).
10/12 – 10/16: TLH to Norcross. Working on-site at My Place Of Work. Mini-trips include Newton County Library System, Athens Public Library, and COMO. I wanted to touch base with a colleague who said sorry, she’s a bit busy with the 2nd annual Atlanta Queer Literary Festival.
WHAT!! I said. But of course I must put that on my homosexual agenda! So in between doing research for various trips and reading excellent drafts of software documentation by the illustrious Evergreen Docs Crew, I am gulping down Heaven’s Coast in preparation for hearing Mark Doty — and waving at busy Cal Gough from afar! I’m trying to see if I have courage to approach the open mike or will just sit there feeling like a wimp (and no, I’m not the Karen G. hosting that mike!).
10/16-10/17. Return to TLH. I’m largely pre-packed for Cincinnatti (just need to grind fresh Peet’s), which fortuitiously requires a very different set of clothes than what I’m wearing in ATL.
10/17 – 10/19: LITA National Forum. I was really going to learn (I find Forum is a great learning conference) but last week my colleague and fellow UIUC alum Aaron Trehub asked me to emcee a panel on distributed networks for digital preservation. I’m thrilled, because this is a topic that I feel very strongly about but don’t work directly in these days. I hope Tim Spalding’s talk is taped because the way the flights went I am going to walk in halfway through it at best.
10/19 – 10/22. Shelter in place in TLH. Vote on 10/20 (first day of early voting).
10/22 – 10/25. Statewide directors’ meeting in Baton Rouge; talking about open source and what it means to be a community librarian (good for me to have it figured out by then!). I get to Louisiana with enough time to make some liberry visits — I’m flying into NOLA specifically for that reason. I stay over in NOLA Friday night because Sandy has a conference there. Handy! We fly back to TLH together.
10/25 – 10/26. Wash, pay bills, and pack.
10/26 – 10/29. Norcross, with some internal round-trips.
10/29 – 11/1. TLH. Hunker in and work.
11/1 – 11/16. (or 11/15, unclear just yet). VALA/CAVAL 30th anniversary; five speaking stops. My itinerary in Australia takes me around what looks to me like the southern belt of the country. I believe I will actually get to meet Kathryn Greenhill and Fiona Bradley face-to-face! I’ve heard from some other folks I know. My co-presenter and I will be sightseeing a bit together too. I’m reading several fat travel books and a little Bill Bryson — if you have one you think is good to travel with, give a holler soon.
In prep for VALA/CAVAL, I’m also reading a slew of books I haven’t quite figured out how to track. Some are in PINEs, some are in WorldCat, some are local… I may try Zotero. I’d like something that would let me present an annotated bibliography online, in the order I choose.
My keynote at Access 2008 was a kind of early version of that talk, btw, sans the research I hope to bring to this. The working title (also used at Access) is “open++.”
Oooh, Oz! Big fun.
Tina and I went there in 2001 (AUSWEB 01 junket). Found some nice Tasmanian Pinot. Go for the local food of course, roo is good, as are mudbugs (trilobyte-like crustaceans, lobster-like taste).
I found some great storytellers there — grab a beer and listen.
The National Library of Australia has done some nice things with public search, and there is a national metadata standard which is, well, well-intentioned.
Australia is very serious about distance learning. They have to be. There is no way to get a university close to all the students. Even AUSWEB had a touring company with one-day events around the country.
The plane flight is brutal. Hydrate, take care of yourself.
Baton Rouge, now there is some serious food. My home town.
I sent my absentee ballot last week from Brisbane, Australia! Only thing is I don’t get a sticker. Oh well. Saw you’ll be in Australia in a couple of weeks. Brisbane no less. I planned on heading to the Queensland State Library this week, but haven’t made it yet. Anyway, awesome blog, I love libraries (want to be a librarian). Have a good trip down under.