Goodbye, St. Louis

Alrighty, well the ATLA Conference in St. Louis was a huge success (including the bus-capade, thanks to David Stewart for coining the phrase!). My flight left St. Louis at 6:15AM, so I was up at 4 this morning, and caught this great view of the Arch from my hotel room.

Pretty exciting news from the ATLA Roman Catholic Denominational group, they are working on creating a digital copy of Critical guide to Catholic reference books but keep in mind if you take a look at it, that this is still definitely a work in progress.

This last picture was taken in the Rare Book Room at the Concordia Seminary Library. Fascinating collections they have there. See you in Louisville, KY for ATLA next year!

Special Committee for Diversity at ATLA

After the main opening reception for the ATLA conference, there was a meeting of the special committee to the association on diversity. There was a "pop quiz," which consisted of coming up with questions for the committee members and members of the board to answer. Nevertheless, they were prepared with a list of questions and answers in case the quiz didn't yield questions. The primary focus of the committee is ethnic and racial diversity within the American Theological Library Association. Overall, it was good food and good discussions, with plenty of room to grow for the committee as this is only their second year in existence.

Anheuser Busch

Today is the first day of preconferences and excursions for the ATLA conference. The preconference that I signed up for was unfortunately cancelled due to low registrations, but I was able to attend a tour of the Anheuser Busch (Budweiser) facility.

Tonight there's a new member reception which I'm headed to, and then there's the whole conference opening reception. Looking to be fun!

ATLA, again

Well, it's been since August, probably time for an update here. I am currently in the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, MO, getting ready for the ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Annual Conference to begin tomorrow evening.

I arrived in St. Louis earlier this afternoon, and when I went to find out about the shuttle that the hotel suggested, I found out that they won't take me back to the airport because my flight is earlier than their hours of operation! So I was able to get a chauffeured ride to my hotel for half price because I was willing to split a limo with this guy from Arizona that's here for a different conference.

First things first though, when I arrived in the airport, I stopped in the Chapel for a moment. It was very nice, I'm glad I stopped.

Once I got to the hotel, I checked in, caught up with my roommate for the conference, had dinner overlooking the Arch, and am thinking it's about time to call it a day!

Reference Renaissance Conference

No pictures of the bear at the conference, unfortunately, but I thought that I would mention the conference here anyway. It was a good couple of days. Some of the presenters discussed how to use Facebook to reach out to the users in a library, the disconnect between library school and library practice, and how to keep track of reference questions without using a piece of paper and hash marks! It was a really interesting two days, and I'm glad I was able to attend. Now it's time to think about electronic reserves for the library, orienting the new students to the library, and managing our website. Be back soon!

The Arch

Today was a pretty slow day. I got to sleep late, have a late breakfast, and then we were off to see the St. Louis Arch! That was pretty cool. It towers 630 feet into the air. There’s still plenty of evidence though, right near the Arch of the flooding that has hurt so much of this area, and especially to the south. Take a look at the no parking sign! The water has risen so high that it has flooded the parking lot.


Dinner tonight was salmon, steamed carrots, and mashed potatoes, with chocolate iced bundt cake with ice cream for dessert.

Nashville

Yesterday, we left at three o’clock in the morning so that we could drive to Nashville, Tennessee, to be present at the first profession of vows for 12 women in the community of the Dominicans of Nashville, Congregation of St. Cecilia. The Cathedral in Nashville is very unlike the Cathedrals Basilica of either Denver or St. Louis. It’s very beautiful inside, but is much more nondescript than either of the other two. The service lasted for about two hours, and was followed by a lunch at the Motherhouse, also located in Nashville (too far to walk, but really pretty close). We spent the evening after the reception in and around downtown Nashville, including some time at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.

Today was a lot of fun. We had breakfast with friends, saw the Grand Ole Opry Museum (which was free), and traveled back to St. Louis through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and back to Missouri. Back in St. Louis, we’ll probably visit the Arch tomorrow.