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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Road Trip - Family and ALSC

Last year I took a trip on my own to Ohio to visit my uncle. The visit had special meaning since my dad had died a little more than a year before. We had hoped to get the brothers together for a visit but my dad became too ill before that could be arranged. Since my uncle is not in the best of health, I decided to go visit him. I spent a lovely long weekend with him and found out that he had become the family historian. I learned a few things about my grandfather that were quite surprising. In his youth my grandfather was evidently very much the opposite of the quiet, gentle man that I knew growing up.

I had hoped to go back to Ohio this spring but life got in the way. Then I happened to notice that the 2012 ALSC National Institute is going to be in Indianapolis this year. Road trip! I will drive to Ohio to visit my uncle, continue on to the Institute and then make a short stop back in Ohio on the way home to New Jersey.

I'm usually very picky about the conferences and programs that I attend. Since I am a children's librarian, I like programs that focus on youth services. New Jersey has a Youth Services Forum every year. It is a one day program and covers topics of current interest to youth services librarians. It is probably the one conference I have attended most often over the years. The ALSC Institute has a similar focus only on the national level. Now that I am part-time, I have the freedom to take off to attend the Institute. (If I were full-time, I would be doing storytime that week.) I'm looking forward to meeting with librarians from around the country and to attending the scheduled programs and events.

Although I usually blog about storytime ideas, I intend to blog about my experiences attending the Institute. I am going to try some mobile blogging as well so readers may be subjected to views of the Pennsylvania Turnpike since that will take up a large chunk of the trip. It shall be interesting to see if this senior citizen librarian can deal with technology on the road. I'll be bringing these as back-up:



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