July 28th ALA Opening Session Speech –

Open Session of ALA Friday Night notes.

After you see the above link to the attachment that details the key points made by the Chicago Mayor and Stephen Leavitt, aside from the humor it is great to see the public efforts that are important to bringing attention to libraries, as well as the creative approaches that are brought to education. It is amazing how everyday things can be made interesting, andI feel that Mr. Leavitt’s class at the University of Chicago is one of the most interesting because he can tie everyday events and occurrences to the analysis of economics. This is the best way students learn, I have found, is by tying the idea to something that they are familiar with or have some prior knowledge about but maybe not 100%.

I liked the idea that the community is being reined into the needs and operation of libraries, and how the Mayor mentioned that the division between public libraries and school libraries are now being streamlined to increase an awareness and initiative to increasing reading.

Following the Open Session Speech, I hit the Opening of the Exhibits to grab some books for my library. While in the Opening Sessions, I was lucky enough to have met a great person named John, who worked as a cataloger. We talked and laughed at how people lined up hours before the exhibits opened to get everything they could free. Even with waiting until the Opening Session was done, and not skipping it to obtain free items, we walked away with so many free books, it was sick (in a good way!).

By the end of Friday, on the shuttle home, yes, I was EXHAUSTED, and have to say, so far, I have been able to get much inspiring information as well as ideas that reach into every discipline involving research, Liberal Arts projects, and improving educational support from the library!