Time to Catch Up

It has been way too long since I last posted anything on this blog - months in fact - so that might lead you to believe that I haven't been doing much of anything. Quite the contrary! Since my life revolves around school libraries, that's pretty much what's been keeping me hopping. I've been settling into my office - the World Headquarters of the Massachusetts School Library Association - in what used to be our son's bedroom - and in between times, bopping all over the country.

My first trip - way back in January - was to the big kahuna of all library meetings - the American Library Association's Mid-Winter Meeting. This year it was in Seattle. I traveled there with my MSLA buddies Ann and Sandy. We went to many meetings, had time to tour around the city a little:







down to the Pike Place Market a couple of times...








to the opening of a new sculpture park down by the waterfront...








and up to the top of the Space Needle.












I got to check out Seattle's amazing new and very funky Public Library, too. We had fun, as we always do, dining courtesy of some of the library vendors (we love those ProQuest dinners!) and scoffing up as many freebies as we could carry home from the gigantic exhibit hall.

Then in March and April I had three separate trips to visit finalists for the prestigious National School Library Media Program of the Year Award. Our committee of five visited schools in Indiana, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. I don't have any photos because the identity of the finalists must be kept secret until the winners are announced, but if you'd like to know more about the award, you can read my account of my experience winning in 2004 on my website (Yes, I admit it - I'm bragging!) Although each trip lasted just three days, it was fun to get a glimpse of states I had never visited before.

I promise you'll soon see a little more activity on this blog. mr. lo and I are getting ready to go on a road trip in his new Jeep Wrangler in a couple of weeks. We'll drive to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia via Philadelphia for a night on the way down and Pennsylvania Dutch country on the way back. There'll be lots of photos of that trip, for sure! Then in late June, I'm off to another library conference - this time to the really, really big one - the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. There are a few trips - both for business and pleasure coming up in the fall and winter, but I'll save the details about those for later.