Institute for Information Literacy, Burlington, Vermont

I was lucky to spend a week at an intensive information literacy retreat in Burlington, Vermont in July. The location was beautiful and I learned a lot -- some of it I'll put to use immediately at work and much of it will be useful to me as the information literacy program at my library matures. It was an awesome experience. One attendee described it as, "a vision quest minus the peyote." I met some amazing instruction librarians who are working on issues similar to mine, and much of what I brought home came from conversations with my cohort. Here are just a few photos:

The Institute was held at Champlain College. This is a view from the 3rd floor of the library. You can see Lake Champlain in the distance. Burlington is such a beautiful place!

Church Street, Burlington's downtown area
Of course I went to Ben & Jerry's. It comes from Vermont!
Some of my new friends from Immersion celebrating democracy (which is, in part, what librarianship is all about).
Most of our time was spent working . . . .
But on the last day we had a special performance by the faculty. Ha! Respected and esteemed librarians singing and dancing -- love it.
Speaking of singing and dancing, we had an outing to the Von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont.
Where we had an Austrian dinner (yum)
And a singalong. (You can see the harp accompanist in the distance.)
I was very excited about the singing, and even jumped up for a solo rendition of "Edelweiss" (a la Georg Von Trapp at the Salzburg Music Festival)
What can I say? I'm a giant fan of The Sound of Music.

Seattle, briefly

Last week I was in Seattle for the ACRL National Conference. (ACRL is the Association of College and Research Libraries.) It was a fantastic trip and conference for many reasons:

1. I stayed with one of my best friends, Heather, who is a high school teacher in the Seattle area. She and her partner, Peter, were the most fantastic and thoughtful hosts! I had a great time catching up with them.
2. I got to spend time with one of my favorite librarians (and people) in the universe, Wendy.
3. I had a poster presentation that went really well. I took 200 handouts with me and came home with just 15, so I know that at least 185 people were interested in the research I'm doing with other U of I librarians.
4. ACRL is a great conference! Highlights included: a keynote address from Sherman Alexie, who was hilarious; thought-provoking presentations from other academic librarians; and introductions to cool tools (like mobile devices for roving reference).
5. Seattle has great food! I ate tapas at Andaluca, pho at Pho 900, and delicious artisan cheese at Beecher's.
6. Seattle has an awesome public library. I was just there for a minute, but had to stop by to see the interesting architecture, inside and out.

P.S. Mike and I saw a fantastic movie this week, which I'd highly recommend: The Visitor. Richard Jenkins got an Oscar nomination for his role. We also saw Duplicity last night (on a double date with some friends) and were very entertained.

P.P.S. What I'm reading: I finally finished Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace and I'm still not sure whether I really liked it (or whether I really got it). It's an interesting idea for a book -- set in the near-future in a hyper-commercial world where years are branded and everyone's addicted to something. But it's a difficult book, not least because of its length (over 1,000 pages). I also just read Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer, an exciting mystery that includes a search for an ancient book, a connection between Superman and Cain & Abel, librarians, Homeland Security, and more. Now I'm reading something totally different, Home by Marilynne Robinson. It's a companion to one of my favorite novels, Gilead, also by Robinson.

Happy V-Day

I hope all of you reading this had a lovely V-day yesterday! Mike and I had a great V-week. On Wednesday evening we got to give a presentation to the young women at our church about healthy relationships and marriages. It was a lot of fun to prepare together -- recalling how we met, what we used to do together when we were dating and engaged, and then reliving our wedding day through the (literally) hundreds of photos we have. We had a good time with the girls, talking about what makes family relationships and friendships most rewarding. One of the girls decorated these cupcakes for us with our names on them:


(After I took the picture, Michael ate all three of these cupcakes in a matter of about 5 minutes.)

Yesterday we had a hot date and exchanged small V-day gifts. This was part of Michael's gift to me:

He's so thoughtful. A few weeks ago I said something silly about needing "all the chapstick in the world" in order to have a stick in every necessary place (in all my bags, pockets, drawers, etc.). So I got this sweet "I HEART U" Valentine.

For our hot date, we had a yummy dinner at Milo's, went out dancing, and then saw Coraline (in 3-D) with some friends. Very fun.

Work-related news: I'm working on a project right now to test the usability and usefulness of library video tutorials at University of Illinois, and it's keeping me really busy. I usually work about 20 hours/week (plus classes and homework), but last week I worked almost 30. The usability testing is going well so far, and I'm learning a lot about what students think about our online instruction materials. I'll be reporting the results of this study at ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) next month in Seattle.

Weather-related news: we had a few days this month of abnormally high temperatures (highs near 70), but now winter is back. Simone uses our desk lamp as a heat lamp to get through the winter months. :)

Another movie post

A friend and I went to see Twilight yesterday. Yes, I read all four books. No, I am not 15 or a children's librarian or a YA librarian. No, I didn't read them just because the author is Mormon and so am I. Yes, I'm a little bit embarrassed at how much I liked the series. Why? Because it's about teenage vampires and it's a pretty sappy romance and I was an English major and should have higher standards for the stuff that I read.

Now that the Q&A is out of the way, here are my thoughts about the movie, Twilight:

• It is lesser than the book.
• It could be much worse.
• The movie includes some cheesy dialogue, bad special effects, and not particularly great acting. But it's not all bad.
  
• The movie (and the book) totally capture the despair and wonder of teenage love.
• The movie very successfully evokes the spirit of the book.
• The movie captures just what it's like to be in high school.
  

So, I enjoyed the movie. Mike was totally uninterested in seeing it (and I know he would have been groaning and rolling his eyes throughout), so I'm glad I got to see it with a lady friend rather than subjecting Mike to the experience. My very funny brother-in-law, Mike's brother, is blogging about his experience reading the Twilight series. Check it out: Edward Kidnapped My Wife.

P.S. One more thing -- recently on Times and Seasons (a Mormon blog) there was a review of Breaking Dawn, the final book in the Twilight series. ** Spoiler Alert ** The reviewer claims that Breaking Dawn is "a profoundly Mormon book by a proudly Mormon author" because it concludes the love story not just with a marriage, but with the promise of an eternal partnership (a tenet of Mormon belief). The book also makes the heroine a perfected and immortal being after her death (which is also a part of Mormon theology). Any thoughts from those of you who've read Breaking Dawn? I personally wasn't thrilled with the book, though it did satisfactorily tie up all the loose ends and effectively finish my addiction to the series.

The Fountain

Mike and I watched this movie last night and I'm still thinking about it, which is the sign of a good movie, if you ask me. Movies that stay with you and make you think for hours or days are often more worthwhile than the type you forget as you're leaving the theatre. I'd recommend the movie if you're interested in "love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world" (summary from imdb.com).