Halloween Family Night

On a windy, Tuesday night, the Jackson Campus of Minnesota West Community and Technical College hosted a Pre-Halloween Family Night on 26 October. Over 300 hot dogs were served to the many children, parents and grandparents who attended. It was great to see the children in costumes as they had fun at a Halloween event.

Passion Play Hail

Thanks to Christie Wyatt for sharing this on YouTube! Christie and her friend Paula, stayed at Gerda's Gasthaus with us in July when we attended the Passion Play at Oberammergau that had a twenty minute "hail delay" before the Last Supper. There are no photos allowed during the Passion Play performance, but during the delay, our fifth row seats were a handy location for taking photos of the hail coming down on the open air stage while the spectators stayed dry.

Sharing at the Jackson Public Library Brown Bag Lunch Series

Photo of Budapest "Castle" - July, 2010






On 20 October, I enjoyed doing a presentation at the Jackson, MN Public Library for their Fall Brown Bag Lunch Series. I shared photos of our July trip to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Germany, and told the 26 who attended a little about our summer travel experiences. It was fun to take the day off, but I wish that I could attend the others in the Wednesday noon series. Most attending were retired folks, but it was good to have a few there who spent their lunch break at the library. Thanks to Pam Grussing from the Jackson Library for coordinating!

Minnesota's Greatest Generation, C-47, Minnesota History Center

C-47
Originally uploaded by Minnesota Historical Society

BUILDING LEGACIES FOR MINNESOTA THROUGH PARTNERING: MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MINNESOTA'S LIBRARIES

After seeing the MINNESOTA'S GREATEST GENERATION exhibit at the Minnesota History Center last summer, I was happy to learn more about the partnership with public libraries as shared by Ginny Brodeen and Maren Levad at a late afternoon session at MLA at Rochester on Wednesday. Until I attended an author presentation by my college classmate, Annette Atkins, at my local Jackson Public Library last spring, I was not even aware of the use of the Minnesota Legacy funds for library programming. On Friday night, I have the opportunity to hear one of the Minnesota's Greatest Generation presenters, Patrick Dewane presenting The Accidental Hero at Lakefield, so I appreciated learning more about the partnership.

The goals are to: document and preserve community stories for future generations, to educate people of all ages about the history of Minnesota and its peoples, and to make high-quality historical programming accessible to every Minnesotan, regardless of geographic location, or other traditional barriers.

I was fascinated to hear Ginny and Maren talk about successes with the program from Warroad to New Ulm, and enjoyed the film clip that was shown of intergenerational theatre in the Twin Cities. The partnership has a wonderful start with so much opportunity for growth throughout the state. Librarians from small public libraries who attended the session were enthused about the responses to the programs in their libraries. It is great to have a talented peformer like Prudence Johnson travel the state to appear to appreciative audiences.

We also heard about the Minnesota History Day project. Although we have not had groups in our library for help with their projects, I have helped individuals with information in past years. As a "history person", I really enjoyed my final presentation at MLA before one last look at the exhibits and silenct auction items.

Beyond Search : The Glitz and Glam of GOOGLE

Google Logo in LEGOs
Originally uploaded by Si1very

Thanks to Sivery for this GOOGLE LEGO image on Flickr.


For the first afternoon session at MLA on Wednesday, I decided to be updated on GOOGLE. LeAnn Suchy, Rita Baladad, Kate Bessey and Kristen Mastel were the presenters of GOOGLE as more than a search engine.

Rita from MINITEX, showed GOOGLE chat in multiple tools. Kate Bessey from CLME, showed iGOOGLE, Kristen Mastel from MINITEX showed GOOGLE Custom Search and GOOGLE alerts, and LeAnn Suchy from Metrnet demonstrated GOOGLE News Archive and Timeline Searches.

I still have a GOOGLE news search that I started using when I did the THINGS ON A STICK project, but was happy to learn about the old newspapers that LeAnn demonstrated from GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVE. It was fun to see the primary sources from newspapers druing the Civil War when she used a timeline of 1861-1865. I have had an iGOOGLE page since the 23 THINGS project, but when I came back to work after being gone in the summer, I had a new computer without it, so want to try my iGOOGLE page again. I like the customization, and want to try some new library gadgets that I have not previously used. I also want to look at http:/www.google.com/chat/grandma.

Mayo Civic Center - Minnesota Library Association Conference, 2010

Mayo Civic Center
Originally uploaded by localmn

Thanks to localmn for posting this shot on FLICKR!

I was happy to attend the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference at the Civic Center in Rochester on Wednesday, October 6, 2010.



"Live the life you've imagined." - Henry David Thoreau

Ed Holahan was the speaker at the keynote luncheon on Wednesday. His talk, Seven Practices of the Inventive Creative, had good advice for anyone, not just library folks. I was happy to have him use the above Thoreau quote at the beginning of his talk, as the book that I recently selected for our book club by Kristina Riggle, has the title, The life you've imagined. Holahan who has a background in the toy industry, gave the following practices for us to use:

1. DREAM A DREAM - (Other examples besides Thoreau were Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein.)

2. BE OPEN AND PREPARED - He shared a personal example of the invention of the NERF ball.

3. TRY NEW AND DIFFERENT THINGS (at least once a day!) Interrupting a usual routine can be good. Examples are transferring your watch to the other wrist, trying a new recipe, and eating dessert first. Holahan said that it is "not the reason that matters, but the routine." I thought of how people tend to sit in the same spots in church every week. That night I took a different route home from Rochester, but it was a lot longer, and at Albert Lea, I went on the usual I-90.

4. FIND QUIET TIME. (Probably the oldest, but least practiced of the seven!) Examples: Mozart took long walks in the country, focus on one thing, do journaling and meditating.

5. MAK MISTAKES. Failure is common, and again Walt Disney and Thomas Edison were given as examples. There is much trial and error before ideas are overcome. Fear, habit and assumption are enemies that hold us back from new ideas.

6. SHARE THE DREAM AND DO IT NOW! Collaboration is needed for dreams to succeed.

7. LET GO AND TRUST. There is no place for negativity. Invite, embellish and encourage. Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone is a good example.
TRUST YOURSELF, TRUST YOUR IDEA, TRUST OTHERS!

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