Closed Auditorium doors couldn't keep this girl from seeing her favorite radio man from up north--Garrison Keillor!  I made it in--phew--only to have to wait 30 minutes while the Twin Cities' Community Gospel Choir praised God in song, bringing us to our feet with a spirited version of  "O Happy Day!"  The multitudes in the auditorium and the overflow ballroom were warmed up now.  Garrison came on singing too--only a more traditional hymn that gradually grew funnier.  He impressed us with his stories and descriptions of family life.  At 67, he has a 12-year-old daughter, and realizes how nice it is that he can deliver her five days a week into teachers' capable care.  He counts on us to educators to save him from the fate of parenthood.  Some of the pierced teens he meets look as if they've "fallen face first in a tacklebox."     He had a depressing Easter, but, as the Norwegians say, "it could be worse."  When the bard described "March" he called it the "month that God created to show people who don't drink what a hangover is like."  He mentioned the schools and churches in St.Paul/Minneapolis and his start at KSJN radio.  He urged us to "Teach your children...and teach your children to do something about nursing homes.  I'm going to in one in the next 10 years."   Ask me about his Uncle Jack story if you wish!

The Flint, MI born & raised, current Minneapolis dweller, Patrick Jones, presented a zippy, intense talk about how "Things Keep Changing:  the Flux of YA Fiction.."  The students he works with wear uniforms too--orange jumpsuits.  He works at the Juvenile Detention Center.  He sees kids who formerly read no books, now like reading.  Surveys show how they go from believing that they're bad readers to believing that they're good readers.  Patrick's books offer mirrors to their readers.  They are trying to answer the big adolescent question, "Who Am I?"   They start to find mirrors. When young people read books they see into the head of another.  They have empathy for others.  Literature allows kids to experience empathy.  When this happens, things change.  I can't wait to bring his books Things Change, Nail, Chasing Taillights, Cheated, and The Tear Collector to my students and see how they connect, feel empathy, and find answers on their journey from who they are now and who they want to be.

Regina Medal Luncheon
The fifty-second annual luncheon at the Hilton's Rochester Room honored Gail Gibbons--author/illustrator of 160+ children's nonfiction titles!  Her talk later at the Convention Center was overflowing--and her booksigning line long.  My lucky nephew Godson Noah will soon know more about baseball, seeds & plants, dinosaurs, and frogs.  Next year they hope to have book sales close to the talk and signing too.

Information Literacy:  The Bridge from High School to College presented by Minneapolis academic librarians Donna Nix, Janice Kragness, and Marianne Hageman can be found at http://www.stthomas.edu/libraries/presentations/documents/BridgingGapNCEA2010.ppt
Core articles used for their research are: 
Islam, R.L., & Murno, L.A. (2006). From perceptions to connections:  Informing information literacy program planning in academic libraries through examination of high school library media center curricula.  College & Research Libraries, 67(6), 492-514. Retrieved from http://crl.acrl.org/
and
Zoeller, K., & Potter, C. (2008, June). Library instruction and resources across the education continuum:  Assessing the relationship between western Montana high schools and the University of Montana.  Poster session presented at the meeting of the American Library Association, Anaheim, CA. 

Mass for Deceased CLA Members
4:30--5:30 pm in Room 205D at the Convention Center
Rev. Kenneth O'Malley, O.P. took us on the road to Emmaus again in another excellent mass for about 30 of our CLA brethren.

Dead Sea Scrolls and St. John's Bible
2200 year-old and brand new works were on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota.  Your intrepid blogger along with 500 other pilgrims motor-coached through the Bon Jovi concert traffic southeasterly to the excellent museum by the Mississippi.  We waited in line for the  Mediterranean feast foods, paid for our wine, and walked up and down the musical steps, and gazed upon the shards of the ancient settlement known as Khirbet Qumran.  In 1947 a bedouin shepherd follows the trail of a missing goat into a cave near the dead sea east of Jerusalem and discovered the first of the scrolls.  (Note: A goat was also involved in the discovery of my favorite beverage--coffee--although this happened in Yemen.)  Radiocarbon testing and paleographic research confirmed that the scrolls dated to the centuries between 250 BCE and 68 CE. 

Modern scribes led by Donald Jackson in his Welsh scriptorium and  St. John's University's Hill Museum & Manuscript Library are almost finished with this magnificent work!  The seven folio-sized works together sell for $145,000.  We mere mortals may purchase the five completed affordable versions from amazon for approx. $50 each.  The artwork blends the traditional with the modern styles--somewhat reminiscent to one of  this book nerd's favorite book artist of the 80s and 90s--Nick Bantock. 
Completion date for all 7 volumes is set for Christmas 2011.  Stay tuned!