On last Wednesday afternoon, we had session 2 of the ALABI meeting. What follows is my summary of the second session. But first, I want to mention to talk about the disaster preparedness forum that I forgot to mention in my last post.
The forum involved Bill Sumners of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, and Jeff Griffin, the director of the library at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. (more…)
For those who have been waiting for reviews of the sessions, I apologize for the tardiness of this review of session 1. I have been pretty busy over the past week. I will try to get the others done as soon as I can. I am a very bad blogger. 
This year’s meeting was not as well attended as last year’s but I think the members that attended really enjoyed it. The Campbellsville University community was very welcoming. The food was good, and the conference room in the new chapel was extremely well suited for the event. I especially enjoyed the tour of the library and special collections that Dr. John Burch, the university librarian, graciously provided for us. (more…)
Yesterday’s meeting was pretty informative. I will post a more detailed report of all sessions sometime this afternoon. During the business meeting today, I will be presenting the report for the communications committee. Our report will propose some fairly major changes to the web site. If it passes, we will probably have constantly updating content on the site. Hopefully, more content can generate interest in the organization and can be a medium for encouraging the type of wider participation that I suggested yesterday.
I am at ALABI 2007 today. Thankfully, it was near to home this year. Last year was Richmond, and me and my buddy Andrew had to make that long haul through KY, WV, and VA in order to go. This year it’s at Campbellsville University.
The meeting will take place in the chapel here at Campbellsville. This year, their will be four sessions. The first session will address disaster preparedness, and there is a panel discussion following it. This afternoon, Charles Deweese, the director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, will talk about the mission statement of the Baptist History and Heritage Society. (more…)
Well, my sidekick Andrew and I have returned from the ALABI annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia. With apologies to Travis Tritt, not only is it "a long way to Richmond driving north on 95," it's also a long way to Richmond driving east on 64. Still, the trip was great and I think we both had a really good time listening to the presentations and cavorting with fellow librarians and archivists.
The conference took place at the IMB building in Richmond. I was surprised at how many of the participants had never been to the building (Andrew and I were among that number) although many who had not been learned the address when they were going through RAs and GAs. I don't think I ever learned the address, but I still remember the RA pledge.
We were extremely impressed with the IMB facilities, especially the library, archives, and records management areas we saw. The IMB has a first class facility for taking care of the various types of records, and Southern Baptists should be happy that some of their CP giving goes toward preserving the history of SBC missions work. We were also amazed at how diminutive Lottie Moon was. Here is a picture of 6 feet tall Andrew beside a life size picture of Lottie.
Getting to see old friends and meet new ones is always an advantage of going to conferences. I got to spend time with all of the SBHLA gang (Bill, Taffey, and Kathy) as well as my former archives colleague Nathan Finn. I also had a chance to hang out with DebbiLee Landi, the archivist for Furman University. If you are ever working on a writing project about South Carolina Baptists, you simply must go work with the Baptist Historical Collection at Furman. DebbiLee and her staff are always gracious, and their new facilities are, well, off the hizzie. The decor in their research room really makes you want to pursue research, after you marvel at the decor for about ten minutes–lots of wood, muted tones, and high ceilings.
I also had the opportunity to meet some new faces. On Wednesday morning, I had breakfast with Bill Sumners, and he introduced me to Alan Lefever and Naomi Taplin, both of whom made me laugh and offered helpful advice about pursuing an MLIS degree. I met Laura Botts of Mercer University, who was one of the younger archivists at the conference. We had a brief opportunity to talk about wikis, blogs, and how archivists need to begin embracing the whole 2.0 meme. I met several other archivists who had been around the ALABI/SBLA circuit for a number of years, and I was encouraged to see people who had happily cared for Baptist collections for a number of years. Some were working with Baptist materials before I was born! They were very open and cordial to the "new blood" that has come into the association, and they were even kind enough to listen to my rambling attempt at a presentation, despite the fact that I am an ignorant newbie. I appreciate their graciousness and look forward to working with this group for years to come!
I will post more later about the presentations.
The second day of ALABI will soon be underway. I thought I would check in briefly and let everyone know the meeting is going well. I was planning on blogging more about the event, but for some unknown reason, my computer came up with the cryptic white message on a black screen "No operating system found." Windows is supposed to just work. Well, I installed Fedora Core 5, but it did not recognize my wireless card, so I am currently using an IMB computer. I will summarize more of the conference later.
On Wednesday, May 31, I will be speaking at the ALABI meeting in Richmond, Virginia. I am involved in a section on Baptist Research and Statistics. Basically, I will be looking at the way researchers at my institution use Baptist statistics, and proposing a way that I think librarians, Lifeway, and the entire Southern Baptist Convention could work together to better preserve and make accessible our data. My proposal is just an idea that I had, and should in no way be construed as anything more than this. I would love for the convention to consider it, but it could be nothing more than one archivist's pipe dream. I will try to post a series that will better explain all this later, along with what I see as the advantages and disadvantages of my proposal.
As a service to those attending, I include the text that will appear in my Power Point presentation below. For the record, the section on connectors, mavens, and salesmen is taken from Malcom Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point.
Urge better statistic gathering practices
