Chicago Librarian

Bout of Nice Weather!

I'm kind of pooped having spent a fun morning at Dominican University with the "Chicagoland Drupal in Libraries" group. I then hustled back to UIC (thanks Gwen for the lift!) where I had the usual list of web editing chores. I also had enough time to upload this baby:

http://admissions.uic.edu

This marks the final phase of a redesign that I've been working on since the beginning of the year -- spurred on by two requirements:

1. fresh new look
2. gots to work on mobile

Happily, 'responsive web design' came along right at the time I was tackling this project. (What's 'responsive design' you ask? When looking at the above page, slowly make the window more narrow. Then go back out. That's responsive design.)

Anyway, I still had to do the 'landing pages'. This one, the Admissions page, is the first of four.

But back to my itinerary: At around 5:15pm, I left UIC and headed over to DePaul for a couple of hours of 'Fun @ the Reference Desk'. It was a relatively quiet night. In Summer, Reference closes an hour earlier (i.e. at 8pm instead of 9pm) so I made it back home before 9pm.

In any case, as I said, long day -- productive just the same.

(Actually on vacation in Culver City.)

Great and rousing session at the Drupal4Lib BoF. We had a too-and-fro which was both extremely fun and informative. This consisted of talking shop, of talking approaches to problems and of plans that people had for the future. Drupal4Lib IG Chair and Co-chair Nina McHale and Chris Evjy were there to tell us about their activities. Ilana Kingsley (UAF) kindly volunteered to serve as chair of the IG for the coming year.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a great opportunity to meet people directly who we otherwise only know online. Hope to see you all next year in Chicago!

So by accident I came upon what looks like LITA's official page for the Drupal4Lib Interest Group. Apparently how the group got started is a mystery to LITA since all they have under 'Origin' is this:

Origin
To contribute information about the history of this interest group, contact LITA's Web Coordinating Committee at litaweb@ala.org.

Now that's kind of strange! I mean all you have to do is go to LITA's own blog and there you'll find the following contemporary account:

Drupal4Lib BoF at ALA Anaheim [6/30/08]: First up on the agenda was setting up the Drupal IG, making sure we have enough signatures and asking for volunteers to serve as Chair and Co-Chair. For the first year, Leo Klein (i.e. me) graciously volunteered to serve as chair and Ian Chan as co-chair.

The name for the IG is 'Drupal4Lib' and our purpose is “to promote the use and understanding of the content management system, Drupal, by libraries and librarians”.

Well, at least they got the name of the IG right.

UPDATE (6/18/12): Well, that's nice. The LITA people added the following note as to the origin of the Drupal4Lib Interest Group:

Origin

The LITA Drupal4Lib Interest Group was formed during the 2008 ALA Annual Conference at a Drupal BoF (Birds of a Feather) meeting. The informal gathering consisted of about 20 librarians with varying experience with content management systems. Some participants attended the BoF to research content management systems, others came demonstrate their Drupal-powered library sites or personal projects. During the meeting, attendees collected signatures to set up the Drupal interest group. Leo Klein and Ian Chan volunteered to serve as co-chairs. The name ‘Drupal4Lib’ was choosen and the attendees decided the purpose of the group was, “to promote the use and understanding of the content management system, Drupal, by libraries and librarians.” During that conference, LITA also hosted the Pre-Conference, "Getting Started With Drupal."

I ran into Jesse Jackson while in Milwaukee. I've run into him a couple of times before. One memorable occasion was in West Berlin during the Eighties. He had made a speech to thousands of Berliners at the Gedanknis Kirche (i.e. the center of town) finishing with the line, 'we defeated the 3rd Reich in Germany and we'll defeat the 4th Reich in South Africa'. The Berliners cheered. Then he added that he'd be at a party in Dahlem later that evening.

Party in Dahlem! With Jesse Jackson! The moment we heard that, we headed straight to the location -- a lefty social center for students. Unfortunately what Jackson forgot to mention -- probably because he didn't know -- was that they were charging at the door! Charging at the door? Impossible! So instead of going in, we waited. Finally a car arrived and Jesse Jackson got out. "Jesse," I said, running over to him, "I'm from Chicago and they won't let me in!"

He turned to me. "You're from Chicago", he asked. "Come with me!"

We walked arm-in-arm into the place. I headed straight to the liquor table. I filled up my glass and then sauntered back to the entrance to wave to my companions who were still outside. I motioned to the doorman to let them in. Having just walked in arm-in-arm with Jesse Jackson, the doorman assumed that I had a certain elevated degree of mojo -- so he let my friends in.

I reminded Jesse of this episode when I saw him in Milwaukee. He was in good spirits and laughed.

I just had a look at the schedule for ALA Anaheim and noticed there wasn't a get-together for us library drupalers -- to talk shop, to talk projects, joys, frustrations, discoveries, etc.*

So I know it's kind of late but how about a Drupal4Lib BoF on Sat. 23 (10:30a-12noon)? Location: TBA (Anaheim).

Please leave comments/suggestions!

We worked together to find a few books he needed. I was on the phone AND doing chat reference when he came back -- so he switched to handwritten communications.

Okay, here are the slides from my presentation, 'Drupal: Past, Present & Future' which I gave at the Chicagoland Drupal Library Group on May 23, 2012. Thanks to Mick (Skokie) for setting this up and Ann (OPPL) for hosting it.