Susan makes her return

It's not a very triumphant return, mostly because I've been rather short on blogging energy these last few weeks. Not for lack of good stuff happening here in the west, but rather a combination of laziness, lack of blogg-ability (akin to something I like to call "blog appeal") along with the absence of a computer at my apartment.

Good whirlwind trip home to Ontario, though I only made it to see about 1/4 of the people I wanted to, and among those I did see, there was a lack of quality time. Not that I can complain too much, given that my job affords me an excellent amount of time off and opportunity to do some more visiting this summer.

Next week I'm headed to Edmonton to see thefuturedrmandy, and her gang of intelligensia over there at the UofA. Who knows, I may just even get to run into the Head Librarian of fame at said institution!! (or Mandy's supervisor?!?!) I'm excited about next week's mini-vacation and to finally see where my friend has been hanging her hat these last few years. I will also finally get to see the West Edmonton mall where so many of my elementary school classmates made me jealous with their trips in the 1980s.

I attended a drum circle just down the street from my apartment. It was wild and awesome, all at the same time. A pretty great turnout including 2 nuns whom I quickly hit it off with, one of whom (Sister Flo) is 85 and the other (Sister Marg) will soon be turning 90. They met as young women in the convent in Montreal and have been life-long friends. Such kind people, and some damn cool nuns!

Last night I went for supper at Regina's famous Thai restaurant (at least famous among Reginians), called Viet-Thai. Simply stunning in its deliciousness.

This weekend is the Mosaic festival, which is the city's annual multi-cultural festival. I'm really impressed by the effort going into this one - 22 pavillions across the city, each representing a different cultural group in the city. I've bought a 3 day pass to the festival, and it only cost me $10. I've been told I will spend much more, apparently for art, but I can't imagine the alcohol from various parts of the world will be something I can skip!!

Last week I went to the Cathedral Village Arts Festival and watched firedancing in the park beside the Catholic Church. What this involved was a horshoe formation of onlookers, with various dance troupes performing in the grass in the middle of the crowd. Cutest/most disturbing thing was to hear all of these little children yelling "fire! fire!" en-masse before the fire dancing began. Post-dancing there was perogies, cabbage rolls and polka dancing (featuring a 10-12 year old boy accordian player/singer) at the parish hall.

I am very lucky to be here.

View from the top, er, 9th Floor

Before I leave tomorrow for my very early flight to Ontario, I wanted to share with you a little piece of the view I wake up to each day from the apartment.

That's Wascana Park over there, with the Provincial Legislature building right next to it.

A few of the things I'm looking forward to visiting while in Ontario:

- Stratford

- A&P Grocery Store

- some sort of major mall

Enjoy the May-long, as the cool kids say, and I'll talk to you upon my prairie return.

Off to the Spa (oh yeah, and to learn, too)

Just about to head out to Moose Jaw this evening, for the Women In Leadership and Learning (WILL) Conference. It's being held at the Temple Gardens Spa and promises to be an educational, as well as relaxing, event.

I'm attending two sessions tomorrow:

Stories from the Trenches: Social Justice in Education and Leadership
Eunice Cameron, Director of the Cornwall Alternative School in Regina , will examine the issues confronting leaders and educators as they fight for social justice for some of our most disadvantaged students. What leadership qualities do educators need to bring to the problems confronting students who present with a multiplicity of problems? What leadership qualities do they need to assist staff and decision makers to do the right things?

Telling it Our Way: Leading through Research
Linda McMullen, former head of the Department of Psychology and member of the Board of Governors at the University of Saskatchewan , will speak about the particular challenges confronting women researchers in our educational institution. How do women uniquely meet the challenges of research and what does being female brings to the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge?

I will also be fitting in some quality mineral spa soaking time.

Sunshine + Clapton = Goodness

There is nothing better than driving one's red Pontiac G5 rental car around a new city on a sunny day, with Layla (not the unplugged version) blasting at maximum volume.

That is all.

SLA 2007

This week I had the opportunity to go to the 2007 Saskatchewan Library Association Conference in Saskatoon. It was a great chance to meet a lot of my new colleagues throughout the province's library world, and to also catch up with some FIMS friends, too! There were a lot of us Western folk kicking around. Though frankly, with the way the MLIS program turns out grads it wasn't completely shocking.

Learned about so many unique initiatives taking place in Saskatchewan, and got to meet a few of the librarians I've been "reading" these last few years. Such as Darlene Fichter, from the UofS, who is doing great work on digitization and archiving projects. Brian Bell (whom I saw speak at OLA in January) was there representing Allouette Canada, a really exciting organization that is connecting digital history collections from across the country. The whole conference was a good learning experience, but there were a few shining moments.

The overall theme of the conference was "Just How Literate Are We? The new ABCs". It fit right in with my belief that we should respect the fact that people are literate in different ways and contexts. Thursday night's lecture with Robert J. Sawyer was amazing. He is a Canadian sci-fi author who has had a lot of success, and now ranks as one of the best speakers I've seen. Really engaging talk about the problems that arise when we try to apply "genre labels", such as "sci-fi". He made the argument that sci-fi could actually be called "Ideas Fiction" since it examines so many of the big ethical, political, and social debates of one's world. If you ever have the chance to see him speak, you will not regret it. It had been a long while since I'd been in a room where you could tell everyone was completely captivated by the speaker.

The other standout session to me was titled "Libraries Can Be Scary", and featured an adult learner, Carey, who was not able to read until her early 20s. She talked about her experiences in the school system and how she was able to navigate her way through and receive her highschool diploma. Amazing story of working as a waitress without being able to read the menu, but learning to memorize the photos on the menu with the corresponding dish so that people would think she could read. It was when she was expecting a baby and knew she wanted to be able to read to and with her children that she took the very big step to seek a tutor and learn to read. I was absolutely blown away by her story and her bravery. She gave her ideas about how libraries could improve the services we offer to people who may be intimidated by libraries or feel that they don't belong there, as so many adult learners feel.

Despite federal cuts to literacy education in Canada, the fact remains that 42% of Canadian adults have significant difficulty with reading and writing. I was aware of this, but going to the conference and learning more about literacy and the way it impacts our country and my profession, has really motivated me to get involved at the ground level.

I certainly feel lucky to be involved in a profession where I have the opportunity to learn and take action on the issues that matter to me. There were many moments this week when my decsion to come out here was re-affirmed, whether it was by the excellent people that I met, the speakers that I heard, or the lovely scenery! Or even the wacky form of SIAST transportation we took to Saskatoon. The driver was my supervisor, Rian, and standing is a new acquaintance, Elgin, from the Provincial Library.

And now a challenge for you. Since this conference was about literacy, can you spot the little literacy slip-up on my name tag? It does lend something quite continental to my title!