If you’ve ever taken a look at the minutes of the LiLI Advisory Board meetings, you know that courier service has been a topic of interest in Idaho for quite some time. Some areas in the state have delivery service among libraries; these are often services associated with consortium participation. But, it’s a goal to bridge delivery services so that all libraries in the state can benefit from regular courier service.

Last week I and a colleague attended Moving Mountains: A Symposium Exploring Library Courier Services. We learned a great deal about the various types of delivery systems in place. Some groups hire their own drivers and provided their own vehicles. Many contract with courier vendors to provide the service. A few offer on-demand or point-to-point delivery where a call is made when an item is waiting to be picked up. Many more provide regular routes where a driver visits the library an specific days during a specified time window during the day; those drivers always follow the same route.

The ILA Annual conference is ended and now that I’ve had a couple days to get reacquainted with home, I thought I’d review some of my own highlights from ILA:

SPLAT - The SPLAT table rocked. It seemed there was always a crowd there wanting to learn more about IM, blogs, gaming, and other tools for social networking.

Intellectual Freedom Auction - Some folks from the Nampa Public Library shared about the events that took place in their library regarding the challenge of some books in their collection. It served as a good reminder for all of us about the real reasons behind the annual auction.

Last night ILA held their awards banquet. A fun time was had by all.  It was announced that Representative Scott Bedke and Representative Maxine Bell would share the honor of Legislator of the Year for their support of LiLI Unlimited and their assistance in identifying $300,000 in state funds for the program.

The Librarian of the Year is Luise House from the Mountain Home Public Library.  Luise has been leading the Mountain Home library for some time. In the past couple of years, the library was successful in winning a bond election for funds to build a new library. That library has been built and and the beautiful new building is open for business. Luise is currently leading her library in an automation project during which they will be joining the Lynx Consortium.

Accomplishments last year:

Chair Elect (Vice Chair)! - Laurie Franics, BYU Idaho

Proposed Revisions to the Division’s By-laws:

1. Removed position of a Secretary
2. Passed duties of previous secretary position to the Vice-Chair/Chair-elect
3. Terms of office: Officers serve one year as Vice Chair, then one year as  Chair.  This is done to encourage more participation. It is changed from the previous two-year terms for the positions.

Voting on the proposed revisions:  Passed unanimously.

Goals for Next Year

It’s here!

The Idaho Library Association’s 2006 Annual Conference has begun.  About 170  library staff from all over the state have come to Moscow, ID, to enjoy learning about new trends for Idaho libraries. 

On Wednesday, there were 2 preconferences. One on music cataloging, the other about Friends and Foundation groups and advocacy activities.  I attended the Friends/Foundations/advocacy workshop and found it to be illuminating.  A lot of great ideas were shared. I understand that notes from that event will be shared via LibIdaho. I can’t wait to see them!

The membership is gathering in the ballroom and our Conference Chair is trying to get their attention.  This is the ILA kick off!