I am temporarily back in my office for a few days, a respite from the big Fall MLA Chapter Tour. I’ve been to four Chapter meetings, with two more to go. I had really been looking forward to attending the joint Midcontinental/Midwest meeting in Omaha. Many of you know I worked at McGoogan Library at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the 80s, so this was going to be a homecoming of sorts. The opening reception at the newly renovated McGoogan Library was fantastic. Nancy Woelfl and her staff did a great hosting job. Originally opened in 1970, the Library suffered from the architectural deficits of that period, but the renovations are marvelous, and if you have a chance, be sure to visit.

Unfortunately, as the reception on Saturday evening progressed, I noticed my throat was getting extremely scratchy and tight. By Sunday afternoon, my voice was completely gone, and I was scheduled to give the MLA update early Monday morning. Rather than attempting a Marcel Marceau version of the update, I was able to convince fellow Board members T. Scott Plutchak, Linda Walton, and Margaret Bandy to each give a third of the update, while I silently changed the slides. Both presenters and audience had fun with a somewhat improvised update, turning it into a memorable occasion. Special thanks to my understudies.

I hesitate to report much on the meeting content, since it has been well covered elsewhere, but I will just point out how blown away the audience was by Fred Lee’s presentation. Check out his book “If Disney ran your hospital: 9 1/2 things you would do differently.” I highly recommend everyone look at Conference Call 2007, where the meeting is still being covered by Claire Leibfarth and her blog staff. This is an excellent example of how to build and maintain interest in a meeting. Lynne Fox has also posted an excellent report of the meeting, along with some very useful links. MCMLA’s website has most of the presentations, papers, and posters available, a terrific way to enhance the meeting for attendees and to let non-attendees share in the knowledge exchange. I have posted some of my photos, as have some other people. If you do a search on Flickr for “mcmla2007,” you will find 188 photos as of this morning. Overall, I would have to say this has been the best covered chapter meeting as far as Web 2.0 tools go. It is very heartening to see the membership take up these tools in order to better connect with each other. This was a meeting that other chapters, and even MLA, could take a lesson from.