EDITOR'S NOTES
See You Next Month?
by Kathy Dempsey
I'll be taking a little trip
down to Washington, D.C., next month, and I hope to see many of you there,
at the Computers in Libraries conference. I'm especially excited about something
this year: Michael Schuyler is giving the opening keynote! It's been many years
since this extraordinary columnist has graced a CIL conference podium,
so it will be a real treat. For all you readers who have loved his Top Left
Corner column for more than a decade, this is your chance to see Schuyler live
and in person. He'll also be doing other presentations and adding his brand
of humor to the annual "Dead Technology" session Wednesday night. Don't miss
it! You'll also be lucky enough to hear other CIL magazine columnists speaking:
Andrew Pace, Marshall Breeding, and Scott Brandt will all be there.
As if this isn't enough enticement, there are still more reasons to come
to D.C. We'll have other big names in the industry giving pre- and post-conference
workshops, as well as presentations during the regular sessions. Program chair
Jane Dysart has once again created a high-powered conference, with four concurrent
tracks running every day. Their topics range from searching to intranets to
Web design to security and more. In addition, there's our "conference within
a conference," Computers in School Libraries. You'll want to check out the
full program on our Web site at https://www.infotoday.com/cil2003/default.htm.
The show is March 12—14, at the Washington Hilton & Towers. Information
on how to get there, where to stay, and how to register is on our Web site
as well.
But that's next month. Let me get back to February, where this issue's topic
is evergreen—money. If you want to get beyond bake sales and book sales,
then we have some fresh ideas for you here.
You know that grant writing is one way to acquire large chunks of money,
but you don't have as much time for it as you'd like, right? Well, have you
thought about training a volunteer to do it? If you turn to page 14 you'll
see how one tiny library in New Mexico had a volunteer grant-writer who was
awarded seven of her 10 grants. Volunteer staff also organized golf outings
and other neat events. Theirs is an inspiring story.
Another feature will tell you how the staff of a Washington library rounded
up local business partners and grants and, through sheer determination, funded
a training center that their budget would never have covered. And February's
final feature discusses buying expensive online databases—something you
all do—and suggests steps you can use to evaluate these resources to ensure
that you're getting the most for your money.
So this issue is full of tips and tricks on how to keep the money you've
got and get as much extra as possible. These are the sort of stories that every
librarian needs to read!
Kathy Dempsey, Editor
kdempsey@infotoday.com
 Kathleen L. Dempsey is the Editor
of Computers in Libraries. Her email address
is: kdempsey@infotoday.com |
