Deep Thinking

Food in New Orleans is a big part of my excitement about attending ALA2006. I love food. I love the smell, the look, and the taste of food. And I especially love going somewhere else so I don’t have to prepare it! We ventured to the Cafe du Monde and I tasted some of the best cafe au lait in town. Believe me that I did sample many cups. While we were there, protestors came marching down the street and stopped 10 feet from our table. There was a metal rail between us so they weren’t technically in the cafe. They used loud speakers to talk about their needs for housing, the current state of housing units being torn down and the city’s plan to replace these with more expensive units and fewer units so even more people would be homeless. We heard from business people, students, homeless, handicapped, and a preacher. They had a flyer with some facts and a website that I will post here when I actually finish unpacking.

The protestors made it very clear that they didn’t want us to feel bad about enjoying our food and beverages, but they wanted us to take home the message that the people of New Orleans need help. While the French Quarter and Convention areas are ready for tourists, the protestors wanted us to know that the working class is still fighting a constant battle to find affordable housing.

So, I went out and talked to other people in the city about this issue to ask more questions. We rode the trolley back and talked to a middle-class woman. She talked about the need and opportunity to clean up some areas of the city. At the same time she shared that she had returned to the city in February and not found housing until April.

I talked to school officials from Texas about the pending deadline for people to stop receiving money and housing. Some of them talked about their frustration with evacuees not taking full advantage of job fairs.

There are always so many sides to issues. The one constant among the people of New Orleans about what to do was “Keep talking about this so people don’t forget us.” The other comment I heard from everyone was keep eating and spending money because the only way for the city to recover was for the tourists to come back and be in the city more than 3 days a week.

So, I continued to eat my way through New Orleans. I went to Cafe Fleur de Lis for a simple breakfast (not knowing how tiny this place was), The Bourbon House for excellent Shrimp Creole after ten p.m. when many places were closed, Cafe Beignet for jambalaya, cafe au lait, and beignets, the Palace Cafe for bananas foster, Michaul’s for a TLC party with a wide variety of food from New Orleans, the Florida State University alumni dinner (as a guest, not alumni) on the top floor of the Hotel Monteleone overlooking the river, the Audubon Tea room at the Audubon Nature Institute for ASPCA, and the Red Fish Grill for a fantastic meal of hickory smoked fish (that I had never heard of) with lump crab meat, butter, and asparagus with a soup of shrimp and okra that was delicious. I attended the Newbery/Caldecott banquet at the Marriott New Orleans for a wonderful meal that left me wanting more bananas foster - hence the trip to Palace Cafe.

I visited a few beverage facilities to sample their music and loved the jazz at Maison Bourbon Jazz Club. Every time I went through Pat O’Brien’s I couldn’t locate my friends, but had plenty of opportunities to make more.

Grassroots organizations within structured organizations can be tricky to facilitate (notice I did not say lead or manage). The officers of the AASL Affiliate Assembly pictured here are Diane Chen, chair of Affiliate Assembly, Carl Harvey, chair-elect, and Karen Lowe, recording secretary. Rosina Alaimo, past chair, was able to join her region for much of the meeting as both an officer and a delegate.

Notice the amount of papers you can see peeking through the left corner of the photo. I am such a lateral thinker that I have to see all the issues and ideas spread out in front of me. If I had taken the time to use Inspiration and drawn a graphical organizer, I might not have had to create a 3-D version on the table in front of me.

One of the constant problems with grassroots organizations with rotating new members each 1-2 years is that the corporate history becomes lost. Nancy Dickinson and taskforce are working on a plan to help retain the memory of what was discussed, what concerns were addressed, and which were tabled or returned to the originating affiliate organization delegate for additional information.

We are attempting to use the American Library Association Online Communities pages to store documents, chat, discuss issues in forums, and share joint calendars. I have to laugh at how long it takes adults to transition and capitalize on the new technologies. When I have demo’d similar sites for my teenagers, they have instantly shared these ideas and encouraged everyone to participate. Coming back to a site 24 hours after they have learned something, you can see that everyone and their brother have attempted to use the site to make it usable for themselves. Perhaps this is our problem. We are too entrenched in the attitude of waiting around for someone else to perfect something and work the kinks out, instead of being part of the solution.

What will it take for us to become like a teenager in the sense of living in the immediate, the urgent, the now?

Nancy Dickinson and I flew from Nashville to New Orleans Thursday night. Our 79 year old taxi driver waited til we were nearly at the hotel to tell us we were his last trip for the day since he doesn’t see very well at night. PHEW! He also talked about sleeping on an air mattress for 6 months until his FEMA trailer was delivered and then how his gas tanks were stolen so he had to wait for another 3 weeks to get replacements. Yet, he was so happy to be back in New Orleans. He was also very grateful to have the librarians with ALA here.

This is my first trip to New Orleans so I am excited about seeing the city, worried about accomplishing everything meeting-wise, and determined to take note of what is happening around me so I can “do good.”

First sour note was discovering that the hotels don’t offer free WiFi, but charge $9.95 a day for ethernet connections. With two of us in the room, that wouldn’t help either. It means I haul the computer to the convention center to take advantage of their free WiFi to blog. With the number of meetings I have, this won’t be a convenient option. I will have to actually take written notes then and post them later, so don’t be surprised if my blog entries are delayed and out of order.

The New York Times article about librarians going to New Orleans is amazing because of the response it engendered among the librarians present. Finally we are being seen as brave, strong people who do what needs to be done for the greater good of others.

The lines below show the new vision of librarians as brave risk-takers who go where they need to despite fears and obstacles.

“NEW ORLEANS, June 23 — The nation’s librarians proved themselves an intrepid lot this week, venturing into this limping city where other conventioneers have feared to tread.”
and
“We’re proud to be librarians whose leadership decided to honor the contract,” said Karen Hoyle of the University of Minnesota. ”

Librarians have always separated themselves somewhat through the nature of their profession. While they need to know their clients and their needs, their mission statements often go beyond a single group to be more inclusive. This often causes distress when they are called “liberal” (as if that’s a dirty name!), “hysterical”, and “radical.” The Library Bill of Rights should be posted in our offices and for our patrons. We say our pledge of allegiance in schools daily. How about our pledge to the profession and the needs of our citizens even when there is disagreement?

The ALA2006 conference in New Orleans was a “feel good” experience for those who were there. We were recognized for our doing good. We were able to speak to citizens throughout the city. Librarians actively took part in rebuilding, fixing, and creating new libraries for desperately seeking-information citizens. We viewed destruction, rebuilding, and the emptiness of some businesses that were waiting for their owners to return. Some of the businesses apologized for the cuts in their hours due to their severe need for more employees. We donated to relief causes. We spent money in restaurants and shops. We tipped more graciously than ever before.

Every business owner I spoke with thanked us as a group for coming and pled for us to return to spread the word that New Orleans needs their tourism business. I spoke with a city planner for arts and cultural festivals who shared their need to continue planning the annual events (even if they had to shorten some) both for tourists and for the spirits of those who stayed in New Orleans and those who have come home. Be one of the brave and fearless. Be like a librarian and go to New Orleans.