We had an amazing time in Portland, Oregon at the 2009 Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums National Conference! This conference was life changing. We met so many wonderful people from across the US, Canada, and even New Zealand, doing phenomenal things for their communities. While yes it was a conference, it was so much more than that! It really is a big community of a wide variety people, skills, knowledge, interests, and experiences coming together to share, learn, network, re-connect, and enjoy one another. We definitely recommend it to others and we look forward to participating in the future gatherings!
While at the conference we not only networked and met with lots of great people during down time and throughout the conference events, but also attended and participated in various library, archive, and museum sessions and workshops. Additionally we presented one of the 90-minute sessions for the conference. Our session was about relationship building between library information schools and tribal cultural institutions and communities. We discussed this through the lens of our pilot TLAM course that we co-developed and implemented for the 2009 Spring semester. We followed the presentation with an audience group discussion of how we can all collaborate, stay in touch, and help to inspire other LIS schools and communities to come together in these mutually beneficial relationships and engage in these discussions about Indigenous information issues. We also explored ways we can revise the TLAM course for the upcoming semester as well as plan for TLAM’s sustainability into the future.
During and after our presentation’s discussion with audience members (students, professors, and practitioners), it was collaboratively agreed that a Facebook Fan Page is in order for all those who are interested in tribal libraries, archives, and museums…to engage everyone in collective discussions, do networking in your region, across the country, and around the world with interested students, practitioners, professors, community members, and anyone else. The presence of a TLAM Facebook Fan Page is in hopes not only to connect us, but also that this will help inspire and encourage/ease future collaborations, idea sharing, learning, and a place for event & conference announcements, as well as a place to post new literature links and press releases.
Everyone, please contribute and help build the fan page, as well as spread the word and invite others who you think should join! You can find the Facebook Fan Page by searching under “Tribal Libraries, Archives, & Museums!” on Facebook.
To check out the 2009 TALM conference website and find out more about the conference, go to: www.tribalconference.org
For a direct link to the 2009 TALM conference program schedule and information on sessions and events, as well as contact and other information on those who participated, presented, and/or received awards, go to: http://www.tribalconference.org/conf09/pdf/Final_Program.pdf
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I was at your presentation. I just want to say that I am so impressed. Thanks for sharing about the course you built from the ground up, and thanks for sharing your enthusiasm! Keep up the good work.