Highlights from the First Two Days at Midwinter

Beautiful weather welcomed us to San Diego. The Convention Center is right on the bay where there is a marina filled with yachts and several places to grab a quick lunch while at restaurants overlooking the water.

After walking around the Seaside Park and the Gas Lamp District on our first morning, we hopped a trolley to Old Town where we browsed in the shops and enjoyed seeing the living quarters and gardens at the historic hacienda.

I was reminded of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's hacienda in Barbara Kingsolver's novel The Lacuna, where they harbored the exiled Leon Trotsky.

After the Advocacy Institute (see report by Judi Paradis), we attend the Booklist's Author's Forum. I was pleased to get free copies of the books signed by all four of the authors: Susan Vreeland, David Levithan, Stewart O'Nan, and Armistad Maupin during the Exhibit Hall opening.

More photos are posted on Flickr.

Heading to ALA Midwinter in San Diego

Representatives from the MSLA Executive Board will be in San Diego, CA next week for the ALA Midwinter Meeting.

MSLA Secretary Judi Paradis and President Gerri Fegan will serve as our rep's to the AASL Affiliate Assembly. AASL's Region 1 (New England) is represented by two of our Board members - Ann Perham is the current Director of Region 1 and our President-Elect, Valerie Diggs, is also Region 1 Director-Elect. Executive Director Kathy Lowe serves on the AASL Nominating Committee and will be helping out at the Candidate's Forum and generally keeping the rest of the crew in line.

We're looking forward to finding new resources in the Exhibit Hall, meeting lots of authors throughout the conference, and seeing some of San Diego. We'll be reporting back here soon!