WAML Fall Meeting Summary
Denver Public Library
Denver, Colorado
October 24-27, 2007

Thanks to the efforts of host Chris Thiry (Colorado School of Mines), WAML’s fall meeting in Denver was a huge success!   Here’s a quick recap of our activites:

Following the Executive Board meeting, the Early Bird activity was held at the Pints Pub, a traditional British brew pub around the corner from the library.  We had the opportunity to talk baby talk with Chris’ 16 month old son Neal while reacting in disbelief at the price of the single malt whiskey on the menu.

The Continuing Ed Committee sponsored a pre-conference workshop on grant writing, and Liz Bishoff (University of Colorado@ Boulder) gave a very dynamic presentation.   Resources from her presentation are already available in WAML’s Map Librarian Toolbox:  http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/.  Liz wrote a note to Julie Sweetkind-Singer (Chair of the Cont. Ed Comm.), saying, “It was a great pleasure to present the grants workshop at WAML, and it was so much fun talking with maps librarians - everyone had such good questions”.

The program included a range of presentations about maps, including National Geographic/Trails Illustrated maps, mining maps, Trails Tracks maps, historical Seattle maps, US-Mexico border maps, dinosaurs and maps, and Colorado pack trails.  In addition, we looked at Map Library 2.0 activities, heard an update about the USGS library system, and we took a well guided tour of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public. 

For those of you who weren’t there, you missed a grand banquet at the Wynkoop Brewery, where we paused to celebrate WAML’s 40th anniversary.  Janet Collins narrated her power point show of past WAML conferences, and we heard tributes to WAML from those present and those who had sent in remarks.  Hopefully, a number of those tributes will be printed in the Information Bulletin because they were very special, and all WAMLites should have the opportunity to read them.  All in attendance received a WAML luggage tag, and Chris conducted an award ceremony for the best placed WAML tattoo.

The conference concluded with about half of us on a field trip to the glorious Rocky Mountain National Park, and some stayed in Denver to attend the GSIS conference.

The only down side to the meeting was that the Rockies lost the World Series, but it was fun to take in the team spirit while in Denver.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Douglass