Secret Lives of Interns: Intern Goes to a Conference!

A blog by Rachael Gilman


I haven’t actually been at the JMM for about a week. Where was I for so long?

I was down in Washington DC for the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference.





I attended my first ALA conference last year in Chicago and the whole thing was a whirlwind of activities. This year’s conference went by just as fast.

My ALA 2010 experience actually started on Friday at a pre-conference event held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art called “Drawn to Delight: How Picture Books Work (and Play) Today.” Fifteen different illustrators attended to help show the importance of picture books and illustrations, including Caldecott winners Jerry Pinkney and Brian Selznick. Speeches and presentations were broken up by small group sessions about illustrations and art demonstrations.

Illustrator Kadir Nelson demonstrates his technique of combining oils with fabric collage.

I left with three free books, a full belly (meals and snacks were provided) and a greater appreciation for illustrators.

“Drawn to Delight” was probably my favorite thing, but the rest of the conference wasn’t boring. I attended sessions on all kinds of topics: gaming in libraries (bought two books from authors on that panel), to science fiction and fantasy (five free books) to advice for job seekers. Some sessions were on really “unique” topics. “Not so Extreme Makeovers” talked about how librarians can use their wardrobe to break the librarian stereotype. “Archivists and Librarians: Together we can save Congress” was a panel made up of the librarians and archivists that preserve the papers generated by Congress.

When I wasn’t in sessions I was exploring “The Stacks” (the exhibits). Vendors selling almost everything you can think of for libraries from carpet to books, universities with librarian and information science programs, graphic artists and architects, food stands and much more filled the exhibit hall.

Librarians pour into the exhibit hall.
Never come between librarians and free stuff.

My favorite booths this year were Wizards of the Coast (three free books), Scholastic (they had Brian Selznik there for a book signing), Unshelved (a hilarious web comic about working in a library), and Gaylord (they have good products and they gave out free ice cream one day!).

So what does any of this have to do with the JMM?

Well, ALA includes archives and the JMM has an archive. Ok, seriously, a lot of the concepts and ideas I learned at ALA I can turn around and share with the JMM. I can take what I learned about illustrations and children’s books at “Drawn to Delight” and share it with Anita and the others working on the children’s book about Lloyd Street Synagogue. From the session I attended about age appropriate practice I got a great handout that I could give to the education department. I can talk to Jenn about the archivists and librarians who preserve the Congressional papers. Maybe I could even share one of the dozen free books I picked up (alright, I haven’t shared any of the books, but I did give Jobi some pencils).

The ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition is a great learning experience. I’m really glad that the JMM could let me off for a week so I could go!

Highlights of the AAM Conference

Los Angeles Skyline

I’ve just returned from 4 days at the AAM annual meeting in Los Angeles. It was GREAT! I attended a dozen different sessions, business meetings (even gave a report for the Mid Atlantic Association of Museums at the AAM Registrars Committee (RC) Annual Business Luncheon), and social networking events.















Dessert was awesome!


















Cristin, Nicole & Suzanne (my fellow registrar friends)


Highlights of the conference sessions: The panel of presenters for Managing Controversy in Culturally Specific Museums was truly lively & engaging; Social Tagging and Museum Practice provided some truly applicable ideas; Maxwell Anderson talked about the importance of transparency in Deaccession: New Perspectives; with budgets shrinking and collections growing Collaborations in Collection Storage provided examples of making shared storage work between different collecting institutions.













Working hard!



Movement and Sound in Museum Collections: Preserving and Providing Access to Audiovisual Materials was a little too technical to be applicable, but the case study at the Dallas Art Museum can be a great resource for follow up questions; So Many Crates, So Little Space provided a wonderful worksheet for calculating the load plan for traveling exhibition. And it should come as no surprise that her favorite session was Collections Conundrums!

Author Amy Tan gave a keynote address, and later autographed a book for me.

There was plenty of time to meet and greet colleagues from Baltimore, AAM, CAJM, and the Registrar’s Committee. I even re-introduced myself to Maxwell Anderson who was the Director of the Carlos Museum at Emory when I was an intern!
















Rebecca Buck and Jean Gilmore signed the 5th edition of the Museum Registration Methods handbook.



There wasn’t a lot of time between sessions to go to museums, but Lauren Silberman and I (along with 3000 other museum professionals) spent An Evening at the Getty Center.

Getty Center
Steps to the Getty Center

A Van Gogh!







Funky sculpture near the tram up to the Getty Center

I also enjoyed my morning at the LA Public Library’s Annenberg Gallery
Los Angeles Public Library


















"American in Paris" handbill in Spanish from the Spanish collection at the LA Library and the Japanese American National Museum. Their Common Ground exhibit opened with an art installation of suitcases -- and reminded me of Voices of Lombard Street.

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Buddhist Temple at JANM
















The LA Lakers are in the NBA semi-finals and they play at the Staples Center next door to the convention center. Unfortunately, their two games were on the road in Phoenix.













On the other hand, the American Idol finale was being held at the Nokia Theater. After the very last conference session, Lauren and I stood by the back stage door and saw a bunch of celebrities.



















Ellen Degeneres and David Hasselhoff shake hands at the American Idol Finale



















Alice Cooper -- just as scary as he was 30 years ago
















Jobi & Lauren

Preservation Maryland Conference

Last week, I had an opportunity to attend the annual Preservation Maryland conference, as it was hosted here in Baltimore. I've attended once before a few years ago, and while it's a little different in focus and scope than what we do at the Museum, I find it to be relevant and fascinating. This year, I had the opportunity to tour some of Baltimore's historic churches (including one with a link to Lloyd Street Synagogue), participate in a workshop on documenting and recording historic structures, listen to a case study of African-American archaeology, and attend a workshop on preserving cemeteries.

During the tour of historic churches, we visited St. Alphonsus, which was - like the Lloyd Street Synagogue - designed by architect Robert Carey Long, Jr. It even opened in 1845 - the same year as LSS! Not only that, but St. John the Baptist, the Lithuanian parish that occupied LSS from 1889 - 1905, moved to St. Alphonsus in the 1910s. I couldn't get over how different the building was from ours. Whereas LSS is Greek Revival in architectural style, this is truly German Neo-Gothic at its finest. Such opulence. I can understand why Long was a popular architect if he could swing back and forth in styles so easily.






I'll post more later today or tomorrow.

Return to Reality

AAM just flew by! I met so many interesting museum professionals, including a young woman from the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. She told me about a wedding held at her site (not a common experience) with two people dressed in haz-mat suits and gas masks! In addition to meeting many new people, it was a great chance to re-connect with many of my colleagues. I serve on the Small Museum Association conference committee and was excited to see how many people from the February conference attended. Additionally, I had the chance to attend several more fascinating sessions, including one on Hearing Art and Seeing Music, which involves a partnership between The Kreeger Museum in DC and Catholic University using museum educators, teaching artists, and musicians, as well as one on the The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, which includes "historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering past struggles for justice and addressing their contemporary legacies." Besides all of the great sessions I attended, I'm pleased to say that my session on website development received warm praise and a strong attendance. Not that all of my time was spent in sessions. I enjoyed a lovely time with the Museum Education Roundtable at the American Philosophical Society, a nice reception with other accredited AAM museums, as well as a chance to meet with colleagues in other fields, such as registrars. (I'd like to point out that the registrars had not one but two sponsored receptions - completely free - and that the educators didn't have even one!!) Anyway, overall, I have to say that AAM was a big success, very educational, and tiring! I'm feeling both enthused and drained - though I suspect enthused will win out!

Live at AAM!

Greetings from lovely but rainy Philadelphia!

JMM Collections Manager, Jobi, and I (Lauren, Education and Program Coordinator) are currently at the American Association of Museums annual meeting. This is my first AAM conference as well as the biggest conference I've ever attended, with over 5,000 attendees. We've taken over the entire Philadelphia convention center.

I've attended some interesting sessions, including one on engaging immigrant communities and another on using Web 2.0 to reach international audiences. Did you know that the Dresden Museum has a 1:1 replica of their entire museum on Second Life? The curator giving the talk showed photographs of the exterior, grounds, and galleries within the museum next to photos of the museum recreated in Second Life - an alternate, virtual reality universe online. It was astounding.

And of course, there have been some fun parties too! On Thursday night was the Opening Night party at the amazing Please Touch Museum. Running around PTM reminded me of all the children's museums I visited as a child - combined. They have a historic, running carousel! So much fun. Not to mention the dessert bar, great band, and University of the Arts bucket band, Rumble.

They keynote speaker, Walter Isaacson, was quite engaging. I'm still not certain what he has to do with museums but his stories about Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein were wonderful. One of those situations where, even though I knew what was going to happen next, I was still on the edge of my seat. Was Einstein going to receive the Nobel Prize? How did Franklin get started in Philadelphia? I did immediately buy both biographies to have him sign. Even though I'm married to a librarian...

I'm giving a session on Tips and Tricks to Maximize Your Website - Not Your Budget as part of Small Museums Day at AAM. My co-presenters include Heidi Glatfelter, who does marketing and pr for Jerusalem Mill - a small museum in Maryland - and works for a consulting firm, Market Early America and Laurel Forsythe of the Ruthmere Museum. Unfortunately, Laurel had a family emergency and won't be able to attend. Hopefully, it'll go well!

I'll post again after I return. Thanks for reading.


Jobi at AAM


Convention Center lobby - the convention center used to be a working railroad terminal


In all the times I've been to Philly before, I'd never seen Independence Hall before!