early morning, i met up with my friend janice and we headed down to the old biscuit mill, a former factory which has been taken over by creative forces who have opened some great boutique shops and restaurants. i was particularly impressed with the art lab, a printer/graphic design shop, where you can see all of the printing equipment in action, and browse their retail space where they display and sell large and small scale printed art works. the mill was teeming with people, as on saturdays the neighbourgoods market moves in, with dozens and dozens of stalls selling all types of fresh and prepared food and drink. there were lots of great things to sample, including some excellent cured sausages, tasty kalamata olives, and organic wines. it was an amazing vibrant atmosphere, and we could have stayed for hours, but had to get back to the real reason for this whole trip: our ifla committee work.
so back to the cticc to register and attend the management of library associations section standing committee meeting (mlas sc I). it was great to reconnect with colleagues from around the world, and welcome new committee members to our mlas family (we really are a close-knit and social group). we had a productive meeting, taking on board a lot of information from ifla hq on key advocacy initiatives. i’ll expand a bit on these as we progress through this week. also, we had a change in leadership for our section. barbara schleihagen from germany was elected chair, and i was acclaimed as secretary, and michael dowling from the u.s. continues as information coordinator. the three of us have known each other for a very long time, and i expect we’ll make a great team to help lead our group for the next two years. (arlene, i’m looking for some tips from my mlas secretary role model!)
had dinner with my friend chris, a former colleague from ifla hq. we don’t get together very often, so there’s always lots of catching up to do. with wine. and food. we went to a beachside restaurant (at least i think it was beachside – hard to tell on a dark and stormy night). we had a fabulous meal (i had local yellowfin on a bed of stewed beans and mussels) and we shared a bottle of local sauvignon blanc and tales of the past 5 months. an action-packed first day.