We are issuing a personal invitation to you as a luminary of the school library profession to come to a celebration and Colloquium of the Greats to be held at the AASL National Convention on Thursday evening, November 14, 2019, right after the Exhibit hall closes. We can meet and greet 7-8:30 and pontificate, reflect and most of all, to inspire those to whom we are entrusting that which we have taken a generation to build.

• We’d like you to come if you possibly can by boat down the river, by horse and buggy, or turboprop to that grand old city of Louisville, actually Blanche’s birthplace.
• We’d like each luminary to write a 3-5 page “last lecture” not only reflective of the past but a vision for the future that we can publish for those who wish a copy.
• For those who come, we will have a time to speak to an audience, but more importantly mix with tables of practitioners to think through opportunities and challenges requiring sage advice.
• For those who could not come, we would invite you to, in addition to your paper, do a five minute video interview that would be placed on a YouTube channel.
• Links to videos and papers would be put together in a book for the evening that would be offered at cost of printing for those who would like a copy.
• We hope to attract a large group of current building level practitioners, district administrators, library educators, retirees and others working our field, folks who have read you, heard about you, and who have benefitted in some way from your career. It would give us all a chance to appreciate the contributions of so many. Blanche and Dave were thinking about a few folks who came to that first Treasure Mountain who became the core of leadership and the many others coming to succeeding retreats, those who we have loved, admired, and learned from their efforts.

Would you come? Would you participate if you can’t?

Of course, just like most of the Treasure Mountain retreats, we have no budget, but, as with the others, we can make this one happen.

Just send a note to Dave (reader.david@gmail.com) and copy Blanche at (blanche.woolls@sjsu.edu) so we both have your interest.

Hope to see you, read you, or watch you!

Blanche Woolls and David Loertscher

P.S. We have our own list of luminaries, but if you would like to nominate someone from the present or someone from the past (we are going to have a section on “On the Shoulders of Giants” where we use a quote from luminaries such as Marilyn Miller or Ruth Toor to add to our group), please let us know in your reply. We don’t want to miss anyone.

Summary and acceptance

Thanks for agreeing to participate in this Colloquium of the Greats!

Here are a few instructions.

To recap:

We’d like you to write a 3-5 page reflective of the past but with a vision for the future to be published for those who wish a copy.

Papers to be included in the book are due September 1, 2019. If at all possible, use 12 pt. Times New Roman and use, and if at all possible, use the Chicago Style Manual. Please note that we will be doing very little editing of your work.

Please let Dave (reader.david@gmail.com) and Blanche (blanche.woolls@sjsu.edu) know the following:

___ I am planning to attend and will submit a paper.

___ I can host a table for discussion.

___ I can’t attend but will submit a paper.

___ I can’t attend, but can submit a 5-minute video interview to place on a YouTube channel.

We don’t want to miss anyone. If you have a name(s) to suggest, please add them.

Name email address