Things have been busy for my real-life alter-ego, Rachel Smalter Hall.  Last week I squeezed in a few hours to go to Topeka for the annual Kansas Library Association conference.  I absolutely loved Johnson County Library’s talk on “Free Range Librarians,” aka blowing up the reference desk!  Hilariously, they spent a lot of time discussing health and personal safety concerns for librarians who have to spend up to 90 minutes at a time not sitting at a desk.  I think it speaks volumes that this is even a legitimate conversation for our profession to be having.  Kudos to JoCo Libraries for going renegade!

In other news, author Charles Shields came and went last Thursday (the same day as KLA…), leaving a packed auditorium full of happy Lawrence Public Library patrons in his wake.  A few twitter friends even stopped by, including @larryvillelife!  Verdict? Our Read Across Lawrence Kickoff was pretty awesome.  The Lawrence Journal World even published a nice little article about it the next morning.