The family is headed to the Twin Cities area so that we can attend Fourth Street Fantasy Conversation and, immediately following, so that I can attend the RBMS Preconference. After both, I plan to go thud.

Here is my public schedule, just as much for my own memory as for your reading pleasure:

Fourth Street:

Saturday 9:30 – 10:30AM

Intertextuality and Originality

No book exists independent of the literary conversation, no matter how much its author may want it to. Elizabethan faeries are inevitably going to compared to each other, just like dark lords, destined heroes, and vampire-werewolf-mortal love triangles will. Given that very little authors can do will seem novel to experienced readers, how should they approach topics that many readers have been conditioned to read in a certain light? How can works that aim to deconstruct cliches avoid being read as “just X from Y’s perspective”?

Lynne Thomas (M), Tappan King, Chris Modzelewski, Abra Staffin-Wiebe

Saturday 2:00  – 3:00 PM

The Heroine’s Journey, Revisited

What sorts of differences tend to crop up between heroic narratives based on the protagonist’s gender? What sorts of consequences, in terms of tropes invoked and shifts in reader responses, tend to follow when we gender-swap characters, or put women into traditionally “male” roles (e.g. Nyx in Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha) and vice-versa?

Elizabeth Bear (M), Dana Baird, Pamela Dean, Fade Manley, Lynne Thomas

RBMS:

Monday 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Seminar B: Reviewing our (Classroom) Performance: Evaluating Special Collections Instruction (Minnesota Room)
Evaluating and assessing student learning and experiences in special collections can help librarians tailor their teaching in the future, and can also help them determine whether students are meeting the learning outcomes set for their classes. However, creating assessment tools for special collections has often been a challenge. While there are many quick, popular tools for assessing library instruction, many of these do not lend themselves to special collections classes. This seminar will provide information on tying assessment to learning outcomes, course-level objectives, and discipline-specific competencies; the usefulness of both formal and informal means of assessment; and results of both anecdotal feedback and targeted assignments aimed at understanding students’ learning after class visits to special collections. We hope that attendees will come prepared to discuss their own ideas, experiences, and questions about special collection teaching and assessment.Speakers: Sarah M. Horowitz, Augustana College; Julia Gardner, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago; Suzy Taraba, Wesleyan University

Moderator: Lynne Thomas, Rare Books and Special Collections, Northern Illinois University

1:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m Discussion 2, Managing Digitization Projects (Small-and-Medium-Sized Libraries as a Starting Point) (St Croix 1)

Digital preservation, particularly as applied in smaller-and-medium-sized institutions. The IMLS Digital POWRR grant, awarded to Northern Illinois University and its partners (Illinois Wesleyan University, Illinois State University, Western Illinois University, and Chicago State University) investigates potential models that would provide equitable access to digital preservation to libraries of all sizes and funding levels.The discussion will solicit feedback from those attendees as to the kinds of problems they are up against. While many larger institutions have made considerable headway on digital preservation, medium-sized and smaller-sized institutions have struggled to make similar progress, largely due to lack of time, staff, or funds. Yet, preparedness and action concerning digital materials is essential as more hard drives and CDs arrive from donors and old media begin to deteriorate. The ingest of new digital material, as well as ensuring older content is still accessible, is of great concern for special collections professionals in institutions of all sizes.

Moderator: Lynne Thomas, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections, Northern Illinois University