Hospital Libraries Symposium

Friday's Hospital Libraries Symposium was a great success! Anjou Restaurant gave us a comfortable private room with a wall-mounted and framed large TV screen, a tasty multiple option menu, and good service. 23 people came to eat and hear speaker Mary Virginia Taylor of the Shreveport, Louisiana VA take us through her forty year experience as a hospital librarian. It was fun to see, remember or wonder over the vast changes in technology that have occurred in that time. The VA was one of the earliest users of email, but like all libraries, they started out with Union catalogs, print and 'snail-mail' ILL, and early use of telegrams, microfilm, carbon copy ILL forms, and the changes from manual typewriters to electric typewriters, to the initial PCs, to today's world of laptops and smart devices. Mary also discussed how our roles have changed over time, providing recommendations on how to win administrative support at your institution. She then led us into sharing some of our own experiences. Thank you to everyone who participated and especially to Mary for sharing with all of us.