Texas Library Association District 4 Conference Set for Oct. 11 at TAMIU

The Texas Library Association (TLA) District Four Annual Conference will be held on Friday, October 11, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Texas A&M International University in various rooms in the Western Hemispheric Trade Center.

More than 100 librarians from across South Texas' public, academic and school libraries will converge on TAMIU. The Conference theme is "Librarians Helping Librarians: Interacting Across Types of Libraries to Serve Patrons."

State Senator Dr. Judith Zaffirini will be featured at the Conference as the keynote speaker. Both Laredo Mayor Betty Flores and TAMIU President Dr. Ray Keck are scheduled to give welcome speeches to the city and to TAMIU, respectively.

Throughout the day, librarians will present concurrent sessions on such topics as "Libraries and the Environment," "Storytelling in the Library: Building Connections," "The Art of the Book: Reading and Culture in the Sculptures of William Wisner," and "Special Collections and Archives in District 4 and Northern Tamaulipas," among many others. Each session will have time for questions and answers.

Rogelio Hinojosa, TLA District 4 chair-elect and acquisitions librarian at TAMIU's Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, said the Conference should be informative and useful to area librarians.

"This is an opportunity to talk about the needs and requirements that all librarians have when interacting. As the host institution, we will be proudly displaying the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library and we hope to learn a great deal from librarians at other institutions. The Conference has been organized with the enthusiastic participation of colleagues from TAMIU, LISD, UISD, LCC, and the Laredo Public Library. We've arranged a special trip after the conference to the Monterrey International Book Fair, the second largest in Mexico. I think it will be an exciting adventure," said Hinojosa.

The Conference is open only to librarians. They do not need to be members of the Texas Library Association.

More information is available at http://library.tamiu.edu/TLADistrict4/ or by contacting Hinojosa at 326.2123, visiting offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 215B, or e-mailing rhinojosa@tamiu.edu.

University office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at pais@tamiu.edu