When Librarians Invite You to Speak in a Loud Voice

Two weeks ago, I got a bell-hop to leave his post at his hotel in downtown San Antonio and help me move my gear into the city’s vast convention center. “What kind of convention did you say this was?” he asked. “A librarian convention. It’s called TLA, Texas Library Association.” For a moment he just concentrated on pushing the luggage cart down the endless hallway toward the exhibit area. “I guess it’s gonna be a pretty quiet convention if it’s just a bunch of librarians,” he mused. Hah! Lots of people don’t appreciate that librarians have their social side, too. On one night of the conference, after hours, a chartered bus brought private school librarians on a “progressive dinner” which started with appetizers at one host school and “progressed” to two other sites for dinner and dessert. I was honored to give a brief storytelling presentation at St. Mary’s Hall, site of the main course (pic below. Thank you, librarian Linda Abati, for the invite!) And here’s a scene from inside the tour bus. A truly enjoyable evening in the company of fun, thoughtful men and women from all around TX. The take home lesson for talkative kids accustomed to being hushed in the library? Learn to spell, learn to write, and one day librarians might just ENCOURAGE you to speak in a loud voice!