Invitation to Louisville presented at Fargo on Sept. 19 by co-chair Michel Atlas

Well, here we are in that grand bastion of the American Midwest, Fargo, North Dakota. And I am here to invite ya’all to that other great center of the American Midwest, Louisville, Kentucky. As librarians we may be experts in information literacy, but it seems to me that we might just be a little lacking when it comes to geography. Having lived in Louisville, for over 30 years now, I know that the site of the 2006 annual meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association is decidedly schizophrenic, geographically speaking, that is. It is the northernmost southern state and the eastern most Midwestern state. Our allegiances vary with the affiliations of our regional organizations and their structures. Now, I know we Americans are not celebrated for our astute geographical awareness, but to put Kentucky and North Dakota together and call it the Midwest has got to be a stretch. But the geographical juxtaposition of the 2005 and 2006 meetings of our Midwest Medical Library Association chapter, going from its most northern to its most southern site, does hopefully allow for the opportunity to take the time to look at ourselves and what we do from a different angle, from a different exposure, from a different point of view.

And that is what we hope to accomplish when you come to the 2006 annual meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association, as exemplified by our theme, Southern Exposure: A Different Point of View. You will certainly get a view of the city of Louisville different from the one you may have gotten if you attended the meeting in Louisville in 1993. Louisville, a city whose name has as many pronunciations as it has citizens, is now the 16th largest city in the US. Our downtown area has been revitalized and has seen the growth of an entertainment and dining district, plus new museums, a new convention center, new hotels and the development of the waterfront area along the Ohio River. You can visit the Louisville Slugger Baseball Museum—where you can see the world's largest baseball bat, 120 ft. tall and weighing 68,000 lbs, the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, arms as in armaments, that is, the Louisville Science Center, and the new Muhammad Ali Center, all new and all within walking distance of our hotel. Gambling, however, will be limited during your stay to the casinos at Caesar’s Indiana as racing at historic Churchill Downs will not begin until the end of the month.

Our meeting headquarters, the new Louisville Downtown Marriott hotel is a beautiful, state-of-the-art hotel and convention facility, convenient to everything. While the hotel building itself does not make a significant contribution to Louisville’s architectural scene, it is only blocks from the award-winning post-modern Humana Building, designed by world famous architect Michael Graves.

In this stimulating environment you will be ready to be exposed to new and different ideas, or older and still-valued ideas looked at with new eyes from new perspectives, by nationally renowned speakers and your fellow MLA members, be they true Midwesterners or not. Opportunities will abound to assess these new and old ideas with new and old friends and colleagues. The weekend of the meeting in early October is the perfect time to join all friends and colleagues in Louisville because it is the weekend of the St. James Art Fair and Oktofest. The St. James Art Fair attracts more than 650 craftspeople and artists from throughout the country. Trolleys will provide free transportation through the charming Victorian area of Old Louisville to the art fair. There must be some of you out there who celebrated Oktoberfest with me back in ‘93, well, come on back down and we will drink beer and do the Chicken Dance together again.

Since October 6 is the first Friday of the month, you will be in time to try the First Friday Gallery Hop. Take another free trolley along Main St., getting on and off as you please to visit Louisville’s burgeoning gallery district, where local visual arts are flourishing along with lively restaurants and funky boutiques. Especially exciting stops are at Glassworks and Flame Run, where glass art is blown and displayed. You can also stop at Muth’s Candy Store, the source of the tasty goodies on your tables – we have bourbon balls and Modjeskas. Modjeskas are an irresistible combination of soft marshmallow gem and light caramel. Muth’s is the original recipe for this treat. Muth’s bourbon balls are made with 100 proof Kentucky bourbon, which gives them their sophisticated flavor and unique texture; they are dipped in rich semi-sweet chocolate.<\p>

Hosted dinners are planned to help you choose from the best of Louisville’s expanding list of really fine restaurants. You can even eat at Kaelin’s which claims to have served the world’s first cheeseburger back in 1934. And our Hospitality Committee is planning several gala events to be held as part of our meeting. But there will be more to this gathering than just good times and good food. Our Continuing Education Committee is planning a full complement of useful and stimulating classes that will expose us to new ideas, new techniques, new approaches or new twists on old ideas, techniques and approaches, so that we can be the very best medical librarians we can be. Our Program Committee is in the midst of very high level top secret negotiations for the most thought-provoking speakers. For paper and poster presentations we really want to encourage new members, first timers, young professionals and any others who have not had a lot of experience in this area of professional development to participate. Speaking or presenting a poster at a chapter meeting provides excellent experience in a warm, non-threatening environment, where your colleagues are anxious to help, encourage, and support your efforts. We are trying to find a sponsor for a prize for a first-time presenter to help persuade people to bring their ideas and their experiences to the chapter in the form of a paper or a poster.

We look forward to welcoming you to Kentucky, and to the University of Louisville, home of the UofL Cardinals, the newest members of the Big East Athletic Conference—see we really don’t know where we belong, and to the University of Louisville Libraries which will soon celebrate the acquisition of its 2 millionth volume and the opening of its Robotic Retrieval System in the expansion of its Ekstrom Library. The Robotic Retrieval System will have over 74 hundred steel bins installed in racks arranged in columns and rows with the capacity to hold 1.2 million volumes.

So on behalf of the University of Louisville’s Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, the University of Kentucky’s Medical Library Center, the Kentucky Health Sciences Library Consortium, and the Bluegrass Medical Libraries we would like to formally invite the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association and all medical librarians to Louisville, Kentucky for the 2006 Annual Conference. Come and experience a Southern Exposure; get a different point of view. Ya’ll come!