[MNASIS-L] New OPAL Online Series: Casual Conversations

[Janet Arth]

A new series of free online OPAL 
(<http://www.opal-online.org>www.opal-online.org) events is about to 
get underway.  As the series name implies, these "Casual 
Conversations" will be one-hour informal conversations with 
librarians, with .  Everyone in the world is welcome to 
participate.  There is no need to register.  Just show up online, 
listen, text chat, and talk if you want.

Aaron Schmidt will be the first guest in this series.  Here are the 
details about the series.  More casual conversations will be added in 
the future.  We try to have one per month (with two scheduled for 
February, in honor of the leap year).

Friday, November 30, 2007 beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 1:00 Central

A Casual Conversation with Aaron Schmidt
   Aaron Schmidt is the Director of the <http://nplibrary.org/>North 
Plains Public Library in Oregon and a blogger at 
<http://www.walkingpaper.org/>Walking Paper. The Casual Conversations 
series is designed to be up-close and personal from a respectable 
online distance. While there are many conferences (in-person, online, 
and in-world) where librarians can hear leaders in the field make 
formal presentations about interesting projects, there are few 
opportunities to hear these same leaders discuss informally what they 
currently are working on, their future plans and goals, the 
challenges and opportunities facing librarianship, their personal pet 
peeves, etc.

Watch for more information about these upcoming Casual Conversations:
   Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007: Meredith Farkas
   Friday, Jan. 18, 2008: Curtis Rogers
   Friday, Feb. 8, 2008: Lori Bell
   Friday, Feb. 15, 2008: Michelle Boule
   Friday, March 28, 2008: Marshall Breeding
   Friday, April 11, 2008: Jenny Levine
   Friday, May 16, 2008: Stephen Abram
   Friday, June 6, 2008: Michael Stephens
There are several options for participating.  You can enter the 
online meeting room for the live, full experience, or you can listen 
to the conversation and text chat into the online room right from the 
web, without having to install any special software.  Details about 
these options can be found at:
    http://www.conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs1641902f62b4

If you cannot participate live online, we plan to record, archive, 
and podcast these casual conversations, adding them to the OPAL 
Archive (http://www.opal-online.org/archive.htm) soon after the 
conclusion of each conversation.

The complete list of upcoming OPAL online programs can be found at:
   http://www.opal-online.org/progschrono.htm


Tom Peters, OPAL Coordinator
TAP Information Services
1000 SW 23rd Street
Blue Springs, MO 64015
phone: 816-228-6406
email: tpeters at tapinformation.com
web: www.tapinformation.com
Skype: tapeters4466
    TAP Info helps organizations innovate.