by Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton
UC Blue Ash librarians, Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton set off for Albuquerque, NM to attend and present at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC). Continue reading
Tag Archives: “Kellie Tilton”
Bookish Travels
by Christian Boyles, Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton
UCBA Library staff and faculty, Christian Boyles (Collections Services Manager), Michelle McKinney (Reference and Web Services Librarian) and Kellie Tilton (Instructional Technologies Librarian) hit the road and visited a few bookish places over the holiday season. Click on the images to get a better view of the photos.
Christian Boyles / Washington DC / Library of Congress: In December, the missus and I went to DC for her birthday. Along with visiting many great Smithsonian museums, walking a gazillion miles, seeing grand architecture, priceless works of art and ephemera and the new Star Wars film, we went to the Library of Congress. For someone who has worked in libraries for a gazillion years, going there felt like what going to the Vatican must feel like to a Catholic.
The building itself is an amazing and imposing structure designed in the Beaux-Arts style with a bonkers fountain out front featuring the Roman god Neptune, some sea monsters and a bunch of naked people riding what I guess are horse snakes. What that has to do with literature and the centralized housing of knowledge was lost on me. Inside is no less impressive. Walking in, I was legitimately awestruck by the LOC’s grandeur. Imagine if St. Peter’s Cathedral and some enlightenment era French king’s home had a baby and you’re still nowhere close to how awesome it is. Probably the crown jewel of the place is the reading room. Housed under a dome, it is a masterpiece of archetecture featuring arched stained glass windows, semetrical study carrells, Corinthian columns, and statues of some of the great minds in religion, poetry, commerce, philosophy, etc. Just looking in on that, I’m pretty sure I felt my IQ nudge up a couple points. Throughout the building, there were displays of ancient manuscripts going back hundreds and thousands of years.
Unfortunately, we were running short on time, so we couldn’t take the tour. But, we did manage to check out a very cool exhibit on the American experience of World War 1. In a perfect world, I would have spent a day, if not more, discovering all the cool features and offerings. Insider tip: if you’re in DC and are having a sugar crash, the LOC’s vending machines are very comprehensive and cheap.
Michelle McKinney / Louisville, KY / Wild Fig Coffee & Books: In early January, I treated my husband to a quick trip to Lexington for his birthday. Before heading back home, I discovered a bookstore just down the street from where we were having breakfast. Wild Fig Coffee & Books is located near UK’s campus and is owned by award-winning author, Crystal Wilkinson. The independent bookstore has an eclectic selection of new and old books, including a wide range of graphic novels. Wild Fig also carries a variety of bookish and feminist gifts such as mugs, socks and greeting cards. The coffee is pretty tasty too!
Kellie Tilton: On Christmas Day, 2017, a friend from college and I hopped the pond to begin an epic two week, three country excursion that was kick started because we snagged tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II in the West End. With our tickets falling in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we decided to make the most of the time frame.
We spent a handful of days in London – mostly in pursuit in all the Harry Potter-related attractions London had to offer – then it was up to Edinburgh, Scotland to bring in the New Year with their Hogmanay celebrations. We made a quick trip across the Channel via the Chunnel to have a gandar at Paris (and basically eat a million croissants) before landing back in London to spend one more weekend catching the things we missed the first time.
Highlights of this adventure include, but are not limited to, The Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour, The British Library (and it’s History of Magic exhibition in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone publishing), the play (obviously), Hogmanay, Kensington Palace, and the Paris Catacombs. I brought back four new editions for my Harry Potter in Translation Collection. It just goes to show, your literary loves will provide ample reasons to travel the world!
What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Part II
by Kellie Tilton
Hi, again! Kellie Tilton, UCBA Librarian, back to give you part two of my Summer Vacation Library Adventures. If you miss the first one, it is available here!
Our very official EduLearn portrait.
In July, I was fortunate enough to travel to Barcelona, Spain to present at the 2017 EduLearn Conference with Becky Leporati, my colleague in the Langsam Library. We had submitted two presentations for consideration and both were accepted. The first, A Flipped Classroom is an Inclusive Classroom, was about incorporating Universal Design into eLearning projects and the second, Format Choices are Content Choices, involved selecting the right format to design eLearning projects.
The conference itself was an international, with 80 countries represented. I met educators from the UK, South Africa, Sweden, Australia and more and was able to learn so much about the similarities and differences in our approach to technology in education.
It was also my first trip to Spain and it was absolutely beautiful. I took a few days of vacation so I was able to visit Madrid and Toledo, as well. All three cities were awe-inspiring, the people were friendly and welcoming and taking in the culture and heritage of Spain there only made me want to go back again.
It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful I was able to present and attend!
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- Our badges not only identified our name and institution, but also what country we were from.
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- Conferring with our amazing Session Chair, Maria Susy Rogers, from the University of New South Wales.
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- Becky and I outside the conference hall! We made it!
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- Looking down a Barcelona street.
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- The Toledo Cathedral at night.
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- Outside Casa Batllo in Barcelona!
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- While I was in Barcelona, I had to grab the Catalan version of Harry Potter for my collection!
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- If you read, say you read!
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- I stumbled on a public library in Madrid!
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- My time coincided with World Pride 2017 in Madrid.
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- Inside the Royal Palace of Madrid.
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- Inside Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia!
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- The city of Toledo, where everything inside the wall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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- In Toledo, I climbed the Cathedral’s tower, which let me pose for this awesome photo with the largest bell in Spain.