For the next two days I’ll be attending (and blogging about) the second biannual conference of the College Book Arts Association (founded in 2008, see www.collegebookart.org), “a non-profit organization fundamentally committed to the teaching of book arts at the college and university level.” The conference is at Indiana University, where I went to library school over a dozen years ago. As I begin to plan out a program focused on the book arts and the history and future of publishing at the Watkinson, I’ll need to grow a network of professionals I can rely on for advice and collaboration. In fact, this has already begun—Kitty Maryatt of Scripps College (and a CBAA member) gave me some great advice and contacts for getting the Washington press up and running. It was Kitty who led me to my press “expert,” and she also suggested I attend this conference. Her website at Scripps is also a fount of useful information.

I was SUPPOSED to attend the opening reception tonight at the Lilly Library, where I cut my teeth on rare books, but the Philadelphia airport got in my way.  First we had no pilot, then no crew, and by the time I got to IU (14 hours after I left my house), it was all over.  I trust tomorrow will be more productive.