Chris Walker is coming -- mark your calendars!

As many of you probably know, CBC personality Chris Walker was interested in doing an Itchy Feet presentation at the library.  Some of you have also probably heard that I nixed the idea.  It's partly true.

On my first day as interim head librarian, I was asked about scheduling an Itchy Feet presentation for him this season.  At that point, I was completely overwhelmed, desperately did not want to take on any extra obligations for myself or the library, and it never occurred to me just how many people would be disappointed (WNMS members, library patrons, other members of the community, and even Chris Walker himself).  So I had a staff member send him our regrets by e-mail.

Later that day, a member of WNMS called me, and very kindly connected the dots for me.  She expressed how disappointed everyone would be if Chris didn't get to make an Itchy Feet presentation, and showed an amazing willingness to help if logistics were a problem.  In response, I had the same staff member e-mail Chris back and re-open the conversation.

Since then, I've heard from many different members of the community, and it's been unanimous.  Everyone wants to see Chris Walker's presentation.  There are people who I'd never expect to see excited who are absolutely thrilled he's coming.  In short, there was no way we could turn him down.  So we've been in touch with Chris, and agreed on a date for his presentation.


Mark your calendars!

"Building Blocks:  Architecture and Religion in the Middle East"

with Chris Walker

Friday, May 7th

CBC Radio mentions TRPL

CBC Radio One mentioned our library this morning in reference to Betsy Trumpener's upcoming visit. They even mentioned our website and gave the URL, which was pretty spiffy. In fact, the only downside was that as of this morning, the poster for Mike Nash (tonight's Itchy Feet author visit) was occupying the main page of the library's website, and the Betsy Trumpener stuff was off to the side in the Events bar.

I updated the main page to feature the poster for Betsy Trumpener and Barbara Adler (after all, if CBC is going to give us publicity, we should try to coordinate matters), and removed Mike Nash's poster. I felt a little bad, but later rationalized it. I have the next four days off, so it was a choice between cheating Mike Nash out of a few hours of website advertising and cheating Betsy Trumpener and Barbara Adler out of four days worth.