Project DINE

Submitted by Brian P. Bunnett

What are the distinguishing characteristics of a librarian?  I’ve often ruminated on this topic and have come up with a preliminary list.  First, they like to read.  Although they themselves are not always well organized they are good organizers, viz., of meetings, conferences, or of data.  And speaking of conferences, they, like their scientist colleagues, are avid attendees at professional meetings and conferences, which accounts, by the way, for the canvas reg bags they are always seen carrying.  They are likely to be more introverted than otherwise, although there are notable exceptions.  They incline naturally towards sharing and cooperation.  And, of course, they love to eat.  These characteristics are most often seen in combination rather than isolation.  This accounts, for example, for their desire not just to consume but to also read about food, not just to organize a meeting but to organize one in which food plays a prominent role.

The above helps explain the enthusiasm for Project DINE (Dinner In New England).  At the MLA in Minneapolis last May, it came to light that another chapter holds its business meeting at a restaurant.  This news, this revelation, spread quickly through the ICS.  Soon we were all asking ourselves the same question – why don’t we do something like that?  I talked the situation over with our Chair-Elect, Alicia Livinski, and we decided to stage a sort of rehearsal of this dinner at the MLA in Seattle in 2012.  This would lead up to the real thing - a full-fledged dinner business meeting at a restaurant with actual waiters, menus, and adult beverages – at our 2013 meeting in Boston, thus Dinner In New England.

We need some volunteers to serve on the Project DINE Task Force.  These members will be entrusted with a mission that is unprecedented in the history of the section – I know this is true because I just finished reading this history (see my blurb, elsewhere in this newsletter, entitled “Volunteer Sought to Update Section History”). This mission is to find an appropriate restaurant in Seattle in which to hold our rehearsal dinner and then, based on this experience, explore what will be involved in holding the real thing in Boston in 2013. 

In an informal poll I conducted in late August a slight majority of the respondents favored having our 2012 business meeting at its usual time (indecently early in the morning) and usual place (the conference hotel). Our rehearsal dinner will be an occasion for us to socialize and otherwise whoop it up but no section business will take place.  Our 2013 business meeting, it is hoped, will be held in the evening at a private room in a restaurant, perhaps with corporate sponsors subsidizing the wingding.

Contact me if you are interested in serving on the Project DINE Task Force (bbunnett@salud.unm.edu).

Brian P. Bunnett
University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center
Email: bbunnett@salud.unm.edu