Large and excited crowd at the Ridgedale Public Library in Hennepin County! We started the day having breakfast with some librarians in a charming place in Wayzata. Then it was on the the workshop. Michael was fabulous, as usual.

I’m now home, safe and sound, and resting up from a very busy week. What a wonderful experience! (Below is a photo snapped of Michael and me…)

Really exciting, rousing session today in Mountain Iron. The group was very engaged, very curious about the new L2 tools, and anxious to jump into the deep end of the pool. I’m headed back in June to teach Blogging to anyone who’s interested.

In our new search for Really Enormous Statuary, we were told - much to our disappointment - that the local Really Enormous Loon was not yet up for the season. (It apparently hibernates.) However, we were alerted to the Really Large Hockey Stick, which is in Eveleth. I needed to either take the Batman photo (seen here) or walk across the street to get the whole thing in.


On to Minneapolis and tomorrow’s packed session at the Ridgedale Public Library in Hennepin County.

Mary Beth & Paul Bunyan
Originally uploaded by mstephens7.

I got to sit in Paul’s hand, too….

Lovely day in Detroit Lakes. Absolutely beautiful library - one of those Carnegies that has been remodeled very, very well. There were these lovely friezes mounted on the wall. Michael found out they were discovered in the basement during the remodel, and were so pristine they were able to be used as models for the new part of the building.

After the presentation, we headed out on the road for Mt. Iron. Lovely, lovely scenery. Lots of lakes and trees and lakes and trees. And then, we saw Paul.

Yes, that’s Paul Bunyan with Michael in the palm of his hand. Apparently, Minnesota is the Land of Enormous Statuary. We heard there was a huge turkey just outside Detroit Lakes, but we weren’t able to visit since it wasn’t on our route. Maybe next time.

Willmar, MN. Beautiful library. Great group of folks - interested, engaged, and willing to take on new ideas and try new stuff. Hopefully, they’ll go forth and blog, or wiki, or RSS…

Traveled from Willmar to Detroit Lakes. Beautiful day, and beautiful scenery. Lakes and lakes and lakes.

En route, we passed the Belgrade Centennial Memorial. With a Really Big Crow. I mean Really Big Crow. We couldn’t resist stopping and taking some photos.

Tomorrow will be the Detroit Public Library…

Cool Big Boss blogged about Michael’s presentation, too:

SELCO Librarian: Michael Stephens Talks about Cs but He is A

At our hotel, I noticed a tent sign in the bathroom:

True comfort is complete when you can curl up with a good book. With our “Book it and Return” Program, you can borrow a book from our guest library, then simply return it on your next visit to any Country Inn and Suites by Carlson location in North America.

For each book returned, we’ll donate $5 (USD) to ProLiteracy Worldwide, the world’s oldest and largest non-profit educational literacy organization.

Hmmmm.

So, in the tradition of “radical trust”, as Michael pointed out this morning, a hotel chain is trusting their guests to grab a book and return it whenever they happen to visit again. The books themselves were printed for the chain; their logo and the program information are printed on the covers. They’re paperbacks, both for children and adults. Relatively new stuff - Sue Grafton, Richard Evans. Not a huge selection….but what a great idea!

I chatted with the staff about the program this morning, and the manager told me that they will occasionally have a guest take a book and sit in the lobby in front of the fireplace and read all night.

I wonder what we can learn from this?

Had a wonderful day with Michael at SELCO. The session was live-blogged by the Multitype Librarian: Tame the Web Minnesota“, who is my Cool Boss and was (of course) in attendance. Lots of the staff was there, and were in their official “Tame the North” shirts.

After the presentation, we drove to Willmar, the next stop on the tour. The trip took four hours, mainly because of brutal construction delays in the Minneapolis area. We collapsed in an Applebee’s and had dinner, and then were on to the hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel was having issues with their wireless connection. No blogging or Flickring!

This morning we’re off to the Willmar Public Library….and then this afternoon, we’ll drive to Detroit Lakes.

The much-touted Michael Stephens tour starts Monday. We’re all excited at MPOW.

Michael and I will be touring the state; lots of blogging to follow.

We even made tour shirts! (Our shirts are in B/W, but the original color art rocks, if I do say so myself.) Can’t wait….