Time flies when you are having fun. We’re closing out 2001 for ICON and it seems it only started. Seems like yesterday when we were at the ICON Christmas party enjoying good food and good company. Now we’re getting ready for the 2001 Christmas celebration. Where does the time go?

This year has meant a lot to me. I continue to learn much from the members of ICON. As fate would have it, I now have to put my money where my mouth is in the subject of “consumer”: In the medical field, we talk about educating consumers, levels of understanding, and providing service. Now I have the opportunity to dive in, head first, to that challenge. Who is your community? How do you let your community know about what quality tools are available for their health care needs and what different means of communication can you use to accomplish this goal? I now view many things in a different light: MedlinePlus, Nebraska Library Association, even the Nebraska Library Commission. It’s very exciting - and very rewarding.

NLA/NEMA 2001 Conference was wonderful this year. The opening reception was in the Arch. My favorite session was on Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick, a Nebraskan who had a habit of spending most of his paycheck on books! The City of Lincoln Historian, Jim McKee, told this incredible story. A descendant of "the" Thomas Jefferson, it is believed the core part of Fitzpatrick’s collection was inherited from the famous former president. But wait, you say, Jefferson’s library started the Library of Congress. But if a collector gives away his collection, does he stop collecting?! Of course not! After Fitzpatrick’s death in 1952, it was realized that his collection (books, newpapers, journals, sampling of plants both exotic and extinct) numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Any passion worth having is a passion worth living! For additional information, please click here

I would like to thank all of my colleagues, supporters, and friends. I couldn’t have made it through 2001 without you. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you.
And, as always, we’re encouraging members, both new and not-new, individuals and institutions, to join in the festivities and benefits that are ICON for 2002 and beyond. Our CE plans to be exciting and awe-inspiring. Membership, for those onlookers, is easy and pretty painless. Join ICON and join the fun!

You are formally invited to attend the next ICON meeting. Watch for the time, date and place.

--Rose Schinker, Senior Executive Board Member