At the Hawaii Archivist's Conference

Today was a busy but fun day. I was re-elected to the board of the Association of Hawaii Archivists. AHA had our annual conference on Saturday at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and Shangri La. AHA conferences are more often about exploring culture rather than a typical day of workshops and panels about archival practice. They usually are real treats; thus, many librarians and friends join AHA. Today's highlights were Dr. Stephen Little's talk on the "Life in the Pacific of the 1700s: The Cook/Forster Collection of the Georg August University of Göttingen" (as well as the exhibit itself. Judy, Laura, Kanani, and Jim helped me to appreciate kapa and other artifacts. Mary Ann and Ron gave excellent detailed tours of the Academy's archives and library. Both have done an amazing job of developing their collections. They credited Dr. Little with the new vision that allowed them to be professionals. Over lunch I came to understand their respect for his vision.

In the late afternoon many of us went to Shangri La. It was my first time to see Doris Duke's mansion. I've always appreciated the aesthetics of Arab calligraphy and art, so I've been curious about the place for a while. She was a great philanthropist. The natural location and some aspects were breathtaking, especially the tiled floors. It was interesting to understand her vision, although some of the clashing juxtapositions and chatchkees were rather jarring. I am very happy I went though. The tour was quite well done.

The board was exhausted by the end of the day, so we cancelled our working dinner meeting. This allowed me to drop in on the ALA Student Chapter social at Brew Moon. After one of Microbrew and much talking I was ready to call it a day. I did not have energy left to join them in watching Why We Fight back at the Duke Theatre.

I have more photos from the day as a set on my Flickr site.