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 News Update

Current News Update: October 31, 2008
Message from Executive Director: October 31, 2008
Previous News Updates and Messages from the Executive Director
ATLA Press Room

Current News Update: October 31, 2008 

TLM Cartoon Contest

The six finalists have been chosen (three for each caption), and now it’s time for you to select the two winners. Click here to find out how to vote for your favorites. (10/31/08)

It’s Time to Send In Your TLM News

Now that October is in its waning hours, please be sure to contribute any news, stories, photos, and other items from your TLM celebrations so that they may be added to the website. Simply send them to scorkery@atla.com, and we’ll be sure to post them for you. (10/31/08)

ATLA Publication Series Update

The American Theological Library Association is pleased to announce the release of Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames per Second by Julien Fielding as ATLA Publications Series #4. This book prepares scholars and students to see the influence of world religions upon recent cinematic films. Research on the expanding role of religious imagery and themes in popular media is growing, and that sub-discipline is well-served by this study. The ATLA Publications Series is a joint effort by the ATLA and The Scarecrow Press to offer resources for theological librarianship and learning. ATLA members receive a 20% discount from The Scarecrow Press on orders within the three ATLA/Scarecrow books series. (10/31/08) 

TBN Has Moved

The Theological Book Network (TBN) facilitates the growth of developing world church leaders and educators by providing theological and scholarly texts to under-resourced seminaries and libraries. This rapidly-growing non-profit organization has recently moved to a new facility, motivated in part by the tremendous support of ATLA schools. Please take a look at their newsletter for details about the move and other recent activities, or visit the TBN website to get more information and find out how you can help. (10/31/08)

November System Maintenance

Routine maintenance plus an ISP upgrade will be performed on ATLA systems on Monday, November 3rd, 2008. You may encounter a interruptions in service between 4:00pm and 8:00 p.m. (CST). Services that will be affected include ATLAS, ASE and the ATLA Website. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience. (10/31/08)
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Message from the Executive Director

Friday, October 31, 2008

Old Dog Trying to Learn New Tricks

Today marks the end of nearly 12 years of weekly updates that I’ve posted to the ATLA website each week. It’s something that I’ve enjoyed doing both because of the opportunity it has afforded me to communicate with you, the members, and to hear from some of you when a particular message resonates with you. 

Next week we will launch our new monthly newsletter, and I’m confident that it will be a significant advance in our ability to  update you more frequently and to help connect all of the various individuals, institutions, regional and denominational groups, committees, interest groups, and task forces that make up the Association.

It’s the right time to end the weekly update as well. So this is my last column.  However, since I’ve heard from a number of you about the weekly messages, I’m planning to investigate software that would allow me to continue the update as a blog that would be available to those who wish to receive it. That format would also allow us to develop conversations about a variety of topics and provide more opportunity for interaction with readers. I hope to have mastered the new method by January. 

Here’s my observation for this week. Two things caught my attention: 1) an article about the advent of credit cards in 1971 with the observation that they made everyone feel better off than they were, and 2) the announcement by a store that it was going back to the layaway plan for customers. That’s what I grew up with – paying a little money each week until the item was paid for and only then obtaining it. It strikes me that there is a huge psychological difference between credit cards and layaway plans, and that difference has quite a lot to do with our current financial crisis. 

So, that’s it for now. I’ll hope to re-engage with some of you in a blog format in January. Thanks for your thoughts and comments during the past 12 years. 

 

Dennis A. Norlin

ATLA Executive Director


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