My Antonia chatcast recording online

If you missed this week's chatcast on My Antonia, you can enjoy a recording in WMA format. Thanks to the Cather Project, the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center and moderator Tom Peters for an enlightening session, which, yes, included some discussion of the parallels between Antonia and the Great Gatsby. I'm delighted that Tom postponed the chatcast to allow participation by the Cather Project, so that readers everywhere could ask questions of academics who've devoted their lives to the study of Cather and her works. Oh, and if you want, you can even catch up with Tom's reading notes--this week's brave little experiment.

Willa Cather audio chatcast tomorrow: Article in Nebraska paper

Mark it down--7 p.m. Central Daylight Time on Tuesday: a Meting of the Minds discussion of My Antonia, the classic Willa Cather novel. Cosponsors are the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center in Nebraska and the Willa Cather Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Thanks meanwhile to the Hastings Tribune in Nebraska (for the article below), as well as to the Hastings Public Library and the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial amd Educational Foundation.

Students and fans of Nebraska author Willa Cather will gather via the Internet Tuesday for an e-discussion of the novel “My Ántonia.”

The global “chatcast,” sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Cather Project, begins at 7 p.m. The discussion will feature several panelists, including doctoral students from UNL.

Residents of Webster and Adams counties are especially encouraged to log onto the chatcast. “My Antonia” is set in Red Cloud and the surrounding area.

To join in from home, all chatcast participants need is a 56K dial-up connection, a sound card and speakers or a headset. A microphone is optional since typed questions may be submitted

Necessary software for the chat downloads automatically to the computers of participants and does not include ads or spy programs, said Tom Peters, book-talk moderator for the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.

Peters recommends that those wanting to participate log on a few minutes early to make sure the software is working. The Web address is http://tcconference.com/lib?auditorium&nopass_field=1.

Those wanting to participate but not having the necessary computer setup may contact Pam Bohmfalk, assistant director of the Hastings Public Library, who will try to make arrangements for a hookup at the library. She may be reached at (402) 461-2346.

Copies of “My Antonia” are available from area libraries and booksellers, including the Willa Cather Bookstore in Red Cloud. UNL also has posted an annotated scholarly version of the novel online.

Tuesday’s chatcast is part of the “Meeting of the Minds” series from the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.

* * *

Update, 7:46 p.n.: Here are Tom Peters' Antonia reading notes done with the panel in mind. He didn't do this for formal publication. These are just notes.

Reminder: Audio Book Expo coming up Oct. 29

Some programs of the forthcoming Audio Book Expo on Oct. 29 will be Webcast. Details from the organizers:

Key-note speakers include: Tom Peters of TAP Information Systems, Steve Potash, CEO of Overdrive, Inc., Jenny Levine, "the Shifted Librarian", Metropolitan Library System, and Judy Dixon from NLS. Other speakers include Jane Chamberlain, Adult Services Manager at Bloomington Public Library, Sharon Ruda, Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service, and Diana Sussman of Southern Illinois Talking Book Center. There will also be time for exhibits and ideas.

Huck, kids' books, Douglass autobio to be discussed Saturday

From Tom Peters and the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center:

September is shaping up to be another great month of online book discussions. This Saturday there will be three different online discussions. Beginning at 10:00 Central Daylight Time on Saturday morning there will be a discussion of two children's books which, like all good children's books, should be read and discussed by adults: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and Little House on the Prairie. Beginning at 3:00 CDT on Saturday afternoon there will be a discussion of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Beginning at 7:00 CDT on Saturday evening there will be a discussion of Huck Finn which, along with the Great Gatsby, often comes up in conversations about the great American novel.

On Tuesday evening, September 21 beginning at 7:00 Centrall Daylight Time there will an online discussion of My Antonia. Graduate students at the Willa Cather Project at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln will participate in the discussion. Prof. Susan Rosowki, originally scheduled to take part, has had to cancel for health reasons.

Click here for more information about these events and links to the texts and the online meeting room.

David Faucheux in the snow

A snowy street with fair-sized houses, icy sidewalks and sturdy trees. A dark-haired man in his 30s wearing dark glasses and holding up a snowball perhaps three-quarters the size of a basketball. That's the scene in the black-and-white photo David Faucheux emailed of himself in his library internship days in Illinois. If you're sighted, just click here to see David. In the near future I'll post a portrait of David on his Blogger profile page. No sure if the winter scene is the right photo. Let me think about that one.

Memo to David: It'll be winter in the next few months, and you know about both the southern and midwestern varieties. What's winter like for you? A dangerous time with icy sidewalks? What do you think on a day of the kind shown in the picture? And what was Nader the guide dog's 'tude about snow?

Update, 9:34 a.m.: David likes the questions, and the audio will be coming later this week.

Huck hear tells of a Sept. 11 chatcast

I hear tell they're fixin' to talk about me--them Internet folks--with this audiochat on The Adventures of Huck Finn. That's me, and I'm hoping they'll do a tolerable job of understanding me and Mr. Mark Twain. Now Tom Sawyer, he says they're discussin' courage and freedom and how we is one of the good examples of the American character. I hear-tell this is part of the Libraries Remember Project. Pap never did like book learnin', so I guess I'll get Tom to learn me how to tune this in and make sure they tell the truth.

Detail: To participate Huck will need just a Net connection, sound card and speakers--plus a microphone if he wants to speak up (participants can also type comments and questions). The software is self-installing and does not contain adware. Click here to get to the chatcast room. The Meting of the Minds discussion will happen at 7 p.m. Central Daylight on September 11. Tom Peters is moderator, and the sponsor is the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Athough the chatcasts are for the blind and other print-challenged people, anyone can participate.

Warning: The above is not authentic dialect from the novel. Not sure why. Is it really true that use of IM has already corrupted Hick's speech?

My Antonia audio chatcast to be held Tuesday, Sept. 21

The My Antonia chatcast has been rescheduled for Tuesday, September 21, 2004, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific.

Participating will be Dr. Susan J. Rosowksi, a top Cather specialist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, along with a panel of students from the University. Tom Peters will moderate.

You're invited to join the discussion--or you can just sit back and hear the others. Great Gatsby fans may be especially interested, given the extent to which My Antonia served as an inspiration for Fitzgerald during the writing of Gatsby.

Drop by the Cather Project to learn more about Cather and see an annotated scholarly version of My Antonia. You can also download it in various formats from Blackmask.

To find out technical details--no big deal, the chatcast software downloads automatically and is not adware--see the Meting of the Minds page for the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.

Recording of David's chatcast on historical fiction

You can now enjoy a .wma file of David Faucheux's chatcast on historical fiction--part of the archive for Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL). Large file, 50-minute playback time. (Thanks to Tom Peters and the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center.)