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This year’s President’s Endowment Dinner was held at the Lake Hickory Country Club and sponsored by Solinet and Webfeat. All funds raised from the dinner admission goes to the NCLA Endowment fund in efforts to fund future NCLA events and conferences. As a guest at the Webfeat table I was able to discuss the functionality and capabilities of the federated search engine among fellow library professionals. We also had an opportunity to discuss opportunities for improvement for current functionality and possible upgrade features for future versions of Webfeat.
The evening’s main event was a musical cabaret by EbzB Productions entitled WAR BONDS: The Songs and Letters of World War II. The two-hour production incorporated popular tunes from the late 1930s to mid 1940s, including Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, I’ll Be Seeing You, and As Time Goes By. In between musical numbers (and an appearance from Marlene Dietrich), the performers read actual letters from U. S. servicemen, women, Churchill, and Roosevelt. The letters, along with the deeper meanings of the song lyrics, highlighted the intensity of society and the world at that time. As a student of History, I was greatly appreciative for the opportunity to experience this event.
WAR BONDS has recently finished taping their production to air on UNC-TV and a scaled-down version will be included in a forthcoming documentary by Ken Burns entitled THE WAR. The UNC-TV version is set to air this coming December (but word at the conference said it may be in January 2008).