I participated in the Summit of Local and Regional Historical Societies in Baltimore, a couple of weeks ago (May 16). Attended by representatives from historical societies, heritage groups and museums throughout Maryland, we began to take stock of the challenges, strengths, and weakness of museums and special collections libraries and started outlining an agenda for subsequent discussions about planning for the future. It was a helpful experience to hear about the challenges we’re all facing as patron expectations change in the 21st century. It was also interesting to see how similar the problems are and what the opportunities are with things like social media and new types of programming for another generation of patrons. Since this was the start of the summit, meetings will continue through the remainder of 2011.