My first full day at the Public Library Association Conference

Hi from Philadelphia!  I am here for the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference and am very tired after a full day on the go. My hotel is a few blocks from the Convention Center, a three-level monster of a building which takes up several blocks itself.  Of course, wherever I need to be is not near where I am at the time. So I'm getting lots of exercise and I wish I had brought that backpack, Julie! My scooter would have come in handy too!

I started my day early, hearing a panel of publishers talk about their upcoming titles for children and teens, plus trends in the youth market. This session was followed by another panel of publishers talking about upcoming adult titles. Frankly, I would rather have heard from librarians about new books because it's the publishers' job to promote their titles, whether they are any good or not. Not exactly unbiased recommendations, I'd say.  Still, I got some ideas for new books that might go over well in Freedom.

I wasn't quite fast enough in responding to an emailed invitation to lunch with Nancy Pearl sponsored by Amazon Publishing. I hear the luncheon was filled in 10 minutes of sending the email! I went anyway, hoping that there might be room, and sure enough I got in. Nancy Pearl is quite famous in the library world for her "Book Buzz", her enthusiastic endorsement and promotion of books that she loves. She can often be heard recommending titles on NPR's "Morning Edition". At this luncheon, we got to hear about her new baby, "Book Lust Rediscoveries". She is the force behind this new Amazon Publishing series devoted to reprinting some of the best (and now out of print) novels originally published between 1960 and 2000. A new title will be published every other month. I won my table's door prize - the first two titles in this series: "A Gay and Melancholy Sound" by Merle Miller and "After Life" by Rhian Ellis. They will soon be available for checkout at the library!

It was my pleasure to attend the Opening General Session in the afternoon, featuring a keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who spoke eloquently for 70 minutes without a single note. His topic was the environmental, social and economic consequences of a reliance on oil and coal for energy and his conviction that we must (and will, sooner or later) switch to alternative sources of energy including solar, geothermal and wind. He gave some grim statistics about the hidden costs of our reliance on non-renewable energy and the barriers that are keeping us from pursuing alternatives, but had a positive message about how do-able the change is and what a positive effect it will have on our economy and lives.  It was an excellent speech!

A few weeks ago, I sent a message on a national email list for children's librarians, asking if anyone wanted to get together during PLA to brainstorm about the Summer Reading Program. Nine of us from all over the US met this afternoon to share our ideas, our methods, and our questions. I'm sure this gathering will be one of the most useful things I did at this conference and I think everyone who participated felt the same way. Several of us went out to dinner together afterward to continue the conversation. Fun!

Tomorrow will be a full day of workshops. In the evening, I will get together for dinner with my daughter Ellie who is a senior at nearby Bryn Mawr College. Stay tuned for Part II.  Good night!