Valerie Hawkins's blog

Q. I got to explain to an older patron today that audiobooks can be downloaded! She last listened to an audiobook when they were still on cassette tapes.  Now that she knows, she would love to give her 13-year-old granddaughter something else to listen to on her tiny music player. I told her about the Odyssey Award. Does ALA have any lists of audiobooks for children?

Q. There's been a discussion online about how many YA (young adult) books were published in the last few years.

Q. I wasn't able to be at the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.  Will the speeches be published somewhere?

Recognizing that the Top Tweets blog posts (see links below) of the 2011 ALA Annual Conference were choices of ALA staff, I thought I’d take note of the tweets that were retweeted heavily among the attendees. Below are five of the #ala11 tweets that were retweeted by 30 others—and even more!

On Tuesday, June 28, most bid a fond farewell to the Annual Conference’s New Orleans environs—while others carried on the work of the Association… And—Hey! A couple of the exhibitors looked in on the #alaleftbehind!

On Monday, the Annual Conference Weekend was beginning to take its physical and mental toll—including on @ALAAnnual, which accidentally tweeted about Tuesday’s Closing General Session with Molly Shannon as if occurring that early Monday morning (which was me; oops).  Yet there was rejuvenation…

On Sunday, Annual Conference attendees acclimated to their New Orleans environment and enjoyed the nightlife—but still clearly missed home… .

Feedback. Saturday’s 2011 ALA Annual Conference tweets definitely had feedback as the theme—on the “hot spots” (or lack of same) within the convention center; on the breathless (and seatless) popularity of some sessions; on this conference of library colleagues itself… .

In reference to these not being gathered until today, Monday, June 27, I’m hoping that with some of them you’ve had enough distance (!) that you can look back and laugh now.

Well, the Top Ten—and a few more! Two camps quickly sprung up this first “pre-day” of the 2011 ALA Annual Conference, hashtag vs. hashtag on the Field of Twitter: #ala11 vs. #alaleftbehind (And… #Nerdfest?!)