Renewing Our Mission in New Orleans - Page 2

Other exhibit highlights include the What’ Cooking @ ALA Cooking Demonstration Stage, where chefs will prepare their hottest recipes and autograph their latest books, which will also be available in the Cookbook Pavilion. Take a break from a day of meetings and programs and stop by the LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage. Enjoy readings from new and favorite authors, learn how to develop author programs for your library, and find new recommendations for your patrons. The stage will run Saturday, June 25, and Sunday, June 26, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Monday, June 27 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The PopTop Stage will focus on popular librarian favorites—mystery, romance, technology, and travel—with readings, discussions, and presentations. Hear from authors, illustrators, and creators of the hottest games and graphic novels at the Graphic Novel/Gaming Stage.

The Wrap-up Rev-Up Exhibits Closing Celebration takes place on the exhibit floor Tuesday, June 27 from 2 to 4 p.m., with entertainment, snacks, and prize drawings. The event is designed to prepare conferees for the upcoming 2012 Midwinter Meeting, January 20–24, in Dallas.

Molly Shannon, whose debut children’s book Tilly the Trickster will be published in September by Abrams Books for Young Readers, is the Closing General Session speaker Tuesday, June 28, from 9 to 10 a.m. The Emmy-nominated actress became famous for her roles on Saturday Night Live. Shannon has appeared in numerous hit movies, including Superstar, Never Been Kissed, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and featured on top-rated television shows, including Glee in 2010, and 30 Rock, Scrubs, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, Sex and the City, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. She also recently starred in the Broadway show Promises, Promises.

President’s Program probes Wikipedia

Sue Gardner, executive director of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, will be the guest of Roberta Stevens at her President’s Program Sunday, June 25 from 4:30 to 5 p.m. to discuss “Wikipedia: Past, Present, and Future.” Gardner was formerly head of cbc.ca, the internet platform for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s radio, TV, and new media public broadcaster and the nation’s largest journalistic organization. She began her career in 1990 on the now-classic radio program As It Happens.

Celebrity circle

The Auditorium Speakers Series continues June 25 through June 27, beginning with the Mystery Panel featuring J. A. Jance and Harlan Coben Saturday, June 25, from 8 to 9 a.m. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, the Ali Reynolds series, and four interrelated thrillers about the Walker Family. Coben is the New York Times number-one bestselling author of numerous adult novels and the winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award, and Anthony Award—the first author to receive all three.

Jeff Kinney, whose work has been widely credited for its ability to turn reluctant readers onto books, is the Saturday, June 25, speaker from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Since publication of the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in April 2007, more than 35 million copies are in print in the United States, and the books have been sold in more than 30 countries. The series has won a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award and numerous other awards voted on by students and teachers in schools around the globe. In 2009, Kinney was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.

William Joyce addresses conference-goers Saturday, June 25 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. He put his personal stamp on all types of children’s media: He’s written and illustrated such picture books as George Shrinks (Harper, 1985), Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo (Harper, 1988), Bently & Egg (HarperCollins, 1992), and Santa Calls (HarperCollins, 1993). Joyce is the recipient of three Emmy awards for his Rolie Polie Olie animated television series and has developed character concepts for Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. His films include Robots and Meet the Robinsons, and he’s currently co-directing Rise of the Guardians and producing The Leaf Men, based on his picture book. The first book in Joyce’s Guardian of Childhood series debuts this fall from Atheneum with Man in the Moon.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, speaks Saturday, June 25, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. He is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity (New York University, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004). In his newest book, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) (University of California, 2011), Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google—and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe.