ALA Anaheim: The Throne Room

Though the science fiction and fantasy session featured three speakers, I suspect that many in the audience had come especially to see the last--author of Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin. With few unfilled chairs, It was sro--or maybe HBO. Who'd have thought that there were that many subscribers? Maybe the fact that this was a library conference meant that readers added to the viewers.

ALA Anaheim: Votes for Women (Carnegie 2)

Maybe the winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Non-fiction were foreordained. The fiction winner was about a woman's extramarital affair. The non-fiction was a biography of Catherine the Great, a powerful woman who was not unacquainted with a large number of lovers.

While the winners were determined by librarians, who are in a profession where the majority are women, it seems unlikely that the protagonist of either book was seen as a role model.

ALA Anaheim: The Dog Ate My Homework (Carnegie 1)

"Eighty percent of life is showing up."--Woody Allen

     The ceremony for awarding the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Non-fiction was to begin on Sunday evening at “8”--but it was a soft 8, a ragged 8, a late 8, a several minutes after 8.

     There were six nominees, split between fiction and non-fiction. Only two of the six authors were present, and neither received the prize. Of the four who weren't on hand, their excuses were:

a sick family member (one of the winners);
was in Ireland, where she lived (the other winner);
was in Europe, where she was traveling (but she did give a cute talk, via an internet transmission)

The last nominee had the best excuse. He had died.

ALA Anaheim: President Unprecedented

At the opening session the new ALA president spoke. When I began my library career (said she) I never expected that one day I would be head of ALA.

Now, if you are walking down the street and suddenly you are clobbered by a meteor, you may say honestly that you never expected that. Or if you learn that you are actually the long-lost heir to the Russian throne, after your faint you can dazedly admit that you never had the least idea that this would happen. Or if one morning you wake up to discover you have been transformed into a cockroach or Mickey Mouse, that is something never expected.

But an ambitious person beginning in librarianship probably thinks about future advancement to a high position.

Between Two Bales of Hay

The ALA conference in Anaheim offers many programs, an embarrassment of opportunities. Yet meetings cannot be too attractive, for they have a competitor; not so much from other meetings but from the semi-euphemistically named exhibitors (i.e., sellers), who partly sponsor the conference.

If there are too many attractive meetings, the exhibitors lose their customers, who have a time budget. On the other hand, if too many meetings appear dull or irrelevant, fewer library people will attend the conference.