Chatting with Christie Hefner

ALA Annual Conference keynote speaker Christie Hefner took a few minutes to chat with me before her Opening General Session speech. Hefner is the director of the Center for American Progress and longtime CEO of Playboy Enterprises, the company founded by her father, Hugh Hefner, and restructed and expanded by Christie. Asked what her major message to librarians would be, she said it two words: "Thank you." "I actually love librarians," she added, and part of my message is going to be how fortunate I've been in being able to work with librarians for 30 years, and part of message is the challenges—and the opportunities to rise to the challenges—of redefining what a library is today." Hefner also commented on the death of ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Director Judith Krug, a friend and colleague. "I first got to know her when they started the First Amendment Award [1979]," she said, "and she was a judge and a  presenter and really an inspiration. Judy was the consummate organizer; she was one of those rare people who was in equal parts disciplined and warm and fun, and therefore a joy to be with. It was for all of us who knew her an indescribable loss." Hefner also said of Krug, "We were allies in many important fights—ALA v. Reno,  we were tied together, to defeat a bill in Congress to cut funding for Braille editions, and other censorship initiatives that came out of Congress. Judy was a warrior." Aware that some members of ALA objected to her selection as keynote speaker because of her affiliation with what they see as a sexist publishing empire, I asked Hefner how she made it in the "man's world" her father created and how she turned it around. Her response: "One of the reasons I succeeded is that I surrounded myelf with talented women, over 40% of our executives were women, and that was an enormous advantage for us." Hefner got the conference off to a rip-roaring start, and with the total attendance figure today at 27,353, higher than projected.