Public librarians love authors. That means that the Public Library Association conference, going on right now in Portland, Oregon, is the perfect venue for librarians to learn about new books and engage with the authors of their favorites. Some 1,000 attendees showed up for Wednesday's "Book Buzz," which is becoming a regular kick-off at PLA conferences, to hear everyone's favorite librarian, Nancy Pearl, talk with Marcia Purcell of Random House, Talia Sherer of Macmillan, Virginia Stanley of HarperCollins, and Alan Walker of Penguin/Putnam about their best upcoming offerings.
Today's author luncheons, one for children's literature and one for adult literature, attracted large crowds for illustrator Kadir Nelson and Latino Literature Hall of Famer Luis Alberto Urrea, who talked about how the librarians in his life had made connections for him that led to his livelihood as a writer. "As a writer, you have to learn to listen," he said, telling tales about how his home town of Kankakee, Illinois, has made the public library the heart of the revitalization of the city, a story he told in a New York Times article that the citizens of Kankakee revere to this day. "You don't know what a word can do in someone's life," he observed.
Nelson, whose award-winning illustrations have graced the pages of a dozen books, chatted with me after his book signing in the Simon & Schuster booth about the importance of libraries in his life, saying they were the only place where he could do the research and find what he needed to create his illustrations. A reluctant reader as a child, he said it was through the library that he learned how essential reading was to a careeer as an artist.
In the exhibit hall, SirsiDynix CEO Gary Rautenstrauch told me he thought the show had gone well, with plenty of action on the show floor, and that some people were actually in buying mode, even though the economic recession has had a negative impact on the budgets of somewhere around half the public libraries in the country.
Elsewhere in the 400-company-strong exhibit hall, 3M announced that the company has committed to leading the development of a version 3.0 release of the Standard Interchange Protocol to "provide the necessary protocol to meet library needs for interoperability between self-service library devices and software applications with ILS systems to support patron self-service functionality." Ingram Library Services launched its Ingram Wire app, a downloadable desktop application to deliver "relevant book news and collection development information." EBSCO Publishing was promoting its how-to databases, Legal Information Reference Center and Small Business Reference Center. Bretford previewed its new book trucks, and OverDrive announced that its new series of digital content offerings "will significantly increase the value of its library services for years to come."
Public Library Association President Sari Feldman said that in spite of the difficult times public libraries are enduring, Natalie Merchant's "never-to-be-forgotten performance at the conference was a reminder of "the valuable work we do every day" and "gives me hope." Many of the conference programs, Feldman said, focused on best practices and how librarians should approach making the cuts that are going to be inevitable in many places.
