Information on our conference keynote presentations:

• Nancy Pearl: Thursday Kick-Off
• Brian Fugere or Jon Warshawsky, Authors of Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: Friday Morning
• Dr. Loriene Roy: Friday Business Meeting
• Nancy Kranich: Saturday, Julie J. Boucher Memorial Lecture on Intellectual Freedom
• Nick Arvin: Fiction, War, and Community: Not Necessarily in that Order

Nancy Pearl
The Pleasures and Perils of a Life of Reading
Thursday, November 8

Nancy will share the origins of her love of reading and libraries, how the Book Lust books came to be written, what she’s discovered some of the perils of a life of reading can be, and, along the way, of course, she’ll suggest some good books to read.

Nancy Pearl speaks about the pleasures of reading to library and community groups throughout the world and recommends books regularly on NPR's Morning Edition. She’s the author of Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest; Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; and More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, all published by Sasquatch Books. In 2004 she was awarded the Women's National Book Association Award, given to "a living American woman who "has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation."

Nancy Pearl Photo by Marco Prozzo

Brian Fugere or Jon Warshawsky, Author of Why Business People Speak Like Idiots
Friday, November 9

If you think you smell something at work, there's probably good reason -- Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn't have to be that way. The team that brought you the Clio Award-winning Bullfighter software is back with an entertaining, bare-knuckled guide to talking straight. Grab your cape and sharpen your sword. It's time to fight the bull! www.fightthebull.com

Dr. Loriene Roy
Can an ALA President Get RadiCAL?
Friday, November 9

Dr. Roy, ALA President, will speak about library services for immigrant populations, those incarcerated, and indigenous children. Hear how an ALA President works to weave attention on communities of interest into her presidential year.

Loriene Roy is a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. She received a PhD from the University of Illinois and also holds degrees from the University of Arizona and Oregon Institute of Technology. Her professional work focuses on library services for indigenous populations. She serves as Director of "If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything," a reading promotion program for schools on or near reservations. She teaches graduate courses in public librarianship, reference sources and services in the humanities and social sciences, and library instruction and information literacy. Her research also includes creating tribal college virtual libraries, virtual museums of indigenous material culture, and co-developing an intelligent agent for book recommending. She is Anishinabe (Ojibwe), is enrolled on the White Earth Reservation, and is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Pembina Band). She was born in Cloquet, Minnesota and raised in Carlton, Minnesota near the Fond du Lac Reservation.

Nancy Kranich
Information, Civic Engagement and Human Rights
Saturday, November 10

Are Americans prepared to protect their information rights in the 21st Century? Toward the end of the last century, people across the globe in places like Tiananmen Square and the Berlin Wall rejoiced in an exuberant explosion of free expression, insistently demanding elemental human liberties, self-determination, and democratic participation. Many of these people looked to the ideals of the United States for modeling their newly found individual liberties into democratic governmental structures. Earlier in the twentieth century, these ideals were incorporated into Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), guaranteeing that everyone has the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This session will discuss how librarians can engage members of their communities in a dialogue about information and human rights and what it means to them in the digital age.

Nancy Kranich, a tireless champion of the public's information rights, served as President of the American Library Association. She has led the library community's efforts to promote civic engagement, open access, and free expression. Nancy has chaired ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and served as Senior Research Fellow at the Free Expression Policy Project in New York. As a civic librarian, she launched ALA's civic engagement membership initiative. In addition, she leads a local National Issues Forum group in State College, PA, and serves on the board of the National Issues Forums Institute. Nancy was Associate Dean of Libraries at New York University where she managed NYU’s libraries, press, and media services. She also worked in public libraries in Bridgeport and Windsor, CT, and Madison, WI.

Nick Arvin
Fiction, War, and Community: Not Necessarily in that Order
Saturday, November 10

Nick Arvin will talk about his experience as the author of Articles of War, this year's One Book, One Denver, and the role of fiction in building community, the role of community in wartime, and why he owes everything to one mean librarian.