6.28.2012

ALA12 Conference

The picture to the left is just a glimpse of the exhibit hall at the American Library Association's National conference in Anaheim, California.  While going to the workshops is fun (and informative), I have to say that my favorite part is the exhibit hall.  If you have been to the ALA conference, then you know that opening day of the exhibit hall is a mad house.  I had little old lady librarians pushing me out of the way to get free books. Needless to say, I survived that first day and went back each day for more.  Below you will see a picture of all of my free books.  The ones on the top shelves are the ones that I acquired from ALA12 and most of them are signed by the author. 
Just to give you an idea of how awesome this conference is, here are just a few of the authors I met:  Merissa Meyer, Ally Condie, Paolo Bacigalupi, Chris Cline, John Corey Whaley, Jack Gantos, James Dashner, Ruta Sepetys, Marie Lu, and many more.  Two highlights from the trip were participating in the Young Adult Koffee Klatch and going to the Printz award ceremony.  At the koffee klatch, I was able to meet and talk to many YA authors about their current and upcoming books.  At the Printz award ceremony I heard speeches from the Printz award winners including one hilarious speech from Daniel Handler and Maria Kalman, where they sang a multi verse song "Without Libraries We'd Be Dumb".  I also attended some great workshops about collaboration, technology, and common core.  I was just hired this week to be an elementary school librarian where I live in North Carolina, so I am very excited to be able to incorporate some of these new ideas into my library!