#ALAAC2018 New Orleans: celebrities, friends, food, and books

17,599 librarians and vendors met in New Orleans for the ALA Annual Conference.  That's many fewer than Chicago '17 (23,485) but more than Orlando '16.  (Chicago conferences always draw more because so many people can come in just for a day or two.)  I've been to six annual conferences (88, 93, 99, 06, 11, 18) and two midwinter meetings (98, 02) in New Orleans so I've been to most of the French Quarter tourist attractions (and in 2006 had a tour of the Katrina-damaged 9th Ward).  This year I didn't have any large chunks of spare time in which to go exploring (besides, it was just too hot).

The nice thing about conferences now that I'm retired is that I don't have conference guilt (the need to learn important things to implement at the library and justify the expense).  I can go to events that sound interesting and skip those that might be boring. And I don't have to save receipts!

Pat and I had the same flight from ORD-MSY on Wednesday. That evening the Freedom to Read Foundation hosted dinner at B.B. King's Blues Club.

FTRF met all day Thursday. I'm the United for Libraries liaison to FTRF. It's one of the best committee assignments ever.  Our Thursday lunch was at Mulate's right across from the convention center.  (I've managed to have lunch there at each conference.)











The Executive Board Survivors (those of us who served on the ALA Exec Board) had dinner on Thursday evening at the historic Court of Two Sisters. It opened in 1832.

Left: "touch the gate -- it will give you charm."









Friday's opening general session was memorable!  People began queuing at 10 a.m. The doors opened at 2 p.m.  The hall was set for 8,000.  And, thanks to the ALA Legacy Society,  Pat and I had VIP entry: a far shorter line and third-row seats!

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden was
entering just in front of us. She said she was a little nervous but she was just going to follow the script.

She hardly looked at the script because Michelle Obama did not need prompting. She reflected on  growing up in a middle-class black neighborhood where she went to public schools (and the library!), her career, her family, and being First Lady  She was delightful, warm, natural, bubbly.  (She described what was involved when her daughter was invited to spend the night at a school friend's.  "Hello, Mrs. Julia'sMom. Thanks for inviting Sasha to spend the night with Julia.  First I'll need the social security numbers of everyone in your household for background checks. And the Secret Service will need to sweep your house for weapons.  Is dinner time okay to drop her off?")

The Penguin Random House reception on Friday evening was at the National World War II museum. The entire facility was open to us.   I only got halfway through the excellent exhibits.

 The Victory Belles sang Andrews Sisters and other period favorites.

The exhibits featured archival film footage and big-screen graphics.

Of course I find quilts at museums. This was in a recreated living room.












Conference programs began (finally!) on Saturday.   I moderated a panel in the morning.






Road Scholar had a booth in the exhibits. I spent two hours as a volunteer (enough time for the staff representative to get some lunch).







ProQuest/Alexander Street has a customer appreciation breakfast every conference. They get great speakers/presenters -- this year was no exception.  Award-winning director Shirley Jo Finney and actors Gilbert Glenn Brown and Karen Malina White performed and talked about their touring production of The Mountaintop. It's about Martin Luther King's last night when the angel of death visits him in the person of the maid at the Memphis motel.  Wow!

Lois Ann Gregory Wood has worked at ALA for 50 years, 30 of them as Council Secretariat. She will retire in December so this was her last annual conference.  She was honored by present and past councilors. (Her husband Don has worked at ALA just as long. They're taking a lot of institutional memory with them.)


I went to several book-and-author panels and met other authors in the exhibits.   There are SO many great books coming out in the next six months. Of course I said that in February after the Midwinter Meeting. (I managed to get more than halfway through those books.)

One box arrived before I got home. The rest arrived on Wednesday.

  What will he read next?

The Library Goddess sits atop a 15-year accumulation of conference badges. I am going to to need to start a new container.

Next post:  the 2018 quilt auction!