The communities they serve and the community they embody brought close to 7,000 librarians and library supporters to Phoenix, Arizona, March 12–16 for the ninth conference of the Public Library Association, the second largest division of the American Library Association. “This has got to be the biggest family in the country,” Phoenix City Librarian and PLA President Toni Garvey told American Libraries, “and no matter where we meet, it’s home for us.”
ALA President John W. Berry echoed those sentiments at the opening session, observing that many conventions and trade shows had suffered enormous setbacks after September 11, but librarians seem instead to have found their “sense of community strengthened.”
“You are members of the healing profession,” said opening session keynoter Benjamin Zander, leaping on and off the stage, mingling with the audience, and delivering a crowd-pleasing, high-energy performance based on his new book, The Art of Possibility. The Boston Philharmonic conductor and self-described “inspirational speaker” used a grand piano and flip charts to illustrate his points, playing bits of Chopin and Beethoven. “My job is to awaken the possibility in other people,” Zander said.
Public librarians showed their love for authors by putting dozens of them on the program, with Diana Gabaldon, Francisco X. Alarcón, and Nora Roberts among the luncheon speakers. The conference offered more than 100 breakout sessions, many devoted to community-building and the best ways to deliver library service.
A full report on the conference is scheduled for the May issue of American Libraries.
Posted March 18, 2002.