• ERT Silent Auction Info
• Program Listings by Track   (updated to include date/time)
• Book Cart Drill Team Championship
• Exhibit Information and Hours
• Chicago City Tours and Outings
• New! Race to Taste 5K Run/2-Mile Walk
• Preconferences  (these events require registration)
• Banquets and other events  requiring Registration

Schedule of Major Events

Exhibit Ribbon Cutting and Opening
Saturday, 8:45 am

Auditorium Speaker Series Session: Erik Larson
Saturday, 8:30 - 9:30 am
Learn More

Opening General Session featuring Barack Obama
Saturday, 5:30 - 7:00 pm
Learn More

ALA/ProQuest Scholarship Bash at the Museum of Science and Industry 
Saturday, 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm 
Learn More

ALA President’s Program
Sunday, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Learn More

Auditorium Speaker Series Session: Book Lust with Nancy Pearl
Sunday, 10:00 - 11:00 am
Learn More

Auditorium Speaker Series Session: A Live Videoconference with Ray Bradbury; Moderated by Sam Weller, author of 'The Bradbury Chronicles'
Monday, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Learn More

Auditorium Speaker Series Session:  PLA President’s Program and Awards Presentation with David Sedaris
Monday, 5:00 - 6:30 pm
Learn More

Closing Session featuring Henry Winkler
Tuesday, 8:00 am - 9:00 am 
Learn More

Inaugural Banquet and Awards Reception
Tuesday, 5:00 pm - 12:00 am

Opening General Session featuring U.S. Senator Barack Obama!

Saturday, June 25, 5:30 - 7:00 pm

Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public serviceas a community organizer, civil rights attorney, and leader in the Illinois state Senate. Obama now continues his fight for working families following his recent election to the United States Senate, where he serves on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees legislation and funding for the environment and public works projects throughout the country, including the national transportation bill. He also serves on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee where he is focused oninvestigating the disability pay discrepancies that have left thousands of Illinois veterans without thebenefits they earned. Senator Obama will also serve on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Obama is the author of Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Obama graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991, where he served as the first African-American president of theHarvard Law Review. He has worked as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, and law professor. Since 1997, he has represented parts of Chicago’s South Side in the Illinois General Assembly, prior to his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Sponsored by Random House.

 

Closing Session with Keynote Henry Winkler

Tuesday, June 28, 8:00 - 9:00 am

Henry Winkler is instantly recognizable and admired by audiences of all ages for his role as the Fonz  on the long-running series, Happy Days. In addition, he is an award-winning producer and director of family and children's programming. His projects include Happily Ever After for PBS' Wonderworks; CBS Schoolbreak Specials, and ABC After School Specials. Recent series include Sightings for the Sci-Fi Channel and Disney’s So Weird, which was voted one of the top ten family programs for three years in a row by TV Guide Magazine.

He is the Executive Consultant on Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, a Saturday morning adventure on NBC. He has completed the first seven novels in a series of ten published by Penguin Young Readers Group called Hank Zipzer: The World’s Best Underachiever. The books follow a young boy who discovers for the first time that he has learning challenges.

Winkler has also continued his acting career on the big screen, including a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Nightshift, a starring role in the box-office hit Scream. On television, he has a recurring guest-starring role on FOX’s Arrested Development, Crossing Jordan, The Practice, and NBC’s Law & Order: SVU. He also starred on Broadway for nine months in Neil Simon’s play The Dinner Party.

Winkler is deeply committed to children’s welfare and works with numerous children’s groups. He is involved with The MacLaren Children’s Center (a facility for abused children), The National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped, The Special Olympics, and The Los Angeles Music Center’s Very Special Arts Festival, as well as numerous teenage alcohol and drug abuse programs. He is a founding member of the Children’s Action Network, a non-profit organization that sponsors informational briefings for writers, producers and directors on children’s issues and serves as a clearing-house for the entertainment industry on children’s issues.

Sponsored by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

ALA President's Program

Coming Full Circle: The Library as Place

Sunday, June 26, 3:00 - 5:00 pm

"A good library is a place, a palace where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet." – Samuel Niger

While virtual libraries, 24-hour hotlines and computer access to books and collections add immeasurably to the services that we can provide to our users, we must not forget the value of the library as a gathering place for the community and the myriad roles fulfilled by the library as place. The library is the hub of the community in ways that resonate far beyond the provision of information. The library is also a cultural center, a forum for democratic debate, an after school meeting center, a welcoming environment for those new to our shores and a sanctuary of opportunity for the poor and underserved.

Join ALA President Carol A. Brey-Casiano and a panel of distinguished speakers in a discussion and exploration of the history and future of the library as place.

 

Auditorium Speaker Series Session:
A Live Videoconference with Ray Bradbury;
Moderated by Sam Weller, author of 'The Bradbury Chronicles'

Monday, June 27, 1:30 - 3:30 pm

Join Sam Weller as he talks with Ray Bradbury live via videoconference for a one-of-a-kind discussion with this literary icon.

More than any other literary figure, Ray Bradbury has imprinted a one-of-a-kind 'tattoo' on modern culture. To this day, this brilliantly inventive and incredibly prolific 84-year-old creative force continues to enthrall readers of all ages.

Award-winning journalist Sam Weller met Bradbury while writing a cover story for the Chicago Tribune Magazine and has spent hundreds of hours interviewing Bradbury, his editors, family members, and longtime friends. With unprecedented access to private archives, he has uncovered never-before-published letters, documents, and  photographs that help tell the story of a literary genius and his remarkable creative journey. The result is The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury, a richly textured, detailed biography that illuminates this fascinating mind.

The author of more than three dozen books, Ray Bradbury is one of the most celebrated fiction writers of our time. Among his best-known works are Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, as well as thousands of short stories. He has writen for the theater and the cinema, including the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's "The Ray Bradbury Theater," and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2000, Mr. Bradbury was honored by the National Book Foundation with a medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Marguerite.

Sam Weller is the former Midwest correspondent for Publishers Weekly. An award-winning journalist, he is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune Magazine, National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the Chicago-based NPR program 848. He lives in Chicago, IL with his wife and baby daughter.

This program is sponsored by HarperCollins, and is presented in cooperation with the ALA Public Programs Office.

 

Audtiorium Speaker Series Session:
A Morning with Erik Larson

Saturday, June 25, 8:30 - 9:30 am

Erik Larson is the author of the #1 national bestseller The Devil in the White City, which was nominated for a National Book Award. Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men – the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Larson is a former feature writer for The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine, where he is still a contributing writer. His magazine stories have appeared in The NewYorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and other publications. Larson's previous book was the New York Times bestseller, Isaac's Storm. He lives in Seattle with his family.

Erik Larson appears courtsey of Random House

 

Auditorium Speaker Series Session:
Book Lust with Nancy Pearl

Sunday, June 26, 10:00 - 11:00 am

In this heartfelt and humorous speech about her life of reading, author of More Book Lust (Sasquatch Books, 2005) Nancy Pearl tells how her childhood library saved her from an unhappy home life and how the librarians there encouraged her to parlay her love of reading into a career in books. She discusses the many pleasures a life devoted to reading as well as the perils that come along as well, like getting memories of books mixed up with real life experiences and talking like the characters in books you¹re reading. A truly heartwarming, hilarious, and inspirational speech for every librarian and book lover.

 

PLA President's Program featuring David Sedaris

PLA President's Program & Awards Presentation featuring David Sedaris as part of the ALA Auditorium Speaker Series

PLA President Clara Nalli Bohrer presiding
Monday, June 27, 5:00 – 6:30 pm

PLA President Clara Nalli Bohrer invites you to attend PLA’s premiere event at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference featuring David Sedaris. David Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his strange-but-true experiences of his job as a Macy’s elf clad in green tights, reading his “SantaLand Diaries” on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Sedaris’ sardonic humor and incisive social critique have since made him one of NPR’s most popular and humorous commentators. Sedaris is the author of the bestsellers Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day, which immediately became a national bestseller.

Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name “The Talent Family” and have written several plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center, and The Drama Department in New York City. These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, Incident at Cobbler’s Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was published in book form by Dramatist’s Play Service. His essays appear regularly in Esquire and The New Yorker.

Sedaris’ original radio pieces can often be heard o  This American Life, distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ in Chicago. In 2001, David Sedaris became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He was named by Time magazine as “Humorist of the Year” in 2001. His most recent book is Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (June 2004).

Mr. Sedaris appears by special arrangement with the Steven Barclay Agency, www.barclayagency.com.

 

Featured Event

Intellectual Freedom: A Casualty of War?

Monday, June 27, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

Sponsored by ALA-IFC

It is said that the first casualty of war is the truth. Certainly, experience has shown that during wartime, access to information and the freedom to express ideas have become curtailed. This session will explore the history of Intellectual Freedom in wartime, the extent to which the current wars have impacted speech, and strategies for the book and information communities to help maintain our liberties during "perilous times."

Join Geoffrey R. Stone, noted First Amendment scholar and author, as he leads a program on "Intellectual Freedom: A Casualty of War?" Stone is the author of a highly praised new book, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime. Stone, the Harry Kalven Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, was dean of the law school from 1987 to 1994 and provost of the university from 1994 to 2002. He recently represented Fred Korematsu in an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court of the United states in the Guantanmo Bay case.

Co-sponsored by the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

Book Cart Drill Team World Championship

Sunday, June 26, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
McCormick Place Convention Center, North Exhibit Hall Lobby

Watch a Library Bookcart Drill Team March into History at the First Ever World Championship Event

Come and cheer your favorite team on to victory! And if you don’t have a favorite team, just come and enjoy the show. You might just get inspired to start a team at your library. This is the first Bookcart Drill Team World Championship and it’s not to be missed. Who will take home the title of World Champion?

Join our announcer, along with color commentator Sarah Long, along with judges Linda McCracken, Yakima Valley Regional Library in Yakima, WA, Co-Author of The Library Book Cart Precision Drill Team Manual; John Wall, Chairman of the Board of DEMCO; and ALA Immediate Past-President Carla Hayden.

Our Participating Teams include:
Thousand Oaks Library Precision Drill Team, Newbury Park, CA
Lincoln Library Cartwheelers, Springfield, IL
Dewey Decimal Dancers, Frederick, Maryland
Dewey, et al for my Baby, Madison, WI
The Pitt Crew, Pittsburgh, PA
Cart Capades with the Bookettes, St. Charles, IL
Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL
Readin' & Rollin', Batavia, OH
Las Vegas Bookies, Las Vegas, NV
Bookin' It, Coal Valley, IL
Jerome Rollers, Bowling Green, OH
Cart Attack, Racine, WI
Oak Park Public Library Cart Tarts, Oak Park, IL
Bookcart-o-Saurus from Elgin, IL

Sponsored by Demco

Race to Taste 5K Run/2-Mile Walk

Sunday, June 26, 8:30 am

ALA will not be sponsoring the Annual Fun Run this year, but attendees can still take part in a race! The Race to Taste 5K Run/2-Mile Walk will be held Sunday, June 26, as part of the Taste of Chicago. The 5K run begins at 8:30 a.m. sharp at the corner of Balbo Avenue and Columbus Drive with the 2-mile walk immediately following at 8:35 a.m.

The run/walk route will take racers along Chicago’s beautiful lakefront bike path. The top three overall male and female finishers will receive a cash prize, and many raffle prizes will also be awarded. To celebrate the Taste of Chicago’s 25th birthday, each participant will also receive a coupon redeemable race day only for a free strip of Taste coupons. Click here for information on the Taste of Chicago festival.

Early registration is $20 per person — however, ALA has arranged a special early registration price of $15 for Conference attendees who register through ALA. Race day registration (June 26) is $25. The race site is Columbus & Balbo. There will be no official ALA shuttles running to or from this event.

In order to receive this special ALA rate, download and complete the offical form and send to Amy McGuigan, American Library Association 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611 or fax to 312/280-3224. Forms sent in directly to City of Chicago will not receive the discounted rate. All entries must be received by ALA by June 17.

The Stacks - 2005 ALA Annual Conference Exhibition

Visit over 1600 booths with products and services designed to help you manage the library of the Millennium. The Stacks will be located in the exhibit halls in the McCormick Place Convention Center. Hours are: Saturday, June 25 - Monday, June 27, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm and Tuesday, June 28, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.

Visit our Interactive Online Floor Plan

Special Exhibit Floor Events

Meet the Authors: Your opportunity to meet and get autographs from favorite adult and children's authors and illustrators. Check the Final Conference Program for a details on author signings.

Poster Sessions: Poster sessions give librarians the opportunity to make peer-to-peer presentations on research, innovative programs and problem solving ideas. For more information, visit our General Information page.

Stacks Stage: New! Hear live Interview with your favorite authors. You never know who will join us at the Stacks Stage. Interview times will be available on here soon, and in the Final Conference Program so you can plan your time accordingly.

Exhibits Closing Reception: Beginning at 9:30 am on Tuesday, and continuing until the exhibits close, enjoy the Closing Reception being held throughout the Exhibits Hall. There will be free food to snack on, and exhibitors will be offering special giveaways in their booths, and like last year, great prizes from the exhibitors and ALA will be raffled off through the reception. This is a great way to wrap up your conference experience in Chicago, so be sure to join us!

LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage

In Aisle 3000 of the Exhibition Hall

Saturday, Sunday & Monday ~ Noon - 4:00 p.m.

Take a break from a day of meetings and programs and stop by the LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage in the Exhibition Hall to enjoy readings from new and favorite authors and poets, learn how to develop author programs for your library, and find new recommendations for your patrons. 

Each year, acclaimed and new writers grace the Reading Stage.   This year’s line-up includes:

Elizabeth Berg	Rebecca Kohn
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni	Poet Laureate Ted Kooser
David Ellis	Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Maria Amparo Escandon	Orlando Ricardo Menes
Tim Farrington	Susan Power
Nikki Giovanni	Christina Pugh
Susan Hahn	Edward Schwarzchild
Kathryn Harrison	Lisa See
Kent Haruf	Faith Sullivan
Ingrid Hill	Christian Wiman
Leonard Kniffel

Check the conference program and Annual Conference Web site in the upcoming weeks for announcements about the authors appearing on this year’s stage.

 

The LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage is presented by the ALA Public Programs Office.