Audio version

Page 2 • Cognotes 2014 Annual Conference

Lineup of Auditorium Speakers to Brighten Vegas

The Auditorium Speakers Series offers a rare opportunity to hear leading authors, thought-leaders, and experts from adult and youth fiction, technology, popular culture, and other areas offer these stimulating general sessions on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, June 28 - 30, during the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Jane Fonda Saturday, June 28 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.

Jane Fonda is a legendary Oscar -and Emmy-winning actress, successful producer, fitness guru, New York Times bestselling author, and activist and advocate on issues ranging from the environment to human rights. You might be less aware that her focus for almost 20 years has been on adolescent reproductive health and the empowerment of women and girls. Fonda will offer informative options for a large number of your patrons and students, drawing on her forthcoming book You, Your Body, Your Life when she appears as an Auditorium Speaker on Saturday, June 28, 8:30-9:30 a.m.

You, Your Body, Your Life (March 2014, Random House) is a frank, straightforward and thorough guide to the body, sexuality, pregnancy prevention and STIs, identity, friendship, family, feelings, and more. It is informed by Fonda's personal experience working in the field of adolescent sexuality and development with young people and experts at The Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, which she founded in 1994, and Emory University's Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health, which she founded in 2001, as well as two years of independent research. It addresses her conviction that young people are still not getting the information they need.

Fonda also sits on the board of the Women & Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Women's Media Center (which she co-founded in 2004), and V-Day. A former UN Goodwill Ambassador, she is frequent speaker on youth development, child sexual abuse, eating disorders, adolescent reproductive health, and more. Her appearance at 2014ALAAnnual Conference is sponsored by Random House.

Azar Nafisi Saturday, June 28 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Azar Nafisi, award-winning, critically acclaimed author of Reading Lo-lita in Tehran, the long-running New York Times bestseller published around the world in 32 languages, will offer insights into her work, including her engagement in promoting literacy and reading books of universal literary value.

Described as a master of modern memoir, Nafisi returns in her latest book, Things I've Been Silent About, to Iran and her childhood. The book is a personal reflection on women's choices, a portrait of a woman, a family, and a troubled homeland, her exploration of a young girl's pain over family secrets and a mother's lost life, a young woman's discovery of the power of sensuality in literature, and the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheaval. Attendees will also learn more about her forthcoming book, The Republic of Imagination: A Portrait of America in Three Books (Viking, October 2014).

Reading Lolita in Tehran received

» see page 9

Jane Fonda (photo by Firooz Zahedi)

Azar Nafisi (photo by Stanley Staniski)

Lois Lowry and Daniel Handler to Appear at President's Program

Lois Lowry, legendary best-selling youth author and two-time Newbery Medal winner is the featured speaker at Barbara Stripling's ALA President's Program & Awards Presentation, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 29. Stripling will conduct an interview with Lowry and moderate a Q & A with the audience.

Lowry is one of the world's most beloved and versatile authors for children and young adults. The author of more than 40 books, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series, she has also been honored with the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader's Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. For her contribution as a children's writer, she was a finalist in 2000 (and U.S. nominee again in 2004) for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. In 2007 she received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contribution to young adult literature. Lowry's appearance is sponsored by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.

The ALA Awards will be presented before Lowry's appearance. Daniel Handler himself will present the first ever Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity. This award, co- administered by the ALA Governance Office and ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, is described by Handler/ Lemony Snicket as follows: “It is of the opinion of Lemony Snicket, author, reader, and alleged malcontent, that librarians have suffered enough. Therefore he is establishing an annual prize honoring a librarian who has faced adversity with integrity and dignity intact. . . . It is Mr. Snicket's hope, and the ALA's, that the Snicket Prize will remind readers everywhere of the joyous importance of librarians and the trouble that is all too frequently unleashed upon them.”

Lois Lowry (photo by Matt McKee)

Daniel Handler (photo by Meridith Hauer)

Make Your Case for Attending!

Making the case for time off and support for travel and expenses to attend a conference requires a solid understanding of the potential benefits to your institution, supervisor, and colleagues. And you need to be able to communicate those benefits clearly - especially in times of tight budgets and reduced staff. Use the information that follows to help make your case.

1. Familiarize yourself with the points in “Why you'll be more valuable to your library after the conference,” and read the quotes from your colleagues.

2. Get the costs together, showing how much you can save if you register and book travel and housing early.

3. Study any preliminary in formation about the program that is available, identifying sessions, events, and pro grams that could help you do your job better.

4. Share preliminary program information with your colleagues. Talk to your colleagues who are unlikely to at tend about how your attending could benefit them, what kind of information you could bring back to help them, and what sessions they'd like you to go to.

5. Share program information with your supervisor and find out what sessions and programs they think would be of greatest benefit to your workplace.

6. Review the topic-specific pre- conferences and institutes to see if any are especially applicable to you and your workplace.

7. Put together a draft plan for how essential tasks will get done while you're away, in cluding how technology will keep you accessible and in touch as needed.

8. Develop a draft plan for after you get back - describe how you'll share the list of discussion and action items you develop during the conference, how you'll share notes from sessions, discussion groups, vendors, and useful informal conversations, and by when you'll provide a written report for your supervisor. Promise that you'll focus on implementing one new idea that pays back many times the in vestment of time and money!

9. Put your request in writing — use this sample memo and this budget worksheet if they are helpful. And if you need more ideas about funding, get helpful tips and links from this YALSA blog post.