TLA Conference Program Highlights
Ideas Worth Sharing

The preconferences will initiate the resource-sharing theme with such programs as "Keeping the Electronic Gate: Evaluating Internet Resources for Public Libraries;" "The ABCs of Telecommunications;" and "Ho-ILL-istic Management: Toward the Ideal Interlibrary Loan Program," as well as topics on managing change, storytelling, library education and digital imaging. Julie Todaro — TLA's 1996 Librarian of the Year — will preside over "Live from Fort Worth, It's . . . Library Leadership," in which a studio audience will ask questions of an on-stage panel of Texas library leaders.

Noted authors Sandra Cisneros, Richard Rodriguez, Melba Beals, Michael Blake, and Robert Olen Butler will be among the featured speakers at this year's conference. Cisneros, author of Woman Hollering Creek and The House on Mango Street, will share the poignant story of her life in writing. Rodriguez, the controversial and engaging author of Hunger of Memory and Days of Obligation, will call on librarians to maintain their humanistic tradition as their institutions evolve into the computer age. Appropriately, Rodriguez's presentation will share the stage with First Lady of Texas Laura Bush's announcement of the first-ever Texas Book Award grants.

With nearly 200 programs offered at this year's conference, there will be something to address the needs and interests of every attendee. Librarians interested in resource sharing and networking will enjoy such programs as "Statewide Technology Initiatives: School Library Resources Worth Sharing" (April 10, 8 a.m.), and "Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund: What the Future Holds" (April 11, 10 a.m.). If you're interested in intellectual freedom issues, mark your calendar for "What's Confidential and What's Not? An Attorney's Perspective" (April 10, 8:30 a.m.) or "Free Travel on the Infohighway: Public Internet Access and the Right to Know" (April 10, 10 a.m.). Managers and administrators will enjoy topics on management and change such as "Achieving Diversity in Recruitment and Retention" (April 11, 10 a.m.), and "Make Training Worth Every Penny" (April 10, 1 p.m.). School librarians will want to hear "School Library Standards: The Latest Word" (April 10, 10 a.m.) while academic librarians will be interested in "University Without Walls: Higher Education in the Age of Connectivity" (April 11, 11 a.m.).

If picking up signed copies of your favorite books is your favorite conference activity, you will be traveling frequently to the autograph area to meet authors like Eve Bunting, Alexandra Day, Pat Mora, Joan Lowery Nixon, Jerry and Gloria Jean Pinkney, Jane Yolen, and Paul Zindel. Attendees at the Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon will hear from Jon Scieszca, winner of this year's award for Math Curse.