Vermont Library Conference 2008

I will be traveling to Burlington tomorrow, Tuesday, for the annual 114th Vermont Library Conference. These yearly events are attended by hundreds of Vermont and other New England librarians. The conference is there to renew your professional batteries, attend programs, and catchup with colleagues.

Each conference is unique, but there are some programs that one can count on from year to year. My favorite is the Rapid Reviews program spearheaded by Amy Howlett, Vermont Department of Libraries southern consultant. Amy and her fellow reviewers-Ernie Drown, and Dan Greene from U-32 High School-- do a tag-team match of their top book choices since the last conference. Here is the description from the conference program:

Interested in a quick look at the best books published since May for adults that were NOT best sellers? Try this program and bring a pencil to keep track of the gems you want to read


This is a combination of fiction, non-fiction, adult, young adult books. Here is a link to last year's crop. Amy will email me the 2008 choices after the conference and this will go into the Brattleboro Reformer's For the Love of Books Thursday column in the Ovation arts and entertainment supplement.

Next week I will do a podcast of my favorite conference programs. Watch this space for it, or tune into Brattleboro's WTSA-FM station to hear it.