Thursday, March 31, 2005
9:00-10:45

Opening General Session

Join us in opening our 2005 conference.

The First General Session will feature speakers addressing issues of importance to the Oklahoma library community.

Welcoming us will be The Honorable Harold Haralson, Mayor of Norman.

Barbara Clubb is the 2005/2006 president-elect of the Canadian Library Association. She is the City Librarian and CEO of the Ottawa Public Library. Barbara recently received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for significant contributions in her community and Canada. Professionally active in the international library scene, Barbara is the immediate past chair of the IFLA Public Libraries Section of CLA.

National award winning Oklahoma novelist, Rilla Askew is the 2004/05 Artist in Residence for the English Department at the University of Oklahoma. Inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers in 2003, she twice received the Oklahoma Book Award; first in 1993 for Strange Business, and again in 1998 for The Mercy Seat. Her most recent novel, Fire in Beulah, a story about two families during the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots received the American Book Award and the Myers Book Award. The Mercy Seat also won the Western Heritage Award in 1998 and was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Raised in Oklahoma, Askew graduated from the University of Tulsa and later completed her MFA in creative writing at Brooklyn College. She has taught creative writing at Brooklyn College, the University of Central Oklahoma, Syracuse University and The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Speakers: Rilla Askew, Barbara Clubb and Harold Haralson.

Of interest to all librarians.