Library Love Fest

This Ink is Overdue?

It seems like every day we get another email about library cuts or closings across the country.  So when this landed in my inbox, it brought a welcome smile to my face.  Marilyn Johnson's This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All has been one of our departmental favorites for quite some time now (our blog is called Library Love Fest).  But Jenn O'Donnell, library worker and devotee of This Book is Overdue!, has trumped us all.  Jenn writes:

"I completed my MLIS in 2007 and have finally obtained my first "professional" library position, after working at the circulation desk at a public library and in a support role at a law firm library. I could think of no better way to celebrate than having picture of the super librarian from the cover of This Book is Overdue!."

Jenn, you are truly a badass.  Check it out!

Now, more than ever, America needs its libraries, and its librarians.  For more information on the current library cuts, here's Marilyn's Op-Ed in the L.A. Times.  And for more on This Book is Overdue!, check out the Facebook page, or browse inside the book.

-Kayleigh

Sneak Peek: ALA Annual 2010!

We at HarperLibrary are so excited about attending the American Library Association's Annual Conference in June.  It gives us the opportunity to spend time with the people we love the most...LIBRARIANS!  Although it is a month and a half away, our author lineup and conference events are in full swing.  Please stop by our booth (# 2513) for all the action and some great giveaways! Check out some of the authors and events you will NOT want to miss: 

Saturday, June 26, 2010
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Auditorium Speakers Series
Nancy Pearl with Mary McDonagh Murphy, author of Scout Atticus and Boo

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
HarperCollins Seasonal Title Presentation
To RSVP, send an email to: bobby dot brinson at harpercollins dot com
(Note: The HarperChildren's Books Seasonal Title Presentation will immediately follow starting at 11:30 AM)

10:30 AM - Noon
ALTAFF Program: Isn't It Romantic?
Featuring Sophia Nash, author of Secrets of a Scandalous Bride

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Mary McDonagh Murphy, booth signing
Scout, Atticus and Boo

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Sophia Nash, booth signing
Secrets of a Scandalous Bride

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Stacy Parker Aab, booth signing
Government Girl



Sunday, June 27, 2010
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Literary Tastes Breakfast
Featuring Adriana Trigiani, author of Very Valentine

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Adriana Trigiani, booth signing
Brava, Valentine

1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
ALTAFF Program: Authors Come in All Colors
Featuring Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, booth signing
Wench

5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
ALTAFF Program: The Laugh's on Us
Featuring Roy Blount, Jr., author of Hail, Hail, Euphoria!



Monday, June 28, 2010
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Auditorium Speakers Series
Dennis Lehane, author of Moonlight Mile

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Dennis Lehane, booth signing
Moonlight Mile

10:30 AM - Noon
ALTAFF Program: First Author, First Book
Featuring Daphne Kalotay, author of Russian Winter

11:00 AM - Noon
Marilyn Johnson, booth signing
This Book is Overdue!

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Daphne Kalotay, booth signing
Russian Winter

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
ALTAFF Gala Author Tea
Featuring Laura Lippman, author of I'd Know You Anywhere


HarperCollins is a proud sponsor of ALTAFF (www.ala.org/atlaff).  For tickets, please call 1-800-545-2433 ext 2161.

I am sure we will be adding to this already dymanic schedule, so please visit us for further updates.  We look forward to seeing you in DC!

Enjoy!

-Bobby

Listen now: Marilyn Johnson on Blogtalk Radio!

Today's the big day! Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, is on Blogtalk radio (2 pm EST) with Virginia Stanley and Earlyword's Nora Rawlinson.  If you need an incentive to listen, here's a quick review of This Book is Overdue! from reference librarian Lisa Steckhahn (West Allis Public Library):

I was very excited to read this book and hear an outside perspective on libraries and librarians.  Marilyn Johnson shows that librarians vary but they all have a common goal: help people find information.  As the amount of information increases in our daily lives it becomes more evident someone is needed to organize and document it.  Johnson also challenges the image of a librarian behind a desk.  Radical reference and Second Life demonstrate what can happen when librarians take to the streets and cyberspace.  Reading about the various ways libraries and librarians are changing the world is very inspiring and has made me think of my job in a new and different way.  I think the general public has many misconceptions about librarians and hopefully after reading this book they will see that librarians are not set in their ways.  Libraries can change as society changes and in many cases lead the way to a better future. 

Curious? Call or write in with a question for Marilyn, and we'll send you a copy of the book.  Just remember to register here. 

This Interview is Overdue!

On Friday we told you about Virginia's Blogtalk Radio interview with James Grippando, slated for tomorrow, Tuesday March 16th at 3 pm EST.  Don't put your planners and calendars away just yet, though--this Thursday, March 18th (2 pm EST), Virginia will also be interviewing librarian-favorite, Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.  Joining them will be Nora Rawlinson, founder of Earlyword.  Remember, if you call or write in with a question, we'll send you a free book.  Just be sure to register here beforehand. 

Happy listening!

-Kayleigh 

This Book is Overdue Continues to Soar!

We at Harper Library are so excited about the buzz continuing to surround This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson.  Check out this wonderful article featured on Salon.com that gives a great “shout-out” to the book.  The article also features an interview with Marilyn Johnson, where she talks about her motivation to write This Book is Overdue! 

I will send free copies of This Book is Overdue to the 10 lucky people who send us a comment or an email at librarylovefest at harpercollins dot com.  If you would be so kind as to send a brief review of the book, I would greatly appreciate it!

Enjoy!

-Bobby

This Book is Overdue!

The buzz is building to a fever pitch over Marilyn Johnson’s forthcoming book entitled THIS BOOK IS OVERDUE:  How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.  Recently, Francine Fialkoff, Editor-in-Chief of Library Journal sat down with Ms. Johnson to discuss the future of libraries.  Head on over to LJ and enjoy!

-Virginia

This Book is Overdue Receives Even More Praise!

The reviews are continuing to come in about Marilyn Johnson’s forthcoming book, This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (on sale February 2010).  In addition to the amazing review we received from Booklist, check out these wonderful quotes:

“Johnson does for the library profession what Malcolm Gladwell did for the theory of memetics in The Tipping Point.”
-Nora Rawlinson, Co-Founder and Editor, EarlyWord.com

“I have worked as a librarian for 35 years.  In these pages I met the past, present and future of my profession.  Johnson knows what we know.  It is great to be a librarian!”
-Barbara Genco, Librarian and Collection Development Consultant

For those of you attending ALA-Midwinter in Boston next month, please do not miss your opportunity to meet Marilyn where she will be signing complimentary copies of her book, This Book is Overdue during the conference:

Monday, January 18, 2010 
HarperCollins booth (#1403)
11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Boston Convention Center
415 Summer Street
Boston, Massachusetts

ALTAFF Author Tea
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Hyatt Regency Boston
Grand Ballroom
1 Avenue de Lafayette
Boston, Massachusetts

For tickets or additional information about the ALTAFF Author Tea, visit: www.ala.org/altaff
or call 1-800-545-2433 x2161

In addition to hearing Marilyn speak about This Book is Overdue, check out the other authors that will be featured at the ALTAFF Tea:

• Holly LeCraw, The Swimming Pool (Doubleday)
• Janice Y.K. Lee, The Piano Teacher (Viking)
• Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Teri Woods, Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge (Grand Central Publishing)

We are very excited about This Book is Overdue and we hope you are as well.  Also, as Kayleigh mentioned earlier, if you haven’t read the first chapter, check it out here!

Enjoy,

-Bobby

Booklist reviews...This Book is Overdue!

Librarians have been raving about Marilyn Johnson's forthcoming This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.  Now Booklist is joining in--here's their full review. 

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All.
Johnson, Marilyn (Author)
Feb 2010. 288 p. Harper, hardcover, $24.99. (9780061431609). 020.92.

Contemporary librarians are morphing into undisputed masters of the information cosmos. An Internetsavvy, database-crunching cohort of multimedia manipulators passionately dedicated to empowering the data-deprived, they democratically distribute all the fruits of the emerging hypertext universe. Johnson’s paean to this new generation of librarians demolishes superannuated myths and stereotypes of fusty librarians filing catalog cards and collecting fines for overdue books, and replaces that with a vision of the profession’s future where librarians serve as guardians and guides to information in cyberspace. These rock-star librarians maneuver their way through a labyrinthine network of glowing computer-terminal screens to retrieve whatever answers patrons may seek. If that’s not high calling enough, librarians stand tall as superhero sentinels bravely beating back every assault on civil liberties and Constitutional government. Johnson offers portraits of American librarians, both institutional and freelance, already achieving fame as cybrarians and informationists, and she affirms and celebrates their conquests. Take that, Nicholson Baker!— Mark Knoblauch

Don't forget, you can read the first chapter here! 

-Kayleigh

This Book is Overdue!

The buzz continues to grow for This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson.   Due out in February, this book explores the role of librarians today and focuses on the increasing demands to keep up with the onslaught of new technology.  This book is an homage to librarians everywhere – and it is long overdue! Check out this interesting Q&A the author did with The Desk Set, a site written by ‘a group of New York City area librarians, archivists, bibliophiles and other bookish types,’ and be sure to read the first chapter here.  
 
-Virginia

AAP Spring 2010 Book Buzz

It was great seeing old friends and making new ones at last week’s AAP Book Buzz here in NYC.  The AAP Library Committee is comprised of library marketers from various publishing houses. We get together several times a year to brainstorm about different ways we can connect our authors and books to libraries.  We decided to invite librarians from the tri-state area and barrage them with book talks and sandwiches!  It worked – we all had a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity to talk about some upcoming books that have us jazzed  (there’s just never enough time to talk about them all!)

Marilyn Johnson, author of the upcoming This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All kicked off the event with a brief talk about the increasing demands on librarians to keep up with the onslaught of new technology.  This book is an homage to librarians everywhere – and it is long overdue!

If anyone is interested in a galley of This Book Is Overdue, I have a few to spare.  Send an email to me at librarylovefest at harpercollins dot com and I’ll be happy to send one to you. 

Here is a list of the books I had presented.  Clicking on each title will bring you to its page in our online catalog.  Note: a few of these titles won't hit our catalogs until the beginning of November, so we've put them at the end of the list.  Happy reading!

-Virginia

Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd

31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani