SIOBHAN REARDON	JOHN SCALZI

OPENING SESSION | Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017

Library Futures: Balancing the Importance of Change With Traditional Preferences

Siobhan Reardon, President & Director, Free Library of Philadelphia

There are many exciting changes occurring in the library space across the country and internationally, from community building to physical buildings to programming that places libraries at the center of a community. These changes are occurring rapid-fire and against a backdrop of a desire to maintain traditional library services that meet the needs of the community. Siobhan Reardon will take a look at how libraries are handling this change, how diminishing budgets have played a role, and today’s best examples of how to handle this balancing act. Reardon was Library Journal’s 2015 Librarian of the Year.

CLOSING SESSION | Friday, Oct. 6, 2017

Living in Two Americas

John Scalzi, Award-winning author, blogger, film critic and columnist

John Scalzi is rapidly becoming one of the most highly regarded science fiction authors in the country. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Redshirts, an intergalactic sci-fi adventure that won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He is sometimes gets labeled as a “coastal elite” for his political views, but fans are often surprised to learn that he lives in Bradford, Ohio (population: 1,850). He’ll talk about what it’s like to spin between two Americas: his liberal world community of writers and creative people that he sees every day online and at professional gatherings versus his physical world, a conservative community of friends and neighbors and the place he calls home. Explore how we all find ourselves living simultaneously in two separate worlds and how we balance this reality. Scalzi is the former president of The Science Fiction and served as a creative consultant for the television series Stargate Universe. His other works include the popular Old Man’s War series, The Android’s Dream, Agent to the Stars and Lock In.