Special Events

*Denotes events included in the Package Plan Registration. You will also receive one Section Luncheon.

Please note that ALL ticketed events are SOLD OUT.

Wednesday, October 21

Tour of the Wild Center
2:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Don’t miss this opportunity to experience The Wild Center.  The tour will depart from the Convention Center and includes a ‘Back of House Tour’ of the facility where you get to see how the staff cares for their animals, as well as the ‘New Path Walk’ which examines innovative technology and environmental design of the facilities green exhibits.  Weather permitting, participants will also have the chance to explore the new Wild Walk.
Tickets are $30 per person and includes transportation and admission.
Registration deadline is 9/25.

Tour of the Adirondack Correctional Facility
12:15 PM – 3:30 PM
Have you always wanted to see first-hand what a prison library program looks like?  This tour will take you through the Adirondack Correctional Facility, including their library.  After the tour, light refreshments will be served in the visitors’ hospitality center, providing for networking, an opportunity to ask questions, and share observations.
This program is sponsored by CORT.
Tickets are $25 per person and include transportation.
Registration is capped at 15 participants and must be received by 9/25.

NYLA125: Explore. Learn. Grow. Opening Ceremony
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
In honor of NYLA’s 125th Anniversary, and in deference to the conference being held in Lake Placid, this year’s conference will feature an opening ceremony. Join in the procession of libraries and library systems and be greeted by American Library Association President Sari Feldman as we kick off the 2015 NYLA Annual Conference!
This is a free event.

NYLA Past Presidents’ Dinner
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Join in the gathering of former presidents of NYLA for an evening of memories and reflection, along with pondering and predictions. Hosted at the Boat House of the Lake Placid Club, founded by Melvil Dewey, the evening will be steeped in history.
Tickets are $65 per person.

CORT Annual Dinner
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Join members of the Correctional and Outreach Resource Team (CORT) for their annual gathering and dinner.
Tickets are $25 per person.

Thursday, October 22

NYLA Annual Membership Meeting
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Open to all NYLA members

Navigating NYLA
11:00 AM– 12:00 PM
Sponsored by: NMES
Wondering about how to get the most out of your NYLA membership and your attendance at the conference?  This session will provide you with what you need to know to leverage your involvement.
This is a free event.

*Empire State Center for the Book Luncheon
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Don Papson is the founder and past president of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association (NCUGRHA), and the curator of exhibits for the North Star Underground Railroad Museum at Ausable Chasm. NCUGRHA and the museum preserve and interpret the history of the Champlain Line of the Underground Railroad. Don is co-author with Tom Calarco of Secret Lives of the Underground Railroad in New York, Sydney Howard Gay, and the Record of Fugitives (2015).


 

Stephen Kiernan is the author of the 2013 novel The Curiosity. His nonfiction books are Last Rights and Authentic Patriotism. As a journalist for over 20 years, he has won 40 awards, including the George Polk Award. He has taught at Middlebury College and the New England Young Writers Conference, and chairs the board of the Young Writers Project. He served on the Vermont Legislative Committee on Pain and Palliative Care and joined the advisory board of the New Hampshire Palliative Care Initiative. He lives in Vermont with his two amazing sons.



Tickets are $45 per person.

PLS Author! Author!
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Lake Placid Pub & Brewery
813 Mirror Lake Drive, Lake Placid, NY
PLS is excited to announce that this year's Author! Author! event will feature New York Times best-selling author Will Schwalbe in a great Lake Placid venue. Schwalbe is the author of The End of Your Life Book Club, a moving memoir about a mother-son book club. He has appeared several times on National Public Radio, and on Today, Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning, The Colbert Report, CNBC’s Power Lunch, and BBC’s The Money Programme, and has been quoted in publications around the world.
Tickets are $35 per person for NYLA Members, $45 for non-members, and include appetizers, an hour of open bar, and a copy of The End of Your Life Book Club.

 

YSS Telling Tales
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Peg Glisson [photo at left] and Sharon Salluzzo [photo at right] are members of the Genesee Storytellers in Rochester, NY, a professional storytelling troupe, one of whose founders was Ann Gibson. Peg and Sharon have been mesmerizing audiences for years in schools and public libraries, museums, senior communities and festivals with their repertoire of traditional folk and fairy tales. They are passionate about the art of storytelling and bring a deep knowledge of the subject to their audiences, ranging from New York to Ohio and the Mid-Atlantic States, and even Northern Ireland. They engender a sense of wonder, and bring smiles and enjoyment to listeners of all ages.

Donations to the Ann Gibson Scholarship Fund will be gratefully accepted at the event.

New Members Meet & Greet
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Join with fellow new members of NYLA to explore ways to engage.  Open to all and sponsored by the New Members Engagement Sub-committee (NMES).
This is a free event.

*Scholarship Fund Benefit Event
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Game Night! Sponsored by the Pop Culture Roundtable
Our annual Scholarship Fund Benefit Event will be held at Generations Restaurant, in partnership with the newly formed Pop Culture Round Table, and will be the first "NYLA Games!"  Join your peers for an evening of gaming, both classics and new, board and card – the options will abound and merriment is sure to break out. No gaming experience necessary!  Come mingle, while learning from and playing with fellow librarians who are also tabletop gamers!  Guaranteed to be a fun night of games, prizes, and great people, all for a good cause. Heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served. Proceeds from the event will support the NYLA-Dewey Scholarship Fund, which provides financial support to enable interested and deserving students to pursue a Master’s Degree in Library Science at an ALA-accredited library school in New York State.  Each year, a recipient from each of New York’s seven library schools is eligible for an award of $1,000 to cover tuition costs and related expenses.
Tickets are $50 per person.

NYLA After Dark
10:00 PM – ???
Sponsored by Urban Librarians Unite
Imagine a library themed TED talk, crossed with the MOTH radio hour, then add in a cash bar.

Friday, October 23

Scenic Mirror Lake Trail Tour
7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
If you are looking for fresh air, join us for a guided 2.7 mile route around Mirror Lake. Our guide will point out points of interest and acquaint you with the village of Lake Placid. This flat scenic loop will take about 45 minutes and will begin and end at the Convention Center.

LAMS Leadership Luncheon: Failure FTW ("for the win")
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
There are a lot of variations on this line by TripAdvisor founder Stephen Kaufer: “If we’re not failing at something on a regular basis, we’re just not trying hard enough.” These quips resonate with us, because failure is something we tend to fear, perhaps irrationally, and also something we tend to evaluate poorly from a mathematical perspective since humans are innately awful at probability. So let's talk about failure, figure out how to go about failing, and how to work failure into our schedules and budgets.
The presenter will be Brett Bonfield, the director of the Collingswood (NJ) Public Library, a former editorial board member and founder of In the Library with the Lead Pipe, a founding advisory board members and a co-chair of Library Pipeline. Brett graduated from Drexel’s library school in September 2007 and taught a course there in 2011. He was named a Mover & Shaker by Library Journal in 2012. One of the best decisions he ever made was enrolling in the LIS Ph.D. program at Rutgers University. Another of the best decisions he ever made was leaving the program, three years later, without completing his doctorate.
Tickets are $35 per person.

RASS Noted Author Luncheon
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
RASS is pleased to welcome new author Mia Alvar, whose first book In My Country was published in June with much acclaim. Born in the Philippines and raised in Bahrain and the United States, she graduated from Harvard College and the School of the Arts at Columbia University. Her first book is a collection of short stories that has captured the hearts and imagination of reviewers, including the New York Times, NPR, the Huffington Post, and many more.  Mia’s work has been cited for distinction in The Best American Short Stories, twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published in several literary magazines, and her recent book was a New York Times Editor's Choice among other distinctions.
Tickets are $35 per person.

YSS Empire State Award Luncheon
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
YSS is pleased to present the 2015 Empire State Award for Excellence in Literature for Young People to Vivian Vande Velde. Vivian Vande Velde is the author of three dozen books for readers ranging in age from picture book readers to adult, but primarily for 8 – 12 year-olds and younger teens. The vast majority of her stories are fantasy—including fairy tales, ghost stories, and not-yet-invented-technologies science fiction.  Her latest book is Frogged, which is about a princess, a frog, and a troupe of very bad actors. Her books have won national recognition, including the Edgar for best young adult mystery for the year 2000 (Never Trust a Dead Man), the 2001/2002 Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize in Children's Literature (Heir Apparent), and several state reading awards, as well as being named on recommended lists by the New York Public Library, the American Library Association, and the International Reading Association.  Although her books have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Indonesian, she has lived most of her life in Rochester, New York.
Tickets are $35 per person.

NYLA Presents: Battle Decks!
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Improv meets public speaking: courageous volunteers tackle a live presentation based on PowerPoints slides that they have NEVER seen before.  Hilarity will ensue.
This is a free event.

*NYLA Inaugural Banquet
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Join us for the farewell address of the 2015 NYLA President Geoff Kirkpatrick, the presentation of NYLA’s major awards, and the inauguration of the 2016 NYLA President, Debby Emerson.
Tickets are $50 per person.  One ticket is included with Full Conference Registration.

Saturday, October 24

*Library Journal Movers & Shakers Breakfast
Join 2015 Library Journal Movers and Shakers for a conversation about the projects that brought them recognition.  Sponsored in partnership with Library Journal.
Tickets are $25 per person.