Keynote Speaker : Stephen Abram

Gale Cengage Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Markets
Stephen Abram, MLS, is Past-President 2008 of SLA and the past-President of the Canadian Library Association. Previously Vice President Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute Stephen moved to Gale Cengage in January 2010 as Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and Markets. He was Publisher Electronic Information at Thomson after managing several libraries. Stephen was listed by Library Journal as one of the top 50 people influencing the future of libraries. He has received numerous honours and speaks regularly internationally. As well as writing for the Library Journal Stephen’s columns appear in Information Outlook, Multimedia and Internet @ Schools, Feliciter, and Access. He is the author of ALA Editions' bestselling Out Front with Stephen Abram. His blog, Stephen's Lighthouse, is a popular blog in the library sector

Stephen says that we are well into the new Millennium and the challenges facing libraries are reaching an exponential roar. It's the information age, there must be a huge role for libraries, right? What are the real challenges facing libraries and the library profession? Is it Google and the web, or is it what it's always been - lighting the darkness with information? What are the top strategies we need to employ to ensure our success in our communities and learning institutions? Will advertising driven search engines really win the hearts and minds of our customers? Are our collections right for today or will use of Google's vaults of digitized books grow wildly in importance? Are libraries and librarians ready for the next round of technological and social change? Will our local and national cultures be overwhelmed by generic world services? Stephen, as always, will deal with these issues in a provocative and entertaining manner.