Welcome!to the Festival of Writers and joint 2007 Annual Conference of the Library Boards Association of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Library Association. This year’s event is being hosted by the Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library in Antigonish the weekend of September 21-23, 2007 at the Green Way Claymore Inn. Please join us and enjoy wonderful opportunities for professional development, hearing nationally known writers speak, and having fun!

Facilities
This year’s conference and festival will be held at the Green Way Claymore Inn, but will include a Saturday lunch and keynote address at St. Ninian’s Place, and a tour of the Fr. Charles Brewer Celtic Collection in the Angus L. Macdonald Library on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University. The Claymore Inn, the Maritime Inn, and the Homeward Inn all have rooms reserved for Conference attendees. There is also a variety of lovely inns and B&B's in Antigonish.

Writers
We are honoured to welcome guest writers and writers Linden MacIntyre, Reginald W. Bibby, Glenn Murray, and special keynote speaker Gwynne Dyer as well as a host of experts in the fields of library services, marketing, and management.

On Friday evening, Linden MacIntyre will be discussing his new book Causeway: A Passage from Innocence about the effect the building of the Canso Causeway has had on Cape Breton’s culture and history. This talk will be open to the general public as well as all conference attendees.

Also open to the general public and conference attendees will be Murray and Bibby's talks. Bibby will discuss his new book The Boomer Factor: What Canada’s most famous generation is leaving behind. Bibby, currently holding the Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, is the leading scholar in the field of Canadian social trends. New York Times bestselling author Glenn Murray's program about his Walter the Farting Dog books will also be open to the public.

Other workshop presenters include attorney Lisa Teyrl who wrote Nova Scotia Law: Everything You Wanted to Know But Couldn’t Afford to Ask and Nolan Lushington, who authored Libraries Designed for Users: A 21st Century Guide. Ms. Teryl will be speaking on “Legal Liabilities of Non-Profit Organizations” at Friday’s pre-conference; and Mr. Nolan will offer a talk on “Planning Public Library Buildings” on Sunday as well as offering consultations to those with library buildings in the planning stages on Saturday afternoon. Librarian Jessamyn West will speak on “Library 2.0” and is editor of librarian.net, co-editor of Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out, and author of and contributor to articles appearing in professional library journals and newspapers.
 
Additional workshops include Marketing and Libraries, Conflict Resolution, Disaster Planning, Greening Your Library, Podcasting, and Myers-Briggs Personality Types in the Workplace.