Conference Speakers

Gwynne Dyer
Keynote Speaker
Journalist and author Gwynne Dyer will speak on the roles of journalists, authors, and libraries in this new age of global conflict.

Gwynne Dyer has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years, but he was originally trained as an historian. Born in Newfoundland, he received degrees from Canadian, American and British universities, finishing with a Ph.D. in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University of London. He served in three navies and held academic appointments at the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University before launching his twice-weekly column on international affairs, which is published by over 175 papers in some 45 countries.

His first television series, the 7-part documentary ‘War’, was aired in 45 countries in the mid-80s. One episode, ‘The Profession of Arms’, was nominated for an Academy Award. His more recent works include the 1994 series ‘The Human Race’, and ‘Protection Force’, a three-part series on peacekeepers in Bosnia, both of which won Gemini awards. His award-winning radio documentaries include ‘The Gorbachev Revolution’, a seven-part series based on Dyer’s experiences in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in 1987-90, and ‘Millenium’, a six-hour series on the emerging global culture.

His current projects include a book and a television documentary on the looming strategic confrontation in Asia and a radio series on the long-range political and demographic implications of extreme climate change. His latest book is The Mess They Made: the Middle East After Iraq.

Gerry Alley
Program: Conflict Resolution
As Vice Principal of an elementary school, Gerry Alley knows a little something about conflict resolution! He will discuss how to deal with situations that may arise with library patrons, co-workers, friends, family, and strangers. He will also cover the stages of conflict and how to remain calm in order to peacefully resolve such situations.

Gerry Alley is Vice Principal of Maple Ridge Elementary School in Lantz, Nova Scotia. He is also a former Junior High School teacher and current president of his local union. In all of these roles, Gerry’s conflict resolution skills are extremely valuable.

Trudy Amirault, Yvette Frost, Yvonne LeBlanc, Frances Newman, Faye McDougall
Program: Urgent! Urgent! Emergency! : disasters and disaster preparedness at your library
Flood, Fire, Vandalism, White Juan – all these disasters can and have happened in Nova Scotia libraries. Hear about a recent fire at the Springhill Public Library and vandalism at the Cape Breton Regional Library from Chief Librarians Frances Newman and Faye MacDougall -- how they coped and what lessons they learned. Also hear from staff at Western Counties Regional Library about how and why they have developed a disaster preparedness plan. WCRL staff members Trudy Amirault, Yvette Frost and Yvonne LeBlanc will take you through the steps in the preparation of a plan.

Trudy Amirault, Yvette Frost, and Yvonne LeBlanc all work at Western Counties Regional Library where CAPL Public Library Service Award winner Trudy is the Regional Library Director. Both Faye MacDougall and Frances Newman are Chief Librarians in their respective regional library systems, Cape Breton and Cumberland.

Reginald W. Bibby
Program: The Boomer Factor
Dr. Reginald W. Bibby is recognized as the leading scholar in the field of social trends in Canada and will discuss “The Boomer Factor: What Canada’s most famous generation is leaving behind,” the latest in his best-selling series of books. Professor Bibby's efforts to interpret his findings have taken him into a wide variety of settings across North America. He is routinely sought after for comment, data, and presentations. This talk will be open to the general public as well as conference attendees.

Dr. Reginald W. Bibby holds the Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge. Born and raised in Edmonton, he received a Ph.D. from Washington State University, an M.A. from the University of Calgary, a B.D. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, and a B.A. from the University of Alberta. He also is the recipient of an honorary doctoral degree from Laurentian University. In 2006, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the nation, the Governor General appointed him an Officer of the Order of Canada. Over the past three decades, he has been monitoring social trends in Canada through a series of well known national surveys of adults and teenagers, in the process gathering pioneering and historic data on religion and youth.

Gunther Foerster
Program: Marketing and Libraries
Gunther Foerster is a motivational and dynamic speaker who is a leader in the field of new technology marketing. He will discuss how essential it is to effectively market your library, how to keep bringing new patrons in, and keep your “regulars” coming back! Learn how to keep your library interesting and exciting for patrons and for the community as a whole.

Gunther Foerster has been involved in the marketing and advertising field for over 20 years and started his first consulting company in 1990. He has founded and been a partner in four successful small business enterprises. In 1998 IBM profiled him in Profit Magazine as an innovator and leader in New Technology Marketing. He was part of the team as Vice President of Marketing that brought Nubody’s Fitness Centres from only 700 members to its present membership of over 32,000 and helped it become the 30th biggest fitness business in the world and see it ranked as a Top 101 Company by Progress Magazine.

Alan Gaudet
Program: Myers-Briggs Personality Types in the Workplace
Alan Gaudet will show how reliable predictions of individual behavior can be an asset in the workplace. In a similar way to left- or right- handedness, the principle of Myers-Briggs Type Indicators is that individuals find certain ways of thinking and acting easier than others. Managers, employees, and anyone working with the public will find this workshop fascinating.

Alan Gaudet is a Career Development Specialist with the Strait Area Campus of the NSCC. He lives in Antigonish with his wife and two sons. Alan has worked in the field of Adult Education since 1979, Career Development since 1987 and has graduate degrees in education and public administration. But he is far more interested in talking about issues of life, work, balance and wellness. May 30th he presented on Mindfulness and the Science of Happiness in Career Development at the Annual NS Career Development Conference. Ask him about the new NSCC Waterfront Campus where they held the record breaking event.

Nicole Haverkort
Program: Greening Your Library
Nicole Haverkort of Eastern Regional Solid Waste Management will share ideas on how to make your library green. Topics covered will include reducing paper waste, composting and recycling properly, handling weeded books, using green cleaning products and more. Learn how to create a greener Nova Scotia and a greener planet one library at a time.

Since 2001, Nicole Haverkort has been the regional coordinator and educator for the six municipalities in Antigonish and Guysborough counties. She is responsible for waste management program development (i.e. clear bag for garbage) and education. Recently, Nicole presented at the E3 Conference on environmental sustainability and was one of a four-person panel to speak on the success of the clear bag program for garbage to peers at a Nova Scotia Association of Waste Reduction Coordinators conference.

Tracey Jones and Ken Williment
Program: Working Together: Lessons learned from a Community Development perspective at Captain William Spry Library
Tracey Jones and Ken Williment are always striving to improve services to HRM’s diverse patrons. They have been participating in the Working Together Project (WTP),a national pilot project focusing on the development of relationships between socially excluded community members and library services. They have experimented with one-on-one IT training, hosted programs in the community, looked at barriers to library services experienced by socially excluded community members, and are currently transitioning the WTP to the branch. This presentation will explore some of the lessons learned to date, how the WTP has impacted branch operations, and how current branch operations are changing.

Tracey Jones is the Manager for Literacy / ESL / Diversity Services for the Halifax Public Libraries. Ken Williment is the current Project Manager of the Working Together Project at the Halifax Public Libraries.

Constable John Kennedy and Maureen Buchanan
Program: Adopt-a-Library Literacy Program
RCMP Constable John Kennedy and PARL’s Maureen Buchanan will present information about the Adopt-A-Library's latest program, the WOW! Reading Challenge that was successfully completed by K-6 students in Pictou County, Cumberland County, and Clare County Ireland.

Constable John Kennedy has been active in crime prevention throughout his career in the RCMP and as a result, formed the Adopt A Library Literacy Program in 2000. His mantra “Better to see them in libraries now than in trouble with the law later” speaks to the very essence of literacy levels, crime rates, and the passion he has for our youth. Maureen Buchanan has been employed with PARL for the last decade in various capacities centered on technological support and training. Currently she is assisting Constable John Kennedy in the WOW! Reading challenge to schools in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Randy Lauff
Randy Luffs teaches biology at St. Xavier University in Antigonish. He is an active member of the Nova Scotia Bird Society and the Pictou County Naturalists Club and is renowned known in the region as an expert in owl field research with the Boreal and Northern Saw-Whet owls.

Nolan Lushington
Program: Planning Public Library Buildings
Library Consultant Nolan Lushington will present and discuss the elements involved in successfully planning public library buildings. He will cover the importance of consultation and communication between library staff, the community, the consultant, and the architect. In order to design a space to best serve patrons, their needs and the best ways to serve those needs must first be determined. Only then can the process of space design successfully proceed.

Nolan Lushington has consulted on more than 200 library projects. Mr. Lushington served as the Greenwich Public Library Director, Greenwich, CT for twenty years and as an Associate Professor on the library school faculty at Southern Connecticut State University. He is the author of several library planning, programming and user guide books as well as articles on similar subjects. His most recent book is “Libraries Designed for Users: A 21st Century Guide.” Mr. Lushington teaches an annual course entitled The Planning and Design of Public Libraries with Tony Tappé and Jeffrey Hover of Tappé Associates at Harvard University's, Graduate School of Design.

Linden MacIntyre
Program: “The Canso Causeway: A Passage from Innocence”
Linden MacIntyre will discuss his new book “Causeway: A passage from innocence” and 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.

Linden MacIntyre joined the fifth estate as co-host for the 1990-91 season. He is one of Canada's most distinguished broadcast journalists. For three decades, MacIntyre has been involved in producing documentaries and stories from all over the world including the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and Central America.

Born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and raised in Port Hastings, Cape Breton, his career began in 1964 with The Halifax Chronicle-Herald as a parliamentary bureau reporter. After a stint at political reporting and editing in Nova Scotia, he returned to Ottawa as a reporter for The Financial Times of Canada. Between 1970 and 1976, he lived in Cape Breton and wrote for The Chronicle-Herald. In 1976 MacIntyre joined CBC Television Halifax as a current affairs story editor/journalist for 'Here Today'. He soon hosted his own program, The MacIntyre File', which began in 1977 and ran for three seasons. His documentary, 'Power and Profit' won him ACTRA's Gordon Sinclair Award for Outspoken Opinions and Integrity.

Bruce Murray
Program: Podcasting
Bruce Murray will be speaking on the topic of “Lib-casting: Podcasting for Libraries”. He’ll talk about how podcasting can promote special programs and lectures at the library, and enhance the library’s services. Bruce will also address many low-cost or ‘no’-cost ways to get started right away.

Bruce Murray is director of photography and general manager at VisionFire Commercial Photography in Pictou, Nova Scotia. In early 2005, he launched his first Podcast called The Zedcast, (because Canadians say Zed), which features storytelling and comedy skits. It quickly garnered thousands of listeners on five continents. More recently he has become the host of The Running Shoe, an interactive call-in podcast on the TalkShoe.com network that is dedicated to running, fitness, nutrition and road racing. Bruce has been a featured speaker at the Podcasters Across Borders conference in Kingston, Ontario for the past two years.

Glenn Murray
Glenn Murray is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, whose Walter the Farting Dog series (with William Kotzwinkle, author of the novel “E.T.”) has sold millions of copies and been translated into more than a dozen languages worldwide.

He is the only Canadian writer to have ever had two titles at the same time in the Top Ten of a New York Times Bestseller List. Murray started work as a newspaper reporter in Cape Breton while still a teenager, later became an astrologer with his own radio show, and after more than 20 years in education in Canada, served as advisor to the Minister of Education in Jordan for two years following 9-11. He has written radio dramas for CBC, videos for the Canadian military, and technical documents for trade associations. He enjoys working with children, and often speaks to classes about reading and the writing process. Murray’s time as an educator has shown him that children need role models in developing their literacy skills, and Walter the Farting Dog is his vehicle for instilling a love of reading in children.

Murray has two sons and five kilts, and lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Stanislav Orlov
Program: Social Networking Online
Web 2.0, the new generation of online community building tools and services, is transforming the user experience. It has never been easier to connect with friends, exchange opinions and ideas, or get entertained or educated online. Patrons are spending time on Second Life, Facebook, My Space, Live Journal, Ning, LinkedIn, FLickr, etc. How can we serve them in this virtual world? Join us for the discussion on social networking and the ways libraries can use it for promotion and instruction.

Since his childhood years in Moscow, Stanislav Orlov always had a soft spot for libraries. After stints as a Soviet Army sergeant, computer trainer and Internet security specialist, he reunited with his first love after graduating from the University of Toronto FIS in 2006. Orlov is Systems Librarian at the Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. When he is not working on library projects, he enjoys playing with various social networking tools and learning foreign languages.

Rene Robichaud
Founded in Halifax in November of 2005, the Laughter Club has been featured in media stories around the Maritimes and now boasts new chapters in Moncton and Summerside with more planned.

The International Laughing Club was developed in 1995 in India by Dr. Madan Kataria to promote the multiple health benefits of laughing each day. Since then, laughing clubs have spread across the globe as testament of their popularity. Currently over 3500 clubs enjoy this movement which had its origins in yoga. Instructors use a variety of stretching and smiling exercises to promote laughing techniques and health benefits such as stress reduction, improved blood circulation, and boosting your immune system.

Lisa Teryl
Program: Legal Liabilities of Non-Profit Organizations
Attorney Lisa Teryl will offer a workshop which will help non-profit organizations understand the legal positions of board members and their employees. Workshop will cover non-profit board member liability, and reducing severance claims from departing employees. Senior Administrators, as well as LBANS members, will find this informative.

Raised in St. Margaret’s Bay, Lisa Teryl loves to teach, write and practice law. She considers herself a student of squeezing the fun and challenge out of life. Lisa has practised law since 1995 and founded the firm Teryl Scott, Lawyers Inc. with her brother, Shawn Scott. Lisa is a civil trial lawyer, handling mainly wrongful terminations and personal injury claims. In 2002, Pottersfield Press published her first book called, Nova Scotia Law: Everything You Wanted to Know But Couldn’t Afford to Ask (Pottersfield Press 2002), based on a legal column she wrote for the Halifax Daily News (2000-2005).

Jessamyn West
Program: Library 2.0
Using a Library 2.0 model of user-centered change can bring public libraries to the next level and beyond by creating a system that is flexible, adaptable, and constantly changing to respond to user input, needs, and wants. Such methods move beyond providing our regular patrons with the typical services, and strive to meet users (and not-yet-users) where they’re at technologically, socially, and physically. Jessamyn West will show us why “Library 2.0 is about awareness…and possibly fun.”

Jessamyn West is a community technology librarian and the editor of the weblog librarian.net. She teaches email classes for seniors, builds tiny websites for tiny libraries and advocates for sensible technology use for everyone.

Pat Wilson and Kris Wood
Conference Banquet
For your entertainment, authors Kris Woods and Pat Wilson will present their humorous take on library life with their informal talk, “Why I’d Rather be a Librarian Than a Writer” and facilitate the Figures of Literature costume contest.

Pat Wilson and Kris Wood have been friends for nearly 40 years years and are both accomplished workshop leaders who always bring humour and fun to their presentations. Pat is the author of ten inspirational books, six business how-to books and the best-selling motivational audio programme, “Living in Excellence”. Her new book, “When You Come Unglued, Stick Close to God,” has just been released. Kris is the author of numerous articles and short stories as well as co-author of two corporate training manuals: “The Keys to Customer Service Success”, and “Power Presenting with Competence and Confidence.”

Together, Pat and Kris have co-authored many short stories for mystery collections by the Ladies Killing Circle and other mystery anthologies, and won the Bony Pete Award at the Bloody Words Mystery Convention in Ottawa. They are best-known in the Maritimes for their two full-length books on Maritime subjects: “The Frenchy’s Connection”, and “Extreme Sports of the Maritimes”. A new Frenchy’s book, “Pardon My Frenchy’s” will be available in the fall.

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