American Libraries

American Library Association members, welcome to Anaheim California.

It's so exciting to be at a national conference. If you like to do it or you like to visit it, we've got it here.

Well, there's three major league baseball teams, there's really great restaurants, the weather is fabulous, the beeches are beautiful, you might see a celebrity.

You got to come—this is southern California. This is it. You've got to check this off your list one time in your life and see California and see Disney and see the palm trees.

You name it, it's here, you just can't beat it.

Well, Anaheim is the center of Southern California. I think that's one of the strong points here because from here you can see and do a little bit of everything. We're the home of Disneyland, obviously. The original Disneyland in 1955 opened here in Anaheim and kind of changed the environment, changed the complexion of what we've got here in Southern California forever. It's even more magic today than it was before. The Downtown Disney, which is really vibrant, is a great shopping district with one of a kind shops. It's a wonderful place to just kind of meander. And California Adventure that opened up five years ago.

It is great fun and it is wonderful to be right there, so you don't have to drive to get there. And I know some of you will be thinking, “No, I'm not going to do Disneyland.” You know, it really is a lot of fun.

If you bring your family and you have a family it's a lot of fun and I know many, many people who come just on their own because that way they get to go on all the rides they want to go on and they don't have to wait at any of the rides that their kids want to go on.

Right across from Anaheim Convention Center, which is the largest convention center on the west coast also was totally reconfigured, transformed five years ago.

There's a number of different airports you can fly into. One of the gems that you may not think about is Long Beach Airport. It's very fast to get in and out of and you can get the Super Shuttle to drive you into Anaheim just as easily. Orange County Airport is very close. Ontario Airport is farther away mileage wise, but if you come in at non-peak commute hours, you can get into Anaheim very, very quickly.

It's centrally located, there's available parking for those who are going to drive in. But for those who are, not there's public transportation available. We have a really good bus system.

You have to think like you're in New York. We're a cab ride to just about anything and you can take a cab to the Amtrak Station, which has a metro that goes all through the county.

There's a trolley that goes around, obviously Los Angeles and Southern California is not known for being a walking area. But you can walk easily around the resort and around the convention center and get to everything within ten minutes easily.

Just within the walking distance, there's about 6,000 hotel rooms in this area. In all of Anaheim, there’s 20,000 rooms and in all of Orange County there's 55,000 rooms. So there's plenty of guest rooms in the area and a lot of variety.

You can't beat the climate. I mean, that's what California is famous for, and of course it can't be truer I hope in June/July when ALA takes place in Anaheim.

Typically it will be about 75 degrees, which would be great like it is right now, blue skies, sunny, so you look forward to that. Bring your shorts, sandals they're always in season.

And it can get cool at night, so be sure you bring a jacket. And by cool—I'm a Southern California girl—I'm not talking parka. I'm talking just a jacket.

If you're a surfer, you can get to the beaches very quickly from Anaheim. And if you're a little adventuresome, you can head all the way up to Malibu and surf those famous beaches.

Huntington Beach is really the surfer's beach. It's where they have a number of international surf competitions throughout the year. Again, if you want to see the bleach-blond carrying their surfboard across the street, ready to hit the waves, that's where you're going to find it.

When you come here in June, we're going to that a whole complex called Anaheim Garden Walk that is about a block and a half from the Anaheim Convention Center. So dining is going to open up a whole new chapter in Anaheim, which is great. But it's not just California cuisine, it's all the ethnic foods that are available including Albanian, Thai food, Southeast Asian food, Asian foods, Persian food, there's a Spanish restaurant, excellent Chinese food, French food, African, Indian, Vietnamese food, South American and Central American food, Mexican, there's a wine bar, Italian. Should I name some or is that not a lot?

And if you're a little adventuresome, you can go into the West Hollywood area where there are many, many of the famous restaurants that you hear about, a lot of the famous night clubs. Some of the places are not going to let you in if you're not under 30 and look like you're Paris Hilton. I know we've got some people coming that would fit that category.

We have lots of libraries. Anaheim Public Library System is excellent.

Among the two largest in the country are here: L.A. City Library, L.A. County Library. If you've never been to the Huntington Library and Museum—fabulous grounds, fabulous museum and you can make a reservation in advance and have tea.

The closest beautiful new library to the Anaheim Convention Center is Anaheim Central Library itself, up at Broadway and Harbor and we hope to be hosting some meetings for librarians when they come to visit. And we've just expanded our children's room and we now have the largest children's space in Orange County. And we are wild about reading and if you come to visit our new space, you'll see all the animals are here to greet you and the children.

The convention will be successful, but also I believe that a lot of people will have other things to see.

Oh, I'd come. You'll have a great time. Anaheim does a lot of conventions. It's used to large conventions so it knows how to welcome convention guests. Actually, if you're bored, there's a problem because there's so much to do, there's so much diversity.

We'll see you in Anaheim!