8:30am-9:30am (1 hr)
Sign-in & Continental Breakfast
Coffee & muffins available at back of PLN-130
Attendees may sit at tables set up in room or go outside to lawn area

9:30am-9:35am (5 min)
Introductions & Welcome
· Welcome by Bill Sleeman, GODORT Chair & Kelly Janousek, LPSS Chair
· Outline for the Day by John Hernandez, Princeton University, Firestone Library
· Introduction of Keynote: Rhodes Cook

9:40am-10:10am (30 min)
· Patterns in U.S. Elections & Election 2008
· Speaker: Mr. Rhodes Cook, RhodesCook.com

10:15am-11:00am (45 min)
Who Decides? – Information on Voters
· Voter demographics, registration and turnout data (national, state and local)
· Presenters: TBA, U.S. Bureau of the Census; TBA, Organization

11:05am -12:25pm (1 hr 20 min)
Who Runs? – Information on Candidates
· Sources for biographies and political records of candidates
· Campaign finance information sources (OpenSecrets, FEC, state & local sources, others)
· Nomination process
· Information on historical trends in partisan power (national, state and local)
· Presenters: Project Vote Smart; League of Women Voters of California

Box Lunch provided: 12:30pm-1:30pm (1 hr)

1:40pm-2:40pm (1hr)
Who Cares? – Information on Issues

Option-A [PLN-303] **hands-on possible
Public Opinion
· Sources of public opinion (ANES and others, especially minority-centered)
· Resources on trends in public opinion on key issues
· Party platform sources
· Presenter: Stephen Woods, Penn State University, Paterno Library

Option-B
Ballot Initiatives
· Brief history of direct democracy in the United States
· How ballot measures make it to the ballot
· Sources for locating current and historical ballot measures at the state and local levels
· Presenter: faculty member from California State University Fullerton

Coffee Break: 2:45pm-3:00pm (15 min)
Coffee available at back of PLN-130
Attendees may sit at tables set up in room or go outside to lawn area

3:00pm-4:00pm (1 hr)
Who Wins? – Information on Election Results
· How election returns are aggregated, certified and reported
· Sources for current and historical election returns (national, state and local)
· The electoral college, popular vote, and red vs. blue states
· Exit polls (their uses, limitations and published sources)
· Presenter: Chris Palazzolo, Emory University, Woodruff Library

4:00pm-4:20pm (20 min)
Concluding Remarks
· Discussion of a voter information program at a public library
· Discussion of a similar program at an academic library
· Comments on what you can do at your library
· Presenters: TBA, Public Library; TBA, Academic Library; John Hernandez, Princeton University, Firestone Library

Shuttles back to Convention Center Depart: 4:35pm

REGISTRATION:

Registration for the preconferences is only through the regular ALA Conference registration. If you are not an ALA member, you can still register for just the preconference by paying the Non-ALA registration fees. The ALA Conference registration page is at:

http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2008a/registration.htm#how

If you have already registered for the conference, click on Add optional events to your previous Annual Registration to register for this pre-conference. The Event Code for Got Elections? Informing the Public is GO1.

If you are an ALA member, you can register for the conference online, or via Fax/Mail.

If you are not an ALA member, the Fax or Mail option works best, as the online registration requires you to log in with your ALA username and password. To look up addtional pre-conferences, go to:

http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2008a/an08-regevets-prelim.pdf