At LJ's Day of Dialog, RA and audio progress unveiled.(lj news)(Conference news)

Nearly 250 attendees gathered at Los Angeles Public Library's (LAPL) Central Library on May 29 for LJ's Day of Dialog, a pre-BookExpo confab bringing librarians together with publishers, vendors, and authors. The 11th annual event mixed panels on new directions in historical fiction and hot titles for fall with nonbook topics like digital audio formats and technology-based tools for readers' advisory (RA)

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The RA panel gave attendees their first chance to see four electronic RA databases side by side: Books & Authors (Gale), Fiction Connection (Bowker), NoveList (EBSCO), and Reader's Advisor Online (Libraries Unlimited). LAPL's Sheryn Mowis noted that, for library users, "the computer represents the [online catalog], the Internet, library databases," so it's natural for them to look for advice on what to read next. …