Free Pass to NMSA Exhibit Hall

Thinking about visiting this year’s National Middle School Association Conference in Baltimore, but don’t have a show pass? Check out the exhibit fall for free and see what’s new with a free exhibit hall pass from Recorded Books! We’ll be featuring one of our curriculum products, Dr. Janet Allen’s Plugged-in to Reading. lf you use our pass, be sure to come to booth 521 and let us know!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE EXHIBIT PASS

Free Exhibit Pass to ALA 2010

Recorded Books will be attending ALA 2010. And since it’s in our backyard in Washington, D.C. this year, I will be attending for one day as well! I plan on attending Monday, June 28, so say hello if you see me! Recorded Books is Booth #1513.

If you still need a free exhibit hall pass to the conference, we’ve got you covered. To register for a complimentary exhibit hall pass from Recorded Books, CLICK HERE.

Be sure to stop by Booth #1513 to talk with Melanie, our children’s acquisitions editor. She’ll be making her rounds at the conference and we will send Twitter updates when she’d at the booth (you can check for updates on http://twitter.com/recordedbooks even if you are not a Twitter user!). She’ll give you the scoop on hot upcoming titles and what you should be on the lookout for this summer and next school year. Also at the booth will be demonstrations of several new products for K-12: ePrep online test prep, Byki online language learning products, and One-Click downloadable audiobooks. If you come for a demonstration, you will have the chance to win a free copy of The Color Purple on MP3 CD. As I roam the exhibits and presentations, I plan on tweeting from the event (as @recordedbooks) and will post a wrap-up blog when I get back. It will be my first time visiting ALA, so I’m excited to see all there is to offer!

If you’re coming in from out of town, I hope you’ll check out some of the local DC scenery. A good place to start is the website for the DC convention center. It’s a fun and beautiful city and I hope you all have time to take in the sights!

Let me know if you’ll be attending and I’ll be sure to look for you at the event!

$50 Off FETC Registration from RB!

Recorded Books and FETC are offering a $50 FETC VIP Attendee Coupon. Download the full coupon flyer here or by clicking the banner above. Registration ends this Friday, 12/18/2009, so register now! Just enter priority code FL5010 during registration checkout. And don’t forget to come visit Recorded Books at the event: BOOTH #251.

From FETC:

FETC (Florida Educational Technology Corporation), a division of 1105 Media Inc., is one of the largest, most successful conferences in the United States devoted to educational technology. The conference program is designed so educators and administrators have an opportunity to learn how to integrate different technologies across the curriculum–from kindergarten to college–while being exposed to the latest hardware, software and successful strategies on student technology use. FETC is designed for teachers, principals and deans, district administrators, curriculum designers, media specialists, technology directors and various other educators.

July Winner Announced (And a Chance to Win at ALA!)

Congratulations to our winners! Because we had such a great turnout, I picked two winners. I’ll be contacting the two of you shortly to get your mailing information.

#69: Janice Gray
#7: Tracy Archambeau

Congratulations again! I’ll be contacting you shortly by email to get your mailing info. Everyone else, look our for another giveaway in August!

And if you’re at ALA 2009, the first person to tweet @recordedbooks with a pic of the RB booth and mention this blog post will also win a copy of My Sister’s Keeper.

Audiobooks at ALA

First of all, don’t forget about our contest to win a copy of My Sister’s Keeper on CD! Contest ends Monday, July 13 at 12:00PM Eastern.

If you’re attending ALA this year (click here if you still need a pass to the exhibit hall!), be sure to check out the audiobook events and stay tuned to @recordedbooks for some giveaways.. After visiting Recorded Books at Booth #4823, check out these discussions where our friend Mary Burkey (AKA Audiobooker) will be a panelist:

• 7/11 from 1:30-3:00 | Booklist/Booklist Online: Books and Blogs, Made for Each Other?
• 7/12 from 1:30-12:00 | Evaluating Audiobooks: Selecting the Best for Children and Teens
• 7/13 from 3:30-5:30 | Multiple Literacies in the Library

Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Alan Sitomer, creator of the Alan Sitomer BookJam, will be joining Laurie Halse Anderson and Jacqueline Woodson for a presentation on Saturday, 7/12 from 10-1:00 for the President’s Program: Literacy Leadership and Librarian Flair—Engaging 21st-Century Readers with Three Award Winning YA and CH Authors. Attendees will get the inside scoop on how to grasp, excite, and engage today’s young readers.

Also on Monday, 7/13, is the awards ceremony for this year’s Odyssey Award Winner, our very own The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. According to Mary Burkey, this ceremony will be the place to be on Monday if you want to catch a glimpse of the YA elite!

If you catch any of these presentations, we’d love it if you’d leave a comment here or send us a tweet or twitpic! We’ll have a few competitions going on during the day on Monday. Also be sure to say hello to the RB schools rep, Angie Crouse, at booth #4823! So keep your eyes on the RB twitter!

A librarian asks: What have you heard about audiobooks?

from librarian and audiobook user Hillary Wolfe…

Hillary Wolfe Northview HS librarian Covina, CA

I was at a book club recently, and one of our members sheepishly admitted that she hadn’t actually read the book, but she had listened to it on CD. There is a pervasive bias out there that listening to a book is somehow cheating, and many secondary teachers are reluctant to make use of this strategy, fearing that they are encouraging their students to find an “easy way out” of homework. I don’t agree—I think audiobooks are a great resource for educators.

See how Hillary helped change her school’s perception of audiobooks, using listening centers to help struggling readers finish, and enjoy, required reading. Hillary will be appearing at the Recorded Books booth (#131) at this year’s AASL conference in Reno. She will be available for questions and discussion, and will be doing presentations on Friday, October 26 at 3:00pm and Saturday, October 27 at 11:00am.

There will be lots of other fun things going on at the Recorded Books booth, including the chance to win a free audiobook! Stop by and say hello, and let us know here if there is anything you’d like to see at the conference.