New Orleans's collective memory is often long and surprisingly detailed, and it can surface at unexpected moments. In the last few years, a taxi driver taking a fare to the airport has more than once fondly recalled "the librarians" or those "book people" as the first ones to hold a convention in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. That show of support from the American Library Association (ALA) and its friends was very economically and psychologically important to the city. Now the book people are coming back--ALA's annual conference is June 23-28--and some of them will get a chance to see how things have changed. Rebuilding is shockingly not as complete as one might expect, and the local economy is a bit suspect. Although the region's population remained stable following Katrina, the city lost more than 125,000 residents. But there are also encouraging signs. The most visible are the new restaurants that have joined the well-established ones, the resurgence of reliable music clubs, and the fact that while Bourbon Street is still its own bad self, it doesn't smell as awful because of a new determination to keep the French Quarter clean. In this article, the author provides those who will be traveling to ALA's annual conference a guide to the best eats, sights, and sounds in New Orleans.