Thanks to Prairielands, I was able to attend the Association for Rural & Small Libraries conference in Wichita, Kansas. The conference exceeded all of my expectations. The sessions I attended were all fantastic, informational and applicable to rural/small libraries. The sessions I chose to attend (out of many choices) included: Strategic Plan-It; Meeting People Where [...]
Attending the Association of Rural and Small Libraries 2023 Annual Conference in Wichita, KS was a great experience! There were 4 days of sessions and each one was incredibly helpful. Beyond the sessions, it was fantastic to network with libraries that face similar challenges because they are also small and many are located in rural [...]
The 2023 MLA Conference was very informative, and I took home a lot of ideas! I attended some amazing sessions over the course of the two days. One session highlighted the current trend of book challenges. It was very interesting to hear some of the challenges other libraries are seeing, as well as some ideas [...]
I registered for the 2023 Minnesota Library Association Conference "Library Workers Make the Library Work!" Due to unexpected circumstances, I was only able to attend the first day of the conference. However, thanks to digital resources, I will be able to access information from the Thursday sessions, too! The first day of the conference was [...]
This year’s Minnesota Library Association Conference was full of great sessions, keynotes, and vendors. I crammed as much as I could into my schedule and even downloaded the slides and notes from sessions that I could not get to as they were doubled with another session I wanted to attend. My favorite sessions were the [...]
I attended the two-part webinar Serving Deaf Patrons in the Library online. This webinar was a total of three hours. Not only did I learn a great deal, but the speaker was quite engaging. Her name is Kathy MacMillan, and she was able to share so many valuable resources with the participants. She explained terminology [...]
I am thankful for the opportunity to have attended the Human Resources Crash Course for Library Directors presented by Kate Hall and Kathy Parker. The course was held virtually on May 15, May 22 and June 5, 2023. Kate and Kathy have co-authored the invaluable book "The Public Library Director's Toolkit" where much of the [...]
Managing Children's Collections from Acquisitions to Weeding I found this course to be extremely helpful. The instructor was engaging and provided real world examples of the processes. The interaction available on the forum boards was also extremely valuable. I have created a compilation of all of the readings and suggested resources for future reference and [...]
MLA 2022 DECC Duluth MN - It was great! I made a new librarian friend because we seemed to keep bumping into each other. Her name Suela Bace and she's a supervisor at Dakota County Library, Burnhaven. She immigrated from Albania many years ago and has a special interest in EDI initiatives which made her [...]
With this class, not only am I gaining basic communication skills in American Sign Language, but I'm also getting a better understanding of the Deaf and hard of hearing community. Yes, I've learned some basic signs to try and communicate the immediate needs of patrons, but I've also learned communication etiquette so as not to [...]