My favorite session was a surprise to me, the PLD meeting. Once they finished discussing business, the board members did a round robin discussion. In general, I’m not fond of round robins. Too often, I hear things that could be shared in a simple e-mail, or found on a Facebook page. In this case, I learned about Duluth’s outreach to the federal prison camp located there and about early childhood literacy programs one of the metro libraries is doing at a local jail. I find these types of work fascinating because of the potential impact they have and it was fun to learn about them. After, I spent about half an hour speaking to one of them about the work and the outcomes.
Over the years, I’ve also come to enjoy volunteering at the registration desk. It’s an enjoyable way to help with the work and I get to meet new people. Particularly interesting to me is speaking to young librarians who are early in their careers and learning about their library education and their first jobs. It’s a good reminder about how much the profession has changed since I graduated in 1989 and how much I have to learn as a result.