This was my first Minnesota Library Association Conference and I enjoyed every minute of it. My goals for the conference were to learn as much as I could about the Minnesota library structure as well as network with public librarians. I’ve recently made a career switch from a teacher librarian (school librarian) in another state to a teen services librarian in a public library, and although there are many parts of this new job that are similar to my past career, I know that I have a lot to learn.
The first and second sessions helped me learn more about libraries in Minnesota. The session Libraries Leading Forward: A Collaborative Vision for the Future taught me more about the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library. I also visited their booth in the vendor hall to get more information to bring back with me to use in the future. The information from Minitex and the work they have done in the past year throughout Minnesota and surrounding states reminded me of the huge responsibility they have to keep our library systems running. The second session I attended was about the public library and agricultural connections that could create unique programs for patrons. Rock County is lucky to have such a great librarian providing creative learning experiences for kids (and adults) in their area. I’m still learning more about my new community but I now have ideas about what could be done to better educate our patrons about the area where we live. I am wondering what that might look like for the teens that I work with here and will continue to look into this possible program.
Drawn to the Library was the other session I attended. Having previously been in a school library that sounds similar to Eagan High School, I could relate to the changes that their librarian made when she started working there. In this session I learned a lot of display and passive programming ideas that can also be used here in my public library. I hope to create a more welcoming space for teens here by making small changes that can make a big impact.
I was really interested in the collaboration between St. Paul Public Schools and St. Paul Public Library with Library Go. I’ve been doing some outreach with the middle school and high school to start a book club in each building, and I think this easy access to the public library is a great thing to offer students. I plan to make sure our students in area schools know how to access the resources we have here and the other resources we offer from eBooks Minnesota, online databases, and other research tools.
I made some networking connections during lunch, the Children’s and Young People (CYP) Section Subunit meeting, and Library Leadership Forum: Building Your Resilient Network. I am looking forward to learning from these people in the future and I hope I can be of help to them in some way as well. I know that Pioneerland and Prairielands encompasses a wide variety of libraries and we can all learn from one another and work together to provide services unique to our areas.
I’m thankful to have had this opportunity to attend MLA thanks to the scholarship from Prairielands Library System. It made me feel more confident in the work I’ve started in my new role and challenged me to take more chances in the events I’m planning for the teens in Willmar.