Surprisingly, one of my most valuable moments at MLA 2019 was the vendor connections in the exhibit hall. I’d had my eye on the Paper Plains art cart through Springboard for the past few months, but had decided I wouldn’t be able to afford bringing them to our library. However, after meeting Hannah and seeing her passion and listening to her talk about the health of our environment, I realized I couldn’t afford not to bring her to our programming calendar next year, as we are focusing on water. I also thoroughly enjoyed the keynote by Michele Villagran as a reminder that conflict management begins with ourselves. Being in a service heavy industry, personal connections are fundamental to our success and the comfort of our patrons. A couple times, I was torn between a several sessions because they all felt relevant to my library. Collaborate, Create, Inspire provided some great tips on bringing artists and musicians into the library and creating a more vibrant, flexible arts culture. (As an aside, I was sad to miss the session on Indigenous Representations during this time, especially after I heard it was well-done.)
