MLA Conference by Ria Newhouse / Spicer, New London, Lake Lillian, Raymond, Atwater Public Libraries

//MLA Conference by Ria Newhouse / Spicer, New London, Lake Lillian, Raymond, Atwater Public Libraries

MLA Conference by Ria Newhouse / Spicer, New London, Lake Lillian, Raymond, Atwater Public Libraries

Another great MLA conference! The sessions were informative and the keynote speakers were dynamic (especially the keynote on Friday). My favorite session was about using STEM/STEAM activities with toddlers. I have been experimenting with some science activities during story time, so this session was exactly what I needed. I have been trying to incorporate STEM activities INTO story time, but the speaker actually talked about how she separates these activities out and does them as a separate program, which I thought was a great idea. She shared a lot of pictures and ideas for activities and even had time for some hands-on work.
The keynote speaker during Friday’s lunch was fantastic and talked about so many interesting (and awful) issues. Race, politics, search engines, and how they all come together.
The first session I went to on Thursday morning was called “Queering the Stacks” and the two presenters did a good job exploring the history of GLBT literature and talked about how it has evolved and some current trends we see in today’s publishing world. I also attended the PLD meeting, which was great because there was time for everyone to share current ideas of things they are doing in their libraries, so I got to hear a lot of new, fun ideas.
I attended a program about summer reading programs (an ever-eternal hot topic) and got some good ideas about new ways to expand the program. In Summer 2016, I “loosened” things up a bit and allowed kids to do things other than reading to achieve goals. In Summer 2017 I pulled back a little and went back to the more traditional route. But after listening to this session (and looking at their materials!) I think I’ll go back to the loose side — they had some fantastic ideas worth “borrowing!”
Overall, a great conference, as usual.

2017-10-09T13:34:58-05:00Scholarship Reports|