I was able to attend the Minnesota Library Association Conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota on October 9 and 10, 2025. It was wonderful being able to see fellow Minnesota librarians that I don’t often get to see outside of Zoom meetings. Having this time set aside to get together and collaborate is invaluable. The MLA [...]
MLA 2025 Cultivating Connections: Stronger Together MLA 2025 sent me back to my library energized and full of new ideas. This year I think the topic of Cultivating Connections was perfect. The Stronger Together component reminds me that we are only better when we work together. I truly believe this, and it is a common [...]
I found this year's MLA conference to be incredibly useful and well worth my time. I attended sessions relating to VR technology, AI, book clubs, leveraging community organizations and resources, using data to tell the story of how libraries are valuable, and the reality of book banning and censorship. Additionally in light of Baker and [...]
I had the opportunity to attend the 2025 Association for Rural & Small Libraries Conference September 17-20 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The ARSL Conference is full of applicable sessions aimed toward the smaller library setting. I left taking away many great ideas. We had the opportunity to hear Keynote Speaker Mychal Threets share his story [...]
Romance GenreCon was an excellent opportunity for me to dig deeper into the world of romance books and how to cultivate a good community around the genre for our patrons that are interested the genre. The different sessions that I attended gave me ideas on how to form things like a Romance Book Club, a [...]
I was so happy to have the opportunity to attend Camp Read in person this year. The space in Marshall was very comfortable and met our needs quite nicely. The keynote speaker, Dr. Harris, started the event with enthusiasm and encouragement, challenging us to consider our biases and judgements. She shared one of her middle [...]
Minnesota Library Association Conference 2024 As a first-time attendee at the Minnesota Library Association Conference in Rochester, MN, I can confidently say it was a truly enriching experience. The variety of sessions offered was impressive, covering a wide range of topics that kept me engaged and inspired. I had the pleasure of attending several sessions, [...]
I chose to focus on technical services and creating more inclusionary terminology in the library. One session that I found particularly informational was on fatphobia and being more inclusive with the catalog language. What a great session! I hope to bring that focus back to our catalog and the way that we support our patrons [...]
Absolutely loved the opening Keynote, Mychal Threets. He was fun to listen to and made me think about how I can start training students to work in the Media Center. Fun fact we ended up walking with him to the conference from the hotel, what a nice person! I want to find out more about [...]
I am so appreciative of receiving this grant to attend the MLA Convention/Conference. Some of the highlights I can share is that I was very pleased with all of the sessions I attended - I learned many new things to share with staff regarding storytimes, games, Canva for designs unique to our library, and connected [...]