ALA Annual 2023: Becky's Conference Notes Part 1 of 2

Over the next two days, I am going to have my notes about my conference experience. However, I do want to note that I had very different goals in 2023 than I did in 2022. 

While in 2022 I focused on attending as many program slots as possible (my reports from that conference are here), this year, I was focused on networking. 

Why the change? Well I think the answer is super useful to all of you as well so I will discuss. 

In 2022, the conference was a big step "back to normal." We were mostly masking, not sure about how much time to spend with others, people were all still getting used to being together again, and we were all starved to learn new things from our colleagues. I needed training from new voices more than I ever have in my career.

By 2023, I realized I had missed just chatting with my colleagues, meeting up with them, and catching up. After ALA 2022 in DC, I attended 4 more in person conferences and felt very much more back in the flow of attending and learning in this conference model. But by focusing on networking at ALA 2023, I found that my colleagues were all craving more time to chat and learn informally from each other. This was the first time in 4 years that I had seen some of these people.

But also, and this is specific to me, all of my goals for 2023 revolve around my next career steps. 2023 has been a year of looking forward and assessing the big picture of my career. As a result, I had some formal meetings planned to discuss my career and my work with a bigger picture focus. 

In order to get the most out of my attendance at ALA Annual this year (remember, I pay for myself to attend), I felt like a focus on networking was the best course of action, and that was my plan going in.

And now, I can tell you on both fronts this focus on networking was 100% successful. Here are two examples.

1. I had discussions with many of the organizations I already work for about what we do together, where we should move forward. Some were very formal and others informal. Two examples, one informal and one formal: meeting my LJ editor, Melissa DeWild, in person and spending some time at panels together and just getting to know each other while chatting future plans vs the meeting I had with my publisher's new Senior Marketing Manager. 
2. A colleague I have known for over 10 years (in real life) was there. We had the multiple chances to talk about more than simply what is going on in our library worlds, but instead we started a higher level discussion about a possible panel for future conferences, one that would be very different than the things we normally present on and one that we think will be helpful to a wider audience.

More news on all of these things will come in due time, but the examples are important. I share hem because I want to remind all of you, conferences, and really any opportunities where library workers comes together to learn, can serve many purposes. There is no right or wrong way to plan attending an event like ALA Annual. The only wrong thing you can do is NOT take the time to think about why you are going and what you hope to get out of it, BEFORE you go. And, I guess there is one more wrong thing you can do, and that is not taking the time to assess how it went AFTER.

Okay, enough esoteric. On to my notes. 

To follow my Tweets from the entire run of the conference in reverse chronological order including this specific thread of my photo highlights, click here. You do not need a Twitter account to read these tweets.

Also I would suggest this thread by my colleague Lila Denning as well. 

I am not going to report a day-by-day recap as in year's past. Today, I will have some of the bigger evens and commentary while tomorrow's post will be more panel focused.

So let's begin.

The Opening Session on Friday was very inspiring but I will admit, it was a bit because we were in my home town. I got to see CPL Commissioner Chris Brown and ILA President Heather Jagman welcome us all. I was so proud to know and work with them. 

There was an appearance by the FCC Chairperson, Jessica Rosenworcel, for the second year in a row. She spoke about the FCC's commitment to modernizing E-Rate through using all they learned as they extended its use with their emergency funds during COVD. An example of something they did with the emergency funds was to do "learning without limits" and get wifi on school buses. Especially in rural areas where broadband access is more spotty, those kids also spend hours school busses. So they gave them "wifi on wheels" to get started on homework with reliable wifi. 

One of their plans to modernize the E-Rate itself is to move from providing high speed internet to school and library buildings toward providing wifi hotspots for them to take from those buildings-- libraries and schools. So, the plan is to make wifi hot spots available for purchase with E-Rate funds so we can check them out to library users. This is a change in the E-Rate as written but is still very focused on the equity of service that underlies this program's existence. 

Tracie Hall, Executive Director of ALA, came on to welcome us next. She also brought on the Stars of NBC Chicago's Chicago Today morning program to talk about their Banned Books Book Club which they do with ALA and Tracie Hall. Click here for video access. They also announced that NBC is looking to expand the segment nationwide. That was exciting.

Then Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias came out to ask about his role in the passage of the nation's first ban on book banning. Please click here to read about about this as I was a that bill signing earlier this month. He read the same speech he gave at our event, which I have no problem with because it was good and more people needed to hear it. But he did announce something new---

BanBookBans.com a website to help other state's pass the same legislation as well as a place for those who want to help or need help can gather. This is action against book bans directly from the government, and it should come as no surprise that it is from a pelican who served on a library board (Giannoulias was on CPL's board) and from someone Tracie Hall, has been able to speak o on these topics personally.

Judy Blume spoke next. Here is PW's recap of her remarks. And then the conference was off and running.

I attended the Carnegie Awards Reception on Saturday and to say it was a highlight of the conference would be understating it. As I have detailed many many times on the blog, I was on the selection committee for this year's winners. Not only was I going to get to meet the authors who won but the members of our committee who were in attendance all had dinner together before hand with Danielle Borasky from NoveList, the longtime sponsors of the reception. 

Here is the thread of the tweets about the ceremony including the speeches. Well worth your time to read what the authors had to say. 

And finally in today's wrap up, I want to acknowledge that the publisher for my book is ALA Editions, which mean I spent some time working on activities devoted to my book and its promotion. I was able to connect with the new Senior Marketing Manager at ALA Editions, Ramon Robinson. We go to know each other bit and also seen time recording promotional videos that you should see shortly. He also was there to help kick off my "Huddle" on Sunday morning where a handful of library workers who are interested in serving horror reader and I met to discuss how best to go about it. Its was nice to have the opportunity to connect with people in a formal way, but through an informal training format.

Back tomorrow, with more specifics about panels and activities.