So, I spent the last four days in Minneapolis at the Public Library Association's National Conference. (And when I wasn't actually at the conference, I was getting lost in downtown Minneapolis...more on that later...)
And wow. Just...wow. Talk about amazing...and overwhelming...and amazing...and incredible...and yeah, I'm still trying to process through the entire experience of it all.
I have never been to a national library conference before. I've attended the Iowa Library Association's annual conference a few times and various other workshops around the state of Iowa. But a national conference was a beast I had yet to conquer. Until now!
The thing that still is so mind-blowing to me was all of the people. There were roughly 5,500 librarians from all around the country registered for this conference. (That's almost the same amount of people who reside in my hometown!) I met librarians from Oregon, Alaska, California, New Jersey (or "Joisey" as they like to say!), Indiana, Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, Washington...and the list goes on! We came from all walks of life, libraries of various sizes and populations, yet we were all there for the same reason...to learn and share about our experiences as public libraries. As one of my conference cohorts put it, "it reaffirms everything I know and love about being a public librarian." She is so right.
As I said before, I'm still trying to process the entire experience yet...but I know for sure that I'll be back with more posts as I come to more exciting and mind blowing conclusions! So, stay tuned!
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