A significant portion of the Friends’ annual grant to the libraries supports recognition and other staff celebrations, team-building, training and various professional development activities. One of these educational activities is provided by a scholarship to enable library staff members to attend the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual conference and exhibition.

This year Susan Allen, director of public services, and Chaz Carey, youth services librarian at Old Worthington Library, attended the ALA conference on June 23-28 in Washington D.C. as recipients of the Friends scholarship. They joined five other Worthington library staff at the conference. The conference drew nearly 7,750 in-person attendees; more than 5,400 exhibitors, authors, and illustrators; and approximately 830 virtual attendees for the Digital Experience.

Susan Allen, left, and Chaz Carey share experiences from the ALA Conference.

Major themes of the conference program included book bans and censorship; issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); examples of successful library programming during the pandemic; library funding strategies; patron and library worker safety; information access; and technology trends and challenges.

Susan was pleased with the number of programs relating to social justice, DEI and intellectual freedom, which are extremely relevant to the issues facing public libraries today, and she focused her attention on sessions that aligned with those topics. The session on “Diversity in Library Boards, Friends Groups and Foundations: Successes and Struggles in Recruiting and Retaining Diverse Members” presented a report compiled by an ALA Emerging Leaders group. It examined case studies, stories and real-life examples of EDI in library boards and library friend’s groups, reflecting common struggles, successes and trends.

Highlights of other EDI-related sessions she attended include an overview of Evanston Public Library’s successful public program series that engages families through race and culture education; a presentation on New Orleans Public Library’s equity task force; a panel discussion “How to be a Rainbow Ally,” which provided tips for recognizing internal biases and how to better support LGBTQ+ staff; and a session about DEI and accessibility in library buildings.

Susan also spent time meeting vendors and picking up information about products to share with colleagues. She felt the closing general session featuring Luvvie Ajayi Jones – an award-winning author, speaker, and podcast host who thrives at the intersection of humor, media, and justice – ended the conference on a high note. She talked about the value of Accompliceship, which she defined as taking Allyship and putting action to it. She encouraged those who are persons of power and privilege in libraries to be the “plus one” for the marginalized challengers.

For Chaz, meeting favorite authors was a highlight, and she also enjoyed connecting with many brilliant librarians and information professionals and publishers who are doing great work. “ALA conferences are usually inspiring and energizing, and a lot of that comes from hearing what colleagues are doing all over world,” she explained.

Some of those librarians worked at the Library of Congress, which she visited during the conference. “They are really excited about collaborating with public libraries on programs and special events,” Chaz said. “Whether it is the National Book Festival in September, hosting a transcribathon, or livestreaming one of their concerts, the Library of Congress wants you to know about their collections, resources and offerings.”

Chaz agrees with Susan that Luvvie Ajayi-Jones was a program highlight. Other sessions on which she shared information with co-workers included one on privacy field guides, recently developed by ALA, and another on libraries and neutrality.

Also at the conference was a session showcasing the results of a project on intellectual freedom that Chaz helped develop through her participation in ALA’s 2022 Emerging Leaders program.