What I Learned in Owensboro
By Walt Crawford
American Libraries Columnist
Senior analyst, Research Libraries Group
Column for January 2003
Can you name the third largest annual library conference in the United States? You know that the ALA Annual Conference is first and the Midwinter Meeting is second. After that comes the Texas Library Association annual conference—and when I spoke there in April 1998, in San Antonio, it sure felt about the same size as a San Antonio Midwinter.
TLA may be as outsized as Texas itself, but every state library conference I’ve attended has its own charms. Last year I was chatting with folks at the spring meeting of the Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries about the wonders of state library conferences. They noted that most people don’t get to experience a wide range of state conferences and said, “You should really write a Crawford Files about them.” So I did.
Not just programs
When I’m invited to speak at any library conference, I try to attend the whole thing. I make a special effort for state conferences, attending as many programs and social events as make sense to me.
Back in October 1992, in Phoenix, Arizona, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, I thought those might be my first and last state conferences, so I endeavored to enjoy them as much as possible.
What I found was that these conferences are events—not just programs and exhibits, but synergistic wholes. Participants seem to leave state library conferences both re-energized and better informed.
Good state library conferences cover more territory and involve a wider range of librarians than most specialized conferences. They’re also frequently bigger, more ambitious, and even raucous at times. (Those Wisconsin librarians get down at their all-conference parties!)
I attend many more program sessions at state library conferences than I do at ALA conferences. These are real librarians (some of whom don’t get funding for ALA Annual) talking about real situations, with shorter lead times than ALA programs and generally more down-to-earth approaches. I’ve never been to a library conference where I didn’t learn something worthwhile about who we are and what we do, and that seems to happen more and more unpredictably at state association conferences than at other types.
Real librarians, real situations
Often, I learn about aspects of librarianship that I would never have thought about. (I’m not trying to put down other conferences. I could tell you stories about the Victorian Association for Library Automation, the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers, and others.)
Sure, some programs boil down to “How we did it good”—but most of the time, there are explicit lessons for how others can do it better. Yes, I’ve been in audiences with fewer members than there were speakers. Sure, there have been typed transparencies, botched Internet connections, and cases where speakers were so visibly uncomfortable that they couldn’t give coherent presentations. But those have been rare cases. More often, I’m impressed with the thought and clarity exhibited in panels and programs—and I probably miss the best ones since I leave heavily attended programs, feeling that those who pay the registration fees should have priority.
One great joy of state library conferences—and most other library conferences, for that matter—is the chance to talk with practicing librarians of all types.
Getting us all together
Which brings up a point about Texas and why the third-most-populous state has the biggest conference. TLA gets everyone together (with the possible exception of special librarians); school librarians never did split off as a separate association, as they did in most states.
That’s a lesson other states are learning. Georgia’s Council of Media Organizations combines several library associations into one wonderful conference. Minnesota has overlapping conferences for the two major associations. Kentucky is holding joint conferences.
Colorado has gone one step further: At the conference in Snowmass in September 2000, the Colorado Library Association announced reunification with the school librarians.
Getting us all together. That’s what makes state library conferences great. I’ve been to 16 different state and provincial conferences (returning to Florida and Wisconsin). I look forward to the Alaska Library Association next March and hope to enjoy some other state conferences in years to come.
Enjoy your own state conference. From Dearborn to Elko, Memphis to Bloomington, Saratoga Springs to Orlando, and Owensboro to Green Bay, state library conferences bring out the best in this field.
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