ARSL Conference Summary

Diane Adams, International Falls Public Library Director and NCLC scholarship recipient for attendance at the Association of Rural and Small Libraries Conference shares her report of the 2010 conference with us:

ARSL Conference Summary

The conference began on Wednesday evening with a mixer. It was a chance to talk with librarians across the country and enjoy time together sharing. Thursday morning we heart Dr. Loriene Roy share about her growing up years in Carlton, Minnesota and the impact small libraries had on her life. She talked about the books she still remembers reading growing up. Thursday I attended workshops on PR, trustee training and gaming in libraries. The best was the gaming workshop although the PR workshop did have a good handout with a guide to doing PR and fund raising. The gaming workshop focused on doing it on the cheap, with used and donated equipment.

I was surprised at the scarcity of vendors. There were probably only 15-20 vendors including American Library Association, Colorado Library Association and WebJunction. But it was fun to see the latest and greatest in bookmobile options. The late afternoon provided an opportunity for moderated discussions and I attended one on tourist town libraries. It was a valuable chance to share ideas, brainstorm together and just hear what others are doing to accommodate and discourage tourists/short-term employees from walking off with material. Thursday evening included a chance for groups to go out to dinner with someone from the area and talk. Again the sharing of what worked, what we struggled with and more was valuable.

Friday's workshops were great as well. I attended a workshop on a Colorado Public Library Advocacy Initiative that would be terrific anywhere and may work on trying to implement it on a small scale. Dom Testa, a Colorado author and radio personality, shared at lunch about his work with encouraging middle schoolers to academic achievement through reading, writing and not dumbing down. I then listened to Pat Wagner talk about "Hometown Ethics" and "Turning Enemies Into Allies" with both focusing on the basic idea of talking the high road and being kind and forgiving no matter which side of an issue you are on.

Saturday morning I attended a great workshop on what's hot in the world of reading for teens and finally a workshop on how to get staff excited and supportive of changes in the library. This workshop was frustrating because one of her main points was to take disciplinary action if they were hijacking the process and didn't really give suggestions about how to get staff on board.

Overall, the conference was wonderful and I am very glad I had the opportunity to go and learn and share what I've done that worked, and learned what other have done that worked for them. I also was reminded that there are many libraries (in fact there are many more small libraries, than large ones) and that working together we can accomplish more than we can imagine.