MLA Scholarship Report #5

From Dan Buckanaga of Duluth Public Library:

MLA 2011

I’ve attended the Minnesota Library Association conference the previous two years, and I knew I didn’t want to miss MLA when I learned it was being hosted in my home city of Duluth, Minnesota. I’ve always enjoyed myself in years past, and this year was no exception. Winning a silent auction for an autographed picture of Minnesota Viking, Percy Harvin didn’t hurt either.

I was only able to attend the conference on Thursday, October 13th. The first session I attended was “C3. Empowering Older Adults” with Chris Anning and Joyce Yukawa presenting. This class was particularly interesting to me, as I have taught many computer classes in the past and will likely be doing so at some point in the future. As a majority of our students that signup for the class are older adults, I thought this would be a natural fit. I was interested to learn that their idea of an older adult was 85+, though most of our students range from 40-70, however much of what they said can still be potentially applied towards helping our current classes. For instance, senior volunteers can be a big help, because many older adults feel more comfortable being instructed by someone older.

My second session I attended was “D5. Ebooks: What’s all the EXCITEMENT about?”. This was definitely the most packed session I attended, with every seat taken and people standing in the aisles. It was more of a question and answer panel, with the presenters debating and discussion questions that seemed to be predetermined ahead of time, as well as questions from the audience. No one took a strong stance one way or the other about the future of print media, and I would of liked to hear more about the 3M library e-readers and software. Overall it was still interesting to hear library professionals opinions.


My final session that I attended was “E10. Things in Flash: The latest Web 2.0 tools”. I enjoyed this session last year as well in Rochester. I always find it interesting to see what new technology other library workers are using, and how they find ways to fit it into libraries. Some of the tools presented were more of a stretch for actual use in libraries, and some had some interesting possibilities. One of the presenters talked about QR codes, and they were actually able to get QR codes into their library catalog, so when a patron pulls up a record, they can scan the QR code on their smart phone and have the call number pulled up right on the phone.


All in all I had a great time attending the sessions, and the conference in general. I will look into seeing if our library can find a senior volunteer to help with computer classes and keep everything else I learned in the back of my head. I look forward to attending MLA conferences in the future, and seeing what new sessions are available.