MLA Scholarship Report #6

From Kathy Bushey of the Duluth Public Library:

I attended six of the sessions offered at MLA this year:
-If You Encourage Them They Will Come – Strategies for Building eBook circulation
-Summer Reading Programs: Rethink, Retool, Refresh
-To Boldly Go: Fantastical Journeys through Science Fiction Advisory
-Ebooks: What’s All the Excitement About?
-The Customer is Always Right: Trends in Library Design
-50 in 60 Book Blast

I attended sessions that I thought would be useful to me at DPL. I work in Fiction and Media and I thought they dealt with a lot of topics that libraries, including DPL, are confronting. The two sessions on eBooks had some really good information about this format, including who uses it and what they read, and its impact on libraries – from staff time to budget issues. The session on Trends in Library Design was also helpful since DPL may be undergoing future renovation. The impact of all the new technology (including ebooks) and what patrons expect from the library are greatly influencing designs. It all forces you to think about the library in a different way. If we want to be relevant and useful to the public, we need to be aware of what’s going on in technology – since it’s becoming more and more a part of people’s lives. We need to be able to change and adapt in ways that, for some, could be difficult. It all makes it an interesting time to be a librarian.

I also found the Summer Reading Program useful since DPL is about to start working on its summer program. Since I’m involved with preparing ours, I was hoping to get some good ideas about better promoting it and hearing how other libraries get funding. Even though it was geared for Youth Services, many of the ideas could easily by translated to Adult programs.

The Science Fiction Advisory session was great! The presenter was funny and knowledgeable about the genre (she’s a trekie) and even though I’m familiar with science fiction, she really broke down the genre and discussed all the different types of sci-fi - I think it will prove useful for future science fiction questions.