Like many of you, I've been attending a lot of virtual events. SCLS has hosted webinars for many years so virtual events are nothing new. Now, however, events that were normally in-person are being moved online like the recent American Library Association Annual Conference and the upcoming Association for Rural & Small Libraries Conference. I recently attended the Denver Public Library's Advancing Racial Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Symposium (more about that in a minute).
Here is a list of upcoming virtual conferences:
- United for Libraries Virtual: Trustees - Friends - Foundations, August 4-6, 2020. The cost for this conference is free for members or $49 for non-members ($99 for your full board).
- Library Advocacy and Funding Conference from EveryLibrary, September 14-16, 2020. The cost for this conference is $75 ($100 after August 14, $125 after September 4). For every Wisconsin librarian that registers, 25% of the registration fee will go to WLA.
- Computers in Libraries & Internet Librarian Connect 2020 from Information Today, September 21-25. The cost for this combined conference should be available later this month.
- Association for Rural & Small Libraries, September 28-October 2, 2020. The cost for this conference is $50 for ARSL members, $65 for non-members, and $25 for Advocates (Trustees, Friends, and Foundations).
- Back in Circulation Again Conference from the Information School at UW Madison, October 19-20, 2020. The cost for this conference is $250.
- Lead the Way: Libraries at the Heart of Community Engagement from the Information School at UW Madison, November 16-17, 2020. The cost for this conference ranges from $56.75 - $225.
For SCLS member public library staff, you can use CE Grant funds to offset the cost of attending these conferences.
I mentioned the Denver Public Library's Advancing Racial Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace Symposium earlier and wanted to tell you more about it. Originally, this was to be a relatively small (about 125 people) in-person symposium held in Denver, Colorado. When the pandemic changed everything, the planning committee changed this event too. The event grew into a three-day virtual conference with more than 1000 people attending. The recordings of most of the sessions are available for you to watch here. This was one of the best virtual events that I've attended. The organizers, especially Ozy Aloziem from Denver Public Library, did a fabulous job bringing together a wide variety of speakers and artists in a really thoughtful way and acknowledging the hard work that needs to be done around racial equity.
One thing I learned from attending DPL's Symposium is to treat attending a virtual conference like an in-person conference. While you may not be physically leaving your home office or library to attend, you owe it to yourself (and the conference organizers and presenters) to block out your calendar, turn off your email, and be present for the conference sessions. It's worth it!
Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay
Updated 7/27/2020 to add CIL & Internet Librarian conference.
