New York Library Association Conference

Saratoga Springs, NY – November 2019


One of the NYLA Conference sessions.

In November 2019 I was able to attend the New York Library Association’s (NYLA) 2019 annual conference and trade show in Saratoga Springs, NY with the help of a generous grant from CLRC.  NYLA is affiliated with the American Library Association as the New York Chapter of that national body. Members of the state association include librarians of public, system, school, college and university and many special libraries, library trustees, and friends of libraries.  I was excited to attend my first library focused professional conference.  Librarianship is my second career and I am enthusiastic about learning all I can about the profession, meeting and collaborating with new colleagues and developing myself as a library professional.

Some other highlights for me were meeting other librarians in my field, especially those who are new to the library profession but ‘seasoned’ in others! Talking about the challenges we have faced but also how excited we are to start a new chapter (no pun intended) in our careers.  These discussions really energized me and reinforced my decision of changing careers.

One takeaway I had from the conference was that I should try to do something new, and even if it fails, take that opportunity to learn from it. In the session, How Academic Librarians are Innovating the Workshop, the Librarians from Clarkson talked about graduate programming they put together and how they took aspects that did not go well in the first iteration of the program and really were able to then think critically about how they can change those things that didn’t go well to enhance the second iteration of the programming.  Failures aren’t catastrophes but ways to grow and learn.

One of the NYLA Conference sessions.

Lastly, I have been to several Higher Education and Counseling conferences before, but this was my first Library conference.  So when I walked the floor of the trade show, I was pretty shocked to see a free tattoo booth! Even more shocking is, I got one! That is also my “literal’ takeaway! I want to thank CLRC for helping me fund my experience!

 

 

 

 

 


Giovanna R. Colosi

Librarian, School of Education – Syracuse University & Board of Trustee-Elect, Northern Onondaga Public Library


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