I recently attended my first ever Public Library Association conference.’ I consider myself a seasoned veteran when it comes to attending ALA’s annual conference, but I had never had the chance to go to PLA before.’ I was excited to see the differences!
One major difference was in the exhibit hall.’ Most of the young adult divisions of the major publication houses chose not to have a conference booth.’ But I still found some great ARC titles’ from’ Little & Brown, Macmillian, Simon and Schuster, and Zondervan.’ I really appreciated them being there.’ I also had some great chats and made some good connections with representatives from Tor Teen and Harlequin Teen, who made exciting cases for the relevancy of their specialty lines.
I also had a chance to find some new librarian tweeps and even meet one in person.’ It was also, of course, great to see YALSA staff at the booth.’ Conferences are most fun, I think, when you have the chance to make some human connections with your librarian colleagues and friends.
Were any of you there?’ What were some highlights for you?
I attended some great programs and encourage you to check out the available online handouts from the sessions.’ ‘ ‘ I’d like to talk briefly here about one session that was especially inspiring to me and that I think will have a lot of appeal to YALSA members, Maryann Mori’s Pregnant/Parenting Teens: Promoting Library Services Among the Underserved.
Maryann inspired ME to ask “What does my library have to offer pregnant/parenting teens?†and maybe she can do the same for you.’ Behind the cut, you’ll find a session description and links!