by Lizzy Baus
Quick Summary
In late September I was able to attend and present at the North Dakota Library Association Annual Conference, held in West Fargo. All in all the 2019 NDLA Conference was enjoyable and illuminating.
In late September I was able to attend and present at the North Dakota Library Association Annual Conference, held in West Fargo. I gave two presentations, one on general cataloging matters and one on the new version of the RDA Toolkit.
The conference had some very interesting sessions, including two on a project collecting oral histories from Red River Rainbow Seniors, a community of LGBTQ+ people over the age of 50 from the Fargo-Moorhead area. We also heard a keynote address from John Spears, a member of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee. He spoke passionately about the need to defend the principles of intellectual freedom even when we personally disagree with the messages being shared.
Another honored guest was Caldecott Award-winning illustrator and author Matthew Cordell, who talked about his wordless picture book Wolf in the Snow and the journey it took from doodle to idea to publication and finally to award-winner. He shared some photos of his messy studio and lots of insight into how he creates his images and puts together stories.
All in all the 2019 NDLA Conference was enjoyable and illuminating.
