by Lizzy Baus
Quick Summary
In mid-September Minitex staff traveled to Jamestown, North Dakota for the NDLA annual conference. This year’s theme was “The Idea of the Library: Services, Collections, Solutions.”
In mid-September Minitex staff traveled to Jamestown, North Dakota for the NDLA annual conference. This year’s theme was “The Idea of the Library: Services, Collections, Solutions.”
There were several sessions of interest throughout, including Valerie Horton’s presentation on “Developing 21st Century Library Skills”. She outlined several library trends and discussed the idea of library changes. One quote that stuck with me was “You cannot be an expert in everything, but you cannot not change. You must choose your skills and the changes you make.”
During the general session, North Dakota First Lady Betsy Dalrymple spoke about her new book about the Governor’s mansion. She talked about the experience of getting to speak with former ND First Families about their shared home and how it has changed and stayed the same throughout its history. Mrs. Dalrymple presented copies of the book to any ND library that wished to add it to the collection.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Mark Herring, is the author of several books, including Are Libraries Obsolete?: An Argument for Relevance in the Digital Age. This eye-catching title was the theme of his presentation, which discussed both internal and external reasons for declining usage of libraries. Dr. Herring went on to suggest several ways in which libraries can meet the changing world where it is and adapt to fill a new role while preserving the good parts of our library traditions. He advocated focusing on what libraries offer that no one else does, such as: privacy, open access, created content, and copyright knowledge and education. Dr. Herring closed with a vision of what libraries may look like in 2020 and beyond, reiterating the point that libraries and librarians must change; we can only choose how and what we change. Overall the talk was realistically optimistic – he was honest in admitting some hard choices but hopeful that libraries will rise to the challenges we face.
Minitex DIME staff also presented a cataloging update session, which was well-attended and produced some interesting discussion. We're looking forward to next year's conference already!
