Whether or not you are a member of the American Library Association, and no matter what your job title is, if you are involved in library work (including archives, museum, history center) you are part of the profession. The profession gathers once a year for the Annual Conference – more than 25,000 of use! And this year, we are gathering in Chicago!
June 22 – 27, the library people of the US (and many other countries across the globe) will descend on Chicago – ready to talk library work, to meet other people who do things they do, and to have a lot of library-related fun!!
Check out their website to get all the details about the conference, and see what kinds of events might speak to your professional interests!
If you have not been a big conference, they have Resources for First Time Attendees available. This will give you all the good hints for making your conference a success! (You will still be exhausted at the end – that’s part of the way you know you had a good time!)
Are you revved up and ready to attend, but need to convince others? The ALA is there to help! Check out their Making Your Case to Attend page, filled with good information and suggestions to demonstrate how valuable attending this conference (or any conference!) will be for you – and how much more valuable you will be when you return!
Remember that CMLE has up to $200 in scholarship money, to help offset your attendance at this kind of event! (You can use it for other conference and continuing education events too, if you can’t make it to this one.)
Registration is underway now, with the best discounts available before noon, March 22. To save money, you might consider registering for just a one-day pass. Or you might get just an Exhibits pass. There is plenty to do there, where you can visit hundreds of vendors, large and small. And this is where you can get absolutely loaded down in free books, advance reading copies, poster, pens, and more!
I got enough posters and office supplies at an ALA conference to keep my library stocked up for nearly a year! Thanks vendors!! And I once got a free copy of a Harry Potter book the day it was published! No, I did not do much conference work after that; but I could easily be found with dozens of others sitting on the floor in the hallways, all reading as fast as we could. I gave the book to my library when I got home, only very gently used. I have won coffee mugs, had famous authors sign my book (while I tried not to fangirl too much),and one year came home with five stress-reliever squeezy brains in assorted colors! (I still have two on my desk, if you want to come over and squeeze my brains! It’s surprisingly soothing.)
If you enjoy attending the MLA Annual Conference (coming up Oct 5 and 6, in Rochester!), or the ITEM Annual Conference (coming up Oct 5 – 7, in Minneapolis!), you will enjoy the ALA annual!
Do you have questions about attending ALA? Do you want to talk about library conferences in general? Would it be helpful to have a CMLE Headquarters person come to your library, Board meeting, or other event to talk about the value in attending conferences?
We are here to help you! Just contact us to tell us what you need!