Founded in 1896 the Illinois Library Association is a membership organization that represent Illinois libraries and the people that depend on them. The ILA is the 3rd largest chapter in the ALA (American Library Association). Every year they have a conference where Illinois libraries can come to attend or present at the conference. Last October our circulation managers Meaghan Fischer and Hope Kennedy who work with our student workers got the opportunity to present!
So what did they have to say?
So what were you guys presenting?
We presented our work with improving the student worker documentation we thought needed updating. Some of it like our Manual hasn't been updated since before the pandemic.
Sounds like a lot of work. How long have you guys been working on this project before and then leading up to the conference?
It was 8 months of work to refine and update everything. then 2-3 months of prepping to present at ILA. So almost a year of work total!
What was it like to get approval? Then to present?
We didn't want to get our hopes up originally. But got excited along with our team since it was our first time presenting at ILA. Our presentation also fit the theme that year.
The theme this year was "You Belong Here" to celebrate inclusivity and belonging for patrons and library workers alike.
What has the feedback been? At the conference and then back here?
During the questions portion of our presentation we got a lot of question from the people that attended. Like "how do you work with students who have different schedules?" or "how do you improve morale in your workers?" and "how do you get the students excited to come into work?" After our session was over some of them stayed after to talk to us more and it was cool to bounce off of other people for their perspective.
Any highlights you guys want to share from the experience?
Getting to see everyone else's presentations at the the conference was interesting.
Was there any takeaways that you wanted to improve upon after the conference?
We actually went back and modified the manual again. We are going to send out survey's to the students to see how they feel about the updates we have made.
And there you have it!
Thanks for reading!
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