{"id":5159,"date":"2022-05-18T18:29:02","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T01:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/?p=5159"},"modified":"2022-05-18T18:32:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T01:32:49","slug":"wla-conference-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wla-conference-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"WLA Conference Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a gray and rainy Friday in Bellevue, WA, when the Washington Library Association (WLA) held their annual conference in early May. And while people outside were wrapped in their raincoats, huddled under umbrellas, and trying to decide which of the 5 Starbucks in the area would be their best bet for a caffeine fix, the conference center was full of bibliophiles and philomaths (many of whom were also looking for a caffeine fix).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was fortunate enough to attend this conference with the added perk of meeting Dr. Anthony Chow, the iSchool director, and a couple of the students from his Special Studies: Usability\/UX course (INFO 298) at the iSchool table in the main exhibition hall. Dr. Chow is very dedicated to expanding access to innovative technologies and educating MLIS students to become leaders in this \"\"<\/a>field. So, it should not be a surprise that the iSchool table included an Oculus Virtual Reality headset demonstration. It wasn\u2019t too difficult to convince me to try it out. I may or may not be dancing while holding hands with a robot in this picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Librarians and other informational professionals are a welcoming and friendly bunch, which meant that it didn\u2019t take long before I was chatting with other attendees and learning from their experiences and career paths. The conference organizers invited the eloquent Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest to give the keynote speech, YA author (and former librarian) Dan Gemeinhart to speak at breakfast, and a brilliant and diverse fandom panel to speak at lunch. The sessions at the conference were hosted by a wide variety of professional librarians, government agency employees, professors, and even MLIS students. As an MLIS student who hasn\u2019t quite decided which direction to take post-graduation, I was able to get a peek into the types of work and projects different librarians do. The event app also allowed attendees to download any files that presenters posted so we could take a look at the materials later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Attending this conference included a dinner with the SJSU iSchool director, professor, events associate, and other graduate students. Meeting other students in this program face-to-face can be rare, so chatting about courses and future plans over pasta made for a lovely night (bruschetta and stuffed mushrooms not seen here).<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you ever have the opportunity to attend a library conference, I highly recommend it. They are designed to build professional connections and expose you to the work and research of others in the field.\u00a0 As an example, here are the titles of the sessions that I attended:<\/span><\/p>\n