Texas Bound for the Texas Library Association

I’ll be heading off for Fort Worth the week after next, off to speak at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference. I’m excited for this for a number of reasons. First of all, there’s the obvious “getting a chance to talk to a bunch of librarians.” I might be a tad biased, but librarians are, on the whole, awesome. They’re well-read, open-minded, and fierce supporters of reading and learning. If the world were full of more librarians, it would be a better place.

But this is also going to be an in person conference, and that makes me happy for many other reasons. It’s a step back to how life “used to be.” (As an aside, I recognize that we’re never really going to go back to how things “used to be,” but the more I’ve thought about, the more I realize that’s always the case. The 80s were different than the 90s. The 2010s were different than the 2020s. There are some who long for the times when things were “better,” but so far, all I’ve seen is the selective memory of folks who focus on the things that were good and ignore the things that weren’t. When people say they want things to be how they “used to be,” they’re generally just expressing nostalgia. That said, the pandemic made things change drastically, quickly. And returning to at least some elements of how things were in 2019 and before is a welcome change.)

Where was I?

Oh yes. In person conferences. The Maine Library Association is having an in-person conference in May, and I’ll be going to that, as well. I’m considering going to ALA annual in DC. The thought of having all those book lovers in one place is pretty compelling.

For the TLA’s conference, I’m just going to be on one panel. It’s titled “Blast From the Past: YA Historical Fiction,” so it’s definitely right up my alley. If you’re in Texas April 25-28, and you’re near Fort Worth, and you’re a librarian, then come on down! I mean, technically you don’t have to be a librarian. It’ll be a fun booky conference any way you slice it, but a lot of the panels might not exactly be up your alley. “Partnering with Your Principal to Support the School Vision,” for example, or “Thinking of Changing Your Integrated Library System?”

See what you’re missing out on? Maybe you should enroll in a library studies program. Just sayin’ . . .

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