2014 PLA Top Ten

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I went to PLA this year, my first big conference!  It really was a great first conference.  I had a fabulous experience.  The Indianapolis Convention Center is beautiful and big and comfortable for the most part.  There was wi-fi EVERYWHERE.  I met a ton of people and ate good food and just, yeah.  So without further ado, here are the top ten things I took away from this conference.

  1. Simon Sinek’s Big Ideas talk
    1. This guy convinced me that I need to be a leader and that I can be a leader.  He talked about how, in order to be a good leader, you have to create a circle of safety in the workplace.  In order to do this, we have to have an incentive system – the incentives are not actual physical items, but feelings.  His method involved all those awesome chemicals we have in our brain – endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytosin.  I would explain it more in depth, but I’m sure that he did it better and I can find a video of him explaining his method. 
  2. The twitter handles of the four presenters of Beyond Duct Tape Wallets
    1. All of the stuff that Kelly Jenson, Angie Manfredi, Katie Salo, and Andrea Sowers talked about was extremely valuable, but I am SO happy that they gave out their twitter handles and blog addresses.  Social networking is something that I’m getting back into and I NEED awesome people in my feed.
  3. The three page long document of adult programming ideas from the EchoBOOM ladies
    1. Samantha Helmick and Mallorie Graham – you are hilarious.  I hope you know it.  These guys had us write down OUR ideas for adult programming on pieces of paper and then typed them up and sent them to EVERYBODY IN THE SESSION.  I have a three page list of adult programming activities that I could do in my library.  So awesome.
  4. Tips for incorporating STEM into storytime – including nontraditional math ideas from Saroj Ghoting
    1. #1 Saroj Ghoting.  !!!!  She is awesome!  I needed this session.  I wasn’t even initially going to go, but I ended up there after sneaking out of a session about how librarians can help small business owners (through databases and stuff my small, but awesome, library doesn’t have the money to get).  The big thing that I got out of the session was that you can find science and math in anything – patterns, observations, and measurements (standard and nonstandard). 
  5. Spark talks
    1. These were super short inspiring talks about one idea specifically (5 minutes or less).  The best for me were Flintlock Fantasy (book suggestions :D), FREE BEER (brewing your own beer as a program), Can’t You Read? (How the Fundamental Attribution Error kills customer service and what we can do about it), and Playing with Blocks (because I want blocks and partly because the librarian was from Bozeman).
  6. The getting ready for storytime song which specifically mentions cell phones OFF from Guerilla Storytime
    1. This song (and the librarian) is adorable.  I have a ukulele.  I will use this song.
  7. Bryan Stevenson’s amazing speaking abilities
    1. I did get something out of Bryan’s talk, but I was just transfixed by the stories he was telling and how passionate he was about his work.  The four things that he said that we needed to do in libraries are this: 1. Keep being proximate – we are in communities helping people.  We need to keep doing this and keep telling people we are here to help.  2. Work on changing the narratives of the status quo – we can expose people to these narratives and help them to recover from misconceptions.  3. HOPE – we have to be hopeful about what our institutes can do in communities.  It’s that fake-it-til-you-make-it mentality.  Hope until you do make it.  4. Commit ourselves to doing things that make us uncomfortable because that way we will go out of our way to do things for others – to make our library go from being a good library to a great library.
  8. Ann Patchett’s passion for books
    1. I have a whole big list of books that I added to my Goodreads account while listening to Ann Patchett speak.  She warned us that most of them were sad because she wanted to read sad books when going through sad times, but I don’t care.  I just love people who talk about books like they are oxygen.  Like you need them to live and that’s what Ann made me feel. 
  9. This quote by John Green: “I can’t go to places that aren’t on my map of possibilities.”
    1. John Green is pretty damn cool and he gave a typical John Green speech, but it was just awesome to be in a room with one THOUSAND other people who were excited about him and what he had to say. The atmosphere of the whole ballroom was buzzing.  (I will admit that the hard-core fangirling that people were doing did bring the event down a bit for me.  I am a teensy hipster and when stuff becomes mainstream, sometimes it loses its appeal for me).     
  10. Opportunities to connect with peers and vendors
    1. We have three new things in the library because I got to talk with vendors and peers.  We are now a part of Better World Books.  We subscribe to Kiki magazine – a fashion magazine for tweens (with models that look like real girls!) AND we’re now a member of CSLP.  I know that there will be more that’ll come, just a bit more slowly and when we get a bit more money, BUT STILL!  Things!  STUFF!