ALA Midwinter Conference

Author Name: Beau T. Bradley
Library System: Washington County Free Library
Event Title: ALA Midwinter Conference
Midwinter website: http://alamw15.ala.org/

Top 3 things learned:
-My main goal in attending Midwinter was to begin working on my Emerging Leaders program project. To this end, I spent a large chunk of my time becoming familiar with the structure of ALA and the goals and current efforts of many of the different facets of the organization.

-I attended a panel on women in geekdom, and from that I took several insights into the role that libraries can play in fostering young geek girls. The panelists expressed the importance of the library in providing a safe and community oriented space for geek communities, especially those created
by girls, to grow. The panelists also warned of gendering our programs and efforts (programs for boys, books for girls etc.) noting that by doing so we limit girls potential to explore a path that may ultimately lead them to careers in fields not typically friendly to females. Finally the panel
presented some of their own projects that may be useful to libraries, including a presentation from Google about their Made With Code program (https://www.madewithcode.com/) a program designed to help introduce girls to coding.

-Finally, I was lucky to attend a talk by LeVar Burton (the host of Reading Rainbow) where he spoke on a variety of topics, including early childhood literacy and the importance of reading as a family.

How to implement:
-To any of my colleagues who might be looking to become more participative in the ALA, I could take the knowledge I acquired and help them explore the organization.

-As we try to include more STEM programming into our work, the lessons learned at the panel will both inform the quality and inclusiveness of our and the specific programs that the panelists discussed could be high quality additions to current library programming efforts.

-Finally, the ideas and beliefs of Mr. Burton, a major voice in library advocacy, will serve as inspiration and meaningful input into our discussions of services and relevancy.