14 October 2025 Illinois Library Association Conference Rosemont, IL Day 1

 

The Opening General Session was Dr. Terrell Strayhorn. He is a researcher in the field of education, psychology and the study of HBCUs. He gave a very emotional personal tale of his climb through the education process and all the issues he encountered in diversity and belonging in his career. Speaking about the pressures in higher education from his study of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The final part of his presentation was about his reliance of libraries as a safe space. How the library workers treated him in the library and included him. He related how his grandmother was always giving to him to finish school and the importance of the library in his advancement to become a PHD in psychology. It was a very moving presentation to get the audience stirred up for the conference.

Had a meeting with the Illinois State Librarian Greg McCormick. I was asked to consider being a member of the Illinois State Library Advisory Council (ISLAC). Awaiting some information from Greg before responding to his request.

The next session was Hope Belongs Here: Cultivating Critical Hope through Leadership. Critical Hope is looking at hope through a lens of equity and justice. It does not allow for simple solutions.

Critical Hope is one of the tools in dealing with PTSD. 6.8% of people will deal with PTSD in their lifetime. The presenters discussed the 7 principles of Critical Hope.  The had the group look at the enemies of hope and the allies of hope. The enemies of hope is Fear  while on of the allies of hope is love. Using love instead of fear allows the parties to examine their concerns and take action. Fear builds a block that has to be removed to solve the issue. They gave several examples that would encourage us to be fully engaged and not ignore issues.

Requiring diligence Critical Hope is a tool that involves more than a hope that the situation will get better. It involves working hard to look at the past too understand all the issues and how to circumvent those to ease the trauma. There was a lot to think about in the context of the library situation. Many patrons of the library have needs that could be helped with critical hope.

How Not to Panic: Media Training for Library Staff was the next session. Amanda McKay enlisted the help of Jaclyn Friedlander of CBS on how to prepare for interviews. One item that Jaclyn brought up is to ask for the questions before the interview. She told the group that no one would give those questions out.

The focus was to divide the type of interview. If it was for something like an upcoming event or community partnership do the interview. If the request is for a contentious Board meeting or a book challenge. Do your homework. Mock interviews before the real interview takes place. Schedule a time for the interview. This will relax you versus them showing up unannounced. There were a lot of worthwhile tips for all the attendees.

The next session was Analyzing Belonging: How Surveys Help You Redefine Your Safe Space. The session discussed the work at the community college on adapting library space and seeing what the needs were of the students.

This survey was part of the CARLI counts, which is a year long program across 5 different colleges and universities. This survey is about belonging on the college campus and the obstacles students face. The question types were open ended; some were ranking the order of importance and multiple choice.  The use of belonging statements were prevalent in the surveys. Examples How do you use the library, awareness of the services offered. What improvement does the library need to make? In person or zoom interviews were set up with some of the survey respondents.

To get student response. Tags were put in the books checked out to take the surveys. QR Codes were posted around campus with the survey. The codes were also placed around popular student areas like the Puzzle table, and new books area.

A networking opportunity in the evening was Ms. Quiz Presents: A Trivia Night for Library Folks. Was teamed with folks from the Reaching Across Illinois Library System. Lot of interesting conversation about library system work during the evening.

PLA Forces: Force 1 The nature and pace of change. The opening day of the Annual Conference was about change. With sessions on Generative Artificial Intelligence, The Future of Libraries and Media training for libraries. The world of libraries is evolving at a fast pace. With so many new things effecting libraries every staff member needs to keep a focus on changes.

Work total 8 hours                  Semester total 49