MLA 2024 Conference

Come learn more about MLA's Children and Young People's (CYP) Section, whose purpose is to promote and develop library service to children and young people in the State of Minnesota. 

Come learn more about MLA's Reference and Adult Services Section (RASS), whose purpose is to promote and develop library service to adults and encourage collaboration between library professionals who serve adults in the state of Minnesota. 

Come learn more about MLA's LQBTQIA+ Roundtable, whose purpose is to help foster and bring awareness and understanding to the Minnesota Library Communities on issues dealing with and about the LGBTQIA+ Community in Libraries. In doing so, creating spaces for libraries to work towards creating impactful and inclusive spaces where LGBTQIA+ staff are understood and supported. 

How can we support children learning to read at the library? Although public librarians may not be subject matter experts when it comes to teaching children how to read, we do have something just as valuable: the ability to foster a love of reading, connect children with materials to support their journey, and act as a trusted community resource for caregivers and schools. In this session we’ll dive into the Minnesota READ Act and what it means for the evolving landscape of teaching kids to read, the difference between decodable texts and traditional beginning readers and how to create a decodable book collection with quality, fun titles.

This roundtable provides a forum for staff from all types of libraries to share information, resources, and best practices related to all types of library and information literacy instruction. The roundtable will offer opportunities for training, discussion, idea-sharing, and networking among library staff who teach. The co-chairs of the Instruction Round Table are charged with providing two instruction-related professional development opportunities per year for Minnesota library staff. These usually include one online opportunity and one that is face to face. Come learn more!

In this presentation, we will review the data collection efforts and present findings from the 2023-2024 MN School Library Status Report. The School Library Data Team endeavored to answer two questions: 1. How many MN schools have libraries? 2. How are MN school libraries staffed? Come to the session to get answers to these questions, discuss whether or not they match your experience, and learn how we will continue these efforts.