The Association of College & Research Libraries offers many learning opportunities for current and aspiring academic and research librarians, with their main conference being held every other year. If you are curious about the ACRL Conference or are thinking about attending in the future this post will give an insider’s view to attending. NMRT Board members Ariana Santiago and Mandi Goodsett share their experiences from ACRL 2017 and tips for attending future ACRL conferences.
Mandi Goodsett, Vice-President/President-Elect
In March I had the opportunity to attend ACRL in Baltimore, where I discovered lots of great ideas and made valuable professional connections. I thought it might be helpful to share some of my impressions, as well as lessons learned from the experience, in case any of you are thinking of attending ACRL 2019 in my current city, Cleveland (which really does rock!!).
This was my third ACRL conference, and I learn more about how to get the most out of them every time I attend. There were so many things that I found valuable about my experience at ACRL this year, but my top three fall into the following categories:
- Session Take-aways: Most presenters at ACRL make an effort to give attendees some concrete take-aways that they can apply at their own institutions, and I found tons of awesome, small-scale ideas that I could use right away when I returned.
- Opportunities for Connections: You never know when you’ll make a professional connection at ACRL. I heard an interesting speaker at a session one morning, and then, later that day at a vendor-sponsored lunch I realized that I was sitting next to her! I barraged her with questions and made a great connection, all because I took advantage of a serendipitous moment and an opportunity to connect.
- Keynote Speakers: This year’s keynotes were all wonderful! David McCandless wowed us with his beautiful visualizations, Roxane Gay made us laugh with her sassy advocacy, and Carla Hayden made me proud to be a librarian. I learned from these speakers, but, even more importantly, I was inspired by them to rethink my approach toward being a librarian.
ACRL is a pretty big conference (although not quite the size of ALA Annual), but it also focuses on academic librarianship, which means that many of the sessions will be relevant to you if you’re an academic librarian (or hope to be one someday). It also means that the conference can be pretty overwhelming! While I’m still learning how to navigate conferences like a pro, here are a few tips for you if you plan to attend ACRL or a similar conference soon:
- Give yourself options, and be flexible: I always go into a conference ready to do ALL THE THINGS. Sadly, there are so many good sessions overlapping, and it’s impossible to get to them all. That doesn’t stop me from planning for several sessions during each time slot, though. Maybe one session is ridiculously far away, and I choose not to make the trek. Maybe a session is a presented paper that I can read later. Maybe my colleague is attending a session and can give me a recap over dinner. When these situations happen, I’m happy to have some back-up sessions on my list so I can make the most of every second of my conference experience.
- Go in with a plan: I totally learned my lesson the hard way with this one. When you first enter the exhibit hall at ACRL, it can be overwhelming. There are bright signs, robots saying hello, people offering free food, giveaways of really awesome cat-themed swag… Unfortunately, this means that it’s very easy to get distracted and lose track of time in the exhibits. You’ll find your experience in the exhibit hall much more valuable if you go in with a plan. What products or services is your library thinking of purchasing? Are there any vendors you’d like to check-in with to learn about new products, or to make suggestions? Give this some thought before you arrive and you’ll make the most out of your exhibits experience. (Although stopping for a free soft pretzel doesn’t hurt… 🙂 )
- Pace yourself: In my frenzy to do all the things, it’s easy to push myself to exhaustion. This is not a good idea! Plan for breaks in your schedule, time to eat meals (hopefully with some cool colleagues), and, if you fail to do that, cancel your crazy plans to be in two places at once and take a timeout when necessary. Your feet and your brain will thank you.
I highly recommend attending ACRL, especially for those who are looking to get involved with academic librarianship. However, if this seems like too much for you, keep in mind that there are plenty of local conferences for academic librarians, or about specific themes like instruction or assessment. Getting your feet wet at a smaller-scale conference might prepare you to really take advantage of all that ACRL has to offer. As an adopted Clevelander, you can bet that I’ll be at ACRL 2019, and I would love to meet up with you and give you some Cleveland tips if you’re new to conference-ing!