A Stack, an Omnibus, A Veritable Repository

What do you call a group of librarians? While there's no official name, a large congress of librarians descended on the town of Natchez last week for the annual Mississippi Library Association (MLA) conference. MLA was officially organized 115 years ago on October 29, 1909 and is even older than the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC). (FYI: MLC was created 17 years later in 1926.) You may be wondering what a collection of librarians does at a librarian conference. Shelve your thoughts of rooms of quiet readers shushing one another and let me share the highlights of last week's memorable meeting.

Here's what our conference attendees had to say:

I think the ability to see and hear about what other libraries are doing is invaluable! It can definitely get a little lonely in library-land and the networking and connecting opportunities are unmatched.
-Alex Brower, Information Services Director

Sometimes conference is a great place to remind yourself that it’s not all about work: professional development can happen through play. That is what I learned by attending Selena Swink’s session for “Happy Hour”. We made sock puppets with fellow librarians and networked while crafting and engaging in a program that is accessible for many libraries. Through laughter, failure, and glue gun mishaps, this unstructured session allowed me to tap back into the fun of being a librarian and with a cohort of other like-hearted professionals from various library backgrounds.
-Lacy Ellinwood, Lead Library Consultant

Many librarians look forward to utilizing MAGNOLIA Library Resources to support their patrons’ interests. The MLA conference helps those librarians learn more about and use resources like MAGNOLIA and I was happy to be one of the ones helping them learn.
-Mikayla Johnson, MAGNOLIA Outreach Coordinator

I like the time to network and discuss ideas with other PR/Marketing librarians – working together and sharing ideas makes us all better.
-Kristina Kelly, Public Relations Coordinator

The MLA Conference was a really good way to see the different changes happening in the field, not only in Mississippi, but across the country. I also enjoyed meeting librarians from all sorts of different types of libraries and seeing how we could work together to make libraries even better.
-Maddie Klutts, Reference and Archives Librarian

Every year, the Mississippi Library Association Conference provides an opportunity for librarians around the state of differing professional capacities to gather and share information, possibilities, and stories that connect us. Conversing and learning together allows us to recharge and provide our patrons with our best mindset and ability.
-Miranda Loper, Talking Book Services Director

This year's conference had tons of things I was interested in, like shared tools and resources for technical services, including collection development, cataloging, managing electronic resources, and staying current in the field. I also loved being able to discuss opportunities for mentorship and connecting with others in the field for support.
-Betty Moore, Technical Services Librarian

My MLA experience this year covered everything from a deep-dive in MAGNOLIA, our state's online research database, to learning about analytics in LibGuides, curated resources created by libraries. Not only did I learn a lot, I also got to reconnect with librarians from across the state and learn more about what they're doing in their libraries.
-Elisabeth Scott, Reference Librarian

Whether learning about AI and digital archives projects or catching up with what's going on in libraries from Senatobia to Saucier, our MLC librarians used this annual conference as a way to become even better librarians. It turns out that whatever you call of a group of librarians -- a stack, an omnibus, a veritable repository-- they'll turn out in numbers to learn and celebrate libraries!

Elisabeth Scott, Reference Librarian