Conferences: Sharing the Love

This past Friday, I was fortunate to be able to go to East Carolina University to the 10th annual Library Paraprofessional Conference.  ECU is where I got my MLIS and I love any opportunity to visit Joyner Library.  Since it double as an "educational field trip" I let Emma skip school to keep me company on the 3 hour ride:

Although we were a bit late, we were able to catch the last half of Kathy Sprau for the keynote.  Her presentation?  "It is all about me... I can make a positive difference!"  Some great information and she had some fun team building exercises as well.

 

Emma enjoyed the break out sessions we attended.  First was the Union County Library presenting "Avengers Assemble!  Community partnerships to find the superheroes in your library".  The UCL collaborated with a comic book artist, a comic book company and a movie promoter to launch a superhero themed library card campaign:

 

The library had a number of events surrounding the campaign, including all library staff wearing capes!  I know, right?  Costumed patrons were offered a chance for free movie tickets but the movie promoter surprised everyone that attended with free premiere movie tickets for a screening of Captain America:  the Winter Soldier!  What a treat!  http://www.co.union.nc.us/Portals/0/PublicInformation/News/Marvel1.pdf

Next was an awesome presentation by Cumberland County Library System and their annual Interactive Murder Mystery Event.  I don't know how I would fit this into an elementary school setting, but I would LOVE to do one sometime.  So much fun!  

See photos of the Murder Mystery here:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151725230897490.1073741832.178550667489&type=3

Emma and I split my lunch (it was huge) and then we walked over to the bookstore to get both girls a new t-shirt.  After lunch, I presented to 27 public librarians about our #bookninjas and #mightykids book clubs:

The attendees loved the awesome royalty-free photos in my #haikudeck presentation, and it was so easy to put together:  

Emma passed around my iPad and we had 17 libraries sign up via google doc to learn more about joining the #bookninjas and #mightykids!  So exciting!  Our book clubs have been so much fun this year, we just wanted to branch out and share the joy!

Finally, I was able to meet some awesome public librarian rock stars in person:  Kelly Brannock and Lori Special with the NC State Library!  Lori presented just after me with the new online summer reading program.

The new program will be optional this year but will be statewide for next summer.  What cool new features this program will offer and will streamline the data collection process for public librarians and their patrons.  School librarians will be able to sign up students at school... honestly, Lori had me at "widget"....

Long day in the car, but some quality time spent with my girl and met some great new people and learned new things!  Will definitely have to pencil in for next year!

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app