Written by Rachel Keiko Stark with editing assistance by Emily Espanol
The Medical Library’s Association’s (MLA) Annual Conference was in Milwaukee, WI this year and while there were not many confirmed members of APALA in attendance, when we got together, we had a great time.
MLA offers many opportunities for learning, and I particularly enjoyed presentations on search hedge development, burnout workshops offered in Europe, North America, and in Africa, and the MLA Research Training Institute presentations. The MLA conference fully embraced cheese puns, with most presenters incorporating them into presentations and one presenter from the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) using beer puns instead.
MLA is often intense, with a lot of focus on education for those of us in the medical environment and presentations that can deal with complex topics that take a lot concentration, at least on my part, so the use of puns and the embrace of fun was relaxing and relatively new in my years of experience attending MLA conferences, but much welcomed. I was able to attend thanks to a generous scholarship to help pay for my registration from my local MLA chapter, the Northern California and Neveda Medical Library Group (NCNMLG) which helped with my self-funding for the conference and where I’ll be posting another reflection on my time at the conference.
The MLA conference has always been one of my top professional conferences to attend, but having the opportunity to connect with members of APALA made the conference delightful and was an extra bonus. It was so nice to spend time with fellow APALA librarians from around the USA, and to break out of the normal silos of a professional organization, which in MLA tends to be specialty (i.e. pharmacy librarian), type of library (i.e. hospital vs. academic), and regional. This allowed for the sharing of experiences across those kinds of professional divides and allowed me, as a West Coast member, to learn a lot about local food I should try. The in-person meeting with APALA members was facilitated by Melissa Ernst, who also put together a list of restaurants and arranged for all of us to attend a lunch, as well as compiling a list of presentations by APALA members.
I am grateful for all the APALA members who I got to meet and spend time with, as it expands my circle within the profession and gives me more people I look forward to spending time with at the next MLA conference.
Thanks to Rachel for submitting this reflection! If you recently attended a conference and met some APALA folks, please email communications@apalaweb.org.