During the pandemic, most conferences were conducted virtually. This led to more librarians having access to professional development that they usually would not have been able to attend. For many reasons, some librarians are not able to participate in conferences. Many associations and organizations had to pivot to hosting their conferences virtually. Now that there is an array of virtual conferences to choose from, how can you make the decision?
Here are some things to consider when choosing which conference to participate in:
- What skills do you want to cultivate? What conference has what you need to help with this?
- Do you want to present your scholarship? If so, at what conference will you present your scholarship?
- Is there an opportunity for you to network?
- Do you know if anyone that you know is attending? If so, can they be your virtual conference buddy? Having a virtual conference buddy can be helpful so that you have someone to discuss the content of sessions.
- What are the registration costs?
- What is your professional development budget?
- Does the conference offer a scholarship or professional development award to cover the registration cost?
I attended national virtual conferences like the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) 2021 Conference, the 2021 Urban Librarians Conference, and the 11th National Conference of African American Librarians (NCAAL). Some local conferences that I attended were the State University of New York Librarians Association (SUNYLA) 2021 Annual Conference, and the Eastern New York Chapter of the ACRL (ENY/ACRL) Annual Conference.
Virtual Conferences for Academic Librarians
Here are some future virtual conferences that you might consider attending if you are an academic librarian. These virtual conferences are the ones that I will be attending.
- South Carolina 2021 Conference on Information Literacy (SCCIL) from August 4–6, 2021. Registration is free!
- Special Libraries Association (SLA) Conference: August 11–13, 2021 (live content) On-Demand content August 3–31, 2021.
- Central New York Library Resources (CLRC) 2021 Annual Conference will be held on October 22, 2021, from 10 am to 3:15 pm eastern time. Crystal Chen and Nicollete Davis of WeHere will give the keynote.
- The New York Library Association (NYLA) 2021 Conference: Robert Kolker will give the keynote. This conference will be hybrid, so you can attend in person from November 3rd to November 6th in Syracuse, New York, or virtually on October 28–29, 2021. I will be attending virtually to access the live and on-demand programming.
- The Upstate New York & Ontario Chapter (UNYOC) of the Medical Library Association 2021 Conference will be held October 27–29, 2021, via Zoom. The details of the conference have not been posted yet.
Infobase will be at lots of upcoming conferences, too. Check our conference calendar to find out where you can meet us!
See also:
