Reflections on Information Privilege
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 8, 2018. Last month I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Coalition for Networked Information’s Spring Membership Meeting. While the […]
Prepping for Post-Conference Opportunities
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on June 25, 20164 Conferences, big or small, tend to be overwhelming, especially as a student. There is tons of information to absorb, there […]
Networking for Introverts
Networking. If you’re anything like me, the idea doesn’t exactly thrill you. I’m a friendly, chatty person (pity the people in my office, they cannot escape), and I genuinely love […]
Conferences and the Benefit of “Unstructured Time”
I decided this week not to apply to attend one of my favorite conferences, the Access Services Conference. I attended in-person in 2017 and virtually in 2020, and I would […]
Treat yo’ self…to a student membership in a professional association and reap the rewards
LIS is an industry absolutely rife with professional associations, and as Kate Tkacik pointed out, there’s a very large service component in our industry. We believe in service, so much […]
Why Primary Sources Matter
I have spent this week reflecting on how many times my heart has been heavy as I have witnessed yet another death of a person of color. As we continue […]
OLA’s 2019 Copyright Symposium at the Intersection of Copyright Law and Indigenous Knowledge
During my day job, I handle copyright at an academic library, so I was supremely lucky this year that my manager was able and willing to send me to the […]
Conference Scholarships Announcement
RBMS Conference Scholarships Available, with expanded eligibility! Power, Resistance, and LeadershipRBMS 2020June 23-26, 2020Indiana University, Bloomington, IN The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and […]
Libraries + Census = Successful Partnership
The 2020 Census is upon us. After many months of controversy around which questions could or could not be asked (note: citizenship is not a question); come April 1st, 2020, […]
Planning for PLA
PLA 2020 in “Music City” is just around the corner! For many in the LIS field, conferences full of thousands of people can be an overwhelming yet necessary experience. This […]
How to Hack Your Way Into Tech Conferences
Allison Jennings-Roche recently wrote about attending conferences outside of library land and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, just a few months ago, I was at a cross-disciplinary workshop facilitated […]
Less-charted Territory: Attending a professional conference outside of library land.
As a follow up to my previous post about taking classes outside of your program’s core curriculum, I also want to recommend attending conferences outside of library land. Last week, […]
Taking Your Knowledge on the Road
I am not exactly a novice when it comes to academic conferences. Not only have I presented and won statewide awards (twice!) before, but I also have experience from the […]
Library of Congress is for everyone!
I am still recovering from and reflecting on my recent ALA experience in Washington, DC. A key highlight to my four-day experience was a visit to the Library of Congress […]
What Your Local History Conference Can Do for You
It’s conference season here at Hack Library School, and this weekend I dipped my toes in the conference pool for the first time. Well, almost the first time—20+ years ago […]
Presenting at conferences: putting yourself out there in library school.
As most of us reading Hack Library School know, or at least have heard, the MLIS is a “minimum qualification” for actual employment as a big L academic librarian. Some […]
Academic or Public? Perhaps both.
I have worked in an academic library for thirty years. First in technical services, then transitioning to Access Services. Yet here I am, getting my MSIS with a concentration in […]
Conference Report: REFORMA Colorado
For those currently in library school, you have seen firsthand how social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion make sudden, relevant appearances in most LIS courses. If you need a place […]
Five (Big Picture) Tips for First-Year Library Students
When you’re caught up in the minutiae of graduate school, remember the big picture. That’s the most critical lesson I learned during my first year of library school. For me, […]
Hack Your Poster Presentation
Congratulations! You’ve been accepted as a poster presenter for a professional conference. You have a compelling project to share with the library world, a lot of gumption, and a tight […]
Presenting Posters at University Poster Sessions
Photo by user woodleywonderworks via Flickr Commons Presenting at a poster session is a great way to gain professional experience. Many positions, particularly those in academia, are looking for young professionals who are interested in ‘giving back’ to the LIS field. Presenting a poster doesn’t always have to be at an […]
Starting Small: My Experience at the New England Archivist
Since beginning graduate school, I’ve had difficulty knowing how to engage with professional associations. Being both a Mosaic Scholar and a Spectrum Scholar, I received a free annual membership to […]
DERAIL Debrief
The third annual Diversity, Equity, Race, Accessibility, and Identity in LIS (DERAIL) Forum took place at Simmons College this past weekend. This student-led, student-centered conference was a joy to be […]
Library Adventures
Prior to library school, I never saw librarianship as a particularly adventurous career. So I was pleased to discover that librarianship can take one to exciting places.
Hack Library Conferences
There are countless of library conferences in and outside of the United States. Interested in attending? Don’t wait until after you graduate. Take advantage of your time as a student […]
A Reflection on the Design for Diversity Forum
A Reflection on the Design for Diversity Forum When a friend of mine invited me to the Design for Diversity (D4D) Forum at Northeastern University earlier this week, it was […]
Information for Our Survival: LIS and Climate Change
Here at Hack Library School, we consistently highlight the ways in which the LIS field innovates. We declare over and over again: libraries are not simply warehouses of books, and […]
Hack Your Conference Budget
When I first started library school, my professors told me that conferences are great… if you had a couple thousand dollars to spend. While there’s no dodging the fact that […]
A Tale of Two Outlooks
Like many of the Hack Library School writers and readers of our blog, I had the good fortune to attend the annual American Library Association (ALA) conference Chicago a week […]
Self-Care at ALA Annual Conference
I’ll be attending the American Library Association’s Annual Conference for the first time ever this month and I’m both nervous and excited. Pouring over the schedule of events, there are […]
Hack ALA: A Conference Advisory for ALA Annual
HLS session recommendations for attending 2017 ALA Annual in Chicago
Medical Librarianship: You Can Do It Too!
After two months working as a Health & Life Sciences Librarian at UCLA and fresh off attending my first Medical Library Association (MLA) annual conference in Seattle, I can tell […]
Four Steps to a Lightning Talk
Lightning talks are all the rage right now. They’re a short-form presentation talk usually lasting around three to five minutes. They’re a good way to communicate new ideas quickly and […]
Lessons learned from a poster presentation
Earlier this month I presented a poster titled “Going It Alone: EAD Implementation for Small Repositories” at the Midwest Archives Conference annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Here are 8 quick […]
2018-19 ALA Presidential Candidate Interview: Scott Walter [Series]
Scott Walter is University Librarian at DePaul University, and an adjunct member of the faculty of the San Jose State University School of Information and the Dominican University School of Information Studies.
Tips for Attending Big Conferences
I just got back from attending the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) annual conference. It was the biggest professional conference that I’ve ever attended and going into it I was […]
Dispatches from DERAIL!
This post is about the recent Diversity, Equity, Race, Access, and Identity in LIS (DERAIL) Forum held at Simmons College, in Boston, MA on March 4-5, 2017. Both authors (and […]
Conference Planning 101
On November 11 and 12, Hawai’i Library Association held its annual conference in Hilo (on the “Big” Island). As a state-wide conference (in a small state), it’s obviously a much […]
Professional Development While Oppressed
This post was inspired by something that happened to me, but I hope to make it relevant and helpful to all of our amazing readers. (Thank you all for filling […]
How to IFLA Right
Through generous professional funds offered in conjunction with my post as a resident librarian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, I was able to attend the International Federation of […]
Networking with REFORMA-Promoting Library Services to Latinos
Networking and joining different associations is extremely important for library school students. I personally joined ALA, NCLA, and YALSA, among others during my first semester. It is imperative for us as […]
From Orlando with Love: Where are the Students?
ALA Annual is no stranger to writers here at hls. We’ve covered ALA Annual (and occasionally Midwinter) every year since our founding in 2010. Below are my experiences at ALA […]
Comic-Con Librarianship
Librarians love a conference – there’s nothing quite like getting together with a hall full of your like-minded peers to discuss library life. However, dedicated librarian conferences like ALA Annual […]
3 Lessons learned at my first library conference
At the beginning of this month, Computers in Libraries descended upon the Washington DC area, taking up residence at the Washington Hilton hotel for the better part of a week. […]
Tell Your Conference Anxiety to Shut Up, Already: Thoughts from CALCon15
As I was a recipient of a last-minute scholarship, I found out that I was attending the Colorado Association of Libraries Conference about a week before it started–that’s enough to […]
Going International: Tips from a soon-to-traveling librarian
I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again. Well, technically I do when I’ll be back (that’s the handy thing about a plane ticket). But […]
Lessons from SLA 2015
It’s conference season! Kara wrote about her experience at ALA for us all already (sounds like a fantastic conference!) so I thought I’d talk about my time at SLA 2015 in […]
YAY ALA! The Student Takes San Francisco
OMG GUYS I GOT TO GO TO ALA IN SAN FRANCISCO!!! I’m sorry, that was undignified. But seriously, this is really awesome. By the time you read this I will […]
ALA Annual Meetup!
Hey there Hackers! Are you attending ALA this year? If so, join HLS writers and alumni for a drink! Where? Tempest, 431 Natoma St., San Francisco. When? Saturday, June 27 from […]
Hack your conference award application
Here at Hack Library School we’re a big fan of conferences, and they are fantastic, fantastic things. They introduce you to new ideas, best practice; you meet your colleagues from […]
Things I Miss about Library School–and What I’m Doing About It!
Since I graduated from North Carolina Central University with a Masters in Library Science last December, I’ve had about five months (where does the time go?) to catch up some […]
How to Build a Conference
This past spring I spent countless hours working on a little gathering called the Symposium on LIS Education. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the symposium was a small, if enthusiastic […]
Reflections on the ARL Leadership Symposium
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to go to Chicago to attend the Association of Research Libraries Leadership Symposium. It has taken me a while to process all the […]
Top Mistakes I Made at my First Conference
Last month I had the opportunity to attend ALA Midwinter, my first multi-day conference. I was stoked, but totally unprepared. Here are some of the things I did wrong and […]
What’s a Librarian Doing Here? Or Attending Conferences Out of Discipline.
On Hack Library School, there have been a lot of articles about conferences. These have mainly focused on the advantages of attending local library or archives conferences or the big ‘un, ALA, over the summer. My goal here isn’t to rehash what has already been written but to talk about […]
The Benefits of Attending Local Conferences
I just recently returned from two fantastic regional conferences, ARLIS/SE in Birmingham, AL and VRALocal in Nashville, TN. These are both small conferences focusing on art and visual resources librarians […]
Reflections on My First AALL Conference
As I write this, I am sitting in the San Antonio airport very ready to go home after my first AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) conference. I have a stack of business cards of folks to follow up with; librarians who have experience in issues I’m passionate about and […]
ALA Student-to-Staff
Hack Library School writers at ALA Annual 2014 (from left to right): Anna-Sophia Zingarelli-Sweet, Lesley Looper, Courtney Baron, and Casey McCoy.
HLS Weekly Round-Up
Editor’s Note: This new series features a weekly round-up of interesting articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits related to the world of library school. Enjoy! Kara Between my summer semester, a seriously busy personal life, and the copy of Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries I checked out a […]
[Hack ALA ’14] Las Vegas: A Quickie History
While I was browsing through our Conferences category and Hack ALA subcategory in preparation for #alaac14, a 2011 guest post from April Martin, “Don’t Forget Where You’re Going: NOLA Beyond the Convention Center Walls,” caught my eye. In that spirit, I thought I’d offer up a brief introduction to the great […]
Introduction to Net Neutrality
As future information professionals, it is vitally important for library school students to follow major trends and topics in our respective industries. Today, library students have more opportunities than ever to participate in discussions and initiatives that will shape the future of our profession. The tools at our disposal include library journals, […]
Hack ALA ’14: Round-Up and Meet-Up!
We are excited to announce there will be a Hack Library School meet-up at ALA Annual this year! Please join us at Firefly on Monday, June 30, at 6:30 PM. Space is limited, so please sign up here! We look forward to meeting like-minded library school students and sharing our […]
Vendor Relationships
It’s conference season (didn’t I just say something like that in last week’s round-up? I must be excited) and with that, exhibit hall season! Other people have shared advice on how to tackle the exhibit hall: restrain yourself from taking all the swag, plan ahead, don’t go hungry. Okay, this […]
Top 8 Reasons to go to an International Library Conference
I recently traveled to Barcelona, Spain for BOBCATSSS, a library conference organized by European library science students. Upon returning I realized that many of my peers were unaware of the variety of international library conference opportunities that students can take advantage of. As LIS students, we are frequently encouraged to […]
Hack Your First Professional Conference
I have never met a conference I did not like. In the last four years, I have attended twelve academic conferences ranging in size from under 150 to over 5,000 participants. I have presented papers, sat on panels, moderated debate, lead workshops, and worked logistics. In my experience, all conferences […]
Discussion Starter: Codes of Conduct
I used to love the first day of school! One of the things I remember about those “first days” was going over the class rules. As my classmates and I got older, and then headed off the college, the wording of the rules changed, but the message stayed pretty much […]
ALA Midwinter Meetup!
Hello hackers! Coming to ALA? Join a few of the HLS writers for lunch on Sunday! Here are the details: What: The HLS Midwinter Meetup! When: Sunday, 26 January 2014, at 11:30am (until about 1pm). Where: Meet at the Networking Uncommons–we have ideas for lunch venues, and will head out […]
Poster Sessions – A Beginner’s Guide
It’s hard to believe, but the end of the fall semester is a good time to start thinking about next summer’s professional conferences. Though June, July and August might seem like ages away, many conferences use January as their deadline for submissions from students. So today is as good a […]
[Hack ALA] What to Bring to ALA and What to Do
Are you ready for ALA Annual? Check out last year’s post on preparing for the conference, “Hack ALA: Professional Preparations.” For some extra advice, I asked some of my friends who have gone to ALA what attendees should bring and what they should do while at the conference. Here are […]
[Hack ALA] Hack Library School Events!
ALA Annual is just a few days away, and as we’re all packing and prepping for Chicago, it’s time to start thinking about Hack Library School events! We’re pleased to be hosting two of them: Conversation Starter: Hacking Transferable Skills! This conversation starter will be held in room S102-d at […]
ALA Student to Staff Program
This weekend I’ll be travelling to Chicago and attending ALA Annual as part of the Student to Staff (S2S) program. S2S is an opportunity provided by ALA wherein individual student representatives from 40 of the ALA-accredited library schools are selected by their institutions and then sent to ALA Annual. S2S provides […]
HLS and LibraryLab Meetup at ALA!
Are you going to ALA later this month? We’re teaming up with LibraryLab to host a meetup on Sunday, June 30th from 8:00-10:00 at the Green Door. The meetup is a fun and informal way to hang out with us, network, and make some new friends while having a cocktail! […]
Summer Learnin’: Attending Conferences
Here at Hack Library School, we are pretty firm believers in the value of attending conferences. We’ve talked about why you should attend conferences, how to hack academic conferences, and presenting at conferences. Now that the academic year has ended for many of us, conferences are a great way to […]
Hack Library School @ ALA ’13!
Hello, Everybody! Guess what? HLS is super-excited to announce that we’ve been chosen to lead another Conversation Starter at ALA annual! Last year, our #HLSConvo in Anaheim drew a roomful of passionate, engaged librarians and library students together to share information across the pre- and post-graduation lines. This year, we’re […]
HLS Meet-up at ALA Midwinter 2013
Come join some members of the Hack Library School crew for an informal meet-up! All are welcome! Friday, January 25, 2013 8:30-ish pm The Whisky Bar 2122 2nd Avenue Seattle, Washington 98121 Follow @catladylib, @roselovec, and @deweysnotdead for updates and/or join the Facebook event!
#HLSconvo/ALA12 wrap-up
Well! ALA Annual has come and gone, and with it, so has HackLibSchool’s Conversation Starter, and our 2012 Hack ALA series! I think I can speak for all of us who attended in saying that the conference was teeming with information, networking, drama, and pure fun! Our conversation starter was […]
Emerging Leaders and Professional Involvement
Editor’s Note: This is a Guest Post by Anita R. Dryden This past year I had the pleasure of participating in the American Library Association’s Emerging Leaders program, which is designed to help new librarians get involved in ALA. Throughout the course of the program you attend leadership training, meet […]
Hack ALA Annual: Recovery
We are slowly getting reacclimatized to real life after an absolutely fantastic and overwhelming time at ALA Annual over the weekend. We learned, we networked, we were inspired, we picked up tons of great freebies in the exhibit hall, we partied hard and we generally geeked out on all things […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Eating Right at Conferences
Joanna recently wrote on why you should attend conferences, Brianna wrote about presenting at them, and PC Sweeney wrote about how to be awesome at going to conferences, but what happens when you get there and you are starving for food you can actually eat? Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, Paleo/Primal […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Annual Party!
Today we’ve got a special guest post from JP Porcaro with lots of advice and fun events to check out this year at ALA. He’s a 2012 Mover and Shaker, head guy at 8-bit library, and tweets at @8bitlibrary. Hey hacklibschool team, JP here (you know, #partyhard #makeithappen guy). If […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Professional Preparations
Editor’s Note: This follows in a series of posts in our annual Hack ALA Week dedicated to all things conference-y and professional. As students, it’s important to get your feet wet in the LIS professional world early, and as often as your budget allows. While these posts are ALA Annual-themed, much […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Our Recommended Sessions
Editor’s Note: We are happy to kick off our second annual Hack ALA week! We’ll be dedicating posts this week to all things conference-y and professional. As students, it’s important to get your feet wet in the LIS professional world early, and as often as your budget allows. While these […]
HackLibSchool Conversation Starter
I am pleased to say that HackLibSchool will be holding two events at this years ALA Annual conference. Awhile back, I wrote about trying to bring HLS and the issues we care about to the conference level. Well, I’m happy to say that our Conversation Starter was accepted! To be […]
CURATEcamp Report (and Thoughts on the Unconference)
There are a variety of “unconferences” devoted to certain aspects of the library and information science field. Examples are BarCamp (for open web technologies), THATcamp (for humanities and technology), InfoCamp (for general information enthusiasts), and CURATEcamp (for digital curation). Zack wrote about unconferences in his post InfoCamp and the Unconference. […]
How to Hack the Academic Conference
This post was collaboratively written by Quasi-Con planners and School of Information Master’s candidates Kelly Davenport, Peter Timmons, Ilana Barnes (ALA chapter president), Kim Miller (vice president), Katy Mahraj (treasurer), Ryan Clement (webmaster), and Mariah Cherem (social media coordinator). The DIY Library Conference: A Quasi-Guide It was an experiment. When […]
Why you should register for a conference ASAP
Here we are in the second month of the semester and if you are new to your LIS program, you’re probably just trying to get your feet under you (as I was a year ago). Old hands are re-acclimating to the familiar not-enough-hours-in-the-day feeling and we are all looking at […]
ALA Midwinter – Quick Preview
In case you haven’t yet had the opportunity to be introduced to the idea of professional networking, here’s a quick intro: librarians near and far, from all varieties of the field, twice a year attend gigantic conferences hosted by our preeminent organization, the American Library Association. There are constant debates […]
InfoCamp and the Unconference Model
In addition to writing for Hack Library School as a contributing editor, the other big extracurricular activity on my plate is helping plan InfoCamp SC. InfoCamp SC is University of South Carolina’s port of InfoCamp, a two day unconference started in Seattle. I got involved in the InfoCamp project because […]
SAA11: A Retrospective
Continuing in the tradition of the ALA11 retrospective post and to promote more archives posts on HackLibSchool, I decided to create a collaborative post of session summaries from the Society of American Archivists (SAA to all you non-archives students) 2011 Annual Meeting, which was held in Chicago this past week. Many […]
Working ALA – The Student-to-Staff Program
The ALA Student-To-Staff program is open to currently enrolled students who are members of their student ALA chapters. Only one student per school may participate and there are only forty slots available in the program. School representatives are selected on a first-come, first-served basis (so watch for the announcement like a hawk!). […]
HackLibSchool at ALA: A Retrospective
A little late on the jump here, but here is our wrap-up of the American Library Association’s annual conference. Of the HackLibSchool team, Annie, Micah and Lauren attended the conference. Believe it or not, this was actually the first time we all met face to face! Aside from conference business, […]
HackLibSchool at ALA Annual
Hi Everyone – Just a quick short note here. We’re very excited to be a part of reshaping ALA, as you can probably tell from some of our recent posts. The first step is getting involved, which we will be kicking off this weekend at the annual conference. Annie, Lauren […]
Unpacking the Conference: Planning, Execution, and Afterthoughts
This post is a shared effort between HLS editor Julia Skinner and Katie DeVries Hassman, Sam Bouwers, and Gwen Persons, who were part of the conference planning team for Unpacking the “Library”: Exploring Works in Progress Across the Field of LIS. Other planners included Melody Dworak, Christine Mastalio, and Julie […]
[Series] Hack ALA: What’s a professional organization to do?
The debate over the current role MLIS programs can play in the library industry keeps popping up. For a recent example, check out Will Manley’s blog, Will Unwound, which asks some important questions: Are too many graduates being spit out into the shrinking job pool? Are graduate programs, in their […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Library History Round Table (LHRT)
LHRT is an awesome organization for students to join because it’s fun, vibrant, and a great way to explore libraries of the past and see how they intersect with issues faced by libraries today. Best of all, there are so many ways for students to get involved that include running for […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Attending ALA Annual Without Attending ALA Annual
UPDATE: John Chrastka, Director of Membership Development at ALA, commented and alerted us to The Conference Tracker from American Libraries Magazine. This is another great way to track the conference, and pulls in a lot of the avenues Nicole mentioned in her post. Thanks John and AmLib Magazine! * […]
[Series] Hack ALA: Get Your Network On!
ALA is the largest library conference in the nation. It brings together different librarians from across the country, all in one place. It gives everyone the opportunity to meet new people and network. This is pretty fantastic if you think about it, but for a newbie student or librarian who […]
[Series] Hack ALA: The Librarian Wardrobe
Hello, newly minted and soon-to-be librarians! I’m visiting today from Librarian Wardrobe to give you some ideas on how to dress like a successful librarian without having to spend the large amounts of money that librarians tend to make (joke, of course). I was in your shoes recently, wondering how […]
Don’t Forget Where You’re Going: NOLA Beyond the Convention Center Walls
This post needs no introduction. Written by April Martin – you’ve also seen her here talking information literacy. Find her at ALA and get a high-five (tell her Heidi sent you!) So, you’re going to ALA in New Orleans. Although I am sure that all of you will be very […]
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