The New England Library Association strongly condemns the storming and violent occupation of Washington DC’s Capitol by rioters. This is an affront to the ideals of democracy that are at the heart of librarianship, fueled by white supremacy and the incendiary remarks, conspiracy theories, and lies of a select group of powerful politicians.

We are heartened to see that this insurrection has failed, and that this attack intended to disrupt and destroy the work of US lawmakers instead only served to delay it.  However, this violent incident underscores the real work that needs to be done.  Our country is facing complex and serious challenges, from disinformation to extreme polarization, widespread economic inequality, and systemic racism. 

Libraries across the United States are the heart and soul of their communities, and are therefore uniquely positioned to effect change.  We must work together to challenge these rising threats to democracy, as they are also threats to the core values of our profession.  We must commit ourselves to working within our communities, our profession, and our institutions to educate our communities about misinformation, advocate for equality, condemn racism in all its forms*, and defend our principles of freedom and access. 

Mike Zeller, NELA President & NELA Administrative Board

We are asking each of you to help us with our next Virtual Presentation in February. The topic will be about using technology to help libraries better transition during Covid. We will be putting the conference presentation proposals out on the website shortly. We are also excited to announce that we will have more options for presentation styles and lengths. 

 

Please feel free to reach out to Jennifer He if you have questions or want to commit to helping with our next virtual conference. 

 We are seeking proposals for 60-minute breakout sessions and 7-minute lightning talks for our 2021 theme, Moving forward: Coping with New Realities in Technical Services.  

Topics might include: strategies for handling aggregated job responsibilities, techniques for articulating expectations and consequences, tools for keeping the library running with limited resources, aligning job descriptions with job actualities, methods for navigating through constant change, advocacy ideas for moving technical services forward as a profession, libraries partnering with vendors on projects.

  The deadline for proposal submission is 5:00 p.m. EST, Thursday, January 14. Presenters will be notified about proposals via email in late February.

Submit NETSL Proposal

 You can see titles of past presentations since 2005 at https://netsl.wordpress.com/netslconference.

 Please direct any questions to the NETSL Executive Board at [email protected].