TNLA 2025 Conference

With dwindling budgets and rising anti-library sentiment, it is difficult to remain positive. We're all working harder because we believe in what we do, but burnout is also rising. We're asked to do more with less, and when we complain or raise our concerns, we're often told canned phrases, especially, "Remember your why." My presentation is both a love letter to our professions and a calling out of toxic behaviors and gaslighted thinking. We deserve to be treated as humans, not superheroes. So lets take off our capes and talk about what we need.

Come and learn about a new open educational resource and community to support library workers as they develop their negotiation knowledge and skills. Designed to help all library workers learn negotiation best practices and strategies for both their personal and professional lives, this OER includes lectures, readings, assessments, and hand-on assignments.  In addition to learning about this resource, attendees will learn about the community being created to provide support for library professionals responsible for negotiations and about key issues and trends uncovered during an interview research study. While the content developed around licensing is geared toward an academic audience, the negotiation strategy and planning techniques in the OER are widely applicable across all types of libraries and library workers.

In the aftermath of COVID-19, libraries faced the challenge of reengaging students and rebuilding disrupted outreach efforts. At East Tennessee State University’s Sherrod Library, librarians recognized the need to rebuild, innovate, and restructure our approach to student outreach. This presentation will explore how ETSU reference and instruction librarians revamped existing strategies to foster a welcoming, inclusive environment for students by redesigning our student orientation process, by developing several casual student-centered clubs, and by opening a new reference desk for drop-in research help. This presentation will provide insights and practical takeaways for libraries looking to revitalize their student outreach programs in a post-pandemic landscape.

Learn who last year’s TNLA Intellectual Freedom Award winner RCLA is, what they do, and how they can help you! Libraries have unfortunately turned political, with attempts to impose censorship here in Tennessee. We’ll dive into what the laws actually say, what the specific language used means, and how to resist censorship in your libraries.

Like many other college campuses, Lipscomb University saw an increase in mental health and social problems as students returned to campus after the Covid-19 shutdown. Because of that, our library put a new emphasis on student events to encourage students and make them feel at home in the library. In the past two years, as federal Covid funding has ended, we have also faced budget cuts making it more difficult to fund these events. These dual problems have forced us to be more creative in our programming. We faced the question: How do we make the library an inviting and encouraging place for students without spending money? This presentation summarizes our attempts to leverage our current resources to provide some levity in the library. We found that seeing students smile raises our spirits too. We hope that our experience will inspire you to create some fun in your own library even when times are tough.