TNLA 2025 Conference: Full Schedule

Welcome to the 2025 Tennessee Library Association Conference #tnla25! We’re glad you’re here. Build your schedule below, and be sure to check the More Info page for additional conference details.

9:00am EDT

Talk About Worldbuilding: Teens and TTRPG Mapmaking

Tuesday April 8, 2025 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

By delving into the worldbuilding side of TTRPG play, we as librarians are able to help our teens explore the basics of SEL, math, storytelling, team-building, leadership development, and natural consequences. From the actual physical process of making maps to the interactions amongst players during gameplay, fantasy worldbuilding presents golden opportunities to share “real world” hands-on life skills in papermaking and geography, as well as maintaining a budget and inventory in play. With TTRPG worldbuilding, we are able to build well-rounded party members and better people, while giving teens a chance to explore, create, and develop worlds of their own.
**Separate registration required. Please register at the TNLA website.**

Speakers

Kip Polmanteer

Teen Librarian, Johnson City Public Library

Kip Polmanteer is the Teen Librarian for Johnson City Public Library.

Shannon Bismark

Tuesday April 8, 2025 9:00am - 12:00pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Pre-conference Ticketed Event

1:30pm EDT

Lessons from Retail: How to Analyze Space to Increase Circulation

Tuesday April 8, 2025 1:30pm - 4:30pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

How can the practices of retail stores help libraries? This session shows basic analytic techniques that allow libraries to organize space more effectively, merchandise better and eliminate dead zones. Join New York University professor and author of "Library Space Planning: A PLA Guide" (ALA, 2019) for a fascinating exploration of retail practices with examples from libraries from Tennessee to Alaska.
**Separate registration required. Please register at the TNLA website.**

Speakers

David Vinjamuri

New York University

Tuesday April 8, 2025 1:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Pre-conference Ticketed Event

8:30am EDT

Bridging the Divide: Information & Digital Literacy Partnerships to Reach Underserved Communities in TN

Wednesday April 9, 2025 8:30am - 9:20am EDT

Meeting Room 10

University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries has worked in partnership with UT Extension to create new avenues of building information and digital literacy skills in communities throughout the state that have historically (and presently) had limited access to broadband. This presentation will talk about how the partnership works, how it expands opportunities for community members to access information and digital literacy trainings beyond the walls of their libraries, and how a train-the-trainer model can relieve the burden on already strained libraries in meeting the needs of their communities.

Speakers

Maggie Albro

Agriculture & Natural Resources Librarian; Interim Assistant Head - Health, Wellness, & Professional Programs Unit, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Hi, I'm Maggie! I'm the Agriculture & Natural Resources Librarian, Interim Assistant Head of the Health, Wellness, and Professional Programs Unit, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I work with students, faculty, and staff in UTK's Herbert College... Read More →

Charles Barthel

Wednesday April 9, 2025 8:30am - 9:20am EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

1:10pm EDT

Check Your Alignment: Getting Back to Basics with Student Employment

Wednesday April 9, 2025 1:10pm - 2:00pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

Training student employees to work in our libraries is a time-intensive process that must be repeated often, especially at 2-year institutions like Pellissippi State Community College. In this session, we will provide an overview of how we refined our student employment program to streamline training and create a partnership of librarian supervisors. We recently went back to basics by aligning student employee training to fit the needs of our four campus libraries and multiple departments, while also aligning to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) competencies as required by our Human Resources Department’s student evaluation forms.

Speakers

Zoe Bastone

Reference Coordinator & Instruction Librarian, Assistant Professor, Pellissippi State Community College

Susan Martel

Will Buck

Allison Scripa

Wednesday April 9, 2025 1:10pm - 2:00pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

2:10pm EDT

Resume and Interviewing Tips

Wednesday April 9, 2025 2:10pm - 3:00pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

Recruiters from Unum, one of Chattanooga's largest employers, will share tips on making your resume stand out from the crowd and ace your interview. We will also discuss Unum's job skills partnership with the Chattanooga Public Library.

Speakers

Richard Groves

Chattanooga Public Library

Madisen Kirkland

Wednesday April 9, 2025 2:10pm - 3:00pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

3:10pm EDT

Inventory: It's more than scanning!

Wednesday April 9, 2025 3:10pm - 4:00pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

Inventory projects may be important for collection management, but they often get overlooked, postponed, or given a scan-it-and-forget treatment. With a little collaboration inventory can be transformed into a powerful tool to identify and correct a wide variety of problems in the collection and dramatically improve accuracy and retrieval. This presentation provides an overview of current inventory practices at the University of Memphis McWherter Library: the who, the how, the why, and the positive impact inventory can have on the print collection

Speakers

Tiffany Day

Metadata & Catalog Librarian, University Libraries, University of Memphis

Krystal White

Wednesday April 9, 2025 3:10pm - 4:00pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

4:10pm EDT

The Librarian in the Mirror: Reflective Practice for Professional Growth

Wednesday April 9, 2025 4:10pm - 5:00pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

While librarians may ask ourselves if we are doing a good job, we often don’t reflect effectively on our actions or decisions we make as librarians. In this session, we will discuss the importance of reflection and participate in a guided activity using Gibbs Reflective Cycle to help us examine our professional choices; think critically about beliefs concerning patrons, programming, or instruction; and consider ways to emphasize or modify what we do in our libraries. While this session includes practicing reflection, no one is expected to share personal experiences; group discussions will focus on reflection in general.

Speakers

Julie Lewis

Emerging Technologies/Reference Librarian, Walters State Community College

I most enjoy designing instruction and curriculum for information literacy and integrating technology when it's helpful. I spend most of my time teaching research skills to classes and doing one-on-one research consultations.

Wednesday April 9, 2025 4:10pm - 5:00pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

8:30am EDT

Taking Control of Your Story: Telling your story to the most important person (you!)

Thursday April 10, 2025 8:30am - 9:20am EDT

Meeting Room 10

As library professionals, we often focus on the stories of others while overlooking our own. This program will help you rethink the stories you tell yourself, giving you the tools to reshape them in ways that support your success and well-being. Participants will enjoy a presentation, a self-storytelling activity, and the chance to share their newly reframed stories with peers.

Speakers

Will O'Hearn

Thursday April 10, 2025 8:30am - 9:20am EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

9:30am EDT

Fostering Autistic Inclusion in Middle Tennessee Libraries

Thursday April 10, 2025 9:30am - 10:20am EDT

Meeting Room 10

AutismTN and four Middle Tennessee public libraries partnered to enhance Autistic inclusion by establishing sensory-friendly spaces, providing sensory kits, and updating collections with books and resources created by Autistic people with lived experience. This initiative, funded by the KFC Foundation, made the partnering libraries more welcoming, accessible, and neuro-affirming for Autistic patrons (children and adults) and neurodiverse families, as well as expanded community understanding of neurodiversity. Our presentation will cover an introduction to neurodiversity and neuro-affirming frameworks, insights from project implementation, and recommendations for inclusive programming, as well as the impact of sensory-friendly adjustments in libraries across Wilson, Putnam, and Williamson counties.

Moderators

Carolyn Runyon

Speakers

Casey Davis

Jessica Jeffers

Alesia Burnley

Kathryn Wisinger

Amy Correia

Thursday April 10, 2025 9:30am - 10:20am EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

11:10am EDT

Beyond Books: Exploring the Possibilities of Non-Traditional Collections

Thursday April 10, 2025 11:10am - 12:00pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

Lending power tools, outdoor gear, rock instruments, and makerspace equipment? Of course we do that! Join the Chattanooga Public Library for this presentation on how to launch a beyond books collection that works for your library system and your community. During this presentation, we will highlight our experiences of creating, sustaining, and expanding our own unique collections. The story of the Beyond Books collections at the Chattanooga Public Library can help inspire your library to find natural partnerships to expand access to community assets and to create a new non-traditional collection of your own!

Speakers

Richard Groves

Chattanooga Public Library

Crissy Varnell

Chattanooga Public Library

Thursday April 10, 2025 11:10am - 12:00pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

1:30pm EDT

They are called Comics for a Reason: Humorous Graphic Novels for Children and Tweens

Thursday April 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:20pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

Join Scot Smith as he explores humorous graphic novels and non-fiction for younger readers. He will discuss why humor is important in books for children and tweens and highlight some recently published Comics for kids. Scot will also share important resources about Comics and graphic novels and discuss ways to make the Comics collection more accessible for children.

Speakers

Scot Smith

Member Presenter, School of Information Sciences

Scot Smith worked as a school librarian for almost 27 years before he changed careers and joined the faculty at UT's School of Information Sciences. Scot served in various capacities for the Volunteer State Book Award for many years and has read for numerous committees and juries... Read More →

Thursday April 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:20pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session

2:30pm EDT

Beyond Books: How Libraries Can Offer Even More Basic Skills to Our Youngest Children

Thursday April 10, 2025 2:30pm - 3:20pm EDT

Meeting Room 10

As children’s librarians, we are trained in early literacy best practices. However, we know that it takes many more skills to prepare the whole child for kindergarten and beyond. While storytimes with books, flannels, and fingerplays are wonderful tools for developing early literacy skills, we can add so much more to our early childhood programming. Learn how the Chattanooga Public Library is exploring additional ways to introduce basic skills into programs. From early motor skills and potty training to STEAM and kitchen skills, it’s never too early to start the journey towards kindergarten.

Speakers

Erica deBin

Library Services Specialist - Children's, Chattanooga Public Library

I received my MLIS from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and have worked for the Chattanooga Public Library for 10 years doing children's programs. Before that, I used my degree in American Sign Language while working as a sign language interpreter for Deaf students. I love... Read More →

Shelley Headrick

Thursday April 10, 2025 2:30pm - 3:20pm EDT
Meeting Room 10

Program Session