Poetry in Motion/Poésie en action – Sarah McCulley
As a student, I was excited and felt so fortunate to be sponsored to attend the OALT/ABO 46th annual conference in Niagara Falls from Wednesday, May 1st to Saturday, May 4th, 2019. This year’s conference theme was Poetry in Motion/Poésie en action, the conference coordinated by Janna Colton and held at the Best Western Plus Cairn Croft. The Best Western was very accommodating and an outstanding host for the event. OALT/ABO members staying at the Best Western were given tickets to enjoy a delicious and filling breakfast at Doc Magilligan’s Restaurant and Irish Pub. The beautiful Niagara Falls Public Library also offered to host our sessions for Friday, May 3rd.
Since I just finished my first year as a library and information technician student, I was nervous to attend the conference but excited to see what was in store. My nervousness vanished at the opening reception because the OALT/ABO members are a warm and welcoming group. They are passionate about their work and excited to see members old and new. Our opening reception provided an excellent start to the weekend, with music by Niagara Falls local musician Frank Krahn and a beautiful Thanksgiving blessing led by Phil Davis.
The conference included about 20 presentations to choose from, many relating to library work in some form or other. They ran from 9am-4pm which left us time in the evenings to explore Niagara Falls. We attended sessions by Andrew Porteus of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project, Kyle Kitchen from the Niagara Falls School board who led a session on makerspaces and coding in the modern library, and we had the opportunity to take a field trip to the Oh Canada Eh? Dinner Theater – and that was just on Thursday. There were sessions on accessible books by Rachel Breau, manager of CELA member services, and on literacy support for young struggling readers by Samantha Sendzik of the Learning Disabilities Association of Niagara Region, among many others. Aside from the presentations, we were well fed and entertained. We participated in activities like Poetry in Motion bingo (prizes included) and magnetic poetry in the hospitality room. Friday night included an awards ceremony and banquet with entertainment by the unique and talented Maja Bannerman. Finally, we finished off with the annual general meeting on Saturday.
The annual conference gave us an opportunity to make connections with people in the field, talk shop about issues and solutions in library tech work and have some fun. The conference this year offered constructive sessions and phenomenal entertainment. I had so much fun and learned so much from meeting everyone that I was a little saddened as the conference came to a close because I did not want to say goodbye. Overall, I think students and library technicians old and new will find future OALT/ABO annual conference experiences enjoyable and valuable, and I encourage them to attend if they are at all interested.
By Sarah McCulley
Library and Information Technician Student, Algonquin College
(Translated in French by José Gélinas — Head, Translation Committee)