Over the past three years, WiLS has served as a mentor organization for two cohorts of small and rural libraries undertaking community memory projects, thanks to the Accelerating Promising Practices funding opportunity from IMLS. (For more information on the program, check out our previous blog posts here and here.) The second cohort began their work in September 2020 and had not yet had the opportunity to meet in person due to Covid-19 travel and safety restrictions. By June 2022, when the American Library Association conference was being held in Washington, D.C., we decided to jump at the chance to hold an in-person gathering.
On June 24th, 2022, we met at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. The group included members traveling from Georgia, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. WiLS facilitators Emily Pfotenhauer, Ellen Brooks, and Kristen Whitson. Cynthia Landrum, IMLS Deputy Director for Library Services joined for the trip too. After several travel challenges the day before, we were relieved and grateful to be together in person!
We spent the morning talking about each library’s project: progress made, challenges encountered, problems solved. Much discussion revolved around the importance of advocating for community memory work to library stakeholders, and we brainstormed ways to share project stories for the greatest impact. Cohort members and WiLS facilitators also shared their impressions and experiences with the IMLS Accelerating Promising Practices cohort model, which is a newer program for IMLS on which they’re gathering feedback.
The afternoon brought us to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, central branch of the DC Public Library, home of The Memory Lab. Memory labs are spaces for do-it-yourself digitization of photos, documents, audiovisual recordings, and other formats, and are often found in library and educational settings. Memory Lab Network Project Manager Siobhan Hagan and Adult Services Librarian B Milenkovic spoke with us about their work, the importance of community memory projects, the technical details of their lab, and other memory labs throughout the United States. We even got a chance to try out the DC Memory Lab ourselves!
Several members of the group remained in Washington, D.C. to attend the American Library Association conference. Conference highlights included sessions on intellectual freedom and media literacy, climate justice, and how to address misinformation and disinformation; an open house at the Library of Congress; seeing keynote speakers John Cho, Tiffany Haddish, and Celeste Ng, and much more. The biggest highlight, though, was the Monday session presented by all three mentor organizations of the IMLS Accelerating Promising Practices program. WiLS’ own Community Memory & Digital Archives Consultant Ellen Brooks was joined by Betha Gutsche, WebJunction Program Manager, OCLC, and Alex Nelson, National Digital Inclusion Project Coordinator at Kansas City Public library. The panel shared their experiences and takeaways from the Accelerating Promising Practices program with an audience of 60 people. A recording of the program can be found here.
A successful visit with each other in the nation’s capital led to stronger cohort relationships, expanded knowledge, and inspiring examples.
Some comments from cohort members:
- I wanted to thank you and the rest of the WiLS gang for executing a *really impressive* cohort meeting. After 2 years of zoom, it was truly beneficial for all of us to be meeting in person. Our morning session was a great way to learn more about each other’s projects, to learn about WiLS, and to get a preview of the Monday presentation. I learned a lot, and was impressed with the MLK library, both as a wonderful new facility, and also for the opportunity to learn about the Memory Lab.
Thank you so much for making all of the arrangements and taking such good care of us! I enjoyed the experience of ALA and DC, and especially meeting everyone in person!- Just wanted to say thank you again for organizing travel and hotel arrangements for ALA. I had a blast and am excited for what lies ahead.
The second cohort’s projects are still in different stages; some have wrapped up entirely, and some are extending their grants for several months to catch up on missed opportunities from pandemic restrictions. We at WiLS are honored and grateful to have accompanied these projects from inception to completion and look forward to future work with these organizations!