2025 Call For Speakers Now Open!

Posted on September 4, 2024 by Christa Porter

The Call for Speakers for Big Talk From Small Libraries 2025 is now open!

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

This free one-day online conference is tailored for staff from small libraries; the smaller the better!

Small libraries of all types – public, academic, school, museum, special, etc. – are encouraged to submit a proposal. We’re looking for seven 50-minute presentations and four 10-minute “lightning round” presentations.

Submit your proposal by Friday, December 13, 2024.

Big Talk From Small Libraries 2025 will be held on Friday, February 28, 2025 between 8:45 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (CT) via the GoTo Webinar online meeting service.

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Is Your Public Library the ‘Best Small Library in America’?

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Christa Porter

Calling all libraries serving communities of 25,000 or less!

Library Journal is now accepting applications for the Best Small Library in America Award, made possible by Ingram. Library Journal‘s annual award for the Best Small Library in America was founded in 2005 to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of these libraries. It honors the U.S. public library that most profoundly demonstrates outstanding service to populations of 25,000 or less.

The deadline to nominate your library is June 26, 2024.

This is an amazing opportunity to show off your great rural or small library. Anyone can nominate a library – the library administration itself, patrons, members of the community, library peers, etc.

Judges want to hear about how, in the last two years, you have raised the profile of the library in your community, reached out to new users and remote users, impacted literacy in the community, and used technology to support and grow patron access to materials and information. Share your innovative approaches to traditional problems, including seemingly small fixes that work, and specific innovations that can be readily adopted by other libraries of all sizes.

The winner will be presented at the 2024 Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) Conference, September 11-14, 2024 in Springfield, MA, and will have the opportunity to speak there.

The winning library will receive a $5,000 cash award, and two finalist libraries will receive $1,000 each. All three will be featured in the September 2024 issue of Library Journal and online.

Nominate your favorite Nebraska library today! Learn more about the guidelines and submit your nomination on the Best Small Library in America Award website.

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ARSL 2024 Early Bird Conference Registration is NOW OPEN!

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Christa Porter

Registration for both in-person and virtual attendance at the 2024 Association for Rural & Small Libraries Conference is open!

The in-person 2024 ARSL Conference will be held at the MassMutual Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, from September 11-14, 2024.

This year’s conference theme is “Libraries are (r)Evolutionary.” Our conference provides an opportunity to explore the transformative power of rural and small libraries in our communities. Like chrysalises of change, these libraries nurture revolutionary ideas and evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of our patrons. Let’s embrace the (r)Evolutionary spirit of libraries and inspire each other.

Early Bird pricing for in-person attendance will be available through July 16.

For more information about the conference and to register, visit the 2024 Conference Homepage.

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2024 Recordings Now Available

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Christa Porter

Recordings of Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024 sessions are now available!

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Unless otherwise noted, you will find the recordings and presentations on the 2024 Recordings & Presentations page.

Don’t forget to complete the conference Evaluation! We’re looking for input from people who attended the live conference and watch the archived recordings.

And mark your calendars now – Big Talk From Small Libraries will be back in 2025! Next year’s conference will be on Friday, February 28, 2025!

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Big Talk From Small Libraries Presentation Rescheduled

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Christa Porter

Good News! We have a new date for the Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024 presentation that was canceled at the last minute, “No More Summertime Blues: Shaking Up SRP to Make It Work For YOU!”.

Chelsea Price has graciously agreed to do their presentation on March 20 on NCompass Live from 10-11am Central Time. This is the Nebraska Library Commission’s weekly webinar series. The presentation will be recorded if you are unable to watch it at the scheduled time.

This was one of the 10 minute Lightning Round sessions for the conference, but will be expanded to fit the longer, hour-long, NCompass Live format.

You can register for this new date at No More Summertime Blues: Shaking Up SRP to Make It Work For YOU!.

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2024 Conference Wrap-up

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Christa Porter

Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024 is a wrap! Thanks to all the presenters and attendees. It was a great day!

Evaluation

What did you think of Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024? Please share your impressions of this year’s event on our Feedback Form.

Continuing Education Credit

A “Thank you for attending” email has been automatically sent from the GoTo Webinar system to all attendees who logged in to the live session. That message serves as your proof of attending. In addition, a link to a PDF certificate is included with the e-mail. If you are having trouble finding this email, check your Spam or Junk folders.

Nebraska library staff and board members: You can earn 1 C.E. credit for each 50-minute session attended. Due to the nature of this event, we cannot track which sessions you attended, so please fill out and submit this special Big Talk From Small Libraries CE Report form, so your C.E. credits can be recorded correctly.

Non-Nebraska attendees: Any CE credit you wish to earn for this event will need to be arranged with your CE-granting agency, since we are not authorized to issue CE credits for other states or programs, only for Nebraska.

Recordings and Presentations

At the moment we have a single eight-hour-long video file. As with previous years, unless otherwise noted, we’ll be editing this down into the individual presentation recordings, and adding them to the site under Previous Conferences. We’ll also post any presentation materials provided by the speakers. This process will take some time and everything will be posted as it becomes available, but experience tells us that it will take a week or two to complete.

Watch Parties

If you watched our event with others, please let us know the size of your group for our statistics via our Contact form.

Thanks!

And mark your calendars for Big Talk From Small Libraries 2025 – Friday, February 28, 2025!

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Login Instructions for Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Christa Porter

Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024 is broadcast online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements and firewall configuration. GoTo Webinar works on Windows, Mac, Google Chrome OS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.

TO ATTEND THE CONFERENCE – Pre-Registration is no longer required!

You can join the conference at any time on February 23 by following these instructions. There is one login for the entire day of presentations – you can use these instructions to log in and out of the conference as you like throughout the day, based on your interest and availability.

1. On your computer workstation, go to

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/608691166295621981

and register in the GoTo Webinar system.

2. Use the link on the confirmation webpage to connect to the session.

3. You will be connected to audio using your computer’s speakers (VoIP).

If the link above does not work, go to https://www.goto.com/webinar/join Type or paste in the Webinar ID: 885-119-923 and enter your e-mail address. Click ‘Yes’ or ‘Always’ (or ‘Trust’ on a Mac) if prompted to accept the download.

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Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024 is tomorrow!

Posted on February 22, 2024 by Christa Porter

Join us tomorrow for the 2024 Big Talk From Small Libraries online conference. Registration is still open, so head over to the Registration page and sign up!

We have a full agenda for the day, with speakers from academic and public libraries presenting on a wide variety of topics: fundraising, Memory Cafes, summer reading, accessibility audits, afterschool meals programs, DEIB: diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and much more.

This event is a great opportunity to learn about the innovative things your colleagues are doing in their small libraries.

So, come join us for a day of big ideas from small libraries!

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Only One Week Until Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024!

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Christa Porter

Small libraries! Awesome ideas! FREE Online Conference!

There’s only one week until Big Talk From Small Libraries 2024!

Check out the full schedule and register to join us next Friday, February 23.

Sponsored by the Nebraska Library Commission and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL), this free one-day online conference is tailored for staff from small libraries – the smaller the better! Each of our speakers is from a small library serving fewer than 10,000 people. This event is a great opportunity to learn about the innovative things your colleagues are doing in their small libraries.

Everyone is welcome to register and attend, regardless of how big or small your library. But, if your library serves a few hundred to a few thousand people, this is the day for you!

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2024 Schedule Now Available

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Christa Porter

The full schedule for the 2024 Big Talk From Small Libraries online conference is now available!

You will find all the details on the Schedule page.

Information about our presenters is available on the Speakers page.

If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time to jump over to the Registration page and sign up!

You are welcome to watch as an individual or to host a group viewing of the conference. If several staff members from the same library want to attend, you can just register for one seat and have staff members view/listen together via one workstation.

You can also host a viewing party this same way and invite staff from other libraries. For any group viewings, if you know who will be there, you can list your Additional Attendees on your one registration or you can send us a list after the event. Be sure to take all necessary health and safety precautions into account when planning group viewings.

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