On Friday I attended the 2024 NC LIVE Annual Conference at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. The theme of conference was “Wellness in Libraries.” And considering all of our work in Public Services on our Wellness Collection, I was excited about this conference and looking forward to learning what others are doing in the realm of wellness in their own libraries.
Rebecca Tolley provided the keynote. Rebecca is the Director of Research and Instruction Services at East Tennessee State University. Her keynote was titled “Reframing Wellness in Libraries.” She spoke about the importance of balancing work and personal well-being as well as some strategies for creating sanctuary spaces within our library workplaces. She also warned about the issue of job creep and establishing healthy boundaries.
Other sessions I attended included the “NC LIVE Committee Information Session,” “Addressing Veteran Needs through Library Partnership.” I moderated “Wellness as a Verb: How to Support Staff Wellness as a Manager,”and of course my own presentation– “Cultivating a Holistic Wellness Collection: A Journey from Concept to Collaboration.”
The NC LIVE Committee Information Session, led by NC LIVE Executive Director Rob Ross was structured as a panel conversation with a panel including Melanie Morgan from Neuse Regional Library, Abby Moore, and Angel Truesdale from UNC Charlotte. The panel session provided an overview of NC LIVE’s advisory committees that guide NC LIVE’s resources, training, online services, and outreach. I already serve on the Outreach Promotions and Partnership Advisory Committee (OPPAC), however, I’m interested in other NC LIVE committee opportunities and this session was helpful in learning more about other committees!
In the afternoon, I moderated the session “Wellness as a Verb: How to Support Staff Wellness as a Manager,” presented by Tracie Krumbine and Garrison Libby from UNC Charlotte. They offered practical strategies for supporting staff wellness and emphasized the ongoing nature of wellness, requiring intentional actions. They discussed strategies such as creating flexible working conditions, conducting stay interviews, providing opportunities for skill development, and promoting team-building activities. I found the concept of ‘stay interviews’ particularly interesting as they offer a way to not only check-in on your staff, but learn more about their interest and goals in their positions, but also in their overall career arc. In ‘stay interviews’ this is done through asking questions such as “What do you like most about working here?,” What do you like the least?,” “If you could change something about your job, what would it be?” “What talents are not being used in your current role?” “What would you like to learn to do?” “What can I do more of, or less of, as your manager?”
“Addressing Veteran Needs through Library Partnership” was presented by Amy Wilson, an LIS student at UNC Greensboro. The session provided a detailed look at the unique challenges faced by North Carolina’s veteran and active-military population and the presenter, herself, was the spouse of a veteran that suffered a traumatic brain injury. Amy emphasized the role libraries can play in addressing the needs of the military community through free or low-cost services and programs. Her presentation was particularly impactful, both because of her personal connection to the issue that she discussed but also because of how well researched her presentation was.
The undoubled highlight of the conference was of course my session, “Cultivating a Holistic Wellness Collection: A Journey from Concept to Collaboration.” (HAHA). In my presentation, I detailed the process of establishing a wellness collection here at ZSR, detailing the challenges as well as the successes of putting the collection together.
Wellness was a timely and popular topic for The 2024 NC LIVE Annual Conference this year! I both helped plan the conference in my position on the OPPAC, presented, and also volunteered throughout the day of the conference at everything from working the check-in desk at 8am that morning, helping the handler that brought the therapy dog, and assisting the masseuse set up!
Overall, all the sessions together provided a wealth of knowledge and practical strategies for promoting wellness in libraries and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of the conference this year!
And here is Daisy, the therapy dog!
5 Comments on ‘Will at the 2024 NC LIVE Annual Conference’
This is great, Will! Thank you for sharing! It sounds like this was a very helpful and timely conference. I love the idea of “stay interviews” and I’m sure your presentation was excellent!!
What a lovely conference attendee Daisy is! Nice to hear about NC LIVE’s sessions around wellness, it’s an important part of library work in my opinion – we have to keep our workplaces well, for ourselves and our patrons!
NCLIVE is always so awesome! Thanks for sharing this great info and for the pic of Daisy, the therapy dog!
Glad you were able to go to the conference and share about our wellness initiatives!
What a timely conference topic! I’m glad you were able to contribute so much to its success! Congratulations. And hats off to having both a therapy dog, and a masseuse!