I had the opportunity to attend and take part in a number of sessions at the 2025 NC LIVE Annual Conference, both in person on Friday, May 16, and online on Monday, May 19. As always, the conference was a great place to learn from coworkers from all around the state, hear about new projects, and talk about how libraries are changing in our communities.

The conference started with a keynote by Saray Garnett-Hochuli, who is the Deputy City Operations Officer for Internal Services in Minneapolis. She stressed how important it is to integrate systems, people, and policy in order to get long-lasting results. She drew on her experience in local government, regulatory enforcement, and leading in the private sector.

Here and Legally Queer, led by librarians from Durham County Library, was one of the most powerful sessions I attended. This session focused on their work with the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association and the LGBTQ Center of Durham to set up free legal clinics in the library. These clinics have helped about 400 people thus far with things like changing their name and gender marker, making plans for their estate, and writing healthcare directives. The program stood out not only because of its effects, but also because of the care and thought that went into its creation. Everything, from the logistics to the terminology, was meant to be supportive and easy to understand.

That afternoon, I led the NCICU Feedback Session at the in-person conference. This discussion was about NC LIVE’s Resource Selection Cycle for 2026–2028 and gave NC LIVE representatives and member libraries from North Carolina’s independent colleges and institutions a chance to talk to each other. As a member of the NC LIVE Governance structure through my work with the Outreach, Promotions, and Partnership Advisory Committee (OPPAC), I helped start a conversation about how to use the platform, what resources are available now, and what should be done in the future. I appreciated how attendees provided honest and insightful input, and I valued their continued interest in working together to shape NC LIVE’s future.

The afternoon lightning talk session included three creative projects: Davidson College’s work to make hiring practices more fair and another Davidson College projects to develop student-curated Affinity Capsule Collections. The third presentation showcased a UNC Chapel Hill collaborative data quilt project held in their makerspace. Each talk was short but full of examples of how to listen to communities and design programs that meet their needs and interests.

In addition to Friday’s in-person event, I also attended the virtual NC LIVE conference on Monday, where I was again the moderator for the NCICU Feedback Session, this time using Zoom. As a representative of OPPAC once more, I worked with my colleages to ensure that this session gave institutions that couldn’t attend in person a chance to share their thoughts. The virtual format allowed more people in our community of interest to participate, and it sparked interesting conversations on both current resource use and future needs, just as the in-person version.

I also had the opportunity to give a lightning talk during the virtual conference. My talk, called “Magnets and Messages: Creating a Student-Centered Feedback Board,” was mostly about the “What’s on Your Mind?” Feedback board here at ZSR. I gave a short summary of how the program employs a simple magnetic comment board to get students involved, solicits student feedback, and leads to changes in library services. The main topics were the power of low-cost tools, the importance of student input in service design, and our ambitions for future growth, especially in terms of digital integration, collaboration, and theming. It was great to highlight this local project and show how something so modest can create community.

These meetings gave us a clear idea of where libraries are headed: toward deeper relationships, more responsive services, and more innovation across mediums and institutions. I’m thankful that I was able to participate in NC LIVE 2025 in person and online. I’m even more thankful that I can bring those ideas back here to my work in ZSR!