District 8 Conference
“Keep Calm and Lead On”

By kYmberly Keeton

As the Houston Student Coordinator I had the opportunity to attend the District 8 TLA Conference. It was held at the University of Houston - Downtown. This was the second time that I’ve attended a district conference, and the first time volunteering to be on a program committee to assist with programming for the conference session workshops.

The guest speaker of the conference was a creative writing professor from the University of Houston (my undergraduate alma mater). It was really interesting, because once again I was in the room listening to a writer -- my first passion in life. I keep getting reinforcement that writing and librarianship makes sense. I’m appreciative for all of the subliminal messages that have come my way thus far being in a new field and path in my life.

The conference centered around learning how to market your library, brand, organization, or institution.

I attended three sessions:

1. Developing your Marketing, Public Relations, and Fundraising Plan
2. RDApalooza
3. Social Media Marketing Made Simple

Each one of these sessions were informative and I took a lot of notes. I received a lot of wisdom from the first session and the last one. I was able to think about the subject matters as it pertains to academia, my career, and in entrepreneurship. After the workshops we were able to convene as a group and discuss some of the information that we learned and ate lunch together.

During the conference we were able to hear the TLA President, Dr. Yvonne Chandler, discuss the different opportunities that will be available to all 2014 TLA Conference Attendees.

The last aspect of the conference was about the  Declaration for the Right to Libraries.

All participants of District 8 Conference were asked to sign the declaration and to share the information available online via the ALA website with their peers and social media followers.