KLA 2023 Conference

This year's theme is “Meeting the Challenge.” The increase in book and display challenges across Kansas has been widely publicized, but librarians face challenges of all kinds at all times. Please consider submitting a proposal that describes your experience with book or display challenges, how to prepare for those challenges, and how to navigate them once they begin. Consider, as well, an exploration of any of the other challenges libraries regularly face: overcoming challenging budgets, dealing with challenging staff or meeting the challenging staffing environment, embracing the challenge of summer reading, turning challenges into opportunities, challenging your community to be its best, and so many more.

Conference Location: Hyatt Regency Wichita | 400 West Waterman Street, Wichita, KS 67202

Contact Us:

If you have general KLA Conference questions, please contact Sean Bird (sean.bird@washburn.edu), or Dawn Krause (kslibraryassociation@gmail.com). If you have questions regarding sponsorships or vendors, please contact the committee co-chairs, Cari Cusick (ccusick@newtonplks.org) or Mckenzie Murphy (mckenzie@macpl.org).

Registration is Open

The Kansas Library Association is excited to open registration for the 2023 Conference: Meeting the Challenge. The Conference will take place at the Wichita Hyatt from November 1st-3rd. The last day for the early bird discount is October 2nd, so register and book your hotel room today! 

The Conference Committee looks forward to seeing everyone in-person this year!

Get Whova Now

Call for Proposals

The Kansas Library Association (KLA) is excited to announce the "CALL FOR PROPOSALS" for the 2023 KLA Conference, which will take place in Wichita, KS November 1st-3rd.This year's theme is “Meeting the Challenge.” The increase in book and display challenges across Kansas has been widely publicized, but librarians face challenges of all kinds at all times. Please consider submitting a proposal that describes your experience with book or display challenges, how to prepare for those challenges, and how to navigate them once they begin. Consider, as well, an exploration of any of the other challenges libraries regularly face: overcoming challenging budgets, dealing with challenging staff or meeting the challenging staffing environment, embracing the challenge of summer reading, turning challenges into opportunities, challenging your community to be its best, and so many more.

Please submit your program proposal here.

The due date for proposals is April 28, 2023. The KLA Conference Committee looks forward to reviewing many wonderful proposals and to spending time together in Wichita in November with amazing library friends and colleagues from across the state at the premier annual professional development opportunity in Kansas.

Conference Committee

Conference Chair - Sean Bird	Communications Committee - Crystal Hutchinson, Shelley O'Brien, Pauline Stacchini, Lori Juhlin	Presidential Awards - Holly Mercer
Current President - Shanna Smith-Ritterhouse	Webmaster - Larissa Ester	Budget - Dawn Krause, Terri Wojtalewicz
Past President - Holly Mercer	Special Events Chair - Co-Chairs: Jessica Pierpoint, April Hernandez	FOKL - Barb Mathews
Meals Coordinator - Melany Wilks	Hospitality & Registration - Dawn Krause	KASL - Tina Stucky
Sponsors/Vendors - Co-Chairs: Cari Cusick, Mckenzie Murphy	KLAEF Basket Chair - Mary Boller	CULS - Virginia Shaffer
Program Committee & Schedule - Janelle Mercer, Tabitha Hogan, Julia Proctor	Lightning Round Coordinators - Terri Summey, Kathie Buckman

Conference Schedule

Opening Keynote (Wednesday, Nov. 1):

Join us from 3:00-4:10 in the Redbud Rooms

Dr. Micah W. Kubic has served as the Executive Director of the ACLU of Kansas since January 2022.  With more than twenty years of experience in civil rights and racial justice work, Micah leads one of the largest advocacy organizations in the state, defending and strengthening the rights that belong to everyone under the Constitution.  Micah previously served as the ACLU of Kansas’s executive director from 2015 to 2018.  From 2019 to 2022, Micah was the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, one of the largest ACLU affiliates in the country. Prior to joining the staff of the ACLU, Micah was the Director of Planning, Development, and Evaluation at the Full Employment Council, a Kansas City area workforce development agency; Senior Program Officer at Greater Kansas City Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), where he worked directly with six urban core neighborhoods to improve their quality of life; and legislative director for a Kansas City councilman.  Micah holds bachelors’ degrees from the George Washington University, as well as a master’s degree and a doctorate in Black Politics from Howard University.  His first book, Freedom, Inc. and Black Political Empowerment, was published by the University of Missouri Press in 2016.

State Librarian's Luncheon Keynote (Thursday, Nov. 2nd):

Join us Noon - 2pm in the Redbud Rooms.  Lunch is included in conference registration. 

Cindy Hohl, MBA/MLIS, is a member of the Santee Sioux Nation and director of policy analysis and operational support at the Kansas City Public Library. As past president of the American Indian Library Association, and as a North American representative to the International Federation of Library Associations, she works with librarians across the globe including serving on the diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism committee of the National Information Standards Organization. Committed to social justice work, she serves on the Urban Library Council’s Anti-Racism Action Team to provide library resources for all. Cindy serves on the executive board of the Freedom to Read Foundation and on the steering committee for the Joint Council of Librarians of Color conference. As an ALA Spectrum Scholar, she strives to increase diversity in the library field through mentorship, recruitment, and advocacy. Cindy is the 2023-24 President-Elect of the American Library Association and with 58,000 members, is the largest and most influential library association in the world.

Closing Keynote (Friday, Nov. 3):

Join us from 11:00-11:50am in the Redbud Rooms

Librarians across Kansas and throughout the country are seeing rising numbers of demands to remove school and public library materials. Those attempting to censor books are using new tactics that include attempts to subvert the formal reconsideration process by applying pressure on boards and elected officials through public comments and social media, encouraging legislation to ban and restrict content and prevent librarians from upholding their policies, and even attempts by organized groups advocating for book censorship to elect their members to boards and elected office. 

Join two leaders who have been in the trenches, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom and Kent Oliver, Senior Fellow with the ALA Public Policy and Advocacy Office, for a conversation and resource sharing session. They will share an update of where challenges are at now, information that affects Kansas librarians, and the resources and tools that all librarians in our libraries and school libraries can use for responding.

KASL Author Luncheon Speaker (Friday, Nov. 3rd):

Join us at Noon - 1:30pm in Redbud C

Cynthia Leitich Smith is a NSK Neustadt Laureate and a New York Times bestselling author of books for young readers, including HEARTS UNBROKEN, which won the American Indian Library Association’s Youth Literature Award.

Her most recent releases are the middle grade anthology ANCESTOR APPROVED: INTERTRIBAL STORIES FOR KIDS, which received four starred reviews and was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book, and the novel SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA, which received six starred reviews. Both books were named to numerous “best of the year” lists. Her upcoming YA novel HARVEST HOUSE will be released in spring 2023. She also looks forward to the spring 2023 release of THE BLUE STARS: THE VICE PRINCIPAL PROBLEM (Book One in THE BLUE STARS SERIES), co-authored by Kekla Magoon and illustrated by Molly Murakami.

Cynthia is also the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and the Katherine Paterson Inaugural Endowed Chair on the faculty of the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Austin, Texas.

Pre-Conferences (Wed. Nov. 1st 9:00-11:50am)

This year, pre-conferences are complimentary to registered KLA members.  Join KLA for less than the price of these pre-conferences, which is normally $45!  You can add these sessions when registering. Registration is required to attend since there is a maximum on attendance due to room sizes.

Weave a Tale Workshop Presents: Little Miss Ann, Cypress A

Audience: Early literacy library staff

Join us for this free pre-conference with Little Miss Ann where we'll explore integrating live and recorded songs into storytimes as well as using music as an intervention in child development, health, and wellness. More about Little Miss Ann. 

Building the Library Culture You Want, Birch Classroom
Audience: All library types
Workplace culture isn’t just a fancy phrase used to describe Fortune 500 companies. It is an organization’s shared goals, values, and practices. Join Gail Santy and Patty Collins as they guide you through the process they took to craft a workplace where staff are appreciated and real work gets done. As library consultants they have assisted dozens of libraries in identifying workplace obstacles. They will discuss how poorly written policies, apathetic leadership, and toxic employees/board members can keep a library from moving forward.

Your Communication Style: Using the Platinum Rule to Meet Your Person-to-Person Challenges, Oak Theater
Audience: All library types
Public service, library governance, other library staff and volunteers: so much of what we do involves other people. Sometimes it's easy; communicating well can feel like a solution, a balm, a community. And sometimes it's hard: the jokes we tell fall flat, the important messages we practiced saying in the mirror go unheard, our intentions are misinterpreted. The Platinum Rule - treat others as they would like to be treated - provides a view into those challenges and tools to help meet them. Attend this self-development session to explore your own communication style and begin to identify the communication styles of the people you interact with.  Presenter: Julie Timmins, Training Specialist, Johnson County Library.

Disaster Prepared and Disaster Asset Libraries, Cypress B
Audience: Public library staff, trustees
Learn how to make your library prepared for disasters and how to be an asset in your community in the response and recovery process afterwards. Libraries are already set up to be a huge benefit to their communities after a disaster.  Learn how you can use what you already have to help your people be prepared for, respond to and recover from disaster. Presenter: Kate Dinneen, Douglas County Emergency Management

Accommodations

Hyatt Regency Wichita

Room Rates for 2023:

Room Size	Rates
King Bed	$134/night
Two Queen Beds	$134/night

Hotel Contact Information:

400 W Waterman
Wichita, KS 67202
Phone: 316-293-1234
Fax: 316-293-1200
Website Link

Parking: 

Overnight Guests that have booked under the group rate of KS Library Assn have complimentary self-parking in the parking garage – use hotel guest room key to use the in/out of the garage each day.

• The rate for Local/Drive-in Attendees (guests with the group KS Library Assn) will be charged $10/day per vehicle.
• The rates for valet parking apply for both overnight and drive-in, individual guests pay $14/day
• Complimentary self-parking is available in the South parking lot across the street.

Meals

Full conference registration (both member and non-member) includes the following meals:

1. Wednesday Nov. 1st, Colleges & Universities Section Luncheon, Noon, Redbud C
2. Thursday, Nov. 2nd, 7:30am - 8:50am, Breakfast with the Vendors, Eagle Ballroom
3. Thursday, Nov. 2nd, Noon - 2pm, State Librarian's Luncheon and Awards Ceremony, Redbud Rooms
4. Thursday, Nov. 2nd, 3:50pm - 4:30pm, Break with the Vendors, Eagle Ballroom
5. Friday, Nov. 3rd, 7:30am - 8:50am,  Grab and Go Breakfast, Upstairs Hallway in front of Redbud Rooms
6. Friday, Nov. 3rd, Noon - 1:30pm, KS Association of School Librarians Author Luncheon, Redbud C

Please be sure and answer the luncheon questions when you register so we can count you in! 

One day conference registrants can opt into breakfast and attend the lunch on the day they will attend.  Please also RSVP by answering the lunch question in the online registration form. 

Gluten free and vegetarian meals are available.  Please respond to the Dietary Restrictions question in the registration form.  Meal customizations are limited with large-scale events so please plan accordingly if you have strict dietary needs. 

Access Conference Event Schedule

To access the schedule of events from Whova, click the link below:

https://whova.com/web/UrTAVr-jSnHE6rpq244jsXGiespe%40oEH1Gs3X7-Ek6I%3D/