Each year, Amigos Library Services supports professional development by offering scholarship awards to help members attend conferences and grow in their roles. This year, three Amigos members received the Amigos award to attend the Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) 2025 Conference virtually and shared their reflections on the experience.
Donna Church, E-Resources Librarian, Jung-Kellogg Learning Center, Missouri Baptist University, found the conference especially and appreciated the opportunity to dive deeper into this evolving role. "Shifting from reference and access services with some work in e-resources to focus much more on e-resources, I feel like I am learning a lot and this conference gave me several ideas." Sessions on licensing stood out, especially "Licensing for Accessibility" and "We Buy Textbooks," which aligned with an Open Pedagogy project in development.
Donna also found inspiration in sessions on data and analytics. "What Do Users Want," "Developing Excel Dashboards," and "In Search of Overlooked Statistics" sparked ideas for improving how the library analyzes usage and communicates value to stakeholders. "These insights will help me to explore some analytics and make changes to our pages, resources, and instruction in the future," Donna shared.
Majestie Varnado, MLS, (she/her), Electronic Resources & Systems Librarian; Assistant Professor, Sueltenfuss Library, appreciated the opportunity to connect with a community of peers in the same area of practice. "So far, a lot of the library conferences I’ve been to serve all librarians… it was refreshing to be in a space with people who are sharing the same experience as me…Having a place to share innovations, research, and empathy is such a fantastic thing," she said. She also expressed appreciation for the keynote speaker and found the sessions especially timely as their library navigates the transition of the new government administration.
"I can only imagine what it is like to be in the room with other librarians, sharing our pains and joys, and I want to make it my goal to attend in person for the next conference when I can," Majestie added. "I'm entirely grateful for the opportunity to have attended this year!"
Taylor M. Moore, (she/her), Library Assistant – ILL & Serials, Sul Ross State University, Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library, attended ER&L for the first time and is "already looking forward to attending the next ER&L conference," because she found it so eye-opening. "I'm brand new to the library world… so this was a great opportunity to broaden my scope and see how electronic resources are handled by other institutions," she wrote. The emphasis on adopting plain language stood out as a key takeaway for improving patron service.
Working in both serials and interlibrary loan, Taylor especially connected with a session on data-driven decision making. "Elizabeth Berney's 'I'm Silently Creating a Spreadsheet for That, or COUNTER, Non-Counter, ILL Stats, No-Stats... Oh My!' highlighted a process that I can’t wait to begin implementing in our own library," she said. "Have we been keeping materials on the shelves that are only being used to fulfill ILL requests? We’ll soon see!"
We congratulate these winners and thank them for their time in sharing their thoughtful takeaways from this importance conference focused on innovation, insight, and connection in e-resources.