Reflections from NWILL Conference Amigos Scholarship Recipients

With an exclusively designed sponsorship package, Amigos supported the Northwest Interlibrary Loan & Resource Sharing (NWILL) Conference. exhibiting at a virtual booth and providing several Amigos member libraries scholarships for a staff member to attend the conference. Recipients of the Amigos Scholarships were asked to share some takeaways from the conference such as what stood out to them at the conference and anything they started or planned to change after having attended the conference.  

Below are reflections from two scholarship recipients: 

• Jessica Kirk, Coordinator for Statewide Sharing and Engagement at the Arkansas State Library shares: 

  "The most surprising offering from the conference was the Copyright First Responders workshop. I was very glad I opted to participate in this because it was more than an educational opportunity, it required critical thinking and pushed new ideas forward.  

  I have started to engage in conversations on how electronic resources are represented in different resource sharing platforms and how that can benefit different types of libraires throughout the state."

• Laura Bernal, Supervisor, Interlibrary Loans of Alfred R. Neumann Library at University of Houston-Clear Lake, shares: 

  "Something that stood out to me at the conference is how much the field is evolving, especially in the digital sense. For example, before the conference, I was unaware about Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). This was a topic of that multiple presenters discussed, and I want to learn more about. Attending this conference was very eye-opening for me as a newly minted Interlibrary Loans supervisor.  

  I am currently at the stage where I can restructure my department to match my community’s needs, so hearing how other libraries are functioning has given me clear ideas that I can propose to my supervisor. We are currently drafting yearly goals, so I have been able to use using some of the knowledge that I acquired at this conference to draft some practical goals for my department."