 Hey, good morning. Good morning and welcome to the eighth annual big talk from small libraries online conference I am Krista Porter. I am the library development director at the Nebraska Library Commission Big talk from small libraries is co-sponsored by the Nebraska Library Commission and the Association for rural and small libraries It is an annual conference of presentations by libraries from across the country who have a Who are our small and rural ones? We know that this is something that is They have great resources great things are doing out there and want to share what they're doing with a larger audience all of our presenters are Almost exclusively from libraries with a population served or a if they were a university or a College full-time enrollment FTE of 10,000 or less So that's what we're talking about when we're talking about small libraries here on big talk Throughout the day. We have a great group of speakers. We've got seven 50-minute sessions and then five lightning round sessions At the noon time hour noon time being noon time central time. That's where we are located So that's where our schedule is on our site If you do have any questions throughout the day go ahead and type it into your go-to webinar interface And I will collect those questions for our presenters Everything the entire day is being recorded as well So if you're unable to watch for the full day or if you miss any sessions, you will be able to watch recordings later Excuse me And you are welcome to log in and out of these sessions the conference throughout the day as you want to Excuse me. All right with me this morning is from Aerosel our associate for all small libraries is Karen Nixon. Good morning Karen. Good morning and Jennifer Pearson. Good morning Jennifer. Good morning everyone and They have a little presentation. They are going to do to welcome you as well. So I'm gonna make your presenter now Karen You should be able to share screen. There you go. Perfect. All right. You see it. All right Oh, I'll just see nobody to go ahead and not tell us about aerosel All right, so good morning and welcome to big talk from small libraries Aerosel Association for rural and small libraries is is is proud to be part of the production here by the Nebraska Library Commission We're co-sponsor and I'm the past president of the Association and with me today is Jennifer Pearson, and she's the vice president president-elect Good morning everyone first established in 1982 Aerosel's home base was Clarion University in Pennsylvania until 2007 when it became an independent organization with an expanded board and committee structure our first conference as an independent organization took place in Sacramento, California in 2008 since then a concerted effort has been made to move the conference around the country each year Two of Aerosel's most popular benefits are the website and the listserv Members have access to a wide variety of rural information and news in one location on the website and Our listserv allows members to regularly share success stories and do problem-solving on rural library issues Our online members only round table groups are a great way to take conversations off the listserv for more in-depth discussions on various topics Whether you're brand-new to libraries or a seasoned library veteran We can all learn from one another our members willingness to share ideas and skills along with expertise. We can all carry over from previous experiences makes this a wonderful opportunity to learn and improve your library skills One of the best ways for you to find out what Aerosel is all about is to come and join us And come to conference and even to volunteer Volunteers help in a number of ways. It's a completely volunteer organization You can participate in committee work You can represent Aerosel at local and state gatherings And you can be a part of the conference and present at the conference our website has information on volunteering But you have to be a member to have fun Our newsletter is another way we interact with our membership by sharing tips and articles from featured libraries About ways they've been successful in everything from policy writing to grants and programming The newsletter is also a platform to share organizational news such as varying partner agreements that Aerosel has We pride ourselves in our commitment to provide Providing a conference. It's a hundred percent applicable to small and rural libraries Our sessions are selected specifically to be practical and fully reputable In your small and rural libraries when you get back home, you're ready to go It's much much like the big talk for small libraries We focus on the needs of small and rural Communities and I think that's really important but along with our focused programs on Aerosel annual provides an opportunity for like face-to-face Networking and it's really reasonably priced One of the best things about Aerosel is that it's extremely affordable you won't Find a better deal anywhere for membership dollars with rates beginning at $15 you heard that right beginning at $15 Your membership provides access to professional development opportunities advice from the listserv ample ways to network Roundtables and many ways to volunteer one of our newest benefits is that ARL Aerosel membership will allow you to join the Library of Congress Credit Union Imagine a picture of the beautiful Library of Congress on front on the front of your visa card Not a paid Probably the thing we hear most often when we ask people what they like best about ARSL is the warm and welcoming nature of our members This is a group of people who are all about doing what it takes to serve their rural community No matter what the obstacle Relevant ideas are shared and lasting friendships are formed not only at our annual conference, but also on our listserv So many of us walk away from our first conference feeling like we've met our people, you know, I know I did It's wonderful to meet people who understand the unique challenges and the special joys of working in a rural and small library Our board meetings are open to members and we encourage participation from the membership the board meet every other month and we have various committee meetings on the off months The dates and the link to the zoom online meetings are posted on our homepage of our website arsl.info and Like I said before ARSL is a volunteer led organization and the board spends a number of hours of their own time Working hard to make ARSL the best it can be and whether you're chairing a committee or working on policies or doing other work for the organization, it's it's all volunteer We are a growing organization with over a thousand members and a record number of conference attendees We are able to become more involved with national partners Over the past couple of years we've worked with the International Federation of Library Associations on their global vision project We've worked with Web Junction on their small libraries create small spaces project with the young adult library services Association on their future ready with the library project And with the chief officers of state library associations and the Institute of Museum and Library Services on measures that matter a National initiative These are just some of the things we've been privileged to work on on behalf of our membership over the last few years And it's it's growing by leaps and bounds. I have to say that we're being fully recognized by the wider library world in terms of our ability to help small and rural libraries which are integral to The way libraries work in the US and internationally. So as you can see, it's a great time to become involved with ARSL So I hope you're able to join us in Burlington, Vermont. It's September 4th through the 7th when we're going to tap into libraries Early bird member rates for the conference are expected to be around $275 and this includes five meals early bird registration opens April 10th for Current members only and then to new and non-members on April 17th ish So make sure you're you got your membership going now We're excited to announce Go and I'm gonna mispronounce his name Chris Jalien He's gonna be our author keynote We also have Ryan Dowd doing a four-hour pre-conference and Sandra Boynton is gonna be one of our keynotes. So that's really exciting other events will be shared on our our website and on our Facebook page and registration Again early bird will start around April 10th for members only so time to become a member So Kieran and I both want to thank you for the opportunity to share the association for rural and small libraries with you If you're not a member, we hope to welcome you to our organization soon And if you are a member we thank you for your support and hope to see you this September in beautiful Burlington Burlington, Vermont at our conference in the meantime We wish you a great day of learning with stable internet connections and hopefully no flooding like where I am today Oh And we'll look forward to hearing the rest of this fantastic online conference today. Thank you all so much Thank you very much Karen and Jennifer. Yes September in September right in Vermont September 4th. Yeah, be beautiful. Definitely. I highly encourage you guys to attend