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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIBRARIANSHIP, 3(1), 115 

ISSN:2474-3542 

 

2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits 

The American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter meeting was held in Denver, Colorado from 
February 9-13, 2018. 

ALA is the largest library association in the world, whose mission is to “promote library and 
librarianship” (ALA Mission & Priorities1). 

This year, more than 8,000 library and information professionals including librarians, library 
staff, scholars, educators, publishers, and vendors attended the ALA Midwinter in Denver to 
present, discuss, share or collaborate on issues of importance in various aspects in the library and 
information profession. 

A lot of sessions were held and various topics were discussed. Topics of highlights this year 
include new technology, leadership, diversity, access to information and library services, copyright, 
intellectual freedom, literacy, career development, best practices in a variety of fields of 
librarianship, evaluation of library impact and library staff development. Library professionals 
brought up the unfavorable facts of the current environment to the discussion table and call for 
librarians and other information professionals to seek advocates for libraries and the library 
profession. Stories about the importance of libraries, librarians and books were told. Some 
librarians/staff talked about the changes of their roles to make themselves more relevant in the 
rapidly changing information world. Others shared their experiences and strategies on how they 
strived to make library collections and resources more accessible to users, carried out programs to 
connect to the communities and maintain sustainable development. There were also discussions 
and presentations about efforts made to support diversity, equity and inclusion. For technology and 
technical services aspects, library professionals discussed some changes and new advances in 
library technology and how libraries can use the new technology to improve library services. For 
instances, at some events of Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), 
librarians/staff talked about how linked data were practically applied in their libraries, the name 
reconciliation work and database cleanup projects for their special collections with new technology 
and tools. 

At the Exhibit Hall, more than 450 exhibitors including library vendors, publishers and authors 
provide the attendees with the opportunities to learn library services, products, tools, technology 
and new books. 

A number of CALA members attended ALA Midwinter and got involved in various activities 
including making presentations or organizing interest group sessions. 

--- Suzhen Chen, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, HI, USA 
                                                             
1 About ALA. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://www.ala.org/aboutala/