CLA 2025 - Telling Our Own Stories

Last month, the annual California Library Association conference took place inside the Riverside Convention Center. Over the course of three days, I strolled down from the Law Library early in the morning, grabbed cold brew coffee from my favorite local café, and enjoyed a weekend full of educational workshops and peer-to-peer connection. 

Before most of the conference inevitably disappears from my brain and I can only recall that “it was good” when someone asks me about it, I want to take some time to sit down and write a little bit about my time attending.

In line with the theme of the conference, telling our own stories, I want to start by sharing my story about becoming a librarian.

My Library Story

I started as an assistant with the Riverside County Law Library and Woodcrest Library back in 2023 while in school for my MLIS. Eventually, I made my way over to the Ronald H. Roberts Temecula Public Library to be a part time intern in 2024 before being able to fully commit my time to the Law Library earlier this year as a librarian.

Before all of this, I exclusively worked food and retail service jobs. In fact, I started my MLIS program as a barista inside a local mall with zero experience inside libraries aside from visits with my family when I was younger. 

Unlike a lot of people, my interest in libraries didn’t start when I was a kid. Cheesy story, but it actually only started developing in the last decade or so after reading Susan Orlean’s The Library Book. In summary, the book used the story of a fire that engulfed the LA Central Library back in the 1980s as a backdrop to share what libraries do and what they stand for. The book talked about bookmobiles bringing literacy to neighborhoods, teams circulating books throughout LA County, and communities coming together to rebuild what they lost. With an unsolved true crime story at the center of its narrative, the book itself was a love letter to a profession that people valued but often misunderstood.

The story piqued my interest, and so I dove headfirst into libraries. Volunteer opportunities and part time jobs cropped up from time to time, but one thing or another always got in the way of me being able to pursue them. So strangely, and with immense gratitude to everyone who took a chance on me, I became a librarian with only a year or two of work experience under my belt. 

Why CLA

Coming into my role so quickly means that I’m always learning on the job and getting to know the library community a little more each day. Working in a public law library means that I need to develop both as a librarian and as an effective legal researcher. Conferences like CLA are events that I like to attend because they give me the chance to participate in educational workshops that help me develop as a professional and meet more of my peers. Working in a specialized setting like a county law library, I sometimes feel a little siloed from the rest of the library community and actively try to take every opportunity to reconnect.

For those who don’t know me, I tend to be more reserved and focused on the technical aspects of my job. Collection work, legal research, and other quiet activities are things I like to dive into in my day to day. But as time goes on and I grow into my career, I’m doing more community outreach and want to develop as a better leader and advocate for libraries, even if I never step into a role with those as official job duties. As tough as the job can get at times and as tricky it can be to communicate our work to stakeholders, I do very much love my career and want to do my best to welcome others to the world of libraries. And the best way to do that is to learn how to talk about the things I do, and the things that libraries do as part of their communities.

Summarizing The Conference

This year’s conference focused on the art of advocacy, storytelling, and leadership. Naturally, most of the sessions that were available dealt with at least one of these. Many of the ones I attended blended all of them together, either in the topics they discussed or in the way panelists themselves presented. And although the skill building and professional development was great, my favorite aspect of each session was listening to the individual stories that each panelist told and connecting with them.

The first workshop I attended was “Advocacy 101: The Stories Behind Successful Advocacy,” which had panelists discuss how they advocated for their library and developed narratives that resonated with stakeholders in charge of funding and operating their library. The main takeaway was something I think every librarian inherently knew but maybe needed to be reminded of, and it’s that we need to remember to be a part of the larger community and take the time to step outside of the library. 

Many of the talks and meetings that can really affect the library aren’t always happening inside its walls, and the people we need to talk to aren’t always our regular visitors. This can mean appearing at town meetings, tabling sessions, and other community-driven events that give us a chance to talk to the people who might be interested in what we do and what we can offer. We can’t be everywhere at once, but we can begin the work that gets others to show their support for the work their libraries do. Just recently, my colleague and I took the time to connect with new lawyers and existing local groups at the Riverside County Bar Association’s New Attorneys Academy. Aside from introducing the library and the resources we have, we also made time to just exist alongside the community.

Following the theme of community and knowing when to step outside the library, I attended “Telling Our Own Stories: Moving On Up (And out of the Library),” and “Be Defiant – Defending the Freedom to Read at Your Library.” The first panel discussion brought in former library directors to speak about their journeys in becoming involved with city management and how they were able to continue positioning themselves to champion the libraries they used to work at. The second session brought together panelists who navigated a multi-year situation that brought a community together to advocate against book banning and library censorship. Again, both sessions drove home the message that effective advocacy involves community effort and sustained presence outside the library.

I also attended sessions that shed light on good leadership and management practices, along with the experiences of other new librarians like me who are navigating the early stages of their careers and some of the challenges they face. These included “Demystifying Management for Reluctant Leaders,” “It Didn’t Stop Me: Lived Experiences of Library Staff with Disabilities,” “Managing Your Inner Critic: Dealing with Imposter Syndrome Daily,” and “Sharing Our Stories: The Ups and Downs of Early Career Librarianship.” These sessions emphasized having patience and a willingness to do scary things, even if we as early career professionals feel unprepared or afraid to speak up.

Other sessions I attended focused more on developing skills to navigate situations and improve current library practices. Developing better social media strategies, implementing critical cataloging techniques, and navigating days when a First Amendment auditor pays the library a visit  were just some of the training highlights.

My Overall Experience

Between newer librarians like me and multi-year professionals like some of my colleagues, I really loved just being able to chat and see where other people came from or what they were up to in their corner of the world. I met up with librarians across NorCal and SoCal, talked with peers enrolled in MLIS programs, and caught up with some old coworkers. In fact, on my first day, I met someone from the Corona Public Library at registration because I recognized them from their Reels (if you know, you know).  

We all chatted about work, talked about our outside interests, and laughed about some of the funny moments that just came with being a librarian. It reminded me of a quote that’s become one of my favorite things to say, which apparently comes from Kurt Vonnegut:

“We’re here on this earth to just fart around, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Professional conferences like CLA provide learning opportunities and chances to network, yes, but they also function to remind members that they’re a part of a larger community. They provide a place and time to simply hang out, catch up, and slow down. Even in community-oriented environments like the library, making the time for community can in and of itself be challenging.

I sometimes get overwhelmed by my work and experience doubts about whether I’m in the right profession, but the conference helped to reaffirm that, at least at this moment of my life, there’s nothing else I would rather do. And hopefully for my peers who happen to read this, you walked away with an equally valuable and fulfilling experience.

By James Phaphone, Librarian