📌 10 Things I Learned at ALA 2025

This noob learned a heckuva lot.

Turns out there’s a character limit on the “company” field when you register that does not match the length of a certain picture book title. 😂

I’ve been so fortunate over the years when it comes to “kidlit experiences.” Rutgers/RUCCL. The Quiet Retreat. Even Milkwood. However, it’s fair to say that none of these lovely, contemplative, creative events prepared me for the “music festival held in a casino” vibes of ALA 2025 (aka: the American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition). It was truly an überevent, and so very fun!

“Some call it The Show or The Big Dance…” The ALA level of activity and buzz seemed on par with this!

And so, I present…10 Things I, a Noob, Learned at ALA 2025:

• En masse, librarians are surprisingly noisy! Returning home with a husky voice I like to imagine was sexy (but probably was more “husky like the dog” vs. “husky like Kathleen Turner”), I realized how much a toll talking over the background noise of the conference for three days had taken on the ol’ pipes.

“You brought home…an entire extra suitcase of books??”

• Take photos. A “do as I say, not as I do” piece of advice, alas. Though I’m normally a shutterbug and snapped some book pics—I only took a few people pictures! (And I met a zillion people, so I had the chance!) While I suppose I was “in the moment,” I now wish I had a few more! 😂

A photo taken by Cheryl Klein and shared on her Instagram. I mean, how sad to resort to purloined screenshots for photos? 😂😂 (I’m the redhead right in the low front middle, appropriately next to the ellipses.)

• No matter how much fun you’re having, there’s NO escaping FOMO. As I scrolled through 2024 ALA posts chez Crain last year, I naively thought attending this year would cure me of that. SHOCKER: you get just as much ALA FOMO *AT* ALA! No matter how many wonderful people you meet, books you get signed, creative sparks you spark—you simply *cannot* do it all. I can’t tell you how many pangs I got as I scrolled friend’s socials after the fact: “Wait…she was there?” or “Ohmygosh, I didn’t know they were doing a signing!!” Your FOMO is everyone’s FOMO.

  

  No matter what…

• Go to the creator meetups. You’ll be tired and want to put your feet up; don’t. There was an Illustrator meetup on Friday and a Kidlit Drinks event on Saturday, and I’m so glad I went. It was lovely to meet so many creative, fun (and dare I say, charming?) people in a “normalish” environment; both events were definitely highlights!

(A huge thank you to Travis for snapping this picture! You can read his ALA write-ups right here!)

• Related: also go on side quests of your own. I arrived Thursday night, and spent Friday’s daytime going to sign stock at stores, checking out my surroundings, and picking up my badge early. These were all excellent choices for getting some needed introvert time in!

Signing stock at Children’s Book World in Haverford, PA.

I'm much more likely to snap pics when on my own... 😂

• Pack snacks. Yes, there’s tons of food for sale, all around the outskirts of the conference. But guess what? The other 15k attendees will be hungry for lunch AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU. So!

I never got my cheesesteak! Instead, I got two separate Panera salad meals because they were close and had a very short line. 😔 Choices had to be made, and, turns out, I always chose more ALA—EVEN OVER CHEESESTEAK. (Please: note my commitment.)

• The books are the stars…

  

  I’m not going to lie: god, the books were great. While I limited myself (somewhat) by only letting myself bring home select picture books, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the amazing variety publishers are putting out every year! We are truly in a golden age of children’s literature!

• …but feel free to fangirl/fanboy if you see a favorite. I definitely took the chance to tell a few creators and industry people that I’m a fan of theirs! I hope my genuine enthusiasm came through and didn’t make things too weird, but how could I not? :) We are part of a very inspiring community!

The only “fangirling” photo I got (I’m so excited about the “Behold, The Picture Book!” platform from our National Ambassador for Young People's Literature!), but you can be sure I also told quite a few other of my favorite creators how much I admire their work! #manifest #gratitude

• Don’t miss the panels, Expo pass peeps! While the Expo pass only lets you into the Expo area, it turns out that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on all the craft talks! Both the panels I attended within the Expo were stellar!

  

  “Different Cultures, Shared Messages: Exploring Identity, History, and Hope Through Our Asian American Experiences” with Hà Dinh, Angela Pham-Krans, Chloe Ito Ward, Patricia Tanumihardja, Sylvia Chen, and Hanna Kim.

  

  “The Power of the Picture Book” with Eric Velasquez, Yuyi Morales, Dan Yaccarino, Jason Chin, Lynne Brunelle, Mac Barnett, and moderated by Taylor Norman.

• AND: there’s always next year! I got to hang out with some truly lovely people AND I learned a lot, but, of course, there are things I would do slightly differently next time—for starters, I only needed the Sharpie pens from this entire group of supplies I brought, ha ha! But it’s okay! As always, we learn best by doing—and this event was so vibrant, so beloved—I firmly believe it will be an annual event as long as booklovers live. So, no matter how your ALA went, there’s always next year!

  

  Yeah, I didn’t need to bring any of this besides the Sharpies. (While I did finally read—and adored!—The Skull, it only took me about 15 minutes; I hadn’t realized how large the font was, ha ha!)

Finally, and this is less of a “thing I learned” and more of a reality…your post-ALA week will be very tiring, what with all the laundry, emails, and other tasks that piled up while you were gallivanting around.

It is what it is. It’s very much worth it.

Your friend,
ALA-yne

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