Susanna Reichling, who serves as the library liaison to MSU’s Music, Theatre, and Dance Departments, recently attended the combined Music Library Association/Theatre Library Association National Conference in St. Louis. The conference offered the opportunity to talk with vendors and view new scholarly publications/streaming media services, attend a variety of presentations on all aspects of performing arts librarianship, and share ideas within smaller interest group and regional chapter meetings.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion was voted the #1 area of interest among participants of the previous year’s conference, so presenters for this year were encouraged to consider aspects of DEI when developing their ideas. The broad overview of topics covered over the five-day period were broken down into six main themes:

· 25% collection diversity or other inclusive excellence issues

· 28% digital humanities and OER (Open Educational Resources)

· 15% pedagogy/outreach strategies

· 15% individual research presentations

· 11% best practices in music cataloging

· 6% business meetings

Over 300 attendees from across the country were registered for this event.

The five-day conference included presentations and committee meetings focusing on collection assessment and development, binding and preservation of print and digital music scores, public services and outreach, information literacy, cultivating strong donor relationships, digital humanities initiatives, and connecting with music and arts in the local community.