NOTE:  This post is from Nora Allen from the Friday Memorial Public Library in New Richmond.  She attended the 2025 WAPL Conference with grant funds provided by IFLS, thanks to a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction with funds from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

I appreciated the opportunity to attend this conference held in Oshkosh, WI.  It is great when conferences are different times of the year. There are always different sessions to choose from but one that was super interesting was titled “Library as Time Machine: Bringing History to Life with Historical Fiction.” This session brought many opportunities to brainstorm and expand creativity, thinking outside the box of programming. We reviewed over many historical eras, who we could partner with in our community, ideas on how to make sure patrons know about this opportunity, and different books that could be paired with the event. I loved the structure of this session; Eileen Schnabel was wonderful at jumping right into the structure of planning for such a program and helping you think about what could possibly work in my community. I found this session to be inspiring for the love of historical fiction but also how to promote historical events as a program and to draw interest to many age groups.

During the conference, we had an opportunity to visit two different public libraries in the area. I find that visiting other sized libraries in Wisconsin can be very interesting and uplifting. I was able to tour both the Oshkosh Public Library and also the newly remodeled Appleton Public Library. There were so many new things to look at on my own, but I also gained some behind-the-scenes information from the welcoming staff. It was great to see how different collections were displayed and how they utilized the space for seasonal displays and program ideas. My interest is in adult programming ideas but also the children’s area is fun to see, to get ideas for our new space. It was great to look at furniture, how they decorated walls, library card applications and even brochures and marketing materials. There are so many things to consider with our new space and all the great opportunities to use all of those ideas. During this event and the meet ups that I attended, I was able to meet with others with the same scholarship and have great conversations and opportunities to talk about our buildings and programs.