A Message from 2025 Virginia Library Association President Vivian F. Washington

Dear Library Friends,

I’m so excited to welcome you to Richmond this fall! The 2025 VLA Conference is centered on one powerful idea: rising—together. Whether we’re rising to meet new challenges, lifting up emerging voices, or simply holding each other up through connection and community, this conference is your invitation to grow, reflect, and celebrate all that libraries make possible.

With the thoughtful leadership of Conference Chair Kathy Bradshaw (VCU) and the creativity and care of our Conference Committee, this year’s event promises to be one of our best yet. We’re thrilled to offer an energizing lineup of speakers (the kind who make you want to scribble in the margins and rethink everything), engaging sessions, and plenty of space for joy, rest, and reconnection.

We also want to give a warm thank-you to our new partner, Jordan at Eisenman Associates, our Conference Planning Agency. In my community, when someone gives birth, we say, it takes a village. Planning this conference—our biggest annual gathering—has been a labor of love, and stepping into new territory meant gratefully accepting all the help we could get. This village showed up.

To help make the most of your time:
• Bring your energy and openness—your presence matters.
• Dress in layers—you never know what conference room climates will bring.
• Pack your go-to snacks—no one rises on an empty stomach.
• Make space to recharge—take time to breathe, reflect, and connect.

Don’t miss our Poster Session and Welcome Reception on Wednesday night—an early opportunity to connect, share ideas, and kick off the conference with great company.

This is your moment. Your voice, your ideas, and your energy are what make this community so powerful.

With libraries, we all rise—and I can’t wait to rise with you.

See you soon in Richmond,
Vivian F. Washington
President, Virginia Library Association

A Message from 2025 Conference Chair Kathy Bradshaw

A warm welcome to conference attendees and guests to the City of Richmond, Virginia.  Thank you to the city for hosting the 2025 Virginia Libraries Association annual conference.   Our theme this year is “With Libraries, All Rise.” This theme speaks directly to the crucial work the library employees do in educating our various constituencies and working with communities to provide access to  knowledge.  No matter the type of library where you work, or your role within your library, there is something at this conference for you.   We have more than 50 sessions that provide  learning opportunities that will allow you to return to your workplace and share new things that can benefit your colleagues, patrons and users.  

I know you will be excited to hear our keynote speaker, Mychal Threets, who will share his story as a former public librarian and share “real talk” about the importance of public libraries.  We are also fortunate to have a screening of “The Librarians” , an important documentary about book banning, censorship and intellectual freedom, starring those librarians actually involved in these battles.  A huge thank you to The Library of Virginia for providing the funding for this event!

Finally, we will have Dr. Mary Finley-Brook, professor of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Richmond as a closing speaker to talk about her work, which aligns with the work being done by the Sustainable Libraries Initiative.  

The annual VLA conference is a perfect opportunity to recharge and energize your professional interests, reconnect with colleagues and meet new friends.  The last few years have not been easy for many libraries and many library employees, whose goal is to ensure that our communities have the access to information they want and need.  Please take this conference time to talk with those within our profession as a reminder of the importance of doing what we do.  Library employees don’t all have to have the same viewpoint, and that is okay.  What is important is that we maintain the ability to have respectful and civil discussions with each other, even if we don’t agree about how to best serve the people who need us.   

A successful conference requires the work of many, so I would like to thank (in no specific order) the committees, exhibitors, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication to this conference but also the profession.  The hard work you have done to put together this conference did not go unnoticed, and we salute you all.

I look forward to meeting as many of you in person as possible.  Remember, “With Libraries, All Rise.”

Kind regards,
Kathy Bradshaw