LAKEPORT – Susan Clayton, deputy county librarian, library technician Jan Cook and Anne Shirako, library assistant – all employees of the Lake County Library – attended the Association for Rural and Small Libraries annual conference in Sacramento in September.

The three women represented Lake County as three of more than 250 participants from all over the country.

California representatives were able to attend the event thanks to partial scholarships provided by the California State Library.

Participants from 32 states and Canada came together for this national conference to discuss challenges, strategies and opportunities for the future of libraries in rural communities. They attended sessions on library management, technology in the library and library marketing.

“We were happy to be able to assist Lake County Library staff to attend this terrific conference, which was held in California for the first time,” said California State Librarian Susan Hildreth.

A goal of the conference is to provide “hands-on” information and ideas that can be taken home and implemented quickly with little or no cost to the library.

“It was a tremendous opportunity to get to attend this conference aimed specifically at small and rural libraries,” said Susan Clayton of the Lake County Library staff. “We learned a great many things that will help us inform the public about library services.”

Next year’s conference will be held in Gatlinburg, Tenn., Sept. 11 through 13, 2009.

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