The New Mexico State Library has announced a range of professional development opportunities for library staff and managers throughout October 2025. The calendar, hosted by the Maine State Library, features national events and trainings relevant to the library profession.
Highlights include conferences such as the School Library Journal Day of Dialog on October 9, which will feature author panels and discussions on forthcoming titles for young readers. Registration is free and open to all interested participants. More information can be found at https://www.slj.com/section/events?eventtype=virtualEvents.
Another major event is the NextGen Virtual Summit: Powering Your Career with Skills and Collaboration, scheduled for October 22. This summit offers keynotes and breakout sessions focused on career development in government and related sectors. Details are available at https://www.govloop.com/training/.
The calendar organizes programs by topic, covering areas such as accessibility, advocacy, assessment, planning, board management, staff careers, services for children and teens, collection development, communication strategies, change management, digital resources, fundraising techniques, legal issues affecting libraries, programming ideas, readers’ advisory services, reference skills enhancement, school library topics, technology trends in libraries, training methods for diverse learning needs, and volunteer engagement.
Several webinars address accessibility in libraries. For example:
- On October 1: A pre-application webinar for Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities.
- On October 9: Programming for Inclusion focuses on disability outreach.
- On October 23: A panel discusses building accessible LibGuides in line with ADA updates.
Career-focused sessions include topics such as emotional intelligence at work (October 1), imposter syndrome in librarianship (October 14), achieving work-life balance (October 23), supporting librarian job success (October 29), and well-being strategies (October 29).
Programs supporting children and teens are also featured. These include creative writing workshops (October 23) offered through ALA eLearning—more details at https://www.ala.org/alsc/elearning/webinararchive—and a series addressing teen services throughout the month.
In collection development and management areas:
- Booklist hosts webinars like “Fall in Love with Series Nonfiction” on October 7.
- Management sessions focus on leading teams effectively (October 8) and identifying harmful workplace communication styles (October 14).
For those interested in technology’s role in libraries:
- Sessions cover social media use as an information tool (October 1), practical AI tools for libraries (October 7), website security concerns (October 8), AI literacy for librarians (October 8), stress reduction through effective social media practices (October 14), getting started with AI in teams (October 20), and navigating changes in educational technology leadership (October 22).
At Your Leisure offerings provide additional recorded content. Notably:
- An Accessibility Policy roundtable discussion with publishing industry representatives will be held March 24 via the Library Accessibility Alliance.
- WebJunction presents a session on embracing neurodiversity to support inclusive workplaces.
The NMSL Professional Development Academy continues to expand its offerings through Niche Academy—a platform providing recorded trainings on topics like basic librarianship skills and community relations. In September new tutorials were added including foundational training developed by Idaho Commission for Libraries using IMLS grant funding; these LiFT courses will eventually replace ABLE courses previously used by many public libraries.
Wellness-focused tutorials address burnout among public library staff from various perspectives including trauma-informed approaches and materials challenges. Access to these resources is free to New Mexico public library managers and staff via NMSL’s subscription but may require an account or approval; further information is available from Ada Negraru at ada.negraru@dca.nm.gov.
In recognition of American Archives Month this October—the Read This Next! section recommends five titles from the Archival Fundamentals series published by the Society of American Archivists. These works have been recently added to the New Mexico Archives and Archivists Special Interest Group collection with support from the New Mexico Library Association.
Further reading suggestions can be found via NMSL’s updated list of newly acquired library science books at their LibGuides portal or directly through New Mexico Reads: https://nmreads.boundless.baker-taylor.com/ng/view/library.
