This issue is traditionally the Conference Issue, and we asked you to engage—critically—with the theme of the WLA annual meeting: "Communities, Conversations, Connections." We asked you to think about how library associations promote critical conversations among individual library staff and library organizations, the role a library association plays in defining library values, and to think on what the critical conversations are that your libraries are having.
You are in for a treat. The theme of critical conversation weaves in and out of articles about staff equity, nonhierarchical mentoring, Black History Month programming, switching between library types, the revisions of an information literacy curriculum, an African American Read-In, and more.
Cover attribution: Art by Mary Dempsey. Mary B. Dempsey is a Library Technical Assistant with the King County Library System. A 2019 MLIS graduate from the University of Washington, she loves being creative at the library—including creating this watercolor and ink entry to the staff library card design contest "Building Meaningful Connections" (she didn't win, but it was fun!). In her spare time Mary recommends true crime podcasts to unsuspecting store clerks and reads queer graphic novels with her wife. currently the Vice Chair of the Public Library Division of WLA.
