At MLA’18, I had the privilege of attending the poster sessions as a presenter of a poster and as an attendee. From my experiences, I found that the posters this year were a testament to the impressive high level, timely, and diverse research done by medical librarians.
Entering the poster gallery, I was immediately struck by the incredible number of posters on display from all over the world. Reading all of the posters could be overwhelming, so I took a tip from a fellow attendee and took pictures of all of the posters I wanted to spend more time processing, with the intention of looking up the poster information on the MLA’18 website later.
As a poster presenter in the Sunday afternoon session, I got to connect with colleagues who were interested in my research topic. These informal conversations were a great time to talk to others with a similar interest, who may have researched or thought about the topic before, and who had suggestions on where to take my research next. As an attendee at the two other poster presentation sessions, the tables were turned and I got to speak to the researchers of the projects that caught my eye during my walk-throughs. This provided a moment to ask further questions about projects, to think critically about the application of poster topics to my work environment, and to express my appreciation for the research done by colleagues.
Addressing topics from instructional research to cross-disciplinary collaboration, the poster sessions were a place to learn about the latest trends in medical librarianship, and perhaps forge connections for future research opportunities.
