This page will be updated as additional information becomes available. It is informed by needs and hopes shared by members of the LAC community. Please contact laconf@arl.org with suggestions, requests, questions, or concerns.

LAC 2024 attendees are invited to co-create a community of care to support the individual and collective needs of the group at the conference.

Artist Deanna Zandt describes Community Care as “workarounds for systems that don’t inherently support care.” A community of care is an extension of self-care to remove the burden of navigating problematic systems and harmful cultural norms from the individual. ARL staff and the LAC planning group recognize that facilitating a community of care is one solution for harm reduction and that there is more work to be done in order to truly disrupt, change, and eliminate systems that perpetuate inequity.

Below is a non-comprehensive list of ways we hope to build and advance a community of care at LAC 2024.

• Fragrance-Free: Attendees with allergies or sensitivities may have immediate reactions to overpowering fragrances. This guide from UCLA can help you decide how to practice being fragrance-free at LAC 2024.
• Respect Boundaries: Attendees are responsible for clarifying their own and respecting their peers’ physical, mental, and emotional boundaries. This can look like standing 6 feet/2 meters away from someone while chatting during a transition period, using someone's listed pronouns, and not talking about sensitive subjects to a colleague who expressed their disinterest.
• Keep Floor Space Clear: Keep common area and session floor space clear and free of clutter (e.g., trip hazards, sharp objects) to eliminate the risk of falling or injury for conference attendees, including service animals. This will also assist in decreasing barriers for attendees when transitioning between conference spaces in the limited time provided in the schedule.
• Uphold the ARL Code of Conduct: ARL staff and volunteers will be trained on the implementation of the ARL Code of Conduct—to which all attendees acknowledge and sign during registration—with the aim of ensuring LAC operates in support of and alignment with the vision, mission, and values of ARL. LAC strives to be a space that encourages critical conversations and civic dialogue without compromising physical or psychological safety.
• Quiet Space: A Quiet Space will be offered in the conference hotel. The space is designed to be used as needed to engage in forms of introspection (e.g., reflection, prayer, etc.) and/or to individually process the information from the conference.
• Sensory Station:  LAC will provide grab-and-go tactile experiences for attendees at a Sensory Bar to support individual sensory processing needs.

We are grateful for the passion, investment, and engagement by many parties aimed at enhancing the LAC 2024 experience. In addition to the many volunteers supporting the planning efforts, ARL has recently partnered with organizations to discuss the reasoning behind how we make decisions for our events and to explore opportunities to increase accessibility and transparency for attendees and the broader community.

Ideally, LAC planning efforts would not be limited by financial constraints, particularly related to providing equitable access to attendees; unfortunately, this is not our current reality. While the planning process actively seeks ways to center equity, there are limitations within the process that result in barriers that have disproportionate impact on different communities. With the goal of increased transparency, we offer the following information:

• LAC 2024 is not a revenue generating event for ARL or the University of Washington Libraries; rather, the conference requires an investment (i.e., operates at a deficit) and is made possible, in part, by sponsors.
• Due to the size of the event (up to 400 attendees), LAC is not able to operate in convention centers. In selecting a venue, ARL strives to maximize the benefits of the selection with numerous considerations to participant experience. This also means that many factors are intertwined—so shifting one means impacting all the others.
  • The amount of space reserved, the amount of food & beverage ordered, the number of hotel rooms held for and ultimately used by attendees, the registration rates, and more are all interconnected. 
  • Often, efforts to increase equity in one area create new barriers and/or result in overall decreased access for potential attendees.
  • For those that are able, staying in the conference hotel greatly helps ARL with our financial commitments.
• Given this context, we determined we were not in a position to provide a full virtual track or hybrid option for 2024. We determined that we can cover the cost of recording the keynote plenary sessions and working through the details of operationalizing how we will disseminate the recordings. We remain open to exploring options for 2026.
• While LAC is open to all, the target audience includes the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums communities within Canada and the United States.

Notwithstanding these, and other, limitations, ARL and the University of Washington Libraries remains committed to centering equity. We remain open to feedback and criticism and thankful for your grace and understanding. We are appreciative of your trust to build this experience together as a community—a community of care.

The process is meant to be inclusion based, not compliance based. While registering, you will be asked what, if any, accommodations requests are needed for you to fully participate at the conference. ARL created this question as an open field for two primary reasons. First, we do not want to limit, other, or stigmatize the needs of someone who might not find an accommodation they need on a list provided by ARL; second, we are unable to guarantee the ability to meet all accommodations based on our resources and capacity. By providing an open box, we are able to provide more tailored support/responses to each individual who asks for accommodations while making more effective and efficient use of the limited resources available by avoiding paying for things that are not requested.

We recognize that this decision has implications—in particular that it increases the burden of participants with disabilities to articulate the accommodations they request without certainty of whether or not the request will be met. All accommodation requests are reviewed and considered by the 4-person LAC leadership planning team:

• Jackie Belanger | co-chair, University of Washington
• Jaymey Butler | director, Events
• Angela Pappalardo | senior program manager, Information and Services
• Nancy Turner | co-chair, Temple University

Please note that we may not be able to meet all requests or the needs of all conference attendees. We will provide updates regarding requests that cannot be accommodated and explore potential alternatives.

• All attendee materials will be distributed in an accessible format through the event app.
• Regular wellness and networking breaks are built in throughout the program.
• All-gender restrooms are available at the event venue.
• Facilities for nursing parents will be made available at the event venue when requested.
• All speakers and audience members asking questions are expected to use microphones.
• Accommodations for dietary needs are available; please indicate your dietary needs on your conference registration.

To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact laconf@arl.org.

LAC will provide 2024 Presenters with support and information to prepare that will include information about how to create accessible materials and how to engage participants in inclusive ways during their sessions. 

All LAC 2024 event experiences will take place at the conference venue.

The hotel venue is compliant with local accessibility regulations and accessible rooms are available upon request. Please visit the hotel website (Hotel Info page) for more information, and explore the maps below.

• Portland Hilton Event Space Floor Plan