Building Acceptance and Community at PLA 2026

My name is Lana Sweeting, and I was lucky enough to be selected for a 2026 PLA scholarship. I serve as an Adult Reference Librarian in Portland, Oregon, where much of my work focuses on serving the Black community through programming, collections, and outreach.

While there were many sessions that were relevant and helpful to my everyday work, two in particular invigorated my work as a public librarian.

First, I felt very drawn to the session “Every Story Matters, Every Body Belongs: Fat Inclusive Libraries.” The presenter, Amelia Mason, was absolutely wonderful and very knowledgeable on the subject. I was locked in from the very first slide, which simply said, “I Am Fat.” The honest and positive energy went up from there.

Along with sharing quantitative data, Amelia discussed myths surrounding fatness, as well as history, race, fat acceptance and neutrality, and how these issues apply to library spaces and other spaces we regularly occupy. For example, Amelia noted that PLA shirts on the website only went up to size 3XL.

After the session, I felt informed and inspired to take this information back to Multnomah County Library. The session included a resource booklist that inspired me to create a booklist and display for my own library and begin conversations around diversity audits of our catalog so we can make relevant materials more accessible. This is just the beginning of a very important discussion around fatness in libraries and how we can all do better.

The second session that truly inspired me was “Black Men in Libraries: Our History, Our Heroes, and Our Horizon.” Moderated by Karlos Marshall, the panel featured Kelvin Watson, Richard Ashby, Omar Chapman, and Paul Bazile. Each panelist shared his story and offered advice on navigating coworkers and workplaces that may not be as welcoming as they should be. They answered questions about their struggles, their wins, and how we can move forward in a profession that does not have many Black men, or Black women, among its ranks.

As a Black woman, I spent a lot of time in this session reflecting on my own experiences. The energy in the room felt supportive and reflective. Panelists encouraged librarians of color to be themselves. “We can’t change everybody’s mind, but you can keep your mind strong” is a sentence that will stick with me for a long time.

By the end of the session, I felt beyond inspired to keep doing my best and staying true to my own experience.

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