Join us for WAPL 2026
Keynote Announcement!
 Kris Turner is the Associate Director of Public Services at the University of Wisconsin Law Library, where he oversees the reference and circulation departments, as well as the development of the Law Library’s website and digital repository. He also teaches Legal Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Law Practice and co-teaches Advanced Legal Research, which were selected as a Bloomberg Law finalist for Law School Innovation in 2024. Kris was also selected as a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2025.
Kris has served as the Presidents of the Wisconsin Library Association, the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin, and a number of committee and programming roles for the American Association of Law Libraries. He has written articles focused on GenAI, library outreach, the law of libraries, space and contracts law, and leadership transitions. Before joining UW Law, he worked at Madison Public Library and the Forest Products Laboratory Library.
Bobbi L. Newman MLIS, MA, (she/her) is an author, speaker, consultant, and educator specializing in workplace well-being. She is an Associate Professor of Practice, where she teaches future librarians and leaders. As a consultant she helps organizations create healthier, more equitable work environments. Bobbi is also the founder of ThriveLib, a virtual conference dedicated to advancing the well-being of library staff across the profession.
Debby Waldman is a journalist, book reviewer, and author. Her children’s books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Russian, and have been named to best-of lists by Bank Street College of Education and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Her picture books A Sack Full of Feathersand Clever Rachel are PJ Librarybooks. Clever Rachel was also adapted into a play and is available in script form.
An ex-pat American, Debby has lived in Edmonton, Canada, since 1992, freelancing for media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Parents,Reader’s Digest Canada,Wired,NBC, The Bittman Project,Kaiser Health News, U.S News & World Report, andtheEdmonton Journal, where she was a columnist for five years. She writes about a wide range of topics including mental health and culture on Substack.
Debby has also co-written two books for parents of children with hearing loss. She works part time in a writing center at the University of Alberta.
Lindsay Starck was born in Wisconsin and raised in the Milwaukee Public Library. She is the author of the novels Noah's Wife (2016) and Monsters We Have Made (2023), a finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards and winner of the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards. Her short prose has appeared in Ploughshares, AGNI, and the Southern Review, among other places; her story “Baikal,” published in the New England Review, won a Pushcart Prize. She currently writes and teaches in Minneapolis, where she lives with her husband, her daughter, and her cattle dog.
Registration
Coming soon!
Event Policies & Code of Conduct
Event Policies
Code of Conduct
Program Schedule
Keynote Speakers
Conference App
 We have chosen the Results @ Hand app for our conference technology needs. Registered attendees will be able to download the Results @ Hand app or access the app from their smartphone, tablet, or PC web browser.
The app will feature our entire conference agenda, speaker handouts, venue maps, community message boards, sponsor information, and tools to interact with other attendees. Conference attendees will receive additional instructions about how to download the conference app via email a few weeks before the event.
Hotel Information
Special Events
Thank you to our sponsors!
Sponsorship Opportunities
We anticipate two hundred attendees representing a mix of decision-makers including directors, assistant directors, librarians, and library staff working across a wide range of areas including programming, youth services, outreach, reference, and more. Your support for this conference at any level will receive the attention of library professionals and a direct link to those with purchasing power.
Don’t see the opportunity you’re looking for? Contact WLA Executive Director Kara Sullivan at [email protected] to discuss additional options.
Learn more about sponsorship opportunities here
Spon
sor & Adv
Conference Committee
Roxanne Staveness - Chair
Nanette Bulebosh - Local Arrangements
Amy Mitchell - Promotions
Jenny Sessions - Technology
Sara Klemann - Programming
Elizabeth Timmons - Registration
Amy Waldman - Programming
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