A guest post by Veronica Andrade, Seguimos Creando Enlaces Project Coordinator
The 12th Seguimos Creando Enlaces (We Continue Creating Connections) Binational Library Conference was back and bigger than ever, welcoming around 200 attendees across 2 days of learning, with the first day of the event held at the University of San Diego Copley Library on Thursday, March 13, 2025 followed by a second day of programming at the University Iberoamericana Tijuana’s Loyola Library on Friday, March 14, 2025. Conference registration, as well as round-trip charter bus transportation from San Diego to Ibero Tijuana, was free for attendees.
Established in 2012 and now sponsored by California Libraries Learn (CALL), Creando is a free conference that invites library & literacy professionals from both sides of the U.S.-México border to come together and share best practices for providing inclusive and culturally-diverse services in public, academic and special libraries or within their communities. Conference sessions are proudly presented in both English & Spanish with live interpretation.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Unidos en la Diversidad: Embracing all Voices”. Both days opened with a keynote presentation by Dr. Regina Gong, inaugural Assoc. Dean for Student Success and Strategic Initiatives at USD Copley Library. Award-winning local Chicana author & co-owner of Tolteca Press, Beatrice “Bea” Zamora, also presented as a Featured Community Speaker. Post-conference in the Barrio Logan neighborhood, two evening social mixers were hosted by staff at Chicano Park Museum & Cultural Center and by REFORMA San Diego chapter LIBROS at nearby Mujeres Brew House.
Conference sessions on a variety of topics were offered on both days by presenters based not only in San Diego or border-adjacent regions but a wide range across both countries, including Oregon, Ohio, Florida, Maryland, Jalisco & Mexico City. Live bilingual interpretation of presentations was provided by CIT Agency, a longtime partner of Creando.
Creando 2025 Attendee Feedback:
– I love that it’s a safe place for librarians to come together and share resources.
– Las ubicaciones estuvieron super. Los talleres y presentadores fueron genial!
(The locations were great. The workshops and presenters were brilliant!)
– I loved being able to visit a new space in Tijuana. The experience was something I had never engaged in and it was amazing.
– I loved that presentations were both in English and in Spanish with amazing real-time translators for those attendees that spoke one language or the other. That just shows how inclusive we library workers strive to be even with each other!
– I loved the community of latine library workers. It’s nice to have a space where I feel seen and heard.
The Creando conference is made possible through the voluntary efforts of a small but dedicated remote Planning Committee of library professionals from both California & México. Guided by CALL Project Coordinators Veronica Andrade & Maddy Walton-Hadlock, as well as Creando co-founders Adriana “Ady” Huertas & Patrick Sullivan, the 2024-25 committee included: Christina Lorenzo, Essy Barroso-Ramirez, Eric Castro, Laura Kirkland, Lizette Guerra, Mayra Turchiano, María Guadalupe Venteño Jaramillo, Manuela “Nelly” Cantú Mendívil and Serena Makofsky.
The Planning Committee wishes to extend their thanks to conference partners for their participation & contributions to this event: USD Copley Library staff, CPMCC staff, CIT Agency, Loyola Library and Ibero Tijuana staff & students, Asociación Mexicana de Bibliotecarios (AMBAC), Juguemos A Leer de Tijuana, San Diego LIBROS, San Diego Public Library and San Diego County Library.
