We are pleased to announce that applications are now open to exhibit at the SLA Conference 2026. The exhibition is a key part of the SLA annual conference and a lively meeting place for school librarians, publishers, library suppliers and service providers. For librarians, it's the place to get stock inspiration from forthcoming titles or a great deal on new software, furniture or services; and for exhibitors it's a chance to speak directly with customers and gain valuable feedback.
We spoke to Naomi Weeks, Marketing Manager at b small publishing about a transformative moment for the company, which came as a result of school librarian feedback at an SLA conference. Read on to find out how an unexpected comment positively impacted on b small's publishing practice:
As a very tiny publisher, the impact of attending the SLA conference is very worthwhile. Not only does the conference give us a platform to reach teachers and librarians who haven’t heard of us before, but it is also a fantastic place to gather feedback from those who use our books in schools – and sometimes that feedback is unexpected!
At b small, our mission is based around non-fiction and language learning titles that encourage children to discover the joy of learning. Our range has been designed, overseen by our superstar Creative Director Vicky Barker, to be fun, colourful, readable, and above all, child-first, with primary school-aged kids in mind.
That was why, when at my first SLA conference in 2024, I was taken aback when a secondary school librarian told me that they use one of our titles – our award-winning Real-Life Mysteries – in their Year 8 lessons. The librarian told me that she chose the spread about the missing lighthouse men for a project in Year 8 – and had picked this particular mystery because there are so many fascinating clues. Her pupils made their own dossiers, based on the book, and did their own independent research to take their project further.
This particular title is so jam-packed with fascinating details that perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised – as an adult I love this book, and the clever design means readers examine evidence like a real investigator would, which is part of the reason the book has been so popular. In 2018 the book won the Blue Peter Book Award for Best book with Facts, and it still continues to be our most popular title to this day.
What was fascinating for me, when speaking to this librarian, was learning HOW the book was being used in schools and libraries. As publishers, this is outside our expertise and although for many books we do consult educators either as part of the content creation or the review process, we rarely get a glimpse of how books are actually used. Getting feedback from the ‘front lines’ so to speak, is incredibly valuable to us as it can help us get a clearer idea of who is using our products, and how they use them – which in turn informs what we create and how we go about it.
This year, we published our new non-fiction readers, which follow on from Real-Life Mysteries: Tales of Scary Beasts and Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings. Our original aim for this series was for it to appeal to slightly older readers and be a more comprehensive read than the original book. When I reported back to my team about the response I’d had from secondary school librarian at the conference, we started to think more about these two new titles in a secondary school scenario, and how well they could work if we shifted our marketing focus more widely to include secondary schools as well.
Feedback like this from the SLA has meant that our idea of our market has shifted, and has also helped me, as the marketing manager, think more laterally about how our books could be used. As this year’s SLA conference, I asked delegates who came up to my stand if they were primary or secondary based, and if the latter, would direct them to books that we realised would be excellent resources for secondary too. As well as the three books I’ve already mentioned, EUREK-HER: Stories of Inspirational Women in STEM and How Does a Lighthouse Work were popular with secondary educators and many librarians were happy to share how the books were used in projects.
If you’ve made it this far, I hope I’ve convinced you how valuable librarian feedback is to us – and would ask that if you do use any of our books in your library or classrooms to please let us know! You can get in touch with b small on social media or via [email protected].
Complete an application form to exhibit at our 2026 conference now and be a part of this flagship event for school librarians across the UK, and to highlight the support, goods and services you offer to the school library sector.
Calling all publishers: submissions are also open for authors to speak at the conference. Taking place in the middle of the National Year of Reading this is an excellent opportunity for your authors to be involved in an important conversation about the future of reading for pleasure. Submit a pitch.