Legislative librarians at the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library are fortunate to have colleagues in most of the fifty states. Recently, two Minnesota library staff were able to visit other legislative libraries on trips eastward. I visited Evelyn Andrews, Senate Librarian, at the beautiful Senate Library in Pennsylvania in October.
In June, Minnesota legislative librarian, Alyssa Novak Jones, stopped in at the North Carolina General Assembly Library. Alyssa met with Cathy Martin, the chief librarian, and her staff.
We occasionally get to meet fellow legislative librarians in-person at National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) professional development seminars or legislative summits, but our primary contact is electronically through NCSL's Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section listserv.
Last summer, Minnesota hosted legislative librarians from around the United States as part of NCSL's 2014 Legislative Summit. We didn't want our colleagues who could not attend to miss out so we shared our experiences through a blog. Minnesota librarians also wrote a blog for our legislative librarian colleagues when we hosted the Legislative Research Librarians professional development seminar in St. Paul in 2009. Our electronic and personal connections with our legislative librarian colleagues are always informative--and often fun!