Event schedule

Ask Me Anything: Working with Art and Cartoons

This free event will be offered in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) format. Your opportunity to learn what it is like to work with visual collections! Have you wondered what it is like to feature comic strips, or the best way to present art? Curious about the resources available to support art and design research? Learn about two unique Ohio libraries, the Jessica R. Gund Memorial Library and The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum from two of their librarians! Join us for this fun event and bring your questions. Conference registration not required.

Register for AMA Event

Virtual Help Desk

Staffed: 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Conference Planning Committee members are available to answer your questions.

Email Help Desk

Business Meeting

Academic Library Association of Ohio's annual membership meeting. Join us and hear about annual updates and strategic initiatives for ALAO.

Preconference: Loving thy Neighbor: Creating Coalitions and Deconstructing Vocational Awe

Librarianship is a service profession. It is considered one of the Core Values of Librarianship as well as being in the American Library Association’s Code of Ethics (ALA 2016). The ability to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (King James Bible 1769/2019) therefore, is seen as one of the most, if not the most, important traits a librarian can have. According to Deborah Hicks, the professional identity of a librarian “transcends other non-professional identities, such as one’s gender or race identity...” (2016). Taken to its extreme, this means that the ideal librarian is one whose other identities are subsumed by the “noble calling” of library work to the exclusion, and even detriment, of anything else. This, along with the problematic rhetoric of “do what you love” (Tokumitsu 2015), enables the exploitation of librarians as workers by eliminating the distinction between personal and professional identities. When there is immense resistance to merely acknowledging flaws in our professional values and practice, how can we work towards meaningful change?

In this workshop, we will learn about vocational awe, how it impacts the work-life balance of library workers, and how to deconstruct it so that we can all truly learn how to love ourselves as much as our neighbor.

ALAO New Member Orientation Session

Do you have questions about how ALAO works or the benefits of ALAO membership? Then this is the session for you. Join ALAO’s Membership Chair, Maureen Barry, to learn more about the organization and meet other newer members from across the state.

Virtual Help Desk

Staffed: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Conference Planning Committee members are available to answer your questions.

Email Help Desk

Opening Keynote: What is at work in our library work?

What are we hoping to accomplish with our work in libraries? What goals are we all working towards? In the words of Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Wang from their introduction to the book, Toward What Justice? Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education, “what is at work in all of this work? What does this work care about? What animates and compels this work? What does this work believe about itself and others?”. I will explore these questions within the context of our work in libraries, why it's crucial for us to understand what is at work within libraries, and where we might go from there.

Links

• we here
• up//root
• LibVoices
• Librarians of Color, Los Angeles
• WOC + LIB
• The Blackivists
• Loss/Capture
• Black Excellence in LIS Syllabus
• The Nomadic Archivists Project (NAP)
• The Black Music History Library
• #FixMyLibrary podcast
• The International Indigenous Librarians Forum (IIlF)
• Project Stand
• Black Librarians
• The Free Black Women’s Library
• Ethnic Librarians and Staff
• Hijabi Librarians
• South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
• Libraries For All STL

Donate

• Haitian Bridge Alliance

Connecting Instructors with Resources: The Trials and Triumphs of Creating an Instructor Resources Site

In this presentation, we will outline our efforts to create a centralized site where instructors from across our university can access learning resources developed in the library. Librarians and library staff have created many types of learning resources, including videos, tutorials, and Canvas modules, but there was not a single location where instructors could go to access these resources. Although developing an instructor resources site appeared a simple task on the surface, we discovered that it required a significant amount of time, effort, and planning and that we had to demonstrate patience, flexibility, and persistence. We will include discussion of some of the stumbling blocks that we encountered and how we moved beyond them. We will highlight key questions that anyone who is considering developing a similar resource will need to consider, share our main takeaways from the journey, and provide a planning document that others can use to get started with a similar process. Participants will leave the presentation with an understanding of challenges they might face if they begin a similar project, but also with concrete steps they can take to get started and resources that can guide them along the way.

Keywords: resource repository; information literacy; outreach; affordability; student support

Audience/Interest Groups: Digital Libraries; Instruction; Programming, Outreach, and Marketing

What Else Could Happen?: Disaster Planning and Recovery in the Age of COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has had many negative impacts on our institutions, including budget cuts, staff reductions, and doing even more with less. Therefore, one of the furthest things from everyone’s mind is probably updating disaster plans and preparing for disasters affecting collections, equipment, and services. However, if you think nothing else could happen this year, think again. This session will describe a major flood that occurred recently at a large academic archival repository that affected hundreds of historic volumes and boxes of archival materials. It will demonstrate how the pandemic exacerbated the flood by delaying response times and hampering recovery efforts. From discovery of the disaster being postponed due to working remotely, to delayed response time due to outdated plans and reduction in force, to frozen budgets that precluded us from purchasing additional disaster supplies, this session will show just what can go wrong and how it can be made worse by the pandemic. It will also demonstrate what you should be prepared for and will express the importance of having plans updated and contingency plans in place to be prepared in the age of COVID for when, not if, a disaster strikes, and what to do when it does.

Keywords: Disasters; disaster planning, response, and recovery; archives and special collections; COVID-19

Audience/Interest Groups: Collection Managment; Special Collections and Archives; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Tackling Racism One Book at A Time: The First & Second Chapter

During the summer of 2020, a book club was organized by an academic library to address the issue of systemic racism and the role it plays in our daily lives. The purpose of this presentation not only will be to highlight this event but also teach other librarians and library directors how to set up a book club that addresses the issue of systemic racism, which books would be appropriate for such a book club, what intrinsic qualities a moderator should have to manage a successful book club on this topic and what outcomes can be expected from a successful book club.

Keywords: anti-racism, book club, dialogue and systemic racism.

Audience/Interest Groups: Assessment; Community & Two-Year Colleges; Programming, Outreach, and Marketing; Support Staff; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Creating an Individualized Patron Dashboard using Existing Data Sources

Libraries have long sought to provide individualized information to their users online. However, the technological and upkeep barriers have been significant challenges. With library vendors and campus service providers offering APIs for many services, we are able to rely more on already existing services to manage and supply the relevant data. Using patron data from our university registrar and campus authentication system, we can identify subjects relevant to a user’s courses and majors to build a customized dashboard of information relevant to the user. The dashboard includes tabs for each major or course subject showing liaison librarians, databases, and research guides, as well as key circulation data (e.g. current checkouts, holds, and fines) for the user. By building on multiple external data sources, we aim to improve access to information without adding substantial new management burdens for library staff. This presentation will share the tools we used to create the dashboard as well as code that could be adapted for use at other libraries.

Keywords: personalized services, LibGuides, web services

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction; Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services

Lunch

Lunch on your own

ALAO Awards Presentation at 12:30pm

This session will announce the awardees for ALAO's service awards and grant recipients. See the Awards page for information about the awards. Winners will be posted on the page after they are announced.

Cataloging as civic engagement: Providing inclusive local subject alternatives to offensive headings

In 2016 the Library of Congress was unable to officially change the subject headings for 'aliens' and 'illegal aliens' to 'non-citizens' and 'undocumented immigrants.' Many libraries reacted to this event by replacing these subject headings locally. Such a project requires careful consideration of alternatives, logistics, possible complications, as well as gaining the support of the library administration. In addition, working on consistency with other institutions within a consortium is of great importance. This presentation will describe in detail one such undertaking that used 'illegal aliens' as the initial example but moved even further to include inclusive terms for other populations. This presentation will include a step-by-step workflow for adding local subjects, as well as a table of alternative headings. It will also include suggestions for outreach to various populations on campus to help review subjects dealing with race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Keywords: Cataloging, accessibility, subject headings, cataloging workflows, inclusive cataloging, access points

Audience/Interest Groups: Assessment; Programming, Outreach, and Marketing; Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Thriving Through Human Centered Approaches to Change

Can you think of a time when you have thrived through change? What made that possible? How did the change effort center on organizational values and engage those impacted? Most traditional change management practices focus on process and implementation over listening, compassion, and healing. By using human-centered change leadership approaches, we will explore ways to align change efforts with organizational values. We will identify factors that can lead to a change that harness the strengths of the team, while also make space for voices to be heard. Together, participants will consider how the Bridges’ Transition Model enables effective and compassionate communication through change and how the Appreciative Inquiry approach can lead to empowering colleagues in order to build engagement and a shared vision for outcomes. Whether leading change, collaborating towards it, or affected by it, these tools will create space to name concerns while shifting to a solutions-oriented frame in order to gain momentum towards sustainable change. Session participants will: Understand the basic components of human-centered change Gain awareness of tools to facilitate engaged change leadership Deepen their understanding of how to communicate effectively and compassionately during change efforts

Keywords: Change Management, Change Readiness, Team work, Human-Centered, Leadership, Facilitation

Audience/Interest Groups: Assessment; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Lightning Talks #1

This session focuses on sustainability and connection in academic libraries and consists of four short talks followed by a live Q&A:

Keywords: geolocation, map-based interfaces, user interfaces, digital collections, community service, problem solving, archives, collection development, leaflet.js, python, PDF, geoJSON, informal learning, outreach, maker culture, Information literacy instruction, embedded librarianship, instructor-librarian collaborations, inquiry-based learning, text-analysis, Crisis Management Training, Professional Development, Mental Health, Staff Development, Staff Burnout

Audience/Interest Groups: Programming, Outreach, and Marketing; Digital Libraries; Community & Two-Year Colleges; Assessment; Instruction; Special Collections and Archives; Sustainability; Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services; Support Staff; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

I Like the Way You Did That! Collaborative Chat Review for Continuous Assessment & Improvement

Studying the work of others can spark new ideas and help us improve our own work; we believe this especially true of reviewing colleagues’ chat reference transcripts. We have long incorporated chat transcript review in staff training and development, but recently developed a meaningful, collaborative plan involving all chat providers. In Fall 2020, as part of a departmental strategic initiative, we drafted a Plan for Continuous Review & Improvement of Chat Reference Services: Moving Toward a Departmental Culture of Assessment and Continuous Improvement; we implemented the plan in Spring 2021. It was important that the initiative be a collaborate exercise to assess and improve our chat reference service and not an evaluative measure. The plan outlines objectives and sets specific, measurable goals for all individuals involved. It also features quarterly professional development activities based on what we’ve learned from others. Following the pilot semester, we will solicit feedback from all participants and adjust as needed. Our presentation will review the components of the plan, share input received from participants, and discuss adjustments made for fall 2021. Following the presentation, we will engage the audience with a transcript review activity and encourage reflection for use at their institutions.

Keywords: Chat Reference, Chat Transcript Review, Professional Development

Audience/Interest Groups: Assessment; Community & Two-Year Colleges; Digital Libraries

Data-Driven Research to Connect the Academic Library to Institutional Priorities and Enhance User Experience

Academic Libraries face many competing priorities within their own operations and among larger institutional goals. Therefore, library leadership must create defensible, data-driven planning strategies to create stronger connections between the library and the student experience. As a strategic tool to assist library leaders, we have completed a nationwide survey of 500 students reflecting on their library usage and their emotional experience in the library. Using this survey data, along with the findings from a robust dialogue among library leaders across the country via roundtable discussions, we have developed a series of key takeaways to be considered when planning improvements to library environments. To uncover more about student’s behaviors and needs, our survey targeted frequent library users’ usage habits and the feelings they have while using library spaces. We presented this survey data to a panel of library leaders to open a dialogue about the near-term and long-term evolving role of the library, and we conducted student focus groups to learn more about connecting the library to the student experience. These findings will help library leaders develop effective strategies to connect the library to institutional priorities and strengthen the connection between the library and user experience.

Keywords: Connection, Empathy, Data-Driven Research, Institutional Priorities, Consensus Building

Audience/Interest Groups: Programming, Outreach, and Marketing; Scholarly Communications; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Decentralizing Anti-Racism Content in LibGuides: A Disciplinary-Integrative Approach

Like never before, systemic and institutional racism has become a topic of national conversation. Academic libraries have responded in a variety of ways, including utilizing LibGuides to curate centralized, high-quality resources on anti-racism, diversity, and the Black Lives Matter movement.  When considering a centralized LibGuide, two librarians began to contemplate their own subject-based LibGuides. Why not take an integrated, disciplinary approach to anti-racism resources instead?  Beginning with an audit, the librarians developed a rubric to analyze anti-racism resources within each subject guide. The rubric examined guides for quantity of anti-racism resources, variety of resources, authority of resources, resources relevant in a disciplinary context, and resources relevant in professional context. After scoring each guide, librarians curated discipline-specific resources and tools on anti-racism topics for inclusion in the revised guides. Anti-racism resources for use across guides were also selected. After implementing changes and re-scoring the subject guides, librarians promoted the newly audited guides to their constituencies and solicited collaboration with faculty to incorporate anti-racism resources into courses. 

Keywords: LibGuides, Anti-Racism, DEI, Audit, Rubric

Audience/Interest Groups: Collection Managment; Instruction; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

ALAO Trivia Happy Hour

Drop in for some trivia and fun at the ALAO Annual Conference Social, held Wednesday, October 28th, 2021 over Zoom. Trivia will start around 6pm. See you there!

Essential but unusable: rehabilitating an aging digital collection

This lightning talk concerns a digital image collection comprising flyover photographs of much of a major metropolitan area at varying intervals from 1949 through 1997. They receive heavy traffic from a broad range of communities who need to survey land use for a number of purposes. However, the user interface that libraries inherited was locked in an inaccessible series of PDF maps that has grown steadily less usable, causing endless frustration for librarians and users alike. This talk will cover the steps taken to extract both data and digital images from this user interface and reimplement the collection in a web-based map interface. Both a how-to and a case study, this talk will prove useful to attendees planning implementation of their own geolocated digital collections, or exploring solutions for problem interfaces to digital materials. Presenters will share python code developed to extract geolocation data and images from PDF-based collection, and PHP to translate JSON-based geolocation data to geoJSON.

Keywords: geolocation, map-based interfaces, user interfaces, digital collections, community service, problem solving, archives, collection development, leaflet.js, python, PDF, geoJSON

Audience/Interest Groups: SCAIG, SUSIG, TEDSIG,Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Supporting Campus Innovation Efforts through Library Events

The libraries can support campus innovation efforts directly and indirectly through library spaces, programming, and services. While the library may not immediately come to mind for these types of endeavors, the ethos of the library naturally aligns with curiosity, innovation, and creativity, all of which are required when thinking about innovating. This talk will highlight two examples of building partnerships to support campus innovation efforts, one focused on the library’s role in planning a hackathon and the other working with a group on campus to host a pop-up maker space and workshop series. Attendees will learn some practical tips when facilitating similar partnerships at their own institutions and will provide approaches for various levels of scalability, from simply using library spaces to providing enhanced services or other programming in conjunction with the events.

Keywords: informal learning, outreach, maker culture

Audience/Interest Groups: PROMIG, Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Bridging the gap between sustainability and impact: The relationship between librarian involvement and the efficacy of information literacy instruction

This study was undertaken in an effort to understand what is needed to build lasting bridges between teaching faculty and librarian information literacy (IL) instruction. This study took advantage of a unique opportunity to compare IL instructional efficacy between librarian and non-librarian instructors teaching exactly the same content in a full-term course; it utilizes text analysis of student assignments to measure and evaluate IL skill development across four levels of librarian involvement (one-shot instruction, two levels of embeddedness, and librarian as instructor-of-record) in IL instruction within an undergraduate university course. The results are somewhat surprising, but nevertheless highly suggestive of the argument that the benefit to student IL skills is not related to amount of librarian instruction, but rather to the level of instructor buy-in with regard to library services and the importance of IL skills. We argue that the most impactful librarian involvement is as an information literacy consultant rather than a full-time embedded librarian (which is somewhat surprising given the literature on the efficacy of embeddedness). The study results have salient implications on academic librarian instructional practices and collaborations on course content with faculty members.

Keywords: Information literacy instruction, embedded librarianship, instructor-librarian collaborations, inquiry-based learning, text-analysis

Audience/Interest Groups: AIG, IIG, SUSIG

Exploring Mental Health First Aid Training as a Library Staff Crisis Management Tool

This lightning talk will provide an overview and explore the results of a grant-supported program that brought Mental Health First Aid Training to Ohio hospital, academic, and public library employees in 2019-2020. The goal of the training was to improve employee recognition of mental disorders, increase their confidence in providing services to patrons exhibiting mental health needs, support crisis management decision making and, with this, potentially reducing their related stress and burnout. In addition to providing an overview of Mental Health First Aid training, the presenter will discuss the results of surveys given to participants before and after the training to determine the training's effectiveness in the various library settings. Implications of adding Mental Health First Aid Training to staff professional development for effective crisis management will also be highlighted.

Keywords: Crisis Management Training, Professional Development, Mental Health, Staff Development, Staff Burnout

Audience/Interest Groups: PROMIG, SSIG, Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Virtual Help Desk

Staffed: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Conference Planning Committee members are available to answer your questions.

Email Help Desk

Building a Bridge between Art and Experiential Learning in an Academic Library

Much of the literature concerning experiential learning in academic libraries is placed in the context of opportunities for student workers and library and information science students. Removed from these library-oriented purposes, the library can serve as a physical space where students in any discipline may engage in projects designed to be completed outside the classroom. These projects are planned with various levels of student/teacher involvement, often to develop information literacy skills. There exists great potential for the library to transcend these roles by partnering with faculty to provide students with more profound learning experiences. This presentation describes such a collaboration between an academic library and a university art program, and discusses the progression of the library from a space used to display student work to experiential learning projects requiring total student involvement from concept to completion. This presentation will provide details on the process of partnering with faculty to develop unique immersive opportunities for students, offer several examples of benefits to the students and the library, and explore project learning as a means to expand the library’s identity on campus.

Keywords: Experiential learning, Project Learning, Library Outreach, Faculty collaboration

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction; Programming, Outreach, and Marketing

More Than Just a Diary: Reflective Practice for Academic Librarians

Writing personal reflections is a popular hobby across the generations. Applying this practice in a professional context can be a powerful tool in improving one’s craft as a college or university librarian. In this presentation, we will share three forms of self-reflection: immediate reflection, delayed reflection, and focused reflection. For each type of self-reflection, we will provide several practical examples of ways librarians can add these practices into their professional lives, such as a reflective teaching journal, a weekly email reflection thread, and a professional retreat. We will provide interactive next steps for attendees to follow up on after the session to fully engage them in the topic.

Keywords: reflective practice, journaling, instruction

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Academic Library Jobs: Trends From the Evolving Landscape

This past year demonstrated the need for academic libraries to quickly adapt to new circumstances and pivot to meet users’ needs as the learning environment swiftly changed. Having a library staffed with individuals prepared and willing to adjust to the new conditions was crucial. The presenters spent the year prior to the pandemic researching current trends in small to medium-sized academic library job positions. While identifying the ways in which jobs are evolving, they noted a definite shift towards blended public and technical responsibilities and increased requests for soft skills and flexibility. Presenters will share their findings about the ways in which libraries are adapting positions in the ever-changing academic environment to meet both student and institutional needs. Position changes were found to be both technologically and financially driven. As a result, libraries (often with tighter budgets) are striving to still provide quality core services and resources by rethinking current and open positions in innovative ways. Presenters will talk about the characteristics of newer, blended position types and the various soft skills that are currently being sought after in new hires, and how positions such as these can help during any time period, but especially during unexpected times like these.

Keywords: Job descriptions, blended positions, evolving libraries, budget constraints

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction; Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Do students really hate e-books?: Analyzing e-book use among college students

Every year libraries find themselves devoting more and more of their library budgets to e-book access, and regional consortias, like OhioLINK, are proactively adding new e-book packages. And while we vaguely know that e-books are being used, who is using them and for what reason? In early 2020 we began surveying students to learn more about their use of and interest in e-books. After an initial survey was completed prior to the pandemic, a second one was completed during the height of the pandemic, and a third one during the spring 2021 semester while we remained in a mostly remote learning environment. This presentation will compare our three surveys’ findings along with additional surveys and reports on e-book use among college students. It will show how much experience students really have with e-books, and whether the stories of resistance we hear in the library match up with the larger picture. It will also focus on the barriers to greater use of e-books, what devices students use to access e-books, as well as the frequency of use and the willingness of students to use e-books and whether it has grown over the time of the pandemic.

Keywords: e-Books, students, collection use

Audience/Interest Groups: Assessment; Community & Two-Year Colleges; Sustainability

One size doesn’t fit all: tailoring DEIA for academic libraries of different sizes

Many academic libraries have a desire to work for diversity, equity, and inclusion; many are unsure where to start or what impact they can have. This panel will bring together representatives from several Ohio academic libraries of different sizes and campus types for a discussion of their different approaches to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) work. Representatives will discuss what has worked, what hasn’t, and where they are headed. Additional topics for discussion include: considerations for DEIA work at institutions with varying degrees of racial diversity; different ways DEIA work is organized; challenges to sustaining DEIA work; relationships with campus initiatives & leadership; projects undertaken; how decisions are made; & how power is shared (or not).

Keywords: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, Program Planning, Staff Development

Audience/Interest Groups: Programming, Outreach, and Marketing; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Rethinking the Research Consultation: A Model for Bridging Student Needs with Faculty Expectations Through Effective, Efficient, and Exceptional Service

Do you want to expand your connections with students engaging in research? Would increasing the number of impactful research consultations be valuable to your library? Could rethinking how you presently reach students to meet their needs improve research services? Transitioning to a robust research consultation model, our library has seen extensive growth in both the number of and enthusiasm for individualized research consultations. Our efficient scheduling system coupled with effective communication methods and an exceptional level of service has led to an substantial increase in the quantity and quality of student research consultations. Through our liaison librarian model, we are positioned for deliberate dialogue with faculty to better inform our understanding of the research assignments students encounter. Our subject specialists now possess a unique way to bridge faculty expectations with the research assistance students need. This session will provide practical steps you can utilize to elevate your own research consultations at your library. We will discuss how to make intentional connections with your faculty to improve familiarity with assignments and identify how to meet student needs strategically. We will also share best practices you can implement today to increase the quality and quantity of research consultations at your own institution.

Keywords: Research consultations, liaison librarians, faculty collaboration, reference, outreach

Audience/Interest Groups: Assessment; Instruction

Lunch

Lunch on your own

Interest Group Lunch Meetups: Special Collections & Archives (SCAIG), Scholarly Communications (SCIG), STEM (STEMIG), Sustainability (SUSIG)

Three ALAO Interest Groups will hold lunch meetups at this time.

Lunch with ALAO's Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig)
Meet the co-chairs of ALAO’s Special Collections and Archives Interest Group during lunch! Learn more about the group’s activities and how you can get involved.
SCAIG Lunch Link

Scholarly Communications Interest Group (SCIG) Coffee/Lunch
This is an informal opportunity to share news or discuss concerns with colleagues on any scholarly communication related topic, including copyright, institutional repositories, digitization projects, Open Access issues, or anything else on your mind.
SCIG Lunch Link

Bridges to the future: STEMIG Lunch
Join STEMIG for an open discussion about the lasting impacts of the pandemic, the future of STEM librarianship, and what’s next for STEMIG!
STEMIG Lunch Link

Lunch with the Sustainability Interest Group (SUSIG)
Join the SUSIG co-chairs for the official launch of our crowd-sourced database of recycling programs database, learn about life cycle assessments (LCAs), and share sustainability challenges and success stories at your institutions.
SUSIG Lunch Link

Audience/Interest Groups: Special Collections and Archives; Scholarly Communications; STEM; Sustainability

Lightning Talks #2

This session focuses on collaboration and meaningful connection in academic libraries and consists of five short talks followed by a live Q&A:

Keywords: Media Effects, Misinformation, Information Literacy, Student Organizations, Funding, Students, Assessment, Feedback, COVID-19, Discussion, Instruction, Anti-racism, DEI, Community

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction; Programming, Outreach, and Marketing; Assessment; Digital Libraries; Instruction; STEM; Scholarly Communications; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Even Flow : Using Microsoft Flows to streamline library acquisitions work

Have you seen the Flow icon in Microsoft 360 and wondered what that does? Or maybe you’ve heard about this thing called Flow but not sure what the big deal is? Would you like to up your acquisitions game, but not sure where to start? We’ll kick off this session with flow basics such as naming conventions, expressions and variables. Then move on to the fun stuff, demonstrating how you can streamline your acquisitions processes through Microsoft Flow by harnessing the power of automating emails, populating SharePoint spreadsheets from a form, and how to set up a Flow approval process that will save you valuable time.

Keywords: Process Automation, Acquisitions, Workflows, Emerging Technologies

Audience/Interest Groups: Collection Managment; Technical, Electronic, and Digital Services; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Building bridges connecting students to primary sources from a distance: Converting in-person activities to an online format.

In recent years, a subject librarian and an archivist have been successful in building bridges between upper-level students and primary source research for a political science course offered every fall. The culminating assignment has students write a biography of a primary source related to colonialism. Pre-pandemic, the librarians provided five in-person library sessions during the semester with each session filled with hands-on engagement with original primary source materials, discussion, small group work, and active learning. Facing the realities of remote learning and the faculty member’s desire to be asynchronous, we challenged ourselves to identify ways to create online learning experiences that were both educational and engaging. This presentation will outline the process of using various educational technologies to convert nearly all of the course’s in-person activities to the online and asynchronous environment. Planning, content creation, and activity development took place over summer 2020 and the changes debuted successfully during the fall. The presenters will facilitate a discussion on how other librarians have adapted their active-learning instructional strategies to an online format that recreates the 'ah ha' moments students had in the classroom. This transitioned content will have long-term utility for continued online teaching even after the pandemic.

Keywords: Primary sources, instruction, archives, asynchronous, online learning, active-learning, faculty/librarian collaboration

Audience/Interest Groups: Digital Libraries; Instruction; Special Collections and Archives

Maker Literacy and the ACRL Framework

Academic library makerspaces enable maker-centered learning experiences that hold enduring benefits to students from all fields of study. Some may wonder, however, how maker literacy fits within traditional library information literacy instruction, and specifically how it connects to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. This presentation will use two foundational concepts of the ACRL Framework, metaliteracy and liminality, to demonstrate how maker-centered learning can support information literacy. We will explore connections between existing maker literacy frameworks and the ACRL Framework, and specifically how maker-centered learning connects to each frame. We will discuss how hands-on maker learning experiences can be employed as a supplement and enrichment to traditional information literacy instruction, regardless of whether your library has a dedicated makerspace. Attendees will be empowered to experiment with new forms of active and experiential learning in their information literacy instruction.

Keywords: Makerspaces; maker literacy; experiential learning; information literacy; ACRL Framework

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction; Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference

Closing Keynote: Re-Envisioning LIS: Activating Social Justice

Social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are significant topics within the profession, but are they actually integrated into the fabric of library and information science? Among the areas that require particular understanding and dedication are our critical and pedagogical practices. "Decolonizing" or re-envisioning our profession requires looking outside of our discipline and Western norms to engage with diverse scholarship and perspectives to build a foundation for what a more equitable profession looks like.

Connecting media studies and information literacy to help students identify misinformation

Teaching students how to identify misinformation is an important component of information literacy. However, there is more to misinformation than identifying fake news. The power to misinform is not limited to bad-faith actors and partisan cheerleaders. Even legitimate news reporting can mislead, misinform, and influence our perception of reality. In our lightning talk, we introduce media effects theories to address this under-appreciated dimension of misinformation and discuss it as an essential component of information literacy instruction. Media effects theories, like agenda setting and framing, help explain the relationship between public opinion and the presentation of legitimate news reporting. We argue that incorporating media effects into information literacy instruction encourages students to have a deeper engagement with the news media ecosystem. In addition, it equips them to unpack news stories in any medium and to critically engage in the subtleties of news production and its effects.

Keywords: Media Effects, Misinformation, Information Literacy

Audience/Interest Groups: Instruction

Academic Libraries collaborating with Graduate Student Organizations

One of our Libraries' mission is to serve the 6,600+ graduate students enrolled at our University. We try to announce our availability and reach this population through representation at orientations, information fairs, curricular based instruction sessions, and by providing space and collections. An estimate of graduate students who receive some form of direct interaction with a librarian (i.e. through library instruction sessions in their courses), however, was only about 1,500 (according to academic year 2018-2019 internal data). Funds from our Graduate Student Organization starting in 2018 allowed the Libraries to put on programming which served to bridge this large gap. The literature shows that faculty often expect graduate students to enter their programs equipped with the necessary research, writing, and professional skills, but that these skills are often lacking. Academic librarians have extensive resources and expertise in these areas and are strategically positioned to fill this gap. Come listen to how we worked with our GSO to help garner funding, market, and collaborate with programming designed especially for our graduate student population. Also, come hear how we had to quickly pivot these programs to an all-online environment during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Keywords: Student Organizations, Funding

Audience/Interest Groups: Programming, Outreach, and Marketing

Conversations with Students: Using a Student Advisory Board for Dialogue and Assessment

SUNY Canton's Southworth Library Learning Commons (SLLC) is a student-centered space which prioritizes student feedback. We have found our most valuable feedback comes directly from conversations with our students. To cultivate these conversations, directors of each department in the Learning Commons – the Library, Tutoring Center, and HelpDesk – host a regular, constructive student focus group, the SLLC Advisory Board. Students representing our diverse campus meet with us throughout the academic year. When COVID shifted more students online, we adapted our group to meet our students where they were. We discuss how our students engage (or don’t) with the Learning Commons’ resources, what they would change if they could, and their ideas or suggestions for our departments. Although guided by pointed questions, these organic meetings often result in unexpected and candid conversations, and lead to meaningful results. Changes made as a result of Advisory Board suggestions include altering and improving our space, additions to our tutoring and technology offerings, and changes to our services available for remote students.

Keywords: Students, assessment, feedback, academic libraries

Audience/Interest Groups: AIG, PROMIG

Conspiracy Theories in the Classroom: COVID-19 Misinformation Edition

Provocative prompts and topics inspire impactful discussions. If you focus on active learning in your teaching, you know the prior statement to be true. In the fall of 2020, I taught AHEC (Area Health Education Centers) scholars and AmeriCorps interns about health misinformation and how to find credible health resources. COVID-19 was the focus because the participants worked directly with the community during the pandemic. I created a pre-session activity where participants choose a COVID-19 conspiracy theory to investigate. The goal of the pre-session activity was to have the participants identify and evaluate a variety of resources that support or debunk the theory and to find ways to communicate their reasoning to others. The synchronous, remote session was discussion-based, and their activity submissions were used as the prompts. We discussed bias, credibility, authority, access, social/economic status, and psychology. And yes, participants did walk away with tangible tips and resources on where to look for credible health information, but the core lesson was to understand how being a person impacts our information use. All of this, all of us, impacts how we seek, interpret, and absorb information. The feedback from the faculty and students were overwhelmingly positive.

Keywords: Misinformation; COVID-19; Discussion; Instruction

Audience/Interest Groups: DLIG, IIG, STEMIG

Library Collaboration with College DEI Leadership Brings Mutual Benefits

Facing increased racial tensions in the United States in 2020, one college within a large, public research university decided to create a virtual, COVID-safe community space to proactively discuss racism and discrimination on a regular basis. Seeking a neutral party to act as host and organizer, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leadership turned to the college’s library. Already active in other DEI efforts, the library also had the technological know-how to manage virtual events and the connections needed to facilitate publicity efforts. Over the course of 6 months, the college’s Anti-Racism Community Space grew from a pilot program to a monthly event with regular attendees, including college administration. This collaboration has benefitted the library, DEI leadership, and the college -- and has been lauded as a model at the university.

Keywords: Anti-racism DEI Community discussions

Audience/Interest Groups: IIG, PROMIG, Library administration/supervision, diversity, consortia, emerging technologies, reference