2024 Core Forum

In today's interconnected world, libraries have transitioned from physical repositories to dynamic hubs of both physical and digital information. As the guardians of invaluable data and resources, libraries face unique challenges in ensuring comprehensive information security. Dive deep into the essentials of information security tailored specifically for libraries. Explore practical techniques to evaluate the current state of your library's information security, and understand the steps needed to fortify it. You will hear how the Columbus Metropolitan Library developed and implemented robust security measures to stand strong against potential threats. More than just technical solutions, discover administrative strategies that form the a holistic security approach. Also covered will be a discussion around strategies and controls that cater to the diverse needs of libraries. Columbus Metropolitan Library has evolved its information security practices over the last several years. Delve into the journey, gaining insights into how the information security program has matured, facing challenges and achieving milestones. Join this session to empower yourself with the knowledge and skills required to create a secure, trustworthy environment for library customers and staff alike.

The session will discuss ongoing work to streamline a workflow for preparing collections for digitization. In managing the digitization workflow, preservation staff noted that substantial time was spent on resolving vendor and staff questions caused by lack of sufficient detail in the minimal metadata spreadsheets prepared pre-digitization. At the same time, digitization projects were experiencing setbacks when condition issues with the original material were not addressed early enough in the project. It became apparent that improved metadata and preservation planning would result in a more efficient workflow overall.

Streamlining the workflow has also facilitated goals beyond meeting the requirements for successful digitization. Revisiting pre-digitization metadata creation has helped ensure that this work aligns with digital collections metadata requirements, thereby improving the usefulness of the spreadsheets beyond managing digitization. Revising the workflow also offered a chance to incorporate basic preservation activities and advocate for larger improvements for the original material as part of digitization projects. The poster will discuss the collaboration between departments in Preservation and Cataloging & Metadata Services to improve the digitization workflow as well as how lessons learned continue to revise the workflow.

Integrating the information gathered from community engagement processes into the building design is an important part of the community engagement process that is rarely discussed. This presentation will use case studies of engagement processes to demonstrate how the engagement input was integrated into the design process and show examples of how exactly it became a part of the community's library building and programming. Learn how to properly gather community engagement information to be used in the building design how to participate with your design team to integrate it. Community engagement that reaches out to underserved and culturally diverse populations by going to where they already are; where the learn, live, work and play is vitally important. Gathering information in ways that connects with these populations is crucial in understanding their needs will be an important part of this presentation as it connects with and provides direction to each of the audiences own libraries.

The Core Competencies for Cataloging & Metadata Professional Librarians provides an important framework to assess professional-level cataloging and metadata skills, knowledge, and behavior. This presentation will introduce attendees to the revised (as of 2023) Core Competencies document and discuss ways it can be utilized for professional growth, mentoring, employee evaluation, and curriculum assessment. Additionally, presenters will facilitate an interactive exercise that will offer attendees a template for evaluating their own or employees cataloging and metadata proficiency.
Session materials available in this Google Drive folder Mapping Your Skillsets.

As the transgender population increases in size and visibility, a resulting backlash has gripped America--and libraries are in the crossfire. Misinformation campaigns targeting transgender people are being leveraged as part of a concerted effort to censor books, displays, and programs; reduce free access for patrons of all ages; harass or threaten library and information science (LIS) workers; and interfere with or even shut down the operations of libraries across the country. Thus, LIS workers have a major stake in understanding and combatting anti-trans misinformation when they encounter it; but, due to these campaigns' widespread nature, it can be difficult for the average person to discern between what is fact, what's fiction, and what's opinion. Learn how and why anti-trans misinformation is created and spread, how you can distinguish between reliable and unreliable information, and why LIS workers have a uniquely important part to play in speaking out against anti-trans misinformation.

Professional development is critical to the learning of new skills as well as building long term career success. Each type of activity has its benefits and while there aren't necessarily drawbacks, there can be more useful opportunities than others. Being in an information and education centered field, there are nearly endless training sessions and webinars. These are useful for keeping up with trends but not the best for deepening internal knowledge and interpersonal understanding. One of the tools to help you survive and thrive through change and stages of advancement is to develop a Professional Peer Network. These networks can offer more consistent and interpersonal engagement that support your journey of growth and learning. If mentorships and coaching programs are about structured development, professional peer networks are informal but no less critical to success and growth. More than friendship, less than coaching, a peer network provides connection to people at the same career stage, a support system that understands your work, and two-way learning giving as much as you receive. The same small trustworthy group allows everyone to meet challenges, celebrate successes, and move forward with each individual's goals. At this interactive session, attendees will have the opportunity to share their experiences with networking and crowdsource additional advice for developing their networks. Join us as we share some of our achievements and opportunities from public, state, and nonprofit networks to help you start on your own journey toward relationship-centered, collaborative professional development.

This presentation takes the US Army's Troop Leading Procedures and adapts them to a library setting, showing how they were successfully implemented in my institution's recent large weeding project. This was a multi-faceted project that included weeding 10,000 books from our 50,000+ collection, moving certain collections to new locations, and creating two new collections: a dedicated Fiction collection and a Graphic Novels / Manga Collection.

DEI metadata work has several goals: enhancing diverse representation in descriptive metadata; improving discovery of diverse resources; and mitigating negative effects of inaccurate, outdated, or offensive terminology. Through this work, librarians support their institutions’ commitments to foster a welcoming environment, provide access and opportunity, and promote a sense of belonging. Making metadata more inclusive also can be viewed as an effort toward sustainability—the tenth of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is “reduced inequalities.” There has been a growing body of DEI metadata resources with valuable advice from innovative and forward-thinking metadata creators. However, these are scattered, not always easy to find, and require time to review and synthesize.

With the collaboration of the Iowa State University Digital Press, and building on the important groundwork laid by many others, five librarians wrote a handbook to provide guidelines for metadata work that focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our vision was to produce a one-stop, introductory reference, and make it freely available through open access.

The presentation will summarize the contents of the book, which is geared toward professionals in library and information science, archives, and other information management industries, and its publication process.