2024 Core Forum

Library staff play a particularly important role in the management process of electronic resources (e-resources). They work collaboratively with Electronic Resources and Metadata Librarians and assist with activations of incoming library materials, collections and databases maintenance, holdings synchronization across different platforms, and various clean-up projects. Due to the complexity of e-resources processing and management, the training, coaching, and mentoring of library support staff can be a challenge. This presentation will focus on training needs, methods, and techniques to develop appropriate skills for working with e-resources. Additionally, the audience will be introduced to influential training resources, programs, discussion lists, podcasts, and weblogs.

Discussions about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the library often cite cataloging and metadata creation as facets of library work that might benefit from adoption of these technologies. However, these discussions often do not consider whether or not AI is applicable to the current challenges faced by catalogers. With software vendors increasingly incorporating AI unilaterally into their products, it is important for librarians to effectively communicate their needs to these vendors so that new features align with the needs of the field. This presentation explores this topic by sharing current challenges related to technology encountered by print and electronic resources staff at an academic library and identifying which, if any, AI technologies would be appropriate to help address these challenges.

Librarians have traditionally approached spatial assessment via a heavily data driven approach--gate counts, heat maps, etc.--with occasional focus groups to gather qualitative data. However, to understand our users and their use of our space, we should leverage alternative methods to learn how our patrons read and thus imagine our spaces. In this presentation we will explore Edward’s Soja’s notions of Thirdspace and David Seamon’s concept of at-homeness as possible frameworks for space assessment. Understanding these principles can provide a new perspective through which to achieve a homeostasis between what home provides and what work space provides, thus realizing the ideal third space. The idea of purposeful space assessment (Danuta 29), or space assessment we use to define our function or purpose as a library is still fairly new- as is the integration of anthropological methodologies in LIS spaces research (Bedwell 4). To move beyond a counting frame of mind into one that asks why, that explores behaviors qualitatively instead of quantitatively, is an area of growth we seek to explore in this presentation, in addition to potential practical assessment tools for attendees to take back to their institutions.

The CARE data principles (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics) are a conceptual framework meant to ensure ethical collection, sharing, and stewardship of Indigenous data. As part of a workshop hosted by [a consortium of data curators and stewards] in 2022, librarians created a foundational data curation primer on the CARE data principles and how they apply to data management, curation, and sharing. The primer touches on the cultural context regarding the CARE data principles, the historical misuse of Indigenous data, Tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous Peoples' right to governance of their data. Using the CURATE(D) checklist, the primer walks information professionals, researchers, and data curators through key questions and steps to ensure ethical use, sharing, and preservation of data.  This poster will connect librarians both to the primer and to further resources about ethical data practices and explore ways of implementing CARE principles.

Feeling overwhelmed by the ever-growing list of e-resource projects? Join us as we explore our journey of implementing Planner, Microsoft's project management tool, to streamline our workflow and bring clarity to project chaos! We'll share practical insights on how we use Planner's features, such as kanban boards, task assignments, and progress tracking, to gain a more complete understanding of workloads and the amount of time it takes to complete a project. We'll highlight the transformative impact Planner has had on the Collections Team by reducing stress and frustration, increasing efficiency and productivity, and enhancing communication and transparency. Visit our poster and discover how Microsoft Planner can help you!

With the continued improvement of AI tools and the growing popularity of such tools, it is increasingly important for library users to understand how AI functions and the nature of the information they receive when using AI tools. However, on a campus facing resource constraints and distrust of AI, getting buy-in on programming and instruction that discusses AI can be difficult. The library sought out campus partnerships with faculty, Career Services, TRIO programs, and Admissions to increase awareness of AI and to increase buy-in. Through instruction sessions and participation in existing campus programming, the library was able to initiate a greater number of conversations about AI on campus, which has increased interest in further programming and instruction. This poster aims to help other libraries identify potential partnerships on campus and give librarians tools to develop programming and instruction around AI in collaboration with other departments.

Research libraries are experiencing rapid change in response to changes in scholarly communications and library collections, and libraries stand to benefit from learning from each other's experiences in this regard. This poster will highlight the work of one university library to combine the functions of scholarly communications and collections into a unified division that emphasizes diversity and inclusion, data-informed decision making, access and accessibility, and communications. Poster presenters will share practical information about what's worked and what hasn't in bringing together these areas of work to provide the latest in information services to the university community. Participants will learn from lessons in leadership of research library services.

Librarians and administrators depend heavily on support staff to carry out the day-to-day operations that keep our libraries open and accessible to our users. Despite the importance of their work, they are often compensated poorly compared to the professional staff they work alongside and have fewer opportunities for professional development, resulting in burnout and low job satisfaction. Not only this, but Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), based on existing literature, are found in a greater proportion in this category of workers compared to their professional counterparts, highlighting an overall racial disparity in the library profession (Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2021). In this poster presentation, we will identify potential topics of concern to library support staff members, such as compensation, job satisfaction, and recognition for their work, based on existing literature and conversations from support staff members across the library profession. We will then outline possible solutions that librarians and administrators can implement to improve conditions for their staff as well as the overall working environment. Finally, we will discuss how we will implement a mixed methods research study that focuses on the lived experiences of support staff at academic libraries to learn how to improve their job satisfaction and working environment. Reference Sanchez-Rodriguez, N. A. (2021). In pursuit of diversity in the CUNY library profession: An effective approach to leadership in academic libraries. Journal of Library Administration, 61(2), 185-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2020.1853470

This poster explores what it's like to lead a library that is experiencing frequent significant changes. This includes transitioning from a joint operation to serving a single institution; changing which subjects and departments are served by the library; significant staff turnover; and technological turmoil. It explores the questions:   How do you provide a steady hand internally and a flexible appearance externally?   How do you design an organizational structure that can provide strength and agility simultaneously?   What does success look like over time?   Can you think strategically within an uncertain identity? While not every library experiences these changes, all libraries struggle with some of these questions some of the time. And importantly, it will consider how library leadership can affect the morale and development of library staff amidst these changes.  

In this poster session, the presenters will share their Library’s progress toward uncovering, understanding and addressing organizational efforts in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) through the implementation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Self-Assessment Audit (DEISAA) developed by Dr. Kawana Bright and Nikhat J. Ghouse. The presenters will discuss the audit process including identifying the key roles and responsibilities of the Library’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, establishing a communication strategy, and sharing the results with library personnel and other campus stakeholders. The session will conclude with a discussion of the Library’s current efforts working with campus partners to identify actionable steps to address the recommendations from the audit including cultivating an organizational culture that values the importance of operationalizing DEIA work in the Library, and strategizing to develop an attainable, sustainable and transparent DEIA Action Plan to guide the library toward progressive growth and success.

This poster presentation will explore the "In the Margins" project at an academic library makerspace. This collection of books, journals, and activity books encourages students to underline, highlight, and draw in the pages. For centuries, libraries have discouraged these behaviors. Marginalia, or reader-generated notes and embellishments within a text, are typically considered a form of damage, but present a unique opportunity in library makerspaces. As libraries invite users to move from information consumers to creators, they ought to consider if there is value in preserving, sharing, and even soliciting marginalia from their communities. Attendees will learn how this experimental collection was implemented and consider how it contributes to the creative culture of the library.

Do you want to keep bees at your library? Are you not sure if you do? Would you like to find out some great ways to get started? Or how your community might find value in it? Then come to my sweet session about honeybees and libraries. Where I can give you some beginner tips, and talk about programming and community involvement.

In a 1986 meta-analysis of perceived control by employees, Paul Spector observes that "although enhanced control is often strongly advocated, many have questioned if it is a universal panacea to employee ills," and continues to note that "with increased control comes increased responsibility and often increased workload." Control and agency are central issues in anecdotes about burnout related to micro-managing bosses, demanding service models, or opaque decision-making processes. In fact, job control and burnout are inversely correlated, and job control serves as a predictor of burnout. However, in interviews, librarians themselves note that high levels of control can be daunting and may be related to a lack of guidance and leadership from their supervisors. For library leaders and managers, how can we provide librarians with the necessary individual control to thrive while advancing strategic library and team priorities? How can managers work with their teams and direct reports to consider dimensions of job control and identify opportunities to increase individual job control or to cede control for collective progress? Management styles centered around coaching and mentoring and decision-making processes that are shared and transparent are example avenues for building feelings of agency, control, and self-efficacy within teams.

Budget issues and the changing needs of students and faculty on college campuses are forcing libraries nationwide to rethink the support they provide for the campus community. In this presentation, we'll look at the process of leading a group of librarians through assessment and potential changes to a liaison program at a large R1 academic library. This will include the planning and information gathering before the assessment began, strategies for managing the emotions and worries of large scale change and a look to what the future of library support for academic departments on campus holds.

A wave of retirements, restructuring, and new hires amidst the Covid-19 pandemic gave way to a brand new technical services team at a small university's specialized, statutory college library. The new technical services department built their cataloging capacity from the ground up, with the goal that all team members would be expected to contribute to the library's original cataloging of its niche subject matter. The team dug in deep, working together to figure out an open and realistic training approach. With the support of the library's administrators and a philosophy to use any and all available resources, the technical services team combined modest professional development funds, discussion groups, consortia guidelines, mentoring, and out-of-box approache - such as auditing university classes in specialized subject areas - to meet their goal. This poster illustrates how a collaborative, creative approach to developing budding catalogers can bridge up-front barriers when it comes to introducing metadata work to brand new learners.

Metadata mapping for service providers is crucial as it enhances the discoverability of digital resources. Recognizing the common notion that 'any mapping would compromise metadata quality,' metadata mapping for service providers often involves translating specific locally developed metadata schemas into a standardized set of metadata, typically Dublin Core. This is especially challenging for metadata specialists and digital collections curators who need to strike a balance between facilitating discovery and meeting specific descriptive needs, particularly for digital collections originating from special collections. This poster will delve into the roles of metadata in supporting the discovery, access, and management of digital resources. It will then explore how library systems address these specific metadata needs by leveraging reusable metadata profiles. The poster will also offer guidance and strategies on using a defined set of metadata elements for service providers to enhance discoverability.

Parents and caregivers enrolled in academic institutions deal with intense schedules and time demands; balancing school, family, and work means it can be hard for these students to visit a local public library. As a public librarian-turned academic librarian, I used my experience in youth services to develop a collection of early literacy kits (Story Time in a Bag) working in collaboration with our Masters of Teaching students and the local public library. These kits contain picture books and early learning activities to support literacy without adding an extra errand to the list.

After moving from library assistant into the position of Cataloging Librarian at a mid-size institution, this presenter also began supervising one full time employee and co-supervising another. This created an opportunity to reflect on the current workflows and protocols for Technical Services as well as decide on their leadership style. This includes bringing institutional knowledge into official protocols, working with others in Technical Services to align workflows, and cooperating with other supervisors when managing more than one employee. This was done while there were significant personnel changes at the library, including the Dean of Library Services. This on-going process created opportunities for personal reflection, a guideline of expectations for Technical Services, and how to best support direct reports.

View on online version of the poster at PSU's Digital Commons.

National Coming Out Day is just one opportunity throughout the year that allows libraries to celebrate our queer-identifying community members. During the year 2023, our academic library seized this opportunity by hosting two exciting events tailored for our LGBTQ+ students and community members. The library collaborated with ALLIES and Queers & Allies to organize a Queer Closet event during the day. In the evening, we hosted a Boy Band-themed fitness class. While one of these events was incredibly successful, receiving excellent feedback, the other event was poorly attended and missed the mark. This experience provided valuable insight, highlighting events that the library could annually participate in while prompting a reassessment of the less successful event. This poster aims to showcase both our successful and less successful attempts to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in an academic setting.

This health sciences library shows how they use space and resources to support all university health sciences students. This includes a School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, College of Health, and a Trauma Center, Level 1 facility. As the only building on the health sciences campus that is accessible by badge access 24/7, the library serves as an anchor point. Security officers monitor the building and surrounding areas during non-business hours, meaning our student staff members are not required to work outside of business hours. For over ten years, the library has not housed physical medical journals or texts, which allows increased space for flexible student areas that can adapt to personal need and learning style, namely: individual and group study rooms, comfortable pods, cafe tables, tables and chairs, and soft furniture. Along with increased flexible student space, the library shares space with campus partners who offer courses, labs, or resources to health science students. The library offers checkout technology to all students which includes virtual reality headsets, Anatomage tablets, and podcasting equipment. These examples demonstrate how this health sciences library provides access equitably to students and enhances learning opportunities in the academic environment.

This poster visualizes the workflow that our scholarly communications team designed to ensure that faculty are set up with ORCID accounts. This collaborative effort involved educating law school faculty on the benefits of persistent identifiers, creating a scholarship database out of a Microsoft SharePoint site, and finding the most effective ways to utilize the individual strengths of various staff and librarians within the law library. A representative from the scholarly communications team, the metadata librarian, will be on site to walk attendees through the workflow, talk about their experience with ORCID as a product, and answer any questions related to the poster project.

This poster session will detail the planning and implementation of a space in the University Library for students who parent on campus. The space is a partnership between the Library, Dean of Students, Student Union and Students who Parent on Campus. We are also partnering with others, such as the campus food bank, when requested. The space includes furniture, a lactation pod, height adjustable desks with computers and a play space with books and toys. The space opened in September 2023 and has received very positive feedback and media coverage, even extending beyond the local area. This secure space helps with equity for parents who can now bring their children with them to the library and work, without the fear of disrupting other users. The challenges of reconciling library staff expectations and communications for such a space with those of so many external partners will be covered, as well as EDI and accessibility concerns. Also emphasized, will be the security, safety and health considerations, along with our process for creating policy and procedures. Also included will be tips on furniture procurement, facility modifications and child proofing. The space is being used as the model for opening similar spaces across campus.

Open science initiatives can be intimidating, especially in established research organizations that are contract-based. To help internal stakeholders such as researchers and administrators become more familiar with open science principles, we utilized outside-the-box thinking. As a research organization connected to a state university, we must follow state document depository requirements for select publications. Using this mandate, we can create an environment of internal trust to create public trust. Internal stakeholders need to know that we are only sharing information that is not confidential or proprietary. The public deserves trustworthy scientific information to combat the misinformation that is widely available. By placing publications in an institutional repository, documents are webcrawled by the state and become immediately available to the public. Additional benefits include further visibility for the organization and the potential for new partnerships, usage statistics, and basic preservation of born-digital materials. With the upcoming changes to federally funded research requirements, getting stakeholders at research organizations comfortable with open science is imperative.