2024 Core Forum

In recent years, the traditional use of digital collections simply as proxies for the physical has shifted to a paradigm of viewing collections as data suitable for computational use and novel research methods.  A metadata strategy with robust description can provide access and inspire new contextual narratives and knowledge. The presenters saw great potential for a collections as data exploration in a significant World War I archival collection to highlight lesser-known stories, including those of the Pioneer Infantry, women, and noncombatants. This case study presentation will discuss approaches to digital collections metadata, digital storytelling, data visualization and mapping, and will present real-world techniques that participants can use in their own work.

The World War I Service Records collection contains a rich record of the experiences of students and alumni who engaged in military or community service. The collection, however, was accompanied by extremely minimal folder-level metadata, which, in combination with CONTENTdm's limited visualization capabilities, presented major challenges for exposing the collection's rich data and making its contents available. The presenters will share approaches to creating granular but scalable metadata and will discuss the use of ArcGIS and other digital humanities tools for bringing hidden stories of diversity to light.

With building projects, bigger isn't always better. This case study of a library renovation and addition project illustrates how the concept phase help the library organization prioritize needs, re-set the building for decades of service, and create an award-winning, community-beloved asset.

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.

When time is a libraries' scarcest resources and there is always a laundry list of tasks to be done, it can be challenging to justify taking a step back to talk through, map, and evaluate workflows. However, investing the time to look at the bigger picture can create better and more sustainable processes that actually save time in the end.  With the arrival of a new department head, we have recently successfully undertaken this work at our academic library. In this presentation, we will share our experience prioritizing this work and the expected and surprising outcomes we achieved. We'll share how we facilitated workflow conversations to focus on clarity as well as improvements and how we utilized these discussions to create easily readable process maps. We'll also highlight how we used the final products more broadly to build understanding with others in the organization about the scope and complexity of the depicted work. Finally, we will provide recommendations for tools to make this work easier.

AI is making lots of headlines, but how can we harness its powers for good? We are working on a series of much-needed renovations and remodels to create user-centered spaces that make our students feel comfortable and welcome. Recently we've begun exploring the use of generative AI to help us envision possibilities for existing spaces and take a "shortcut" through the design process by allowing us to share AI-generated ideas and images with the university's remodel and construction services unit. Ultimately, the use of AI tools in the design process could save both time and money, while opening new possibilities and ideas that we might otherwise overlook.

In this presentation we'll share examples of how our library is experimenting with generative AI tools to support building improvements, get better feedback from users, and support library space design that will support campus diversity and inclusion goals. We'll also host a discussion among attendees about how cutting-edge AI tools could be used, or are already being used, to support facilities enhancements in other libraries.

n the summer of 2023, three departments within the Access and Resource Services Division of a large academic library created paid summer internships to provide opportunities for graduate students from underrepresented groups to gain practical library and preservation experience. In preparing for our second round of internships, we reflected on what went right during our pilot year and where we could improve, including streamlining recruitment and onboarding workflows and creating a community for our interns. This presentation will focus on the changes we made and their impact on the success of the 2024 intern program. Panelists will share observations on the use of library internships as a DEI strategy and the logistics of creating engaging internship experiences, including developing job descriptions, hiring checklists, interview questions, potential projects and funding sources. We will discuss both intern and library staff assessments of the value of participating in one or both years of our internship program. This presentation will be helpful to those who want to implement shorter internship programs in libraries of different types and sizes and to creatively leverage collaboration between departments and libraries for easier planning and higher impact.

Recent research in the cultural heritage conservation field has identified arsenic and other toxic heavy metals in pigments used in 19th century book bindings. How hazardous are these materials, and what should libraries do if they have 19th C. items in their collections? This presentation will provide background information on this growing field of interest, and a broad overview of some of the research to date. We will also provide a case study of the ongoing research project at the [UNIVERSITY] Library, testing for the presence of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead in pigments used to color bookcloth and paper. We will describe our planning process, communication plans, the current state of our findings, what we've learned so far, and outstanding questions. Not every library has the staff or funding to undertake a large-scale research project, so we will also provide tips to identify potentially problematic pigments, as well as things to consider when handling or providing access to these materials.

Join library staff members, as they delve into the rapidly evolving landscape of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT within the context of public libraries. Amidst continuous media attention and daily technological changes, the library proactively formed a cross-departmental AI task force to monitor advancements and its impact to libraries.

In this session titled, "If I hear the word AI one more time" we invite you to explore the task force findings, focusing on their relevance to library customers and staff. The presenters will not only discuss the benefits of AI technology for libraries but also underscore the associated challenges, including biases and inaccuracies.

These recent technological strides have sparked dialogues among our peers and customers. We'll discuss how AI can enhance staff productivity and how libraries can support customer adoption. As gateways to knowledge, libraries have a pivotal role to play in facilitating the safe use of AI.

So, gear up for a lively and interactive discussion. Join us as we demystify AI together!