This interactive session equips library professionals with practical strategies for implementing AI chatbots to extend reference services beyond traditional hours. Participants will explore the current landscape of chatbot solutions, from vendor-integrated platforms to custom implementations, and develop evaluation criteria based on institutional needs, technical capacity, and budget. The presentation addresses critical implementation elements including knowledge base development, system integration, privacy safeguards, and accuracy management. Through case studies from various library types, attendees will examine successful deployments and common pitfalls, learning strategies to mitigate AI hallucinations and establish appropriate escalation protocols. Emphasis is placed on change management, including techniques for building staff confidence and setting realistic user expectations. The session explores assessment frameworks using metrics such as query resolution rates, user satisfaction, and impact on traditional reference transactions. Attendees receive practical tools including a platform selection framework, implementation timeline, and staff training templates. Interactive discussion encourages participants to share experiences and collaboratively address common obstacles. This session benefits anyone involved in reference services, technology implementation, or service innovation, regardless of prior AI experience. Participants leave prepared to make informed decisions about chatbot adoption in their own contexts, balancing innovation with the quality and accessibility users expect from library services.
Libraries are increasingly expected to serve as dynamic, engaging environments that support learning, creativity, and social connection for children and teens. This session explores how intentional design choices can transform youth spaces from passive service areas into active, interactive environments that respond to evolving community needs. Examples will be shared from recently renovated and newly constructed public library spaces across multiple systems, including several award-winning projects, this presentation will highlight practical design strategies that support play, exploration, collaboration, and teen engagement. Attendees will examine how elements such as flexible layouts, interactive features, embedded technology, sensory considerations, and age-appropriate zoning can foster meaningful experiences while remaining adaptable over time. An example of a re-design of an existing children’s space at a Main Library will be shared that shows a correlation between the new design and an increase in user visits and circulation. The session will also address how libraries can balance creativity with operational realities such as durability, supervision, inclusivity, and budget constraints. Participants will leave with concrete examples, guiding principles, and a framework for evaluating or reimagining their own children’s and teen spaces, whether planning a major renovation or making incremental improvements within existing footprints.
Wendy Tressler serves as Planning and Strategy Officer at Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) and is a member of its Executive Leadership Team. Since joining CML in 2001 as the library’s Training and Development Manager, Wendy has held a variety of leadership roles, overseeing a... Read More →
In an era of rapid technological change, shifting political winds, and financial uncertainty, a strategic plan serves as a guiding compass for institutional resilience and an opportunity to identify core priorities around a shared vision of the future. This proposal outlines the development and implementation of the University Libraries Strategic Plan 2026-2030 and how it corresponds to the university’s strategic priorities in the areas of student success, research and innovation, community partnerships, and workplace wellbeing.
Attendees will explore the inclusive methodology behind our strategic planning process, which prioritized input from faculty and staff assigned to pillar groups, gathered feedback from the Libraries’ senior administration and Budget and Planning Committee, and engaged stakeholders in iterative and inclusive dialogue through surveys and town halls. By the end of this presentation, participants will leave with practical takeaways on mapping library strategies to institutional priorities, creating and assigning library action steps, and developing assessment methods based on university metrics. Participants will also learn strategies for fostering broad employee engagement with the strategic planning process, while also navigating tight deadlines, narrow or limited institutional imperatives, and potentially grim fiscal and political realities.
Director of the Bridwell Art Library, University of Louisville
Hi, I'm Courtney! I'm an Associate Professor and Director of the Bridwell Art Library at the University of Louisville. Talk to me about information literacy, feminism, and leadership. Outside of librarianship, I am a toddler mom!
The Classification and Contextualization Task Force at [NAME] Library was created to tackle the problematic classification patterns evident in Library of Congress Classification (LCC) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). We believe that these categorizations are harmful and offensive to our diverse user base, and that using them without acknowledging their harm contradicts Auraria Library’s values of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our goal was to address this issue by: • Displaying signage addressing problematic LC areas in the stacks • Creating a web page to further address and acknowledge biases within LC • Gathering feedback from the campus community The task force was split into three subgroups: • The signage subgroup: created alternative classification categories, as well as signs to display them in the stacks. • The website subgroup: provided context and background on the project, and listed additional details on each LC area addressed by the signage. • The Outreach subgroup: sought feedback from relevant campus departments and groups about the signage text. This presentation will detail the group’s efforts and will summarize the outcomes of the project and the feedback received from the campus community.
How do libraries tell the story of Transformative Agreements (TA’s) on their campuses? At many academic libraries, a large share of journal package subscriptions are now coupled with free OA publishing via TA’s. Of course, not all TA’s are worthwhile. Some libraries have rejected TA’s as unsustainable or as reinforcing publisher market power. Furthermore, campus stakeholders do not always understand the library’s efforts or intentions with these agreements, which can limit their value.
This presentation will focus on the efforts of a private R1 university that now has more than a dozen TA’s in place. The presenters will address how they evaluate (and often reject) TA offers, in line with the library’s stated collection strategy priorities and institutional context. Additionally, the presenters will discuss their expansive efforts to build campuswide consensus around TA’s and to ensure that campus faculty understand what these agreements do and do not provide. Lastly, the presenters will describe their work documenting the value of TA’s, including the creation of annual Transformative Agreement ROI reports. Our approach does not assume that TA’s are the right approach for every institution, but the methods that we have developed to communicate costs and value may be broadly useful.
“Black Cemeteries of Louisville” was a local history program in February 2025 that sought to share the narrative of the city’s historically black and integrated final resting places, as well as to amplify the knowledge and experience of their living stakeholders. Learn how hosting such an event can forge new bonds of connection and preservation amongst information professionals, volunteers, educators, students, and family historians.
In April 2024, the Department of Justice released new ADA requirements for public‑sector websites and mobile apps, with compliance deadlines beginning in April 2026. While academic libraries have long advanced digital accessibility, institutional data repositories (IDRs) remain an under-discussed area, particularly regarding accessibility of research data itself, not simply access to it. Now that the initial ADA deadline has passed, data librarians and repository managers face unclear guidance about how the rule applies to research data repositories and the content published and preserved within them. This work reflects a structured assessment of published resources, community documentation, and active working group contributions. Drawing on web accessibility standards, practices from digital archives and scholarly publishing, and emerging community work, the presentation will identify where existing guidance supports IDR needs and where it falls short. Particular attention will be given to challenges such as the complexity of research data as digital web content and tensions between preserving authentic formats and offering accessible alternatives. The session will conclude with actionable steps institutions of all sizes can take and will invite libraries to maintain momentum as accessibility expectations become active across the research data ecosystem.
This presentation explores the feasibility and value of outdoor spaces associated with academic campus libraries. We’ll introduce several libraries to show how thoughtfully designed outdoor environments have supported and extended library services. Examples include outdoor study spaces, areas for special events and community programming, intentional gardens, and site strategies that protect and enhance views from library buildings. The session will focus on three main themes: user experience/community engagement, operations and maintenance, and sustainability. During the pandemic, exterior spaces quickly became essential for safe gathering, studying, and programming. Now, these spaces are established assets, prompting libraries to consider how they can be intentionally managed and improved for long-term impact and use. As libraries continue shifting emphasis from collections to services and collaboration, outdoor environments offer new opportunities to reimagine the library as more than a building. Sustainable architecture and landscape design remain central to conversations about operational efficiency, environmental stewardship, staff, and visitor wellness. Overall, we’ll explore what this means in practice for libraries looking to connect their spaces with their evolving purpose OR this session will share practical insights and benefits for libraries reimagining how their surroundings support their mission.
Library workers need professional learning that is flexible, relevant, and available across roles, library types, and locations. In practice, access is often uneven; shaped by staffing, schedules, geography, and local capacity. A statewide membership organization developed a Learning Management System (LMS) to address this, expanding access to high-quality learning and creating a more equitable model for supporting library workers across the state.
This session will share how the LMS was designed, built, and continues to evolve as both a platform and a strategy for broadening access. Attendees will see key features including the course catalog, self-paced and instructor-led offerings, structured learning pathways, digital badges, and transcripts. The session will also examine the practical decisions behind those features: how content is curated, how learning is organized for different needs, how accessibility shaped design, and how the platform supports library workers' professional goals.
Attendees will leave with concrete ideas they can apply in their own settings; whether that is building a learning platform, strengthening an existing program, or creating more structure around professional development. The session will include lessons learned and the features and design decisions that proved essential to making the platform work.
Recognizing and understanding the drivers of employee behavior is a cornerstone of effective leadership and management in academic libraries. Attribution theory offers a powerful lens for distinguishing between personal and situational causes of behavior, enabling leaders to reduce bias, foster empathy, and improve communication. Too often, managers misinterpret staff actions by attributing them solely to individual traits, overlooking external factors such as workload, organizational culture, or systemic barriers. This can lead to strained relationships, inaccurate performance evaluations, and missed opportunities for collaboration. This session will explore how attribution theory can be applied in library settings to strengthen staff relations, enhance fairness in performance evaluations, and build more cohesive teams. Applying attribution theory in academic libraries not only improves staff engagement and collaboration but also advances the broader mission of libraries as inclusive, supportive, and high-performing organizations. By integrating this framework into daily leadership practices, library managers can cultivate trust, improve morale, and create an environment where employees feel understood and valued.
This presentation will highlight a collaborative project between the Office of the Dean of the Faculty and the campus libraries to evaluate faculty purchasing card (p-card) subscriptions through a systematic, librarian‑led review process. Charged by the College Librarian, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty Subscriptions Working Group analyzed faculty‑acquired subscriptions to (1) identify resources that fall under the libraries’ typical collection scope—such as campuswide news platforms—and (2) flag items outside the library’s purview. The group produced a report for the Dean of the Faculty identifying opportunities for librarian liaison outreach—including promoting existing library-held subscriptions, addressing gaps in collections, and identifying emerging resource needs within academic departments—and recommending next steps for resources out of the libraries’ scope. This work directly aligns with the college’s priorities of financial sustainability and operational efficiency by ensuring thoughtful, mission‑aligned resource allocation. The project also foregrounds access and equity by examining disparities in subscription use and awareness among tenure-track and contingent faculty. By sharing this model, we articulate the libraries’ value as a strategic partner in institutional spending analysis, demonstrate effective cross‑departmental collaboration, and offer a replicable approach for campuses seeking more transparent, equitable, and sustainable stewardship of faculty‑driven resource spending.
Language expertise, or lack thereof, is not a new problem in cataloging departments. Libraries often collect in languages that no on-site cataloging staff can read or speak. Languages that require non-Roman scripts also require transliteration of characters as well as the ability to translate enough of the title and publication information to record an accurate description. LLMs absolutely have the potential to allow faster and easier creation of MARC records, with some degree of expert human oversight. This presentation will share the results of work by two librarians who are working to develop methods for using Large Language Models (LLMs) for MARC cataloging of Chinese language materials. We look at the ability of an LLM to provide Chinese characters and Pinyin transliteration, as well as a complete MARC record. While this case study looks at Chinese language materials, the methods could be applied to other languages that use non-Roman scripts as well. This presentation will discuss development and use of prompts and give examples of results generated by ChatGPT or other LLMs. Participants will get a feel for the overall benefits and drawbacks that come from working with AI and learn about tools that may be useful in their work.
Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Public Library entered into an intergovernmental agreement in 2022 to establish the 81 Club, a citywide partnership that provides universal access to library resources for Chicago's 319,000 students and 23,000 teachers. A reference to the 81 branches of the Chicago Public Library, the 81 Club makes equity of access more than a buzzword or a philosophy, and instead brings digital resources, ebooks and library services into classrooms, school libraries, and students' homes. Students who are undocumented, have insecure housing, or other circumstances that limit their ability to secure a library card can now access the same resources as their peers, and our organizations continue to iterate on the 81 Club program to ensure that all Chicago students become lifelong library users. Join our session to learn more about lessons learned, improvements to the program, our accomplishments and goals, and for a toolkit to ensure equity of access to public library resources for all students in your city or community.
Director of Digital Learning and Libraries, Chicago Public Schools
Kara is the Director of Digital Learning and Libraries for Chicago Public Schools, working in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Digital Learning. She has been a school librarian, instructional technology coach and district leader serving grades PreK-12.
This session will define and explain archival digital preservation practices, and how to apply them in an academic or public library setting. The session will be accessible and designed for beginner to intermediate practitioners, touching on basic archival ideas like creating an inventory, the arrangement of files, file and folder naming conventions, digital storage, security, and future proofing of important administrative files with short-term to permanent use. Special focus will also be applied to records stored within a system, including library catalogs and databases. The goal is to arm attendees with the necessary skills to make their jobs easier, improve response times, and stay in line with legal requirements.
Aging library buildings. Stretched municipal budgets. Shifting population centers. Across the U.S., library directors face a perfect storm: greater-than-ever need for modern, accessible facilities during a time when funding is harder-than-ever to secure. One Minnesota library broke the stalemate by aligning its vision with city priorities. When a downtown struggled and its aging Center Mall left residents without adequate library or recreation space, library leaders didn't wait—they partnered with the city to reimagine what a library could be. The result: a voter-approved sales tax funding a 48,000 SF community center library that anchors downtown transformation. This session reveals the playbook. Learn how to align diverse stakeholders around a shared vision, navigate the information-vs.-advocacy line during funding campaigns, and design facilities that deliver on voter expectations. The library director will share community engagement strategies and accountability frameworks; the architect will present design solutions that integrate library services with year-round recreation while catalyzing economic development. Takeaway: practical strategies for positioning your library as essential civic infrastructure—and securing the funding to prove it.
Academic library leaders often occupy a “middle” position—caught between senior campus administrators and the employees they supervise. In this role, leaders may be perceived as having substantial authority, yet they frequently have limited decision-making power and must implement directives with which they may not agree. As part of their middle positionality, some library leaders describe themselves as an “umbrella” or “filter,” withholding or shaping information to protect employees from uncertainty or negativity. While often motivated by care and a desire to shield others, filtering can result in emotional labor for leaders and unintended consequences for teams. Drawing from qualitative interviews with current and former academic library administrators, this session explores how middle positionality pressures leaders to think critically about how information is shared, what impact it may have on themselves and their team, and how to balance the demands of others. Interview participants share how this middle positionality increased their emotional labor and chronic stress, contributing to burnout and attrition. Participants will learn about the tension that comes with middle positionality and explore how to balance protection and transparency, while recognizing how filtering impacts emotional well-being.
Managing liaison statistics is a persistent challenge in academic libraries, especially as liaison models evolve toward team-based, collaborative structures. At the [UNIVERITY NAME] Libraries, a redesign of the liaison model exposed significant gaps in existing data collection methods. This presentation describes how [NAME] Libraries moved from that fragmented system to a streamlined custom web interface built on the Asana API, developed with the assistance of ChatGPT. After evaluating Asana's native tools and finding they required too much direct platform interaction for liaisons, the team built a lightweight custom interface that lets liaisons log, view, and edit their activities without ever touching Asana directly. ChatGPT helped generate the initial code framework, authentication logic, and workflow structure, and showed how generative AI can be utilized to build custom solutions in a fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise. Attendees will come away with a sense of how to evaluate API-based tools for workflows, how AI-assisted development can make creating custom solutions more accessible, and how to design statistics collection that actually reflects the way liaisons work today, including collaborative and team-based activity. The interface and the approach behind it are designed to be adapted and reused by other libraries.
Retail environments rarely assume their first design is perfect. Instead, they continuously observe how customers behave in a space, test changes, and adjust layouts based on real-world feedback. Libraries, by contrast, often operate on long building cycles: a facility is designed, constructed, and then remains largely fixed for decades. Yet library spaces are behavioral environments where patron needs and usage patterns constantly evolve. This session introduces the concept of the retail feedback loop and explores how libraries can adopt similar approaches to improve space planning and renovation outcomes. Drawing on methods from consumer research, retail analytics, and UX (user experience) testing, presenters will explain how libraries can observe patron behavior, run small experiments, and collect meaningful feedback about how spaces actually function. Attendees will see examples of UX testing in library environments, including task-based user testing that visually captures where patrons struggle, hesitate, or succeed in navigating spaces and services. These short video examples demonstrate how direct observation can reveal insights that traditional surveys or meetings often miss.
Participants will leave with practical ideas for incorporating patron observation, UX testing, and rapid feedback loops into their own renovation or redesign projects.
Over 30 years of understanding consumer behavior in the private sector and with libraries. 20 years teaching students at NYU. Working with over 100 libraries in 26 states, New York University
What happens when a public library stops asking “how do we fit play in?” and starts asking “how do we build for it?” At one library branch, that shift in thinking led to the creation of a dedicated active play space: a fully immersive, themed environment designed to support the kind of boisterous, physical, whole-body play that research shows is essential to early childhood development but increasingly rare in children’s daily lives. This session presents that project as a three-perspective case study. A library administrator, an architect, and an interactives designer each take the audience through their piece of the process: from the leadership decision to invest in active play, through the design and procurement challenges of building for movement in a public space, to the fabrication of an environment that is simultaneously imaginative, durable, accessible, and safe. Attendees will leave with a grounded understanding of what it actually takes to plan, fund, design, and operate an active play space, including honest reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and how libraries of varying sizes and budgets can start incorporating active play without a full installation.
Literacy and Learning Division Director, Cuyahoga County Public Library
As the Director of Literacy and Learning for Cuyahoga County Public Library, I am happy to speak about how public libraries can support adult education and workforce development.
Academic libraries increasingly provide access to immersive technologies, yet most initiatives emphasize consumption rather than creation. This session presents a library-led pilot integrating novice virtual-reality scene authoring into a Public Health course through faculty partnership using a scaffolded Unity workflow requiring only three core elements: interactive hotspot, narration, and linked scene.
The pilot informs development of a forthcoming Virtual Learning Center creation badge designed to credential immersive-authoring skills across disciplines. Attendees will learn how libraries can implement low-barrier XR creation frameworks, partner with faculty, and expand equitable access to immersive content development.
Many library workers report feeling frustrated and underprepared for the behavioral and social service challenges that increasingly arise in their daily work with the public. In response to this growing need, the [name of graduate library science program] and [name of social work program] at [local university name] collaboratively launched a graduate certificate in Social Work–Informed Library Services. The certificate is available to students in both the MLIS and MSW programs and teaches social work competencies adapted specifically for library contexts and applicable across multiple library roles. The curriculum introduces strategies drawn from social work that support public-facing library staff, including approaches to managing and responding to crises, de-escalating agitated individuals, building effective interdisciplinary collaborations, setting boundaries, and preventing burnout and secondary trauma. The project also includes the development of freely available, on-demand, online continuing education courses to help public library workers everywhere adapt these competencies within their professional roles. Drawing on their research and professional experience in social work and librarianship, the presenters will demonstrate how social work–informed strategies relate to traditional library services such as reference and community outreach, while also offering practical ways library leadership can reduce staff hesitancy and support this evolving model of service.
Brian Real (he/him) is an assistant professor in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky. He holds a PhD in information studies and a master of library science from the University of Maryland. His primary research areas are the historical impact of federal... Read More →
We’ve all heard the saying “I’m doing my job right if no one knows I’m doing it.” What if, instead, we make sure everyone knows? This session will discuss the needs for soft skills and relationship building for metadata professionals, and other technical service positions. Metadata work is often thought to be very solitary and technical work, and while this is true, there are benefits to building out relationships and soft skills in this position. This presentation will re-frame technical work as a front-facing service and highlight ways that technical service workers can play active roles at their institution. This includes being able to advocate for our needs, resources, and how our work benefits the library and institution. Since this might be outside the comfort zone for some colleagues, we will provide a variety of strategies that can be used.
Failure is an inevitable—and deeply human—part of library leadership, yet it remains one of the most stigmatized topics in our profession. As libraries navigate rapid technological change, infrastructure transformation, staffing shifts, and financial constraints, management missteps have become more visible and more consequential. This session creates an honest, structured space to examine what happens when leadership decisions falter: communication breakdowns, opaque processes, mishandled personnel conversations, stalled initiatives, and unintended harm. Drawing on anonymized examples from academic library administration, including space renovation, technology implementation, vendor negotiations, and organizational restructuring, we will analyze how breakdowns occur, what escalates them, and how leaders can engage in effective repair. Rather than framing failure as a deficiency, this session positions it as a catalyst for growth, accountability, and institutional resilience. Participants will leave with practical frameworks for reflective leadership, tools for repairing harm after managerial missteps, and strategies to build cultures where transparency and learning are normalized. By integrating person-centered leadership with operational realities, this session bridges the human and structural dimensions of management, equipping library leaders to navigate complexity with clarity, humility, and confidence.
