Scared of licensing? Don't be! This preconference will be a straightforward introduction to some of the most common licensing terms and what to look out for. This is not just for electronic resource librarians but will help anyone in libraries who work with resources better understand how they and their patrons can use those resources. We'll work through a number of terms, review sample licenses and leave with a better understanding of what our libraries are agreeing to when we sign on the dotted line.
Note: I’m not a lawyer and am not offering legal advice. Instead, this session will focus on practical guidance to help you feel more confident reading and understanding the licenses you encounter before you send them to legal counsel, if you're the library signatory or after they are on file!
This workshop will provide participants with an introduction to disaster planning specific to arts and culture organizations. They will also be provided insight into the coordination of disaster response networks via the experience of member institutions of the Kentucky Heritage Emergency Response Network. Activities will include an instructor led demonstration of salvage methods used in the recovery of wet materials as well as table top exercises during which participants will engage in activities to assess their institutions risks.
Informal leadership (IL) can be a “heavy lift,” often accompanied by complex challenges and limited recognition. Yet in many organizations, it is one of the primary ways professionals gain new skills, expand their experience, and build meaningful relationships. How can you determine whether informal leadership is right for you? And if it is, how can you identify opportunities and prepare for success?
This interactive workshop invites participants to explore these questions through discussion and shared experience. Presenters will introduce definitions of informal leadership drawn from multiple disciplines and reflect on how IL has shaped their own career paths. The session will examine the realities of “leading from among” and “leading from below,” including the importance of understanding organizational culture before stepping into an informal leadership role.
Throughout the session, attendees will be encouraged to connect theory to practice, identify their own leadership strengths, and reflect on how informal leadership can align with both personal values and organizational goals. We will conclude with a collaborative conversation about the individual and organizational benefits of IL and practical strategies for fostering engagement within participants’ own institutions
Libraries need user feedback for improvements on websites, catalogs, and physical aspects of the library, but budgets are tighter and tighter. User testing, surveys, and focus groups are just a handful of aspects of UX work that can be practiced by anyone - no UX experience required! - and would be easy to incorporate at any library. UX is a growing trend in librarianship, and we hope this workshop will give library workers practical guidance to use these helpful techniques, as well as give an overview of UX and the design cycle. The goal is low/no-cost methods that will yield high-impact results for you to make demonstrable upgrades in your own library.
Academic libraries invest heavily in ebook collections, yet the quality of metadata associated with those records varies significantly depending on whether records are vendor-supplied or professionally created. This mixed-methods research examines the relationship between ebook metadata quality and discoverability in academic libraries, comparing data by source and assessing their impact on institutional return on investment. The research synthesizes findings from original quantitative and qualitative data collection to build a comprehensive picture of how metadata decisions shape access to library collections. Preliminary findings suggest that vendor-supplied records frequently lack essential elements such as subject headings and classification codes, and that when these elements are absent, discovery system features designed to surface content cannot function effectively. The result is a measurable gap between what libraries pay for and what their users can find. Findings have practical implications for academic library administrators and collection development professionals making procurement and resource allocation decisions. The poster presents those findings and offers a framework for evaluating institutional investments in discovery platforms, descriptive practice, and ebook collections.
Ever try to pull cataloging stats in Alma only to have the nefarious “System” take credit for all your hard work? Alma knows how many records were imported, what happens upon import, and who imported them; it’s just not very good at telling you through Analytics. This poster shows how to use OpenRefine and the Alma Jobs API to gather statistics on records imported to Alma via an Import Profile. The Alma Jobs API is more detailed than what Analytics reports on and the API correctly attributes work to staff accounts making end-of-year statistics more reliable.
Cataloging is a shared enterprise. A bibliographic record created by one cataloger in Connexion can be enriched by catalogers around the world. But if your library catalog is not synched to Connexion, many of these bibliographic enhancements – things like summary notes and tables of contents – won't ever appear in your records. We work in one such library, so we developed a process for adding these enhancements (specifically the 505 and 520 fields, though the process could be adapted to work for other fields) from Connexion records into our integrated library system.
Since implementing this workflow, we’ve enhanced thousands of records in our catalog, greatly increasing the accessibility and discoverability of our collection. While it is an involved process, we have broken it down into manageable steps that other libraries will be able to replicate and modify to their own needs. In addition to Connexion, we relied on open-access tools such as MarcEdit and Notepad++ to efficiently batch edit data. In this poster, we will provide access to step-by-step documentation so that other librarians can replicate this work at their institutions.
Just as cataloging is a shared enterprise, we believe these sorts of technical workflows ought to be as well.
For more than a decade, the Association for Library Service to Children has been encouraging children's and youth librarians to serve in media mentorship capacities to guide children and families in their use of technology and media. Yet little empirical research exists to validate the extent to which children's librarians are serving in this capacity nor the extent to which they feel prepared to do so. This poster will share findings from a research project exploring children's librarians' enactment of media mentorship and offer implications for practice.
