Tuesday, March 28, 2017

This innovative and forward-thinking library CEO shares her secrets to becoming a role model for libraries around the world. She discusses how the roles of librarians and libraries are changing to be community leaders and change agents. Librarians are the new superheroes - developing new toolkits, skills, and relationships to facilitate positive change in their communities. We can change the world by working with our communities and helping make them better places to live, work, learn, and play. 

This popular annual favorite features our super searcher who continues to surprise and impress with new strategies, techniques, and tips for getting the most out of web research. The host of Searchers Academy (where even more secrets are shared) provides an up-to-the minute and jam-packed-with-valuable-tools-and-tips talk that’s always a hit! Bates tells us she takes 2 days to research this session, so take advantage of her knowledge and gather tips and tools to share with others!

Our eagle-eyed industry watcher talks about how to find good apps and shares a number of apps that library customers, info pros, and newbies will want to check out. He also shares the top sites and tools that info pros and searchers will want to use. Come and benefit from his vast knowledge and gather tips and tools to share with others.

Faculty have immense influence over the way students conduct research: They assign it, recommend resources, and are the gatekeepers of libraries’ access to the classroom. They’re also researchers in their own right, and both libraries and vendors work to understand how they can support advanced, subject-specific faculty research workflows as well as those of novice undergraduates. Hear the results of EBSCO’s User Research team, who spent the fall conducting a large-scale, ethnographic project on the way faculty conduct research and use library resources. Results are compared to earlier findings about students’ research habits.

Get the results of the 10th annual International Survey of Library Automation, which probes the impressions of the strategic resource management systems implemented by libraries and the vendors which provide them. Breeding discusses the trends revealed by the survey results, especially focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of each product as used by libraries of each size and grouping type.

Search constantly evolves. Learn how changes in search affect your working life, taking you to new professional heights without bringing you down with nostalgic remembrances of abandoned search features.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

Think your UX toolbox is full already? Make room for customer/ library user journey mapping. Find out what this method is all about and why it’s so effective in bringing together administrators, stakeholders, and team members to determine priority actions. Customer journey maps show all the touchpoints that a user interacts with to meet a particular need. By mapping the same need by different user segments, you create a compelling visual representation of the issues that need to be addressed. Journey mapping can also be used over time to illustrate what progress is being made toward improving services. Learn how to create a customer journey map that can make a difference in your community.

UX research helps fuel the design of new services for tomorrow’s library by offering insights into the “wants” and “needs” of the library’s users and non-users. It also reveals “how” and “why” people use your website. The first presentation shares research results that have helped spark new approaches and design decisions as well as promote deeper engagement and participation by users on the website. Learn how content is introduced to patrons at appropriate moments in their website visit so that it encourages deeper exploration of the library’s collections and services. Find out how they encourage visitors to participate online, leading to a richer experience for everyone. When Metropolitan State University was redesigning its website, some unexpected user behaviors were uncovered which led the team to broaden their vision of the library web experience to include spaces such as a newly developed Google Business Page and a Wikipedia entry. The team also employed some new content and approaches based on their findings to ensure visitors could use the library and find the homepage in the ways that worked best for them.

Join three web experts to learn about tips, tools, and techniques for taking the pain out of website redesigns. Haugh provides advice on the visual design of your next site and shows some examples of library web redesigns. Degler takes a look at why many libraries are using popular, free, CSS-based frameworks such as Bootstrap; explains how the grid layout works; and shows how the built-in responsive design layouts can deliver a site that works on desktop, smartphones, and tablets. Often the biggest challenge in redesign isn’t the visual design, content management system or coding. It’s the people and politics. Everyone thinks they know what the library website should look like, but no two people—let alone groups—can ever agree. How do you move ahead with a library redesign when you’re facing conflicting demands from the administration, co-workers, users, and stakeholders? Mitchell tackles this challenge head on and points out the weapons that we have at hand—from data to documentation; and discusses how to wield those weapons effectively to win (almost) any fight in order to build a great website. Grab lots of insights and ideas from this experienced panel.

UNC Libraries’ User Experience department migrated the library’s 1,200-plus databases from a 15-year old, custom- developed, in-house system to the LibGuides A–Z Database List. Arnold shares key usability study findings of the database listings before and after the migration, lessons learned during the migration, and best practices for managing a project of this size with multiple stakeholders across the library’s departments. Find out whether or not your website should take users directly to an e-resource when they click on the link to it or show them an intermediary database page providing log in and other user information.

Providing help to users at the point of need is critical to easing user frustration and stress, but we can’t be everywhere at once. That’s why the University at Arizona created Guide on the Side (GotS), an easy-to-use online, interactive tutorial application that lives in the user’s web browser. GotS encourages active learning and can also provide support for assessment. Bertel and Riley provide an overview of the Guide on the Side pilot project at SUNY and how it’s being used by content creators and users. Insights gained moving to this new active learning approach are shared along with best practices for use and implementation.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

Too often, teens are immersed in their smartphones and other screens. Our speakers are developing strategies to get them to look up and engage with their world—by learning how to interview key community members and explore the history of their neighborhoods. In doing so, they are helping teens develop important professional skills, as well as building bridges across diverse groups of people in their city. The library is a safe and trusted community hub for this learning to take place. Get a road map for your community to engage teens and teach them new skills while building stronger ties and connecting to the community.

This session looks at how one library created a technology class and programming model that spans a 21-branch, 844-square-mile library system. It discusses mobile classrooms and how Chromebooks, MacBooks, tablets, and other equipment are used to create “classrooms” throughout the system. It shares how the library is focusing on members and programming for the community, for instance, the development of Spanish language, 50+ and immigrant/refugee programming. It looks at developing new programs and instructors using the 3D model from printer to pens, from tablets to coding, from core expertise to everyone. NYPL speakers discuss how coding is the new black! They discuss how to launch a coding program at your library, how to expand the age range of current coding programs, how to promote events related to your program to gain participants, how to get staff buy-in, how to educate staff, and how to create partnerships with some of the biggest names in the game. The NYPL Tech- Connect program will help you plan out all your needs to take your existing or non-existing coding programs further.

Technology may provide the tools, but if your community building program isn’t aligned properly to your customers’ needs and your organization’s mission, you’ll encounter problems. Proffitt discusses the value of librarians involvement in Wikipedia, how their participation can lead to positive promotion and impact in the global community. Blowers, shares her insights and tips in building and creating online communities to successfully support learning, customer engagement, and information sharing.

In the fall of 2016, Koios launched an experiment with a small group of innovative public libraries to attract new patrons online. The goal was to promote physical and digital collections, databases, and services by associating them with likely search terms, such as “lord of the rings audiobook” and “learn spanish free online.” Hear the results of the search engine optimization (SEO) experiment and its impacts on circulation and service utilization at participating libraries.

In 2012, Contra Costa County Library won the IMLS Medal of Honor for its Discover and Go culture pass program, which is powered by Quipu Group’s service. In 2016, southern and northern California library systems became united in being able to offer passes to museums, parks, aquariums and many other cultural institutions through their shared Discover & Go service. The partnerships being built through this program are quite powerful. ePASS is currently implemented in close to 50 libraries, including San Francisco Public Library and Multnomah County Library. MacKinnon, part of the Discover & Go development team, discusses the goals and implementation of ePASS and how it continues to create relationships across California libraries and cultural institutions. After seeing the power of cooperation with ePASS, Quipu Group launched its newest collaborative service, Patron Incident Tracking System (PITS) in 2015. PITS allows libraries to cooperate with other county/city/governmental agencies on the reporting of difficult and problematic patrons who repeatedly challenge these institutions and the safety of their other patrons and staff. PITS is currently in use in five large urban library districts. Hear how the Quipu Group developed PITS and ePASS by working closely with library agencies with application needs not currently met through traditional delivery systems.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

Our experienced practitioners from one of the world’s largest public libraries share their strategies and practices for enhancing customer experience in libraries, from customer service, easy-to-use digital resources, creative innovation and making spaces, and a huge range of programs. Get lots of tips and techniques!

The NIH Library has been partnering with government and other health-related clients since 1901. Its staff utilize high-level skills to find custom information solutions. Hear about the NIH staff—informationists, librarians, scientists, and other staff who are highly trained to collaborate and find information solutions and digitize and curate special collections and databases; NIH services; and the supporting technology.

Not only does our experienced academic library leader discuss how she and her staff upped their game and implemented change on their campus, she shares secrets of how to continuously deal with change both in a library’s immediate community as well as in an ever-changing world!

The leader ofLibrary Journal’s Library of the Year discusses innovation. She shares tips and techniques for empowering staff to be innovative and create programs and services that resonate with library communities.

This panel of small/medium library directors has some different issues and challenges. Get the secrets to their success as they share lessons learned from their library experiences. Get tips and ideas from this interesting group of practitioners.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

Evidence informs the practice of librarianship, helps us plan for program growth, and ensures that learners are learning. Evidence is also about leadership. Careful use of selected emerging tools presents new models for librarians, teachers, and students to leverage technology for their own collaboration and analysis. Joyce, Michelle and Shannon share a toolkit of innovative approaches for gathering and analyzing evidence, tools that demonstrate vision, accountability, and professional leadership to reinvigorate your practice.

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries staff have been working on an ambitious pilot project to put the Libraries’ digital images directly into PK-12 classrooms across the U.S., with London-based company Museum in a Box. The pilot is designed to expand the Smithsonian Libraries’ visual literacy resource, I See Wonder, and connect students with a new object every day for a school year. Museum in a Box is a cutting-edge tool for object-based learning, where museum objects (3D and 2D) are fitted with sensors that connect with a computer in the box, called the “brain.” Touching an item on the brain plays back a story or fact about it, and the students can even record their impression back into the brain. Come try a box and hear about the project so far.

Every year, the CIL Internet@Schools track provides a wealth of information. How can librarians and educators track technology for the remaining 51 weeks of the year? What are practical ways to develop our skills in the midst of our busy schedules? A school librarian and public reference librarian have been researching that question over the past year and share findings from a literature search; from an informal poll of librarians, teachers and technologists; and from their own personal experiences in this area. Take their tips on how to stay on top of tech.

recent collaborative effort between a high school social studies teacher and a school librarian transformed a “same-old” unit on social movements in the 20th century into a dynamic study of effective social activism—and how students can become effective activists. Using both primary and secondary resources, students learned to analyze social issues, then to identify the type of activism that proved effective for those issues. Next, students selected social situations important to them, analyzed the changes they sought to effect, and determined a means of activism to effect that change in practical—and often surprising—ways. The project’s design and implementation is straightforward and replicable. This session provides concrete steps to follow, specific patterns for locating learning resources, and reproducible forms that educators can carry back to their own campuses.

There is good news out there in school library land! Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia is a system where the superintendent supports, fully staffs, and funds school libraries. The result? Libraries as sources of inspiration. Hear from three Albemarle County school librarians as they share maker success, discuss the variety of experiences they promote … and get honest about challenges.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.

Our discussions begin with the big-picture global perspective, move to the local community view, and are followed by table interactive discussions.

This panel of leaders shares how they are dealing with changes in the world as well as their strategies, practices, and plans for the future. Lots of time is set aside for audience interaction and discussion.

Summit sponsors share their insights of trends and practices as well as strategies for future proofing libraries.

Collections are a critical asset of libraries and are in continually changing formats. Join the discussion around e-resources vs. print, multimedia, open access, intellectual property, self-publishing, repositories, curating, pricing and financing, and more. A longtime champion for ebooks in libraries, de Castell talks about the ebook journey and her visions for the future. She looks at what has been accomplished; what we’re seeing now; emphasizes the need to focus in the future, for instance, on self-published ebooks: balancing access and a healthy creative industry, and re-establishing our role as curators and trusted sources for recommendations. And, of course, easy technology.

This panel addresses another key asset of libraries— staff! It covers continuous learning, customer service, hiring skills, outsourcing processes, succession planning, and more. Make sure your future is sustainable with the right expertise for your community.

Join us for tasty bites and drinks as we celebrate the grand opening of the 2017 Computers in Libraries Exhibition. Featuring leading-edge companies, the exhibition offers visitors a choice of products in all aspects of library technology, including web-based products and services, integrated library and information systems, online services, document delivery services, and more.