Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Positioning today’s libraries as community crossroads for prosperity is a nascent area for digital transformation. Few public resources are as “switched on” to the heartbeat of a community and its economic development than the library— and users don’t just want information, they want actionable intelligence. Our speakers share the insights gleaned from working with more than 30 library systems while experimenting with a library-friendly, purpose-built methodology to deepen the relationships between libraries and the communities they serve by designing and telling more impactful stories which help shape community dialog and library advocacy. Get ideas and insights to use in your library community!

This session examines the three types of open access (green, gold, and the newest, platinum), describes the approaches of the movers and shakers, and highlights both exciting new initiatives and thought-provoking issues.

Scholars have unprecedented access to subscription and open access (OA) content, yet figuring out how to discover and access legitimate versions of articles remains an aggravating experience for many researchers. They face authentication hoops, myriad vendor platforms with uncertain holdings, and mystifying an obscure OA source. Researchers that start with Google Scholar may bypass library authentication and face paywalls. Conversely, library discovery tools fail to expose and deliver much of the available OA content, and especially under-represent Green OA from repositories. Our panel discusses several approaches to improving access discovery by giving scholars tools to identify accessible content and using open access versions of articles, including oaDOI, and the plugins Unpaywall and Kopernio. The oaDOI system is a free, open-source database that tracks OA for 90 million scholarly articles. Unpaywall is a browser extension that helps readers find OA copies of scholarly articles as they browse. Kopernio is a browser extension that provides one-click access to the best PDF available to a user, either from library holdings or OA. Hear from each developer describing their plugin, how it works, and the underlying philosophy and aims, and future plans. Get additional approaches to revealing access, and explore the impact of increased discoverability on the place of OA in scholarly research. Consider the role of libraries in promoting plugins to researchers, approaches to assessment, and coordinating the tools with existing library technologies.

Several cities are developing websites that create, promote, and capture scholarship related to their urban areas, with librarians as key players. Bicknell looks at how three U.S. cities have created evolving platforms which foster and showcase new research, with an eye toward librarians’ roles in organizing information and fostering public engagement. Atlanta, Kansas City, and others have taken different paths to success: unplanned alliances of separate projects, a library-managed city research portal, as well as an innovative lab leveraging crowdsourcing and community voices to surface collections and create new information and to share knowledge more broadly. Learn from the experiences of new collaboration models! Aiken discusses an online open access repository containing almost all past and present Yale faculty legal scholarship. Hear how the library engaged use by students with a series of outreach events, exhibitions, and competitions centering on the repository, which culminated in the publication of a series of online and physical books featuring student creative writing, and which has launched the careers of two soon-to-be famous fiction writers.

This double session looks at tools and practices for opening access and expanding customer experience. Heise discusses Shared Shelf, a web-based application for cataloging and managing digital collections. She shares how this tool enabled an institutional repository and image management initiative, coordinated through the library, to include student art projects, university PR photographs, art history faculty photos, digitized photos from library collections, realia collection images, and, soon, audio recordings and more. Lafleur discusses facilitating and collaborating on digital humanities projects for the past 3 years by providing digital tools, publishing platforms, know-how, and specialized training. Shared Shelf (ARTstor’s asset management system) is provided to catalog artifacts and other primary sources when a custom schema and controlled vocabularies are required. Lafleur focuses on three projects, sharing their merits and challenges: embedding library expertise in academic settings; becoming integral to the pedagogical approach of instructors; and being key partners to creating a rich learning environment. The last presentation discusses how creating a profile for your library with a distinct personality can be a challenge, especially in the current digital age, where social media and mobile platforms are patrons’ main sources of interaction and information-gathering. Hear how one university library used Adobe Spark to upgrade its social media to engage with patrons at their level through the platforms they frequent the most, such as Instagram. By having a unique profile with a strong voice that attracts patrons, the library ups their digital marketing and engagement.

Understanding the ever-changing environment within which your community or organization exists is critical to setting the direction for your library and its staff. Get insights and ideas on how to be aware of the big picture in your environment from this longtime practitioner! Hear how the program and services are evolving as they engage their community.

Effectively communicating the true return on investment for information services means more than just counting hours saved or searches conducted. In order to convey the true ROI of your information center, you have to understand what matters most to the people who matter the most. Bates provides new approaches for identifying WHY you are doing what you do and what impact that has on your organization’s most important goals.

The Research Library at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System recently formed a Technology Team to increase the library’s technology capacity. This cross-team collaboration brainstorms, coordinates, and manages technology-related projects for the library. Hear about the idea and origins, goals, benefits, accomplishments, and future proposals.

Participants gain an understanding of how to build a vision and strategy for their organization, create an understanding of their customer segments, and experiment with some of the latest technologies being applied in library settings including, 3D printing, virtual/augmented reality, data sciences, digital scholarship, and custom website development.

This session looks at different aspects of the reference interview, both in person and in computer-mediated environments. Communication theory is discussed as it relates to reference interviews, including why they are needed. Topics include problems inherent in the interview process, goals, characteristics, how to communicate effectively, different techniques for interviews conducted in person vs. via telephone or computer, and tips for what to do if the patron is unhappy. This session will be useful for anyone who does reference interviews or collaborative research, or for anyone teaching/training library students or assistants.

Whether you already have a makerspace or are ready to start developing one, this mini-workshop is filled with ideas and strategies to move forward. Filled with tips and techniques, our experienced speakers give you all you need to get started with a makerspace in your area and to move it into becoming a solve space! They share challenges such as dealing with tech and funding, present real-world examples, and inspire you with the impact of their initiatives.

Makerspaces have traditionally been located in a single, fixed location in the library that is available for patrons of all ages. Although the model of grouping all makerspace technology in one area has been successful, a fixed space can limit how many patrons can access the materials at any given time and limit programming capabilities. The Sachem Public Library has created The Studio makerspace, which encompasses areas in Adult, Teen and Children’s (Studio A, Studio T and Studio C, respectively). Studio A is located in a central, open area while Studio T and Studio C are located in the Teen and Children’s departments. Studio technology such as the 3D printer, embroidery machine, robotics, digital art, video production with green screen technology, virtual reality systems, and other items are mobile and can be shared between departments or taken outside the building for outreach. This multi-departmental and mobile approach allows for independent development so technologies needed in each “Studio” can be age-specific, allowing for flexibility.

In 2016, The Citadel began initial plans to develop a campus- wide makerspace, where students, faculty, and staff could explore interdisciplinary collaboration and emerging technologies in an accessible, dynamic environment. Turkewitz covers the challenges and creative solutions encountered when establishing the makerspace. Principled leadership is a core focus, and the makerspace was developed with these important pillars in mind: prepare, engage, serve, and lead. Decisions on the location, purpose, and mission of the makerspace emerged from this core focus and guided purchasing choices, service model, workshop plans, and outreach efforts to the campus and the Charleston community. Gain insights and ideas! Woodall discusses how the SU Libraries integrated virtual reality (VR) into its makerspace with an HTC Vive and offers suggestions for those looking to offer this exciting new technology to their own patrons. Whether you already have a makerspace or you are just starting to think about creating one, he gives you the tools you need to decide whether VR equipment will work for your space, what policies you should have to ensure your users and equipment stay safe, and how to set everything up so that it works reliably. You also hear about what didn’t work for the SU Libraries MakerLab, so you can avoid the same mistakes!

Many school libraries are interested in making the shift from passively providing reading and research material to actively facilitating in STEM skills development and student creativity. These efforts involve everything from traditional arts and crafts to programming, robotics, and 3D printing. Roquet explains how his K–8 library launched a successful makerspace program that looks beyond buzzy educational toys and acts as a platform to support all kinds of student creativity and production using physical and digital media. This program seeks to support individual student interests while building skill sets that support 21st-century literacies and engaged citizenship— not just skills that lead to jobs in the technology sector. Uhlmann discusses the process of needs assessment, program planning, purchasing equipment, reconfiguring a space, and program rollout and promotion for a digital memory lab makerspace in a school library environment.

Breeding coined the term “library services platforms” to describe the new genre of products for the management of library collections and operations, which differ substantially from the long-standing category of integrated library systems. This session includes an updated view of the characteristics of library services platforms, how they differ from ILS, as well as the status of the current products and projects. It discusses hybrid models and those that partially incorporate the characteristics. Breeding shares his insights as to whether library services platforms have lived up to their promises. In addition, he shares results of his international survey highlighting library satisfaction with current automation systems and tracks trends such as interest in open source products and interest in moving to competing products.

Many libraries have been following Linked Data on the Gartner curve, from “hype” to the “trough of disillusionment.” What comes next? Join our expert as he tries to take things (not strings!) up the “slope of enlightenment.” If you’re not familiar with Linked Data, get a quick primer, view of the landscape and ideas for future application. And if you are familiar, then separate myth from reality, hear the latest triumphs and pitfalls faced by research libraries such as the LD4L (Linked Data For Libraries) and OCLC Research.

Pichman walks through the tools that help provide anonymity and some ways to help mitigate the ease of being tracked. He goes beyond private VPNs and Tor Browsing to provide other tips and tricks. He gives an overview of some of the common devices, either hardware- or software-based, that are used by the Dark Side, and some easy-to-use defenses that you and your users can employ to protect yourselves from these attack vectors. Think of it as a Defense Against the Dark Arts class!

While much worthy attention has been paid to improving “last-mile” connectivity for rural and tribal libraries, it’s the last 100 meters (the network inside the building) that is often overlooked and in need of improvement. The IMLS-funded Toward Gigabit Libraries project aims to address that problem through a self-service toolkit suitable for even the most novice of library workers. In straightforward, easy-to-understand language, the toolkit is designed to take lay people through technical concepts and tasks to create a Broadband Improvement Plan for each library. Fresh from the overwhelmingly successful pilot implementation of the toolkit in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, Alaska, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, Werle and Carson share the results of the pilot, lessons learned, and how this free toolkit applies to libraries of all types and sizes. Johnston discusses how, between May and July 2017, 10.6 million Americans commented favorably on equal access to online information, yet the FCC is seriously considering revoking the 2015 act that protects it. She explains that the ALA has pointed out that readers with internet access only through dial-up services or through community resources are most at risk of receiving limited and/or biased information, as are schools and other nonprofits with limited budgets. If wealthy companies can pay to have their electronic content delivered first and fastest, then nonprofits, new authors, minorities, and public interest groups may lose their ability to reach citizens nationwide. Get some ideas and strategies for how librarians can promote access to all information, not just content that makes money.

The SimplyE app provides an intuitive interface for public library patrons, creating a union catalog across major ebook aggregators, while hiding the aggravation of DRM behind a simple library card log in. An open source project, many organizations have worked with its primary developer, New York Public Library, to develop and implement this solution. Join two of the implementers as they discuss the app’s functionality, the implementation process, lessons learned, and the status of each of their projects.

School librarianship has seen renewed interest as a potential corrective to “fake news” and other recent (real and perceived) information literacy failures. The internet has weakened traditional journalism; altered the economics of academic publishing and content production; created new networks of bigotry and disinformation; and, at least in theory, empowered young people around the world with immediate access to information and new tools to share their own knowledge and identities. But by largely hewing to traditional notions of bias, authority, and the nature of academic and civic engagement, school librarians may have reinforced existing inequalities and made themselves less relevant in the world our students will face. Can we transform information literacy instruction to help create the world we want to live in? Join us to discuss disturbing the comfortable, what these changes might look like, and how we can implement them in school libraries.

Beyond Google tricks, Valenza and Boyer share strategies for transforming students (high school, college, and graduate) into thoughtful, playful, and creative researchers. Abraham Maslow tells us: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, treat everything as if it were a nail.” By promoting skills and naming and visualizing classic strategies, students address threshold concepts and assemble a toolkit—understanding when they need a hammer and when a wrench works best. Incorporating ACRL’s frame “Searching as Strategic Exploration,” and AASL’s Shared Foundation of Inquiry, speakers explore search as creative problem-solving and share strategies for moving novice searchers towards agility and expertise.

EBSCO’s User Research team often builds tools based on their research to communicate with stakeholders and development teams. Recently, they’ve worked on a set of K–12 personas, as well as a tool getting more and more attention in the field of user experience. Get an in-depth look at the personas and new tools designed for them.

As we focus increasingly on redesigning libraries as Future Ready spaces, how can we incorporate student voices into our planning and design?  Learn strategies for gathering and incorporating student input using tech tools, design thinking strategies, focus groups, and more.

We most often use the web at the time of need and spend little time building or curating collections from the multitude of open web resources. Building a collection allows us to share potentially useful resources with users. What sources are we missing and how can we find them? Our expert not only shares some of the tools he uses each day to compile INFOdocket but describes the mindset needed to become an open web collector and curator, as well as strategies and tools for keeping track of what you are curating.

Explore how to adapt NPR’s Create Once Publish Everywhere (COPE) model to a library’s website(s) and resources. Degler covers coping strategies to alleviate the frustration of editing or correcting out-of-date and conflicting content across a variety of online resources. Example approaches include syncing navigation menus, repurposing content, and abstracted URLs across the library’s websites, resources, LibGuides, and discovery platform. Get lots of tips and tricks to use in your environment!

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is transitioning to open source as their next Library Management System of the library's 1.5 million plus holdings. They are also creating a unified catalog allowing students to easily find all of the resources needed in one interface. Hear how the decision was made by The Virginia Tech University Libraries for this large scale academic library adoption, their challenges and experiences.

If you're in a hurry and just need to eat, then pretty much any salad will satisfy you. But if you're training for an iron man and observing a strict ketogenic diet, you'll likely have strong and specific preferences about what goes into your salad. Research is not so different. When you use online databases, what constitutes an optimal experience is almost entirely a function of what you're trying to achieve. Learn how the development of highly responsive and adaptive platforms can help researchers achieve their objectives far more efficiently than ever before.

A federally-funded project led by Univ. of Maryland's iSchool will be implementing a new auto-personalization system in several test libraries in 2018-19. Library patrons can use the system to choose and automatically store their preferred settings in the cloud, which instantly change the computers in libraries, schools, work, and home to a form that is easier for them to understand and use. This will improve the digital experience for people with diverse abilities, skills and interests, including those experiencing barriers to computer use because of disabilities, aging, or low digital literacy.  Hear more from our speaker.

Looking for new and novel ways to increase your library’s traffic and maximize your outreach efforts? Join this cybertour for marketing ideas from three award-winning federal libraries, staffed by Zimmerman Associates, Inc.

Get tips on doing an assessment of information literacy instruction and mapping it to student learning outcomes, ACRL Framework and the AACU rubric for learning. Hear how this library used LibWizard to create the pre-and post-test, embedded in a private LibGuide and then deployed in selected classes using NetSupport Tutor or Blackboard Learning Management System. With a baseline of learning outcomes, results were analyzed using the LibWizard reports as well as Voyant Tools to analyze free text comments. Hear the results and get some info on the tech tools they used.

Thesauri support consistent indexing, and high precision and recall in retrieval in research databases, but on the customer end, thesauri are often overlooked in user interfaces which promote a simplified search experience. Hear about the features and benefits of a thesaurus, how the “hidden” thesaurus can be found, and see through subscription database demos and screenshots. As editor of the Gale subject thesaurus, our speaker hopes to encourage librarians to guide, train, and/or provide documentation to users to encourage them to find and make use of a database’s thesaurus to get the most accurate results.

Experienced the problem of dead links and getting the dreaded 404 page not found notice? Link Rot affects scholarship, legal opinions, and scientific research. An even more troubling problem is reference rot where the links still work but the content is altered in such a way that it no longer reflects the original text. Recent studies point out that both link rot and reference rot are eroding the accessibility and reliability of Supreme Court opinions, legal scholarship, and scientific research. Hear more about the problem and various solutions being offered to prevent the loss of important scholarly, scientific, and cultural content.

Thinking of purchasing your first 3D printer but not sure where to start? Already own one but feel it’s underutilized? This talk is dedicated to ensuring that 3D printing at your library is successful and sustainable! Learn how to train staff, develop programs and services for the public, market your library’s 3D printer and communicate value to stakeholders.

The panel shares their insights about the future and discusses the key areas libraries should be focusing on. The session includes an interactive discussion with the audience. Bring your tech concerns and discuss them with colleagues and experts.

This session looks at the elephants on the table and other prickly topics that we like to avoid facing and, therefore, solving. Be ready to have an honest conversation and feel uncomfortable, but get some insights for addressing tough issues and decisions.

Change is hard—how can we do it better? Learn from longtime practitioners in museums and libraries as well as the tech industries as they share models, strategies and recommendations for creating dynamic organizations that can deal with, and master, change. Be inspired and take home solid ideas for moving your organization forward and engaging its community.

This session looks at how libraries can distinguish themselves from other communities, activities, and services; how they can partner with some of those other community groups and still keep their distinctiveness, and more. Think about where the learning commons ends and the library starts and how they interact; where the museum ends and the library starts; how public libraries can share programs with the zoo; how academic libraries can draw their non-academic communities in for support; and more.

Over the years, Pew Research has consistently indicated that Americans trust libraries and librarians. In today’s digital environment, high-quality journalism can be difficult to distinguish from promotional content or even fakery. Santa Clara University’s Trust Project explores how journalism can stand out from the chaotic crowd and signal its trustworthiness. The project crafts tangible digital strategies to fulfill journalism’s basic pledge: to serve society with a truthful, intelligent and comprehensive account of ideas and events. New technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is also making it difficult to determine facts and cope in this era of total noise. Our speakers address these areas and definitely give you lots to think about and address!