Conference Schedule

Check-in & Breakfast

Welcome session, day-of information

Acquiring in the Age of AI: Add-ons, Opt-ins, and Other Uninvited Guests

George Gottschalk
Betsy Tucker

These days, it seems like every platform is introducing its own proprietary AI tool. In addition, new vendors coming into the libraries space are pitching AI tools that are separate from traditional academic publishers and aggregator databases, without a proven business model. In this session, we will do a deep dive into the trials, tribulations, and technical service details of dealing with free tools we can't opt out of and paid tools we may not be able to afford. We will also touch on the challenges of navigating competing faculty viewpoints on the human and environmental ethics and utility of generative AI. Finally, we'll touch on licensing considerations, as vendors increasingly expect libraries to be the watchdog when it comes to use of licensed materials in generative AI tools, while many librarians are in favor of license terms that allow use in generative AI on similar terms to Text Data Mining.

Using Library Data to Inform Instruction and Outreach Across Disciplines

Mandi Smith

Libraries are often asked to demonstrate student engagement, but that can be challenging at the disciplinary level, especially when many libraries lack discipline-level user data. This session introduces a practical, multi-pathway approach to examining engagement across disciplines using data most libraries already have. It brings together proxy measures, including A-Z link usage (independent access), LibGuide use (guided support), information literacy instruction (instructional integration), course reserves (course integration), and ILL (advanced research or unmet need), to identify patterns in how disciplines interact with library services. Using a single-institution case study, this session will show how to map and interpret these data without relying on user-level tracking. Participants will learn how these patterns can inform instruction and outreach and will leave with a framework and starting points they can apply.

The Value of Failure: What I Gained From "Failed" Programming

Juno Hallock

This presentation will recount my own personal journey as someone who is tasked with library programming but is also susceptible to "doomerism" thought. But more so, it will focus on what there is to learn and gain from what I consider “failed” programs. This presentation will recount a few specific events including new passion projects, longstanding events, and partnered programs with other departments, what I consider to be their shortcomings, but also important lessons I took away from them including ways to measure success beyond numbers, the importance of gathering data and how to use it, and how partnering with other departments and organizations expands our audience and lightens our workload. While it is easy to focus on what goes wrong, it is important to focus on our serendipitous successes.

Building an Inclusive Oral History Initiative: Curiosity, Community, and Sustainable Stewardship

Ryan Leimkuehler
Andrew Rea

This presentation will explore how our library developed a sustainable, community-centered oral history initiative. Our goal is to demonstrate how any library can build an oral history program grounded in curiosity, collaboration, and care/healing. We will begin by outlining the initial scope of our project: documenting underrepresented histories on campus and within our regional community. We will then discuss the process of obtaining buy-in from various stakeholders, as well as the development of appropriate training models for interviewers. In addition to the work already completed on project development and training, we will also address our current progress and future goals regarding appropriate strategies for access and technical preservation. Our guidelines and best practices for metadata regarding our oral history materials will also be shared. Our presentation will conclude with a summary of key lessons we have learned throughout the development of our initiative.

When You Inherit a Department: Practical Strategies for New Liaison Assignments

Monica Maher

What happens when you suddenly inherit a liaison role to one (or more!) departments? As staffing shortages reshape liaison models, many academic librarians are being asked to support unfamiliar disciplines with little lead time. This session shares practical, immediately applicable strategies for stepping into new subject roles while maintaining effective instruction, outreach, and collection development. Drawing on experience supporting the English and World Languages & Literature departments in an interim role, this presentation will outline approaches for quickly learning disciplinary norms, identifying high-impact faculty connections, and prioritizing limited time. Attendees will leave with concrete tools, workflows, and ideas for managing expanded liaison responsibilities in sustainable ways, making this session especially relevant for librarians navigating shifting roles or covering gaps in their organizations.

What's in a Name? That Which We Call a Kit by Any Other Name Would Still Circulate

DeAnn Isenhower

A cataloger creating and cataloging a collection of items in one container will need to make many decisions. The choice to label it a "kit" is one of them. The definition of "kit" can be elusive, and a definition is not currently provided in the Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloging rules. The decision to label an item "kit" does have some benefits, including the use of visual materials for the format, kit for type of material, and how the item displays in the library’s catalog. This presentation contains three acts. In Act 1: The Problem, the presenter will discuss the dilemma of the lack of current definition of "kit" and offer solutions. In Act 2: The Perks, the presenter will provide various choices a cataloger has available to them, how each choice affects the creation of the record, and how it displays in the library's catalog. In Act 3: The Production, the presenter will demonstrate how to create an original bibliographic record using “kit” as the record type.

Making Leaders: Student Employees as Peer Managers and Instructors

Joseph Taylor

Discover how a university library makerspace is transforming student employee development through a dynamic, peer-led training model. Senior student staff often possess advanced skills that can benefit newer students. In 2025, we provided senior students with advanced technological and operations training and placed them into leadership roles to mentor and onboard new student workers. This approach to student training created a continuous cycle of knowledge sharing between junior and senior students, strengthened technical confidence, communication skills, and leadership. This model supports long-term knowledge sustainability in a student-driven working environment and serves to build a sense of camaraderie among student workers as they learn from one another. Learn how this strategy improves operational efficiency and offers adaptable insights for other library units, such as Access Services, that rely heavily on student employment.

This Way Forward: Baby Steps for AI Literacy

Jo Monahan

At a time when Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing exponentially, many academic libraries are needing to step up their AI educational content, instruction, and outreach. For UNT Libraries, developing bite-sized AI literacy content aligns with best practices to increase faculty and student engagement and knowledge of AI. Examples of this outreach are the development of AI literacy tips, the promotion of vendor databases with AI, such as Scopus AI, and the creation of an AI-focused podcast. These are steps that other academic libraries could use to increase AI knowledge on their campuses. As AI in higher education continues to rise, libraries remain vital partners in preparing students and faculty on how to use these tools critically and responsibly. This session will offer an ice breaker, mini-lecture, and think-pair-share for attendees to discuss what they are doing about AI literacy for their patrons.

May I Have Your Attention Please

Sean C. Bird
Tristen Taylor

In an age when information is abundant and attention seems more scarce than ever, librarians of all kinds have opportunities and probably obligations to craft spaces, develop programs, but maybe most of all, teach vocabularies and strategies to members of our communities that emphasize the benefits of slowing down and spending time with people we care about in places that give us comfort while engaged in activities that make us happy, healthy and whole. Jonathan Haidt tells us in The Anxious Generation that teens spend on average 8-10 hours of screen time per day excluding schoolwork. D. Graham Burnett has likened our use of social media to petroleum fracking, but rather than oil, media companies are extracting human attention. U.S. literacy rates are experiencing a decline. Libraries have served as centers of focused attention from our origins as public spaces. Rarely if ever has human flourishing seemed so inaccessible. These are the times that librarians have been destined for.

WebVTT: Captioning for Accessibility on the Web

April Griess

The University of Nebraska Omaha’s Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library Archives & Special Collections is using WebVTT as an affordable, practical solution for increasing accessibility of its oral history collections on the JSTOR platform. In this lightning‑round session, April Griess, UNO Digital Archivist, will demonstrate how to format and validate audiovisual transcripts to meet WebVTT standards. WebVTT (Web Video Text Tracks), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is an open format designed for displaying timed text such as captions and subtitles, making web-based audiovisual content more accessible to deaf and hard‑of‑hearing users. Because it is free, flexible, and requires only a simple text editor, WebVTT offers an easy entry point for institutions seeking to improve accessibility for their audiovisual materials on the web. This session is ideal for anyone looking for practical, cost‑effective captioning solutions.

Wikipedia Edit-a-thons in the Library: Engaging Your Campus and Community

Katie Antrainer

Wikipedia is the world’s largest open-access encyclopedia. While previously looked down on by academia, Wikipedia has proven itself to be a reliable starting point of information over the past 25 years. Many use Wikipedia as a starting point to become more informed about a topic they know nothing about. This lightning talk presentation will show you what it takes to plan a successful Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on your campus or in your community. Wikipedia Edit-a-thons are often developed around a theme with the goal of improving and adding to Wikipedia. Though they are labor-intensive events that take months of planning and promotion to execute, hosting one in the library engages students with its resources, develops information literacy, and shows them how their research and writing skills can make real-world impact.

When Staff Prefer Not to Be on Camera: Social Media Strategies for Libraries

Todd Jensen

Libraries often rely on photos of staff and student workers for social media promotion, but not everyone wants to appear online. This presentation will share how libraries can create engaging social media content when workers prefer not to be photographed or filmed. By using simple animation and video tools, staff can promote services, events, resources, and reminders without relying on images of people. Tools featured in the presentation will include Adobe Express, Canva, and Google Photos. The session will focus on practical approaches that respect employee comfort while still supporting outreach goals. Attendees will see examples of posts that can be created without taking photos, learn how simple tools can turn library information into short videos or graphics, and leave with ideas they can adapt for their own libraries. The goal is to offer realistic strategies for creating privacy-conscious social media content with limited time, staffing, and visual material.

Lunch/networking break

Not Just a Scan: The Work Behind Accessible Course Reserves

Jennie Tobler-Gaston
Laura Mirras

Course reserves have long been a rapid service point in academic libraries, with materials quickly scanned and uploaded for student access. However, federal web accessibility requirements have significantly disrupted this workflow, revealing that many scanned PDFs are inaccessible to users of assistive technologies. This session shares how one academic library redesigned its reserves process using plain language and an accessibility-first approach. Through active learning, attendees will explore the full workflow, from scanning to text recognition, tagging, and remediation, and evaluate tools such as Adobe Acrobat, free platforms, and AI-assisted options. Our findings show that no tool achieves compliance without substantial human labor, increasing processing time from minutes to hours. Attendees will engage in discussion and examples and leave with practical strategies for building sustainable, accessible reserves workflows.

“Why Should I Care?”: Keeping Students’ Attention During Library Workshops

Chrissy Hicks

Armed with an adorable slide deck, you give an entertaining lesson on research methods only to look out into a sea of blank faces, glazed eyes, and upturned screens. Sound familiar? At Truman State University, the Research and Instruction librarians have the opportunity to visit every first-year seminar class for a library workshop at the beginning of the semester. However, without a direct connection between our workshops and a research project, students tend to tune us out. We needed to figure out a strategy to keep students engaged when we were unable to attach the workshop to a specific assignment. This presentation will discuss methods to capture students’ attention during library workshops such as gamification and connecting research skills to “real life” problems or future career goals.

Podcasting: How to Develop, Facilitate, and Host a Podcast in an Academic Library

Jessica Omer

Podcasting has become an increasingly popular medium for communication and storytelling. Libraries, schools, businesses, and everyday individuals have jumped on the bandwagon, creating podcasts that cover millions of diverse topics and innovative ideas. However, despite the widespread interest, there seems to be a gap in the conversation. While many discuss big ideas, personal motivation, and impressive guest lists, few delve into the foundational aspects of the medium. In fact, no one ever really explains the essential steps to starting a podcast or the basic techniques needed to produce one effectively. Understanding the fundamentals of podcasting is vital for anyone looking to share their voice and connect with an audience, and it's time to bridge that gap in knowledge. In this presentation, I will cover the basics and explain the ins and outs of developing, facilitating, hosting, and marketing your very own podcast.

I Regret to Inform You I Am Being Authentic: Unmasking in Academic Libraries

Ashley Creek
Mara Jade Bono

Unmasking is framed as a personal choice—but in academic libraries, it is shaped by workplace culture, expectations, and power dynamics. Drawing on lived experience, the presenters will examine the hidden labor of masking and challenge the idea that librarians must perform constant professionalism. Focusing on academic library contexts, the presenters explore unmasking as an ongoing practice rather than a single decision, the realities of burnout, the pressure to appear “naturally” competent, and the challenges of self-advocacy. Participants will gain sustainable strategies for self-accommodation, including adapting workflows, communicating needs, and using supportive tools. The session also addresses how to identify supporters, navigate conflicting access needs among coworkers, and offer practical approaches to advocacy and boundary-setting. Attendees will leave with tangible ideas for reducing strain, increasing authenticity, and fostering more inclusive professional environments.

Death of the Reference Librarian?

Cameron Nuss
Jill Mahoney

Is the Reference Librarian really dead? Critics of libraries and traditional reference services seem to think so. In the age of social media, Google, and generative-AI, two librarians at a small, private university in rural Missouri have seen a steep decline in student reference interviews. However, much like the bold headlines of the last twenty years claiming that libraries are dead and gone, the assumption that reference services have failed to keep up with the times is just the uncertainty of what to do with new information and technology talking. Drawing from two academic librarians' experiences this presentation aims to answer the age-old question: how do we keep reference services relevant to today's student? Jill Mahoney, Director of the Library and Cameron Nuss, Research and Instruction Librarian, will share how William Woods University meets students halfway, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral students, alongside their research into modern reference services.

Tr-AI-ning the trainers: Introducing library database AI tools to library and disciplinary faculty

Kristi J. Chavez

As major library databases rapidly integrate AI-driven features into their interfaces, librarians and teaching faculty at CSU, Bakersfield, found they struggled to keep pace. This evolution presented a triple challenge: to increase awareness, share pedagogical implications, and address faculty reticence toward AI. In this session, a librarian in reference and discovery, discusses how she addressed these obstacles by coordinating efforts to test and demonstrate database AI tools with busy colleagues, including librarians and teaching faculty. These demos created quick, hands-on opportunities to expose colleagues to on-board database AI tools, preparing them for reference services, connecting with subject areas, and sparking conversations on AI tool usage in research and assignments across colleges. Attendees will gain practical strategies to foster awareness and dialogues on the use and application of library database AI tools in reference, instruction, research, and coursework.

Fostering Creative Thinking Through Library Instruction

Claire Reinert

Creativity is rarely the first word that comes to mind when students think about the library, yet creativity is a core element of two ACRL frames that most instruction librarians work with daily. Research as Inquiry and Searching as Strategic Exploration both implicitly require creative thinking by assuming learners who can think flexibly, tolerate ambiguity, and approach research as an open-ended process. This lightning talk examines what creativity means in academic library contexts and how instruction librarians can intentionally design learning experiences that activate and develop that capacity. When instructors make this shift, library instruction becomes an opportunity to foster creative thinking skills that prepare students for real-world challenges. The library instruction session is an underutilized space for creative development and recognizing it as such may meaningfully reframe library instruction as a space for creative growth.

LibSites: An Early Adopter’s Perspective from a Small University Library

Rose Adams

Is your library thinking about moving your library website to LibSites? Get a straightforward, behind-the-scenes look at what you can expect along the way. This lightning session shares one small university library’s experience transitioning from LibGuides—what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised us. We’ll walk through key decisions, unexpected challenges, and the realities of managing a split LibSites/LibGuides environment while maintaining usability and link stability. You’ll also hear an honest take on working with Springshare support, including where guidance was helpful and where gaps required some more creative workarounds. Walk away with experience-based strategies you can adapt to get the most out of LibSites and make your own migration smoother, more intentional, and far less frustrating.

Library tour

Wrap-up and prize drawings

Closing remarks, door-prize drawings, and thank you

After-conference Social/Dinner

Location and details to come