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Instruction/Reference Lightning Round Outreach Technology
Policy revisions to support successful student employees: A cross-institutional comparison
Janelle Sander
Marissa Ellermann
The way student employees are managed often evolves with changes in Library service priorities and staffing. Sometimes it is necessary to review policies and practices to make sure they are in alignment with the goals of the library.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Access Service unit currently relies on full-time staff and undergraduate student workers at the Circulation Desk. Because undergraduate students are often new to the workforce, we are often teaching them how to be employees while we are teaching them how to perform the basic procedures for our department. To successfully negotiate this process, we have incorporated a contract-based training system along with a point-tracking model to ensure that we are fully training our student workers and keeping them accountable. This also serves as a communication tool that allows them to understand how they are performing and reduces misunderstandings.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) uses graduate hourly employees to supplement staff coverage of the Central Access Services/Main Stacks circulation desk. As Illinois moved toward this model, it became obvious that policies surrounding graduate hourly employees needed to be revisited to support desk coverage in this way for the long-term. The presentation will discuss navigating the policy revision process with supervisors, staff, and the students themselves, and the impacts of implementation on personnel and services.
Active learning toolkits: Online learning & AI literacy
Kelly Jones
Holly McMasters
This session addresses practical ways to approach active learning in the challenging new contexts of online learning and artificial intelligence. We will provide a toolkit of active learning options that can be incorporated into both synchronous and asynchronous instruction. We will address various issues, including prompt engineering, critical analysis of AI outputs, student-led self-assessment, integration of accessible media, and more. The aim of the session is to provide academic instructors with the tools to promote critical engagement with instructional materials in a rapidly changing digital world. Participants will come away with a toolkit of activities and resources that they can integrate into their own instruction.
Chaotic good: Letting students lead the charge against library anxiety
Mara Bono
Ashley Creek
Library anxiety is one of the most significant barriers between students and a successful academic career. Anxiety can often stem from uncertainty and the fear of looking inexperienced, particularly among first generation students. University of Saint Mary librarians have cultivated a reputation as the campus hub, implementing passive and active programming to develop a culture of belonging. From the moment students first visit campus, librarians attempt to create a welcoming space that encourages student engagement with library spaces, staff, and resources. This presentation will walk through the various setups, outreach, planning, and unconventional approaches that go into creating an academic library students consider their favorite place on campus.
The odd couple: Partnering with collection development to provide effective weeding criteria
Rob O’Brien-Withers
Nearly 10 years ago, the Miami University library placed the reference collection in what was intended to be a temporary location until a better one could be found. There simply isn't room to move a collection of this size, so placing it in a better location depends on effective downsizing of the existing collection.
The presenter compiled and interpreted data and presented it in such a way that selection librarians could easily identify the most obvious candidates for removal. He also sorted through the data to identify lists of materials most likely to be candidates for deselection, including materials that were:
From concept to classroom: The journey of creating an information literacy course
Mary Schulte
Lorraine Patrick
Emily DeAngelis
What if every college graduate left not just with content knowledge, but with the ability to critically discern credible sources, construct evidence-based arguments, and navigate digital information landscapes with confidence? At Bellevue University, the library set out to make this vision a reality by creating a standalone, credit-bearing information literacy course: Introduction to Information Literacy. This initiative aligns with Bellevue University’s mission to deliver a career-focused education that ensures graduates are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in the professional world. This presentation explores how libraries can move beyond one-shot sessions and become curricular leaders in shaping 21st-century learning.
Joining forces on sources: Lessons learned in collaborating with a disciplinary instructor to teach active-learning workshops using a critical information literacy approach
Kristi Chavez
In an age of questionable information sources, shifting authority, and limited time in the classroom, how can librarians empower students to develop and practice information literacies? This lightning talk discusses how an academic librarian addressed this question, by detailing her work collaborating with a writing instructor to develop and teach synchronous active-learning workshops using Critical Information Literacy (CIL) oriented content and pedagogical approaches that enhanced the instructor’s social justice themed assignment. After teaching multiple sessions across two semesters, this librarian implemented improvements in content delivery and active learning opportunities that reinforced students’ agency in source evaluation and selection. This approach was a mutually beneficial partnership that simultaneously addressed the instructor’s Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and aspects of the Information Literacy Framework. Attendees will glean valuable takeaways the presenter learned from these experiences and strategies librarians can use to tailor workshops and collaborate with instructors, including how to scaffold assignments and activities for seamless delivery, learning reinforcement, and helpful technologies and resources that can enhance the delivery and impact of similar workshops.
Crisis management in the library: Prepared to help students!
Sabrina Gillo
When a student comes to us in distress, we want to help them. However, it can be difficult to know what to say, what to ask, and how to connect them with the help they need, especially outside regular business hours when campus care locations are closed. We also don’t want to cross professional boundaries. These situations can leave us with questions like: How can we support students without overstepping? What specific care or resources are best for this unique situation? How do I help students access care? To answer these questions, the University of Texas at Dallas’s McDermott Library staff collaborated with care professionals to create a Crisis Management staff resource that includes manageable steps for addressing mental health crises both during and outside regular business hours, in person and on chat, as well as a specific brochure for students to help them access care 24/7.
Connections simplified: The evolution of a library outreach plan
Nancy Marshall
Librarians developed a comprehensive outreach plan to guide our efforts to connect with various campus constituencies at our midsize, public university. The plan outlines actions to be taken with key populations such as undergraduates, graduate students, and dual-credit students using simple tools such as email and the university’s student success platform. The plan evolved from more complex and time-intensive versions that included significant reporting requirements. As librarians sought to develop a more streamlined and useful plan, we also reconsidered who our distance students are and how best to reach and engage with them. Ultimately, we have developed an outreach plan that is effective and impactful.
Colleague collaboration to curate an exhibit for a first year tutorial
Allison Haack
Jocelyn Krueger
Phil Jones
In this session, three colleagues from Grinnell College, Phil Jones (Humanities Librarian and Coordinator of Research Services), Jocelyn Kreuger (Collections Manager/Registrar) and Allison Haack, (Library Special Collections & Archives Assistant) will discuss their collaboration to help facilitate the curation of an exhibit by a tutorial class of first year students. The class visited the Print and Drawing Study Room and Special Collections & Archives, and then used selections from the collections to each create a display that made up an exhibit titled “Cultivating Difference in Iowa.”
Mind the gap: Student and librarian perceptions of library use and skills
Stephanie Hallam
Sophia Du Val
How do students perceive their use of the library and information—and how does that compare to librarians’ perceptions? Grounded in research that highlights both the positive impact of libraries on academic success and the impact of developing early library habits, this session shares findings from a student survey at a small liberal arts university and a follow-up focus group alongside national librarian responses. In a state where only 40% of schools have a high school librarian, student comments reveal a surprising interest in library resources. Yet, challenges remain in fully integrating library instruction into the college curriculum. With students expressing a desire for more librarian presence in the classroom and librarians eager to collaborate with faculty, let’s close the gap together through active, solution-focused discussion.
Building the plane while flying it: Developing AI literacy across Midwest libraries using human-centered frameworks
Amanda Albert
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics across academic libraries and higher education. This 50-minute session will highlight how academic libraries and librarians in the Midwest are teaching about AI, specifically through a survey of online library guides and other digital learning objects. The speaker will discuss the findings of this survey including alignment with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, specific skills the guides aim to teach such as prompt engineering and citation, and what is missing from these guides, including critical information literacy skills and dispositions.
Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences with AI including personal or professional use, ways in which they’re involved in AI governance on their campuses, and ways in which they’re teaching users about AI, both synchronously and using asynchronous learning objects. Strategies such as aligning AI literacy with the ACRL Framework, critical information literacy practices, and Bloom’s Taxonomy, as well as thinking about the broader impacts of AI on students’ futures including workforce and labor, bias, the environment, and critical thinking will be discussed.
Break
From aspirations to achievements: developing digital preservation skills and assessments in the digital POWRR peer assessment program
Jaycie Vos
Sarah Young
Doreen Dixon
How do you turn aspirations for a digital preservation program into something tangible to put into practice? In this session, practicing archivists and librarians from three different institutions will discuss their experiences in the 2024 Digital POWRR Peer Assessment Program. This program through Digital POWRR, or “Preserving digital Objects with Restricted Resources,” provides intensive training and establishes a community of practice around digital preservation concepts and assessment procedures. With the support of their cohort facilitator and peers, participants completed multiple self-assessments and an in-depth peer assessment, set goals, and ultimately created case studies to be broadly disseminated.
Panelists will reflect on their assessments and case studies, emphasizing lessons learned, tools and practices they implemented at their different institutions, and areas that still need to be addressed or improved. Given the particularities, strengths, and constraints of each panelist’s institution, participants will share a range of takeaways that may be helpful for professionals attempting to provide ongoing care for their digital collections at a variety of institutions across the Midwest and beyond. Takeaways include advice, successes, and failures in the following areas: specific self-assessment models, such as the DPC RAM; advocacy and communication strategies with administrators and IT colleagues; creative stretching of resources for software and digital storage; specific tools, including open-source options; and exploring digital preservation workflows and policies for born-digital and digitized collections.
Changes, challenges, and chaos: Overhauling library instruction at a community college
Taylor Humphreys
Olivia Lackey
Library work has always been about responding to big changes with innovation, creativity, and care. Library workers seem especially capable of shifting and retooling to provide the best services and materials to the people in our communities. But what happens when several big changes come all at once and a commitment to quality isn’t something you want to sacrifice?
This session will provide an overview of the many changes that we faced within a short timeframe and the results of our efforts to respond to these changes with innovation and insight. We will spend time discussing how we moved from assuming that our students shared a groundwork of basic information architecture and research vocabulary to helping students learn foundational skills and better understand the information lifecycle. We will show you how we conveyed that what the library offers fits into what instructors are requiring for research-based assignments and we will share our materials, new assessment pieces, and our take-aways. We will also discuss how we are exploring new AI tools and what these mean for our future instruction efforts. Between new instruction materials to the particulars of collaboration, this session will offer a lot of practical and imitable take-aways.
Celebrating all students: International education week in the library
Sabrina Gillo
Each year, McDermott Library at the University of Texas at Dallas participates in the annual International Education Week by creating an interactive display designed to promote student engagement. In Fall of 2024, amid rising international tensions, the question became: How can we engage with students in a peaceful way that makes all cultures feel welcome? Our solution was to create a display celebrating cultural dishes and international foods. Amid cookbooks featuring cuisine from around the world, students, staff, and faculty were invited to leave a recipe of their favorite dish, take a recipe someone else had left, or to leave the name and recommended dish of local international restaurants. Students maintained active participation throughout the week as they were observed reading recipes, leaving recommendations, and taking pictures in what was a positive experience for everyone.
Fostering a coherent and cohesive response to AI
Nick D’Andrea
The academic librarian is pressured in many ways by the recent explosion of AI in higher education. Responses and perceptions vary among librarians and libraries on how to handle AI. Beyond this, debate remains on how adoption of these tools will impact us politically, socially, environmentally, and cognitively. With all of this, what can we do? In this presentation, I propose a model to address the levels of concerns around AI which attempts to include as many voices from within one library. This presentation attempts to forge a path which weakens distinctions between study and practice and better positions librarians to understand AI on both a technical and social level.
Unlocking potential: Harnessing student success platforms to enhance library instruction
Kristin Echtenkamp
This session explores how academic libraries can leverage data from student success platforms to enhance library instruction and outreach. With access to existing campus systems, librarians can design targeted instruction that meets students' specific needs. Learn how integrating library services into existing campus systems can strengthen collaboration with faculty, providing timely interventions and personalized learning support. This session will offer practical strategies for using student success data to refine instruction, increase student engagement, and contribute to overall academic success.
Wired differently, working brilliantly: Understanding and supporting ADHD & AuDHD employees
April Miller
Katherine Loving
This session is designed to deepen understanding of ADHD and AuDHD (Autistic + ADHD) in the workplace. It will explore the unique strengths and challenges neurodivergent employees face and provide actionable strategies for both employees and employers. From time blindness to hyperfocus, from burnout to brilliance—this session equips organizations to foster inclusive, supportive, and productive environments for all. This session is designed for HR professionals, team leads, managers, DEI practitioners, workplace wellness coordinators, and employees interested in neurodiversity inclusion.
Pilot reader advisory program for thesising and dissertating students: Creating space for the
self-guided genre within the academic library
Carmen Orth-Alfie
Sarah Crossley
Graduate students often find themselves confronted with a problem specific to their level of study: how to facilitate the successful completion of a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation. While academic libraries tend to provide traditional forms of support in the form of workshops, writing labs or guidance on literature reviews, there is a growing trend for graduate students to seek out a less traditional mode of assistance: self-help literature. This presentation demonstrates the growing popularity of self-help books geared toward completion of the master’s thesis or PhD dissertation and the growing need for academic libraries to embrace the literature, specifically through re-imagined forms of the reader advisory. Presenters will utilize interactive methods throughout the presentation to assess audience thoughts and experiences regarding aspects of developing a "reader advisory" program to promote relevant self-guidance books to graduates student that meet a range of individual needs.
An institutional repository’s journey through Title II web accessibility standards
Jennie Tobler-Gaston
In April 2024, the implementation of Title II web accessibility standards for government entities prompted immediate reflection on accessibility practices within our institutional repository, DigitalCommons@UNO. This presentation will discuss the Title II standards and their implications for university repositories, describe the development of workflows for ensuring repository content meets these standards, and discuss the ongoing challenges for remediation.
Wrap-up and prize drawings