California Academic & Research Libraries

Fri Apr 5

9:00-10:30

Large Conference Room

Courtney “Jet” Jacobs, Jimmy Zavala

Re-imagining Library Spaces

Outline:
History of instruction program
2018-2020 ramp up
Identifying the need for new classroom space
Building support
Flexible Collaborative spaces lead to collaborative work
Physical concerns with the classroom
Growing the instruction program
Pedagogical mission
Meeting demand at scale

The 21st century librarian is often called upon to actively implement outreach into their work, and in doing so, attract community members to utilize the resources they provide. While this mission is critical in maintaining and hopefully increasing community engagement, what happens when the demand for those resources drastically outpaces our capabilities and facilities? Library staff at UCLA Library Special Collections (LSC) have been working to approach this problem of supply and demand within their robust instruction program. Critical staffing and space shortages present significant challenges in meeting the community’s needs for embedded primary source instruction. Simultaneously, prioritizing active learning and equity-based pedagogy requires intentional and proactive planning as well as flexible and secure classroom spaces.

We hope to discuss our challenges and successes addressing these insufficiencies. In order to accommodate increasing demand for instruction support using LSC collection materials, LSC staff leveraged campus buy-in to advocate for additional staffing and infrastructure support. This work resulted in the creation of and recruitment for a dedicated Teaching and Learning Librarian as well as construction of a ground-breaking, $1.5 million dollar purpose-built classroom space for teaching with rare and distinctive materials.

Sarah Tribelhorn

Engaging students in STEM and sustainability through inspiring collections and hands-on programming

In this presentation I will describe how I have developed collections and programming to inspire and engage students in STEM and sustainability. In my role as a traditional STEM liaison librarian, I have focused on building relationships and community with faculty and students by making science and sustainability more visible, connecting to the human side of science, and encouraging student retention. I will highlight how I been innovative in this approach, and how my work has evolved to highlight diverse voices in STEM and sustainability that have not always been heard in academic library settings in a way that encourages and excites students to become entrenched in STEM disciplines.

I will provide examples of the ways that I have done this including:
1. The collaborative development of a collection of “easy reading” nonfiction and fiction STEM books with other STEM librarians at my institution and student input, highlighting previously underrepresented voices to inspire our community in the pursuit of a STEM career. This collection will be highly accessible and placed in an inviting area, encouraging students to engage with it.
2. A collaboration with campus student organizations to host author talks organized through the library on topics of interest to them, including climate justice and sustainability.
3. The engagement of students through citizen science with already established and new programs to gather data for research projects locally, nationally, and globally, encouraging community participation, creating excitement around science and sustainability, and ultimately enhancing student retention.

Based on my these experiences of collection development and programming, I will share the challenges and opportunities, and hopefully inspire other liaison librarians to engage with their communities in a more innovative, human, and engaging way too, encouraging student engagement and success in their respective disciplines.

Faith Rusk

Title: No one is an island: A case for a team-based approach to instruction in libraries

The presentation will argue that a team-based approach to instruction can create a more supportive environment and a more sustainable practice. The traditional liaison model has each librarian operating as an island, with few opportunities for collaboration and support. By engaging in a team-based model, librarians can better distribute workload, grow as practitioners through collaboration and professional development, and support each other in enforcing boundaries or creating guardrails.

This presentation will ask attendees if they experience a variety of common challenges presented by the traditional liaison model and share how a team-based approach can eliminate or mitigate these challenges. The presentation will also discuss creating a team structure where changes to the formal organizational structure are not practical or feasible.

Wei Ma

Every academic institution provides assistive technology for users with visible and known disabilities, and posts the service on its website. We moved beyond the standard practice by expanding the availability of assistive technology (a text-to-speech tool) to all students, faculty, and staff. We promote text-to-speech (TTS) as an alternative reading tool to facilitate extensive reading. This presentation outlines how we deployed the service, our usage statistics and user responses, as well as how we developed a campus partnership to resolve the budget issue. Our practice not only created an equitable and accessible environment and services that supports all users who have visible or known disabilities, but also those who may have non-noticeable reading disabilities. Our practice also helps create a diverse learning need in the library and on campus, and provides value-added service that promotes student success.

Small Conference Room

Karen Adjei

Title - Striving for Sufficiency: Cultivating Curatorial Librarianship in Special Collections

While direct professional experience is critical in gaining post-graduate employment in curation within special collections, the complementary collections-centric approaches of exhibitions and librarianship is often siloed in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) field. This dilemma not only limits how information is curated and shared with the public through diverse modalities, but it also limits training opportunities for emerging library and museum professionals who are interested in engaging with special collections curatorship and exhibitions development. Furthermore, the difficulty in gaining relevant experience in exhibition development and special collections curatorship within academic librarianship is especially felt by library science students who must navigate normalized practices of applying for and accepting unpaid training opportunities. All of these factors present barriers to being prepared for and sustaining a rapidly changing field that is contending with new notions, roles, and definitions of what it means for a librarian to be sufficient in curatorial practices.

Situated at the intersection of professional development and academic librarianship, this presentation reflects on the value of an academic library providing practical experience in curation and campus outreach using special collections. The audience will learn how this value is exemplified by the exhibition “A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Connecting Through Canon In Post Occupation Japan” that was curated as part of a paid library science graduate program field study at The Prange Collection, a primarily Japanese-language special collection at the University of Maryland, College Park. Embracing the perspective of an emerging library professional, the presenter will illuminate possibilities and limitations for how academic libraries and special collection units can provide a meaningful and holistic professional development experience in order to sufficiently prepare library science students for the future library and curatorial workforce. This session will cover innovative mindsets and practices informed by thoughtful justice-centered approaches in generating innovations in the theory and practice of special collections curatorship and academic librarianship.

Given that this is a twenty-minute conference presentation, the majority of the session will be one that the audience listens to. However, I plan to provide the audience with key takeaways of best practices for how they can: (1) create supportive professional development opportunities for emerging information professionals; and (2) implement innovative approaches to information sharing and pedagogies centered on special collections practices and justice-centered mindsets at their respective institutions. I will also answer any questions from the audience and will help to facilitate any discussion after the presentation has concluded, and my contact information will be provided to continue the conversation and connection afterwards. I will also post the presentation slides and an online handout of resources on the online conference platform for those that are unable to attend in-person.

Ryan Brower

Coercive collection policies, unjust institutional control, and liberal reproduction agreements by academic libraries have inflicted historic, irreparable harm on Native American communities, but recent state legislation has created an avenue to address our inadequate practices.

Authored by Assemblymember James C. Ramos, the California Assembly’s only Native American representative, the 2023 Assembly Bill No. 389 implements long overdue and sweeping legislation that "...prohibit[s] the use of any Native American human remains or cultural items for purposes of teaching or research at the California State University while in the possession of a California State University campus....” While the bill governs that academic departments repatriate Native American Ancestors, the term "cultural items" is debated.

On Chico State’s campus, Meriam Library Special Collections and University Archives contains potentially sensitive Native American archival materials, including the Dorothy Morehead Hill Collection - containing 50 boxes and 5,700 digital items documenting the dozens of Native American Tribes that live in the 12 Northeastern California counties. Following AB-389’s passing, Special Collections is in active engagement with Chico State’s Office of Tribal Relations and Department of Anthropology to repatriate Native American Ancestors and cultural patrimony. We have decided AB-389’s instance of “cultural items” contains what the Protocols of Native American Archival Materials (PNAAM) defines as “culturally sensitive materials.” This is an outside-the-box approach to ensure justice is paramount and colonizers do not make decisions over Tribal sovereignty. While our conversations and policy development is in its infancy, we are implementing changes to our engagement with archival resources.

Library patrons submit reproduction requests for Native American archival material for personal and academic purposes, but in both cases, we must ensure Native American Tribes have absolute cultural stewardship. To ensure this, radical, justice-oriented practices must be implemented. In my proposed lightning talk, I will introduce our new reproduction request process that routes potentially sensitive Native American items to Chico State's Office of Tribal Relations. We consult with the item’s represented Tribes and, if deemed potentially culturally sensitive, we deny the request, restrict the material, and if applicable, remove the items from public view in our digital collections.

In conversations with other CSU archivists, AB-389 is not on many libraries’ radar, and I wish to foster discussion and collaborate with fellow California academic libraries to facilitate the repairing of the relationships with the Native American peoples whose lands we reside.

Margarita Zamora Saunders

In the first part of the session, the presenter will share disability statistics and the social and economic impacts on our communities to help folx understand the importance of removing barriers at work and in the classroom. Attendees will then learn important steps to make Word Documents accessible, create accessible tables, test their work, and convert Word Docs into a portable document format (PDF) for machine readability. The second half of the session will focus on essential PowerPoint accessibility features such as close-captioning, reading order for machine readability by Assistive Technologies (AT), alt-text for pictures, and creating descriptive graphs. Lastly, a step-by-step tipsheet and additional resources will be shared with attendees.

10:30-11:15

Large Conference Room

Christal Young

Title: Lost Amongst Peers : Increasing Awareness of Library Resources and Opportunities for Collaboration Amongst University Faculty

Outline:
- Pre-session Poll On Current Outreach Methods (2 mins)
- Introduction & Institutional Background (5 mins)
- Poll Results (3 mins)
- Committee Charge Overview (5 mins)
- Survey Methodology (5 mins)
- Preliminary Findings and Recommendations (5 mins)
- Outreach & Engagement Brainstorm (10 mins)
- Q&A (10 mins)
- Recommended Reading

The University of Southern California (USC) Libraries Committee is a joint committee of the Academic Senate, the Provost, and the USC Libraries. The Committee has historically advised the Dean of the USC Libraries and the Provost on matters related to printed and digital information resources and technologies, and on policies associated with scholarly communication, research, teaching, and study. The Dean of the Libraries in turn apprised the Committee on current issues and challenges associated with library resources and endeavors.

A 2022 survey conducted by the USC Libraries Committee, which assessed discipline faculty’s perceptions of library resources and services, revealed that many faculty members were not familiar with library offerings or opportunities for collaboration with library faculty. Within the survey findings, faculty requested that the Libraries provide a service that we already offer or obtain resources that we already own. Clearly, there was a lack of understanding among faculty about the current Libraries’ availability of resources and services. So how can library faculty ensure effective outreach to discipline faculty in order to communicate existing and potential collaborations, materials, and services? How can schools ensure that the offerings of the Libraries are known and utilized by their faculty? What happens when library faculty efforts for engagement and collaboration don’t go as planned?

During the 2023-2024 academic year the Committee was charged to evaluate the Libraries’ current communications strategy, devise recommendations for improving communication with faculty and educate them about library services and programs. Additionally, there is a misperception amongst some discipline faculty that librarians are not faculty and do not hold expertise in student learning and engagement. Improvements in communication strategies would promote collaboration opportunities with library faculty and assert USC Libraries faculty as equals in the academic arena.

This session will discuss this committees’ work, present preliminary findings and recommendations, and discuss implications for engagement work at a large, and often siloed, research institution. Attendees will learn how to conduct a survey to gauge faculty perceptions of library offerings and develop a strategic approach for reaching faculty at their point of need. Attendees will also reflect on the multiple meanings of outreach, outreach to students, the university community, and discipline faculty, to better advocate for library presence within faculty orientation, training, and ongoing research opportunities.

Plans for Engagement :
Attendees will reflect on their current outreach practices to promote collaboration amongst faculty. Through interactive polls and group discussions, attendees will identify barriers and brainstorm strategies to conduct more effective outreach to their liaison areas and discipline faculty.

11:15-12:00

Large Conference Room

Amy Gilgan, Airana Varela, et al.

Proposal:

Critical library instruction strives to engage students in dialogic learning while unpacking power dynamics. How can librarians facilitate learning spaces that encourage dialogue? Whether facilitating a difficult conversation or a low risk discussion, it is necessary to first build the foundation for dialogue. This interactive session will explore ways librarians can incorporate facilitation techniques borrowed from Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) into the classroom and other group settings. Through a social justice lens, participants will be invited to reflect on the scaffolding necessary for class discussion and practice techniques for increasing learner engagement. This session is hosted by the Southern California Instruction Librarians Interest Group.

Session Outline:

I. Grounding and community aspirations
II. Introduction to Intergroup Dialogue (IGD)
A. Connection between IGD and critical library instruction
B. Four stages of IGD
C. Multipartiality
III. Applying IGD to library instruction
A. Building the container for discussions
B. Group exercise and practice
C. Practical skills for the classroom
IV. Reflections
A. Debrief of exercise and applications in the classroom
B. Identify settings where IGD skills can be implemented
V. Q&A


Active Learning & Engagement:

Attendees will be invited to engage through reflection prompts, digital bulletin boards, small group discussion and practice scenarios. In small groups, participants will practice foundational dialogue skills including mindful listening and differentiating between dialogue and debate. At the end of the session, participants will have an opportunity to reflect and share ideas for incorporating dialogue facilitation techniques into their library instruction.

Date

Time

Room

Presenters

Description

Thurs Apr 4

9:15-10:00

Large Conference Room

Michelle Brasseur

Making it Required: Supporting Faculty Through Adoption of New Digital Course Reserves Tools

In this workshop attendees will learn about our Library’s adoption, integration, and roll-out of Leganto, an Ex Libris product that integrates with various course management systems (CMS) to allow faculty to create their own course reading lists and share them with library staff. Leganto allows users to include fully-integrated library collections materials in their lists, as well as free web resources, articles, books, videos, and audio files. It is used primarily as a Course Reserves tool and is designed to streamline collaboration between Course Reserves staff and faculty within the CMS.

We are library staff and librarians from the Unified Access Services and User Engagement departments, and the Law Library at UCLA, who will discuss:
Our process for introducing Leganto in the midst of a campus CMS transition and staffing challenges;
How and why Leganto eventually became required to access all digital Course Reserves materials;
Changes to our relationship with faculty, learning and teaching a new system, and preparation for potential faculty resistance;
Our approaches to balancing student, faculty, and library needs while being mindful of our own limits and monitoring library staff burnout;
Our plans for upcoming training events and documentation
Our vision for the future of our course reserves service.

Active learning elements of our workshop will include discussion of how attendees could approach making tech tools required for faculty on their campuses, opportunities to highlight existing services as part of training and transition support, and potential partnerships to leverage connections and ease these types of transitions. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences with introducing new technology, sunsetting old tools, and consider how they can learn from our successes and mistakes.

Small Conference Room

Isabel Guzman

Building Campus Engagement with a Banned Book Campaign

The CSUSB Libraries was developing programming with the goal of building campus engagement. We started by trying various programs and the Banned Book discussions were the most popular. Building upon the popularity of the Banned Book programming helped build campus engagement by partnering with campus groups, getting student ambassadors to do testimonials, and giving out books that have been banned or challenged. The programs have helped us build campus engagement, promote library services, and bring awareness to banned books and the freedom to read.

Trying various forms of programming that encourage engagement
-Book clubs, Banned Book discussions, Crafts

Built upon the most successful programming
-Banned book discussions provided engagement with participants
-Banned Book display, helped highlight the number of banned books available to check out
— Displays have banned or challenged books books from the collection along with banned statistics from ALA’s website

-Programming development
— Banned Book Discussions (three different books, three separate discussions)
—-First banned book giveaway
— Banned Book series (one book, three separate discussions)
— Banned Book Giveaway for Banned Book week in October
—-Student ambassadors banned book testimonials
— Partnered with campus groups for banned book giveaway: LGBTQ+, Women's History Month Committee, and Student Mentoring
— Most popular title in Banned Book Giveaway led to author visit in October 2024, Mike Curato author of Flamer

-Whats next?
— Identify campus groups to partner with on programming and promotion
— What programs are you currently holding or proposing that can be developed with other campus groups or departments?

10:00-10:30

Large Conference Room

Tricia Lantzy, Torie Quiñonez, Jerry Limberg

When academic librarians undertake assessment of teaching and learning in the library, we are asked to default to using simple metrics to establish our “value” to the institution and to the mission of student learning. We measure the attributes that we, as librarians, think are important or those our professional organizations have outlined in professional standards. Academic libraries favor quantitative measurements of these outcomes because they are purported to be easily digested in simple soundbites by those outside the library. A question arises from this norm: how meaningful is this kind of assessment? How does it improve and strengthen our relationships with students? We argue that this type of assessment and data collection actually distances us from our students, and reduces the student experience to a single number in a spreadsheet.

Student learning experiences in the context of the academic library (i.e. either in-person or virtually with library workers and/or online services) are barely understood through the lens of quantitative data. There is a significant body of research that makes clear quantitative data gathering and analysis often marginalizes and excludes the experiences of historically under-represented populations. We argue that centering quantitative data gathering and analysis does active harm to academic libraries, library workers, and the students we serve.

This presentation will describe the process one teaching and learning department is taking to reimagine assessment with student voices and experiences at the center. An essential component of this process involves partnering with our students to investigate the qualities, attributes, and values that they prioritize as being essential to their development as information literate individuals. We will share how we engaged with students via focus groups to learn about their core values, principles, and preferred outcomes and how we plan to place those themes in the center of our departmental assessment.

10:30-12:00

Large Conference Room

Mary-Kate Finnegan, Alicia Zuniga

Title - OER Essentials: Enhancing Access through Open Access
Workshop - Presenters will share resources and methods libraries can leverage to support Open Access (OA) and Open Education Resources (OERs) with their communities. The workshop will provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of OERs and OA resources, emphasizing their significance and impact on education, research, and scholarly communication. Attendees will learn practical strategies for effectively locating, evaluating, and promoting these resources within their libraries and institutions.
Topics covered include an introduction to OER and OA, guidance on navigating databases and repositories to find high-quality materials across disciplines, and techniques for supporting faculty and students in utilizing these resources ethically and effectively. The workshop will also address advocacy and outreach strategies to raise awareness about the benefits of OER and OA.
Participants can access a QR code with links to high-quality OA and OERs suitable for various academic and research disciplines.
Activities -
1. Participants will be broken into groups and provided with a rubric for evaluating the quality and credibility of OA resources. Participants will apply this evaluation framework to a selection of OA articles, datasets, or other materials as assigned to each group. Presenters will facilitate a short discussion where participants can share their findings and insights.
2. Participants will brainstorm specific goals and strategies for integrating OA resources into their teaching, research, and outreach practices. Participants will use post-it notes and collaboration in discussing possible solutions while guided by presenters through the process.

12:00-1:00

San Jose Ballroom

Kymberly Goodson

Meet Me at the Library: Unique Spaces at the UC San Diego Library

In sparking significant changes to the in-person academic experience, the pandemic of recent years opened the door to creativity in crafting library spaces to suit the expanded needs of college and university students. Employing a broader understanding of the kinds of spaces a library could offer helped not only address new or continuing student expectations, but also helped draw students back to the library after their potential absence from the physical campus and library during the pandemic.

Library spaces are not one-size-fits-all, nor does a single type of library space satisfy all of the needs of any one individual over the course of a term or academic career. With this in mind, four new spaces are underway at the UC San Diego Library. A meditation/reflection space (Calm Cave) and a game room (Leisure Lounge) opened in the Library in the fall of 2023. A family-friendly study room and a sensory space are currently in the active planning stages.

This poster will detail all four of these spaces, including collections, equipment, furnishings, and other amenities related to each. It will also share student feedback, costs, and other logistics associated with developing and overseeing these specialized spaces. Poster content will enable viewers to consider new spaces they might wish to replicate in their libraries, even with a modest budget, limited staffing, or little available space. Likewise, viewers will be encouraged to share any unique spaces in their libraries with the poster author and other viewers in order to expand collective understanding of wide-ranging student needs and to enlarge the pool of creative ideas from which we can all draw.

This poster connects to the conference theme by exploring and expanding what an academic library could or should offer, and encouraging librarians to expand how they and the library support students.

Isabel Vargas, Rosa Gonzalez

In collaboration with Spanish-speaking staff, student, and faculty:
Produce and publish translated content and library information for Spanish-speaking students, parents, and campus community.
Illustrate and provide drafts of the translated text and content, documents with edits from all who collaborated, screenshots of the translated web pages and the library Spanish homepage website, and resources used to help translate content.

Chanda Briggs, Claire Sharifi

According to a National Academy of Sciences working group investigating the mental health crises in higher education, student wellbeing is an issue that needs to be addressed at the campus level, not siloed in specified departments and units. University libraries can be an integral part of student wellness initiatives, and this poster presentation will present one academic library’s engagement in student wellness initiatives. This poster will:
Highlight the ways campus partnerships facilitated streamlined library engagement in student wellness
Identify student centric initiatives and acquisitions.
Identify funding sources used for those initiatives and acquisitions.
Discuss outcomes of library wellness initiatives.

1:00-2:00

Large Conference Room

Katherine Luce, Margot Hanson

Abstract:
The existing literature on toxicity and low morale in library workplaces is extensive, yet the experience of well-being, even joy, is little discussed. This session provides a review of the scholarly and popular literature on joy in the workplace, with a critical appraisal of whose voices are evident, and a discussion of implications for academic libraries.
Recent writing focuses on the need to bring joy to workplaces, mostly to medical workplaces affected by the intractable challenges of COVID-19, worker shortages, and grueling and dispiriting work. The focus on joy reflects how far many workplaces are from inspiring joy, how difficult it is to change the work itself, and how humans crave the experience of transcendent delight.
This talk will provide an overview of the current research and published writing surrounding joy and well-being in workplaces, providing attendees the context to consider their own organizational culture. A review of the literature delineates coerced or nominal joy and differentiating it from true joy, which expresses workers’ autonomy and defies workplace inequities.

Outline:
Statement of the problem: the absence of joy in the workplace
Differentiation of joy from general well-being
Overview of the scholarly and popular literature on joy in workplaces
Discussion of the implications of the different ways managers, researchers, and workers’ voices manifest in the published literature

Plans for engagement:
Solicit input from attendees about their own workplace experiences

Ilda Cardenas, Michaela Keating, Keri Prelitz

Abstract:
New academic librarians on the tenure track experience immense pressures to perform in order to advance in their career. This presentation will show you three experiences from academic librarians at Cal State Fullerton. The pressure to perform contributed to a decline in well being for all librarians and as they reflect on their experiences they advocate for better support systems for early career colleagues. The takeaways from this presentation are to provide solace to the librarians who may be in similar situations and feel their failures personally and advice for tenured librarians and administrators for avoiding workload overload.

Audience: tenured faculty and admin or anyone in a position to mentor/advise new faculty/hires

Interactive elements: Audience polling, Padlet board to collect audience suggestions and best-practices

Session outline:
-Briefly introduce the concept of tenure-track pressure for academic librarians
-Highlight the prevalence of workload overload and its impact on well-being
-Present three real-life stories from Cal State Fullerton librarians on the tenure track
-Shift the focus from individual "failures" to systemic issues
-Discuss the importance of support systems for early-career librarians

Catherine Paolillo

Presentation title: Win/Win: Leveraging student talent for library outreach

This presentation will give an overview of a successful Outreach & Engagement Student Assistant employment program at two different academic libraries in Southern California (one public, one private). The presentation will demonstrate the benefit to the Student Assistants (professional experience relevant to their area of study) and library staff and faculty (lighten workload for overburdened staff/faculty; increase engagement with library programming; expand awareness of library collections and services; and more). The presenter will give an overview of how the Student Assistant jobs were created, designed, and advertised; how the candidates were selected; how the students’ talents, experiences, and expertise were leveraged to support library goals; how both parties benefit from the program; and how the program was piloted at one institution (private) and successfully implemented at the second institution (public). The presentation will include specific examples of student work as evidence of the program’s effectiveness in promoting library activities, lessening workload for staff & faculty, and providing professional work experience for the Student Assistants. The presenter aims to demonstrate how other academic libraries can adopt the program at their home institution.

Small Conference Room

Dominique Dozier, Sarah Smith, Anna Yang

Library work is rooted in public service, driven by a desire to assist and provide support, making “yes” the default response to any request. Because of this, saying “no” rarely happens and when it does, it makes us feel uncomfortable. This can lead to library staff not understanding how to set boundaries for themselves, oftentimes making them feel overwhelmed and stretched thin.

Santa Clara University is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities across 17 states. At the heart of the mission is the duty of care to our students and service to others. In the past few years, the library has seen many changes; retirement of senior library staff members, vacant positions, and internal transitions. Of course we want to support our students but how can we do that without becoming anxious and stressed ourselves? Why do library staff feel that they cannot say “no”?

This presentation will delve into the perspectives of three library professionals, two subject librarians and one library administrator, who dealt with sudden impactful changes in their library. Sharing their own experiences with how to navigate library expectations, they will emphasize the pivotal role of library management support in empowering staff to establish boundaries as well as share how giving yourself the permission to say “no” is not about failure – it’s about self-care.

Lauren Hall, Isabel Vargas Ochoa, Margarita Zamora Saunders, Victoria Hernandez

Leisure Reading: A Pathway to Personal Success, Well-being, Social Justice, and Community Engagement

In academic libraries, where the emphasis predominantly lies on scholarly texts and research materials, the introduction of a leisure reading collection offers an outlet to encourage a dynamic student experience. Leisure reading, often overshadowed by academic demands, holds transformative potential for student engagement and offers a sanctuary for imagination, relaxation, and personal development. A specialized collection for this type of reading offers a crucial space for students to explore identities, cultures, prose, and experiences beyond their coursework. This approach not only aids in the personal growth of individuals by exposing them to a variety of worldviews but also aligns with broader institutional goals of equity and social justice. By facilitating access to diverse voices and stories, academic libraries can become active participants in the education of socially conscious citizens. Amidst the pressures of academic life, leisure reading also offers a much-needed diversion, helping students cope with stress and anxiety by providing an outlet for escapism and relaxation. This aspect of leisure reading supports overall student well-being and resilience, contributing to a more balanced and fulfilling university experience. Lastly, providing a leisure reading collection with stories that interest students can help counter the effects of online reading and social media use by creating an outlet that encourages interest in a sustained narrative. Fostering a culture of reading will ultimately help students succeed academically and, ideally, a love for literature that lasts a lifetime.

By showcasing the relevance and personal benefits of leisure reading collections, this presentation aims to inspire academic libraries to embrace and expand these resources, recognizing them as integral components of a comprehensive educational ecosystem. Attendees will gain insights into the strategic implementation and promotion of leisure reading collections, ensuring they serve as accessible, inclusive, and impactful spaces within academic institutions. Presenters will engage the audience with interactive icebreakers and a closing Q & A.

Dele C. Ladejobi

I would like to submit a proposal for a 20-minute presentation on how we implemented a system for the full-time librarians to serve as reference desk backups and the part time librarians to “trade” hours to cover our two-campus library reference desks. These processes help us to eliminate gaps in coverage and enable us to continuously assist students and other library users with their research and informational needs without any interruption to our services or operations. These endeavors were major successes in our library because we addressed teamwork, equity, sensitivity, and inclusiveness. I will discuss the steps involved, including what worked or did not work, and engage the attendees in the process.

2:00-3:00

Large Conference Room

Ray Pun, Annie Pho, Shamika Simpson, Kenny Garcia, Andrew Carlos

In this workshop, there will be two main components: an interactive panel session and group discussions. In the first part, a group of library association leaders and library workers from different organizations (e.g. CARL, CLA, APALA, CALA, and REFORMA) will share their experiences about being "president" or "executive board member" in these respective groups. They will highlight the growth opportunities and challenges in serving in volunteer leadership roles while working as library workers. The discussion will center on their experiences and then will transition to an activity for attendees to work in groups to think about power mapping and their networks. There will be active learning exercises such as polls for attendees to participate in, to share their thoughts anonymously or openly, and raise questions on why and how academic library workers should be volunteering for such roles.

In the second part, there will be group discussions, and power mapping exercises where attendees will work in groups to discuss the associations that they are part of or would like to be part of and conduct a SWOT analysis with their groups, and power mapping the channels and networks. Part of this discussion requires reflection on career goals and aspirations.

Library association work succeeds when there are interested and mentored groups involved, and we would like to build such a community and informed discussions on how attendees will plan out the benefits and challenges, and areas to consider for future opportunities after hearing from the panelists. If attendees are interested in moving into a type of work/position that requires specific skills, library association work can build their network and potentially expand their skills in those areas. We also want to share the "pitfall" of being a library association leader, and the challenges of doing this work for and with the professional communities.

Small Conference Room

Rachel Jaffe, Mary-Michelle Moore

The proposed panel session will bring together leaders from the unions that represent academic librarians across the state. Panelists will exchange updates, experiences, strategy, and reflections on the role of labor in academic and research libraries with goals of inspiring conversation, ongoing cross collaboration, and solidarity. Topics will include recent librarian contract campaigns, successful organizing efforts, and current challenges at each of the three California systems of higher education.

Following a series of set discussion questions addressed to our panelists, the session will be open for Q&A as well as active participation.

3:00-4:00

Large Conference Room

Mychal Threets

KEYNOTE

4:00-5:00

Large Conference Room

Jennifer Bidwell

Title: Building collections, building relationships: Benchmarking Study of Business Collections for the Business School

In this lightning talk, I will discuss my benchmarking study of business databases during the 2022-2023 academic year at the University of San Diego. My goals of the study were twofold: to create a list of the top databases from the 16 institutions included in the study and to assess how the list of databases matches the University Library’s subscriptions in support of the School of Business's curriculum. My overall research question was: do the current library subscriptions support all of the Business School's programs?

Once the study was completed, a meeting was scheduled between the University Library Dean, the Senior Electronic and Open Access Resources Librarian, and myself, the Business Librarian, with the Dean and an Associate Dean of the Business School to discuss the results of the study. The outcomes from the meeting were: a survey of the business faculty about their use of the current business databases as well as their top five databases for possible library subscriptions identified from the study. The Business School Dean also requested additional database analysis of peer institutions and usage statistics for the current database subscriptions. This benchmarking approach to collection development may be the new model for collection development in the future on our campus.

Sarah Smith

Public facing policies are necessary to guide staff and patrons toward an understanding of what is, and is not, acceptable in our library spaces. Policies should be reviewed regularly, and now seemed like a good time, especially with the way Covid 19 changed the way we work. At the same time, libraries have become more attentive to DEI. We are assessing our collections and our employment policies through a DEI lens, why not public facing policies?
I am hoping to develop a rubric to assess our policies with DEI front and center as a concern. This will be a short talk going over what I have learned so far.

Kaitlin Springmier

The ‘slow food’ movement began as a protest against the global proliferation of McDonald’s restaurants. Library instruction, especially in one-shot settings, is a recipe for a ‘hamburger’ approach toward teaching research, which values teaching the most sessions possible by establishing uniformity, predictability, and measurability of processes and results. This is also a burnout trap. Teaching librarians lose the opportunity to connect with their students, or develop individualized lessons. Slow pedagogy is a reaction against the quick-service style of education. This lightning talk will explore principles or Clark’s (2022) articulation of slow pedagogy in early childhood education to understand how slowness is central to effective teaching, as well as academic librarians’ well being.

Michael Herrick

In the lightning talk, "Navigating AI: Are We All Insufficient Now When It Comes to Metadata Literacy?" I will use the increasing buzz in our society's discourse about the current and future effects of artificial intelligence tools to enter into a deeper conversation about what metadata literacy has meant in the library profession in the past and what we, as librarians, might make of the AI threat/opportunity conundrum. The brief talk will have 3 parts. 1) AI hook and opener which then focuses in on definitions of metadata literacy; 2) Discussion of the role of librarians in a justice-infused society; 3) Presentation of a thesis that combines the concepts of information literacy, metadata literacy and knowledge literacy to argue that the librarian's function to empower others with knowledge- and awareness-building skills and behaviors, rather than to fetch or find information, will be more important than ever before.

Becca Gates

The concept of authentic leadership is often explored in library administrator positions, but I would like to explore a mindset that builds authenticity at the librarian and library staff level, supporting affective practice and working against vocational awe in reference scenarios (Ettarh, 2018). The subject of the conference this year drew me to consider insufficiency as an asset in certain reference situations. I connect this concept to a quote from a podcast episode called "How To Love Your Face" in Slate's *How To*: "Asymmetry doesn’t define us. In fact, asymmetry, I’ve come to realize, invites care." This perspective as well as others drawn from popular sources can be combined with library scholarship on person-centered reference that acknowledges imperfection in both parties. Voicing imperfection on a personal, institutional, and societal level comes with risk, but it helps in bringing us towards affective library practice and ethics of care for both us and our users. I have found that showing how difficult a process is for me or admitting I don't know something I feel I should more often than not creates common ground--an almost conspiratorial togetherness for myself and students/users intimidated by or new to research, especially as an early-career librarian. While overcoming insufficiency in many library practices is needed to advance, the process of recognizing and voicing asymmetry when I can has greatly improved my reference interactions.

Talia Guzman-Gonzalez, Ashley Woodruff

In this presentation, we will share the process of creating the Multilingual Library Services Group at the J. Paul Leonard Library to support San Francisco State University students and faculty through multilingual library services. This working group started as an initiative to address issues related to serving the Latino/a/e/x student population, the library’s role in addressing disparities, and stepping up as part of a Hispanic Serving Institution. Following the formation of the group, we expanded our services to be more inclusive of other ethnic groups across campus. We will address the challenges that insufficient library diversity presents to engaging a wider multilingual and multiethnic student population as our services are limited to the language abilities of our library faculty and staff. Despite the obstacles, our group has created intentional, meaningful, and replicable culturally relevant outreach initiatives, instruction, and reference services that serve our multilingual community.

After this presentation the audience will acquire techniques to cultivate administration, library faculty, and staff buy-in for multilingual library services to better serve a linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse academic population. Our goals are to foster a sense of belonging and student success through connections with diverse and inclusive materials, to address various information-seeking approaches, and support the instruction needs of programs across SF State like Ethnic Studies, the Graduate College of Education, and the new Bachelors of Arts Program in Bilingual Spanish Journalism.

The Multilingual Library Services Group is composed of: Krista Anandakuttan, Zia Davidian, Talía Guzmán-González, Shawn Heiser, Ya Wang, Hesper Wilson, and Ashley Woodruff.

Kelsey Nordstrom-Sanchez, Joy Camp

Surviving the Academic Tenure Track as a New Librarian: Successes, Setbacks, and All the Stuff They Don’t Tell You!

During this lightning talk, Kelsey and Joy will share their experiences of navigating tenure track positions at an academic library as new librarians. This lightning talk will include tips and tricks on time management, navigating instruction, committee work, and all the things they don’t tell you about! The lightning talk will wrap up by discussing the importance of self care, setting boundaries, and not letting imposter syndrome run wild.

Laura Wimberley

In this talk, I will explain how TikTok is an accessible analogy to help students understand the idea of entering a scholarly conversation. A novice TikTok users is presented with a stream of nearly random videos, but a single search can serve as a seed crystal for the algorithm to retrieve a wide range of content of interest, just as a single relevant academic article can serve as a source for citations to and from it. "Explainer" videos, such as the account Niche Tea, articulate the origins of feuds and controversies on the app, and thus provide a useful analogy for literature review articles. Even for librarians who have never used TikTok, this brief presentation will provide a lighthearted, relatable, useful point librarians can return to again and again during academic library instruction across all disciplines.