Wednesday, June 8
2:00pm -4:00 pm
Workshops
W1: The Novice Workshop: It Takes a Village to Raise a Librarian
Sam Mandani and Fannie Ouyang
When we first enter the library profession, we quickly become surrounded by the pressures of pretending to know more than we do – a breeding ground for imposter syndrome. Developing expertise is a good and fulfilling goal, but it can be punitive, intimidating and limiting especially to early career librarians. To grow in the profession sustainably, it is important, and even necessary, to address those concerns early with experimentation and collaboration. In this unconference-style workshop, we will collectively build a temporal environment where we share strategies, activities, and approaches to meaningful one-shot library instruction. Using the workshop as an instruction template, we will collaboratively build a toolkit crowdsourced from participants of every level of expertise. In doing so, we learn various practices used by librarians from different fields and institutions. Participants will come away feeling empowered in their current level of expertise around library instruction.
W2: Resume and Cover Letter Workshop
Amanda Lowe, Mechele Romanchock, and Jocelyn Ireland
This workshop will focus on how to write the best cover letters and resumes to help you land that library job – whether it be your very first academic job out of graduate school or your third librarian position. This workshop will have a little something for everyone regardless of where you are in your career. The workshop will consist of presentation on tips and tricks for resume and cover letter writing followed by hands on help from LIS Student Subcommittee members to workshop participant cover letters and resumes.
Thursday, June 9
10:15 am- 11:00 pm
Session A
A1: Changing library work culture for the better: how you can stop gaslighting and start “gassing-up”
Caterina Reed
This presentation will discuss the implications of gaslighting, such as racial gaslighting and cultural gaslighting, and how this contributes to low-morale and toxic work environments within libraries. In contrast, the term “gassing up” will be presented as a potential strategy to build solidarity and uplift co-workers (particularly BIPOC colleagues). Participants will learn about the insidious and traumatic nature of gaslighting and how to contribute to increasing morale in their respective libraries. Participants will have the opportunity to share their own experiences in this safe space.
A2: Community College STEM Faculty’s Views on the ACRL Framework
Christine (Mi-Seon) Kim
This presentation discusses the STEM faculty’s views on the ACRL Framework in a community college. STEM faculty were asked to rate importance of information literacy (IL) knowledge practices and dispositions based on the ACRL Framework at Queensborough Community College (QCC) in the spring of 2021. The survey results indicate that even if most STEM faculty at QCC do not incorporate library information literacy instruction in their courses, IL instruction is highly valued if their classes are engaged in Undergraduate Research or Independent Study, which require research skills. The survey also reveals that, despite the previous studies claiming that high order thinking skills may not be suitable for community college level, STEM faculty at QCC consider high order thinking skills as important IL skills for their courses.
A3: Lightning Talks Group 1
A3.1: Making Alfred’s Open Access Policy a Reality
Samantha Dannick
In April 2018, SUNY state-operated campuses were directed to develop campus-specific open access policies, to be implemented by March 2020. Community colleges were encouraged to also develop and adopt open access policies. The development and implementation of an open access policy at Alfred University — connected with SUNY via the NYS College of Ceramics, but not subject to the 2018 memorandum as a statutory college — provides an interesting case study in the adventures of developing and implementing a campus-wide policy. This lightning talk will outline the journey of Alfred’s open access policy from false start, to full faculty vote, to implementation (which continues to evolve). Alfred’s institutional structure is unique, but attendees will be able to apply lessons learned from our experiences navigating campus governance, campus culture, and the reality of executing a policy to work on their own campuses.
A3.2: Seeking Common Ground: the Campus Bookstore, Inclusive-Access, and the Library
Lisa Rogers and Christina Swendsrud
In late 2019, Utica University (formerly Utica College) announced the implementation of Follett’s inclusive-access program for course materials, effectively ending the library’s bid for a campus-wide OER conversation . . . or so we thought. Two years later, a few supportive faculty, administrators, and librarians were still advocating for OER on campus, but didn’t know where to take the conversation. We librarians decided the first hurdle was to fully understand the inclusive-access program. What we anticipated as information-gathering conversations with the bookstore turned into a partnership with a shared goal of textbook access and affordability through complementary, not competing, resources. Our library-bookstore team brought others into these conversations, including the provost, deans, and faculty, which continue to grow. The surprising lesson we want to share is that inclusive-access programs don’t signal the end of low-cost, no-cost, and OER initiatives, but can be starting points for fruitful collaboration.
A3.3: Open Pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning: Increasing Student Engagement in Psychology 101
Leslie Ward and Jody Resko
Instructors are often searching for ways to develop assignments that are interesting and relevant for their students. Both Open Pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are promoted as ways to engage students with course content as well as ways to develop life-long skills such as collaboration and self-motivation. This study attempts to examine the combined use of UDL and Open Pedagogy to increase student engagement with course content in a Psychology 101 course. Using Open Pedagogy theory students were asked to create learning material for other students about basic concepts in introductory psychology. They were then given the option of what type of content they wished to create in line with UDL’s engagement component. This study aimed to investigate the level of engagement measured against assessment through quizzes. A modified version of the UWES (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students) was used to measure student engagement with course content.
A3.4: Open Fredonia: Building Upon an Established OER Initiative
Christina Rose Hilburger
The rising cost of textbooks and other course-related materials has put an enormous financial strain on students and their families. Open Educational Resources (OER) provide students with access to high-quality, affordable educational content.
Since Fall 2018, SUNY Fredonia has estimated nearly $1.25 million in textbook savings to students through OER adoption incentives. To expand upon this established adoption program, Open Fredonia was launched. This is a broader open education initiative to help encourage openness across campus. The initiative came out of a capstone project completed for the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program for 2021-2022, which was generously supported by a SUNYLA Professional Development Grant.
In addition to the final project report, a roadmap for building a program like Open Fredonia was also developed and openly-licensed. This session will discuss the SPARC program, Open Fredonia, and suggestions for expanding your own OER program.
A4: Monograph eBooks: Models, Methods, and Finding the Right Mix
Celia Gavett
The last two years have accelerated a shift to eBooks in the monograph space. Navigating the vast offerings of acquisition methods, models, and suppliers can be challenging. This session will define and outline the major models in the marketplace and talk about opportunities to effectively bring in eBook content in various ways via GOBI. Attendees will come away with practical strategies for integrating eBook content with traditional print monograph collecting to achieve the right mix for their library.
11:30 am- 12:15 pm
Session B
B1: Implications of Neuroscience of Learning and Memory on Library Instruction
Jocelyn Ireland and Claire Ehrlich
If library instruction is to be effective long-term, it is critically important for students to understand the information presented, store it as a memory, and be able to retrieve the information at a later date. However, much of what we intuitively understand about learning, and much that is assumed by the typical “one-shot” delivery of information literacy instruction, is not supported by the current science of learning. Understanding the neuroscience behind how people learn and remember should be part of every instruction librarian’s professional training. This interactive session will be divided into three parts: (1) a review of the major principles of neuroscience of learning and memory; (2) methods will be shared of how librarians can incorporate neuroscience-based research into information literacy sessions; (3) brainstorming session with the audience on future ideas.
B2: DEI Collection Development: Formulating Ideas and Best Practices for SUNY Libraries
Keri Thomas-Whiteside and Fatoma Rad
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work is imperative to the success of every touchpoint within an academic library. This is especially true for developing collections that reflect the breadth of our student bodies, faculty and staff. For the past year, the SUNY Libraries DEI Taskforce has been working under the auspices of an EBSCO grant to transform library services across our institutions. The Collection Development Subgroup has been collaborating, exploring and curating tools and resources to cast a critical eye on library resources. This presentation will discuss diversity audits, the importance of weeding, and the promotion of resources both online and in person. Libraries are uniquely situated to lead and aid in DEI efforts on their campuses for a brighter and more inclusive future for all students and collection development can be a focal point for this evolution.
B3: Now or Never: Re-deploying resources to re-center the library in the community
Matthew R. Smith
At SUNY College of Environmental Sciene and Forestry structural deficits, merciless profiteering, and amorphous institutional priorities have made it arduous to fulfill our traditional role in the campus community. Leadership turnover at the institutional level has further compounded the challenges we face. Two paths were in front of us: languish in institutional ruts or capitalize on our assessment-informed knowledge to define our course of action. We chose to re-deploy our resources to re-center the library in the campus community. This is a one-year update on how the library has integrated itself as infrastructure between the Office of Research Programs, Office of Communication and Marketing, and the various academic and research units on campus.
B4: Well, That Escalated Quickly: When One Project Becomes Many Projects
Amanda M. Shepp
Have you ever been working on a large-scale project, found one problem that needs to be resolved in order to continue the project, and in the process of solving that one problem, discovered several smaller, more immediately urgent, problems along the way?
Figuring out these project knots can be overwhelming and potentially discouraging at times, especially when each individual issue that’s run into seems to have several others wrapped up in it as well. How do you even begin to continue on your original project when all of these other sudden to-dos are standing in the way?
In this session, you’ll learn about various project management and productivity techniques, software and apps, and strategies for individuals and small teams/groups to prioritize, manage, and begin to solve their projects.
B5: So You Want to Make a Podcast?
Amanda M. Lowe
During the fall of 2017, the University Libraries at The University at Albany launched our podcast, “Librarians with Lattes”. Podcasts were experiencing a resurgence, and we decided to take advantage of this opportunity. In the past four years, we have had so many conversations with folks on campus, and even some outside, about everything from Open Educational Resources to librarian stereotypes in pop culture. In this presentation, I will discuss how to build and maintain a podcast, including branding, tone, podcast hosting platforms, recording and editing software, and much more.
2:00 pm- 2:45 pm
Session C
C1: Conducting a DEI Audit in an Academic Library
Elin O’Hara-Gonya
This presentation will describe the steps SUNY Plattsburgh took to conduct a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Audit during the spring 2022 semester. The presentation will provide an overview of the theory and practices underlying DEI audits in libraries. Concrete suggestions will be given for leading a DEI audit in order to better inform library strategic planning and aid in supporting DEI initiatives. Steps such as planning, evaluation, and implementation will be addressed. The discussion will also include ideas for getting buy-in from campus stakeholders, responding to resistance from within the library, and meeting library DEI goals in an age of significant budgetary challenges.
C2: User, How Do I Know You? User-centered Research for Library Websites
Robin Naughton
Websites are ubiquitous. They are everywhere and everyone seems to be using them. Thus, user experience has become popular, but not everyone uses user-centered research and design principles to design websites. Libraries are beginning to use the tools of user experience, design thinking and user-centered research to improve library websites. User-centered research places the user at the core of the research and seeks to understand the user so that the resulting solutions can better respond to the needs of users. Who are your users? How do you learn more about your users? What are your users doing? How do you help your users be successful? This presentation will discuss the process of getting to know your users and the steps of user-centered research that can help with the design and development of library websites that respond to the needs of users.
C3: New York State Law – Resources Available at the New York State Library
Cara Janowsky
The New York State Library has an extensive collection of legal materials going back to the Colonial Period. This presentation will cover some of the major sources used in researching New York State law and legislation. The presentation will provide information, tips, and tools for using these resources in order to assist students and faculty with legal research. We’ll also cover related free sources on the web, legal resources available in the State Library’s digital collections, and how State Library librarians can assist you with your legal questions.
C4: Information Literacy is a Social Practice: A Dissertation Supported by SUNYLA
Logan Rath
This presentation will present findings of a dissertation study that refined a threshold concept for academic instruction librarians. The threshold concept is that information literacy is a social practice as opposed to a set of skills. This finding stems from the work of Lloyd (2010, p. 26) who wrote: “Information literacy is a way of knowing.” Nine participants in the US and Canada took place in a semester-long study where they participated in two sets of focus groups and responded to a semi-structured diary prompt where they reflected on their instruction sessions. In addition to presenting the graphical model of the threshold concept, key findings and implications will be shared. This study was funded by a SUNYLA Professional Development Grant.
C5: The Value of HeinOnline
Steve Roses
In a time of uncertainty, where library budgets continue to decrease colleges and public libraries are discovering the unparalleled value of HeinOnline. With nearly 40 databases provided in tailored packages, libraries can supplement or replace existing resources while saving thousands. Including more than 3,000 multidisciplinary periodicals and more historical content than any other database, HeinOnline provides access to 300+ years of information on political development and the complete history of the creation of government and legal systems around the world. Our powerful search engine and unique tools provide both novice and advanced users with a superior research experience. If help is needed, HeinOnline’s support team and customer service are second to none.
3:15 pm-4:00pm
Session D
D1: Language Acquisition in the Library: From TESOL to ACRL
Claire Pitcairn
What is the process of learning a language, and does that process ever stop? This presentation will discuss methods used to acquire language, and how the metacognition of language learning affects everyone, from speakers of other language to native English-Speaking college students. The goal of this presentation is to highlight the unconscious competence that industry professionals acquire over their careers, and how the language used in the library that’s so common to us can be foreign to those unfamiliar with those terms. With a higher awareness of our competencies, and a movement towards conscious competence, we can better describe research methods, key vocabulary, and information seeking-behaviors that directly respond to the student’s knowledge, interests, and needs.
D2: Preferred Sourcing, Prison Labor, and the Library
Kevin Adams and Maria Planansky
Furniture in academic libraries is often sourced from prison labor. Higher education’s use of prison labor in procurement practices is well documented; SUNY’s procurement policies, following state law, list a department of corrections manufacturer as the top preferred vendor. The prison industrial complex (PIC) disproportionately impacts racial and ethnic minorities. As members of Alfred University Libraries’ working group on anti-racism and anti-oppression, we wanted to understand how much this affected our workplaces. In order to better understand this we undertook an audit of our patron furniture. In this presentation, we will provide context for and detail the AU Libraries’ investigation into the libraries’ relationship with prison labor, covering our patron furniture audit, our investigation into past and current procurement policies and contracts, and liaising with our business and procurement offices. We will share our findings and draw out implications and make recommendations for other libraries interested in learning more about their relationship with the PIC.
D3: Lightning Talks Group 2
D3.1: Converting to Alma is more than “Scanning In”
Nanette Johnson and Kristin Hart
CUNY, an urban university, migrated from Aleph to Alma while we were out of the office during the height of the pandemic. Now that we are back in office using the system we have learned that a giant ship doesn’t turn quickly. The Fulfillment Committee has a meeting series where we discuss the easy, and the hard Alma topics. The Committee highlights the importance of a safe space to express ideas, ask questions and learn about new features and glitches. CUNY’s mixture of community colleges and seniors colleges with different populations that have different borrowing needs highlighted that one policy may or may not be right for one university; what did we agree on? In this lightning talk, we will cover some of the challenges, the hits and the misses that the 21 CUNY libraries faced to align its policies and to use the new system.
D3.2: CUNY and the Opium Wars
Alex Dinndorf
Founder of CUNY, Townsend Harris, is commemorated as a symbol for egalitarian values in New York. Yet the access of archive materials by campus radicals has reimagined the university’s legacy. Uncovering his executive role in the Treaty of Siam. A series of colonial trade agreements that proliferated the importation of opium amidst the Second Opium War. The presentation will describe the findings and how the documents sourced were widely available but uninterpreted.
D3.3: Bibliometric Analysis: Research Output as a Case for Personnel
Jamie Saragossi
The Health Sciences Library at Stony Brook University has seen significant growth in requests for systematic review support. In the absence of a formal service, we distribute requests between four librarians. We have been successful in providing support and partnering in research however due to increased demand, we need to consider a waiting list for new requests. The addition of a systematic review librarian has previously been proposed. Due to COVID-19 and other budget restrictions, the addition of a new librarian hasn’t gained much traction. To strengthen the justification, a bibliometric analysis of systematic review output at Stony Brook is being conducted.
A search will be run in PubMed, PsychInfo, Web of Science, and CINAHL using the author’s affiliation, and keywords and controlled vocabulary terms to represent the evidence synthesis methodology. The results will be analyzed to show trends over time.
D3.4: Working Through Your Workflow, So Your Work… Flows.
Kathryn Machin
As Academic Librarians, we are awash with procedural documents, manuals and step by step workflows, that are meant to ease our workloads and create efficient, fast, and close to perfect procedures. We attend webinars, ask for help repeatedly, because of our desire to achieve that perfect balance of a workflow that, frankly, flows for everyone. This lighting talk will discuss the trials and tribulations of creating workflows that worked for a small technical services department. Established procedural processes and workflows work for some departments right out of the box, but many of us must also evaluate the skill sets of co-workers / trainees, and uncover their learning styles within a safe, supportive environment. Join this quick session as I discuss how our library implemented and adapted ALMA workflows as we navigated skill sets and procedures.
D4: AI in the Library: How Next Generation Technology is Helping Students and Librarians to Maximize Resources
Ruth Pickering
Attend this session to understand the cutting edge research solutions available to today’s students. AI -based tools such as Yewno Discover are helping students to explore topics, hone hypotheses, make connections and perform research through a single interface. Students can now access their libraries’ digital collections, open access content, and mainstream news for a 360 degree view of their research topics.
Friday, June 10
9:30 am- 10:15 am
Session E
E1: Librarians Pursuing PhDs at UB: A Panel
Logan Rath, Danielle Apfelbaum, Heather F. Ball, and Mark Aaron Polger
The University at Buffalo offers three programs in the Graduate School of Education that are popular among librarians. The PhD in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning and EdD in Learning and Teaching in Social Contexts is housed in the Department of Learning and Instruction. The PhD in Information Science is in the Department of Information Science. This panel presentation will introduce each of the programs and have students at various stages in their programs to talk about why they chose to get a doctorate, the challenges we’ve faced and the tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way. If you’ve been curious about what it takes to enroll, take classes, and complete a dissertation, come to this panel and hear directly from us!
E2: Impact of a Student Advisory Council: Utilizing Student Voices to Enhance the Student Experience in an Academic Library
Christina Hilburger
This presentation will detail the creation and impact of SUNY Fredonia’s Student Advisory Council. Established in Fall 2021, the Student Advisory Council serves as a conduit for communication between Fredonia students and Reed Library. The Council’s goal is to offer opportunities for students to engage with the library, provide feedback on improving services, spaces, and collections, and a channel for discussing issues in the library that have an impact on students. The input received from these students has led to vast improvements of existing services, such as a complete overhaul of the library’s research guides. In addition, several new outreach opportunities have been derived from student ideas, including board game nights, vinyl listening parties, and a revival of Reed Library’s recital series.
E3: From Piecemeal to Proactive: Cataloging Theses and Dissertations at Yeshiva University
Marlene R. Schiffman
Yeshiva University has an abundance of valuable resources that are hidden from the scholarly community. For their importance to the libraries’ internal and external constituents, cataloging theses and dissertations from several Yeshiva University schools (e. g., Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Jay & Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program) became a mission-driven first priority. This Metadata Services Department project included doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate honors theses. In this presentation, we will explain the development of local procedures, along with prioritizing, staffing, workflow, timeline, and statistics.
E4: Lightning Talks Group 3
E4.1: Innovative approaches to teaching research skills
Alessandra Otero Ramos and Natalia Estrada
Two librarians from SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Buffalo share innovative ways to teach students how to approach research. As for most college students the research process can be daunting, these librarians use contemplative pedagogy strategies to build up confidence in their students, reduce research anxiety and introduce them into study habits that will help them thrive in their academia. Alessandra Otero Ramos will talk about contemplative pedagogy and contemplative practices that can be incorporated into one shot library instructions. She will refer to past examples of two different instruction sessions. Natalia Estrada will present ways to include the whole researcher and their memories in order to reduce anxiety and encourage new research avenues. Natalia will touch on past examples of an instruction session involving the 2016 presidential election, and the potential applications to the digital scholarship sphere.
E4.2: Should Algorithmic Bias Concepts Be Part of Information Literacy Instruction?
Jennifer Jeffery
The purpose of this lightning talk is to give an overview algorithmic bias and generate discussion and perhaps further exploration of whether it should be a standard component in information literacy instruction.
E4.3: No Budget? How to Do Outreach & Marketing for Multicultural Programs for Public Libraries!
Selina Sharmin
No budget & low budget has forced librarian to think creatively about how they can reach multicultural and immigrant audiences for other languages programs. This lightning talk will showcase the lessons learned, is that a small budget doesn’t have to stop you from offering great multicultural programs—as long as librarians are willing to make connections and ask for favors. You don’t need money, you need resources and people! Question is how would you reach out to people and do the perfect marketing for your other languages programs? Do you think you need to know all these languages to serve your multicultural community? You first need to believe that other languages people might speak with an accent but they speak perfect English to communicate with you. Collecting local immigrants organizations and nonprofits contacts are an easy and often cost-free way to bring valuable information to your clients!
E4.4: Integrating Google Scholar into Instruction and the Library Website
Joshua Beatty
It’s a commonplace of pedagogy that the teacher should begin with what the student already knows and move on from there. Since college students are already familiar with Google and their professors with Google Scholar, librarians at SUNY Plattsburgh have taken steps to more formally incorporate Google Scholar into their one-credit Gen Ed course, into course-related instruction, and, binding it all together, adding a search box to the library home page. This brief lightning talk will cover how we added the search box and how librarians have used it in instruction and outreach.
10:30 am- 11:15 am
Session F
F1: Forging a Stronger Community: Developing a Student Engagement Committee to Reconnect With Students
Dana Laird, Jamia Williams, and Wendy Prince
Drake Memorial Library at SUNY Brockport has traditionally been a hub of energy and collaboration, with students often working in groups, talking with friends over coffee, and completing assignments at computer workstations. During the pandemic, physical usage of our space decreased drastically, along with the way patrons could use and engage with the library. In the Fall semester of 2021, the Student Engagement Committee was created to reimagine ways to foster relationships with our students and student organizations on campus, looking for ways to promote library services and encourage a sense of Brockport as a community for all. Join us as we map out our development as a committee, events and activities we’ve spearheaded, and connections we’ve made along our journey. We will discuss our strategy, highlight unique events, and share what we’ve learned about making meaningful connections with our students.
F2: The Graduate Archival Fellowships Program at Queens College, CUNY
Annie Tummino and Max Thorn
Queens College Library’s Special Collections and Archives (SCA) is fortunate to have the resources of the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS) in the same building. Working with GSLIS, SCA developed a Graduate Archival Fellowships program which provides hands-on experience and mentorship to select GSLIS students, including stipends and professional development funding. Students may optionally use the fellowship to fulfill a three-credit internship course. Thus far, SCA has sponsored eight fellowships over the last three and a half years. What have the results been so far, for the students and the library? The program director and a former fellow will share their experience with the program, offering actionable lessons to institutions looking to create compensated learning opportunities in their archives.
F3: Empire State Immersive Experiences (ESIE): Preserving Reality in Context
Ken Fujiuchi, Joe Riggie, Chris Hulsman, and Jason (Jay) Barone
Empire State Immersive Experiences (ESIE) is a service of the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC). We provide a repository platform for 360-degree images of places, locations, and objects. These images are searchable through user-generated metadata and can be transformed into virtual tours using integrated tools to add directional inputs and hotspots. The primary goal was to create a community-driven repository to preserve immersive contextual experiences. 360 images provide a snapshot of a geographic location and time, and the custom metadata and tour building tools allow the user to frame the images in context. A secondary goal was to make 360 photography and mixed reality technology more accessible to the community. Come see how version 1.0 turned out, and what we plan for the future of this project.
F4: EBSCO: News You Can Use!
Nancy Grimaldi
Join Nancy Grimaldi for an action-packed, fun-filled, informative session. Have an up close and personal look at our just released Ebook “title level controls”, full visibility dashboard and filters from Collection Manager. Soar through the 21st century with OpenAthens; secure, modern, single-sign with dashboard analytics; now an approved resource on NYS OGS. Get the scoop on new databases, Spring Archive promo and Q&A on the July 1 SUNYwide EBSCO databases. Attendees will be entered to win a raffle basket
11:30 am- 12:15 pm
Session G
G1: History and Scholarly Research: A Blended Approach
Fabio Montella
A structured research assignment is often the culminating assessment of most social sciences and humanities courses within higher education. These assignments are often paired with 1-2 library one-shot instructions occurring during the course of a semester. During these time-limited sessions, students are instructed by academic librarians on matters of scholarly research and are guided as they address their respective research assignments. While library instruction is necessary to student success in these courses, the time constraints of one-shot library session can hinder both an academic librarian’s instruction and the subsequent attainment of student learning outcomes. When transitioning to online learning, these hindrances are often exacerbated. In addressing such issues, I have redesigned my history courses to ensure that library research instruction runs concurrently with existing history content modules. This presentation will discuss the implementation and assessment of this semester-long approach.
G2: Cracking the Secrets of Video Marketing
Amanda M. Lowe
The options for marketing library resources and services are endless. Currently, bite-sized videos are incredibly popular – just look at Instagram Reels or Tiktoks to see just how trendy they are. In what ways can libraries take advantage of short-form videos to promote their services? This presentation will explore how video marketing can be used by libraries to promote resources and services, as well as to offer practical tips and tricks on how to create (software, editing, getting participants, equipment, etc.) videos – whether they are short-form videos for social media platforms like Instagram or Tiktok or longer format videos for YouTube.
G3: New York State Library Education Guides
Marisa Gitto
How do you find thematic primary sources and other documents at the New York State Library? These helpful resources will engage students, teachers, professors, librarians, and preservice teachers. Exciting curriculum activities were created based upon these historic documents. This presentation will help you find resources from the NYSL Reference Library, Manuscripts and Special Collections and Digital Collections units. New York State Library Educator Guides on the American Revolution and Women’s Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage movements will be exhibited.
G4: Why Librarians should mentor student scholars: sustaining and maintaining scholarly relationships
Chrissy O’Grady, Adrianna Martinez, and Sean Loughran
This presentation will focus on a librarian created and supervised digital history internship offered at SUNY New Paltz and the impacts of librarian mentorship on the undergraduate students who completed the internship. It will explore the possibilities to forge transdisciplinary spaces utilizing library science. This presentation will largely focus on the Spring 2021 intern’s project but will include perspectives of student interns from Fall 2020 and Spring 2022. Speakers will include Librarians Adrianna Martinez and Chrissy O’Grady, as well as Sean Loughran, a recently graduated SUNY New Paltz student. Sean utilized Omeka and Zotero to create a student-driven comparative history of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 and the Covid-19 Pandemic during 2020. The session will begin with Adrianna and Chrissy introducing the internship, why it was created, and the pedagogical frameworks used to guide the student through the creation of a digital history project. Sean will then share his work and discuss the impact this mentorship approach has had on his educational and personal goals. We will close the session by discussing why and how librarians can and should mentor students in both formal and informal settings.
Pre-Recorded Sessions
Academic Librarians Centrality in Student Learning
Kimberly Mullins and Mary Kate Boyd-Byrnes
Using data from a learning module embedded in all first-year seminars, researchers found evidence suggesting that librarians are uniquely qualified to deliver information literacy instruction compared to other disciplinary faculty and staff. The study blindly analyzes writing assignments from first-year modules taught by either librarians or other faculty and staff for two academic years. While the assessment initially focused on whether the students met the learning objectives, the researchers were open to what other information might be unearthed. As the analysis progressed, the researchers constructed tentative ideas about the data. They contextualized them further by looking at the data’s properties, such as the instructor’s qualifications, library involvement, and first-year reading choice. The data infers some relationship between the improved student learning and instruction taught by librarians versus other instructors. The outcome potentially demonstrates the centrality of the librarian’s role in student learning and helps substantiate the value of academic libraries
The New Rules: Creating an Authentically Diverse Workplace at the Academic Library
Alessandra Otero Ramos, Becky Leathersich, Brandon K. West and Teddy Gyamfi
The IDEA committee of the Fraser Hall Library at Geneseo will present their findings from the book, Authentic Diversity: How to Change the Workplace for Good by Michelle Silverthorn. The book aims to help folks move beyond talking about DEI to taking actionable steps. We will explore how we can apply the new rules at your respective library units. We encourage professionals to watch this recorded session as we are going to be talking about some of the key problems and solutions from the book. The session will be centered around the chapter titled “Make Authentic Diversity Matter for Good” in which the author gives advice for moving your organization from inclusion to belonging, which is going to be the focus of our content in the context of academic libraries.
Easy as 1-2-3: The Basics of Accessibility Testing Tools
Claire Payne, Carli Spina, and Colleen Lougen
An automated testing tool can be used to provide a quick assessment of the accessibility of a website or library database. Some testing tools are readily available as free browser extensions and can be used with a minimal amount of training, making automated testing a valuable first step in evaluating online accessibility. This presentation will introduce three, publicly available tools: WAVE, Axe, and Accessibility Insights. We will briefly demonstrate each tool, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and explain the uses and limitations of automated testing.
Changes in classified information: moving the goalposts
Rebecca Chapman
Government classification of information is often controlled by Executive Order. This talk looks at 40 years of Executive Orders on classified information and what changes are present in them. When the goalposts move it can present challenges for librarians, and we will talk about some of things librarians are doing regarding that issue.
Tenure-Track Librarians and the Covid-19 Pandemic
Kim Plassche, Carolyn Klotzbach-Russell, and Amanda McCormick
This presentation will reflect upon the findings of a March 2021 of tenure-track faculty librarians related to their experiences during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Specific effects of the pandemic on job responsibilities and workload, tenure requirements, scholarly output and librarian confidence will be discussed. Attendees are invited to contribute to an informal, anonymous Padlet about their Covid-19 work experiences (https://tinyurl.com/SUNYLApadlet).The complete findings of the original March 2021 survey will be reported in a forthcoming article accepted for publication in the January 2023 issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy.
Who Gets Promoted?: An Examination of SUNY Ranks by Gender
Camille Chesley and Jane Kessler
Academics have long written about the plight of women in the workplace, particularly the difficulties balancing work and family life and the gendered division of household and professional labor. This has translated to a long-standing disparity in salary and promotional opportunities between men and women, even in traditionally female professions such as librarianship. In a study, the presenters examined librarian ranks within the State University of New York (SUNY) system for gender disparities and found that male librarians are overrepresented at the highest ranks within the SUNY system.
In this session, the presenters will discuss their findings, the implications for the development of policies that promote equitable representation of women librarians at all ranks, and potential approaches to addressing these inequities.
Launching a New York State Copyright First Responder Network
Emily Kilcer
To meet the challenges of librarianship in the 21st century, information professionals must have a baseline understanding of copyright law. In spring 2022, nearly 90 participants from 13 institutions from across the state started training to become the first cohort of New York State Copyright First Responders (NYS CFRs). During six virtual sessions, the group learned the fundamentals of copyright, public domain, fair use, and library exceptions under copyright law from Kyle Courtney, Copyright Advisor and Program Manager at Harvard University. The library-centered copyright law curriculum builds expertise through a decentralized hub-and-spoke learning community.
Following this training, CFR will provide copyright support and offer copyright training to colleagues within and outside their organizations, and serve as future trainers, with the intention to expand the network throughout the state over time. Presentation attendees will learn about this program and explore data collected from the first cohort.
No Need to Wing It: Creating Credit-Bearing Information Literacy Courses
Brandon West and Megan Benson
It is becoming common for SUNY librarians to teach their own credit-bearing courses, but building a course from the ground up can be a daunting task. There are seemingly infinite ways in which to design such courses and this is one of the biggest challenges in the course design process. In this session, two librarians, one from a SUNY comprehensive and one from a research institution, will share how they went about establishing their credit-bearing information literacy courses, how they approached the design of their courses, and will outline some pedagogical considerations that have to be effective (and not-so-effective) after multiple iterations of their courses. This presentation will provide attendees with practical strategies they can implement at their home institutions.
Accessibility is the Ramp to DEI, Incorporating UDL into Librarian Praxis Opens the Door
Michael Crossfox
Applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can guide the creation of digital content that is accessible for all library users. This presentation aims to introduce UDL, crosswalk those concepts to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and demonstrate how centering praxis on accessibility lays the foundation for considering other forms of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The slide deck will include UDL bibliography, and links to all tools shown.
I Don’t Have the Time or Really Understand What This Is! Examining our Faculty’s Motivation to Use (or not) Montclair State University’s Institutional Repository
Karen Ramsden and Darren Sweeper
This presentation will focus on all aspects of conducting a usability study to assess stakeholder motivation to utilize the services associated with our University’s institutional repository (IR), Montclair State University Digital Commons. We will communicate our experiences,and best practices in setting up a usability study, and all tasks associated with collecting data, conducting the study, engaging stakeholders, and lessons learned. After devoting considerable energy on the development, implementation, and populating of content, the time had come to refocus the efforts to address the lack of faculty participation in our University’s IR. Our research compelled us to rethink how we engage with faculty to identify barriers that may limit their participation and awareness of the IR. In this study we conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty to explore how to best address the issues that define their engagement, and use of the IR.
Using an inclusive pedagogy to flip an information literacy class
Madeline Ruggiero
As more colleges are enrolling a greater number of students with various learning abilities, an inclusive educational environment becomes crucial to providing effective teaching. This presentation will discuss the tutorial design using LibWizard, an interactive tutorial, as a learning tool to flip a community college information literacy class in psychology. LibWizard has built-in capabilities for designing tutorials that align with the three core principles of Universal Design for Learning, an inclusive pedagogical framework. Using an interactive tutorial allows students to learn information at their own pace which also helps a wide range of learners. Having students interact with information before class adds flexibility to the lesson and proves to be beneficial for the student’s use of class time and to accommodate the varied level of learning abilities. The autonomy offered by interacting with an asynchronous tutorial supports diversity in student learning as students learn at their own pace.
Strategic Planning and Avoiding the Curse of Ennui
Alan Witt
Strategic planning is difficult to translate into the non-profit world, and often is met with cynicism and disinterest from library staff. This presentation will outline a successful (and ongoing) process, and will give attendees tools and approaches that have worked to produce genuine engagement with strategic planning. A biography of further readings will be provided at the end.
Web Archiving: Preserving the Future of Scientific Endeavor
Chaeyeon Kim
Much of the information published on the Web is unique and historically valuable. Therefore, capturing dynamic content hosted on the web is an important task for our collective memory. In January 2022, Archives & Special Collections at Health Sciences Library of Upstate Medical University began to design a web archive to meet the growing need for preserving information on the web for future generations. As its first quest, we decided to create a thematic collection of COVID-19 news and media produced bythe University. This presentation will introduce a web archiving project carried out by Archives & Special Collections by demonstrating the use of web archiving tools to capture content on the web and provide access to them. Major technical barriers and valuable lessons from this project will be discussed so we can estimate the key factors that affect the success of future web archiving projects.