News You Can Use
New You Can Use sessions offer the latest updates from experts on policy, research, statistics, technology, and more, based on new surveys, reports, legislation/regulation, and projects.
You can learn more about these and other programs by visiting the Conference Scheduler - or click on any session title below to open its listing in the Scheduler.
Saturday June 22
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Update on ACRL Research Agenda for Scholarly Communications (ACRL)
Yasmeen Shorish, Data Services Coordinator and Assistant Director of Research & Education Services, James Madison University; Nathan Hall, Director, Digital Imaging and Preservation Services, Virginia Tech University
Learn about ACRL’s new research agenda for scholarly communications and the research environment. Developed over the course of a year with a high degree of community involvement -- particularly historically underrepresented groups -- this powerful new action-oriented agenda encourages the community to make the scholarly communications system more open, inclusive, and equitable by addressing issues concerning people, content, and systems. It outlines trends, encourages practical actions, and clearly identifies the most strategic research questions to pursue. Learn how to apply for an ACRL research grant to investigate timely and substantial research questions, developing solutions that will move the community forward.
Enabling Smart, Inclusive, and Connected Communities: The Role of Public Libraries
Mila Gascó, Associate Research Director at the Center for Technology in Government and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, State University of New York - University at Albany
Smart communities integrate a double perspective, the technological and the human. As industry- and government-led strategies pursue technological efficiencies and improved operations, how do communities ensure that the aspirations and needs of residents are integrated into smart community plans. An IMLS-funded project from CTG UAlbany and ALA's Center for the Future of Libraries explores two key questions: To what extent do public libraries, building on their expertise, knowledge, and background, contribute to communities’ understanding of and participation in smart city initiatives? And what are the existing and potential benefits, costs, risks, challenges, and unintended consequences for those libraries seeking to increase their involvement in smart initiatives? Researchers from CTG UAlbany will present some of their early findings and experiences with this project.
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Library Ebook Lending - Collaborating to Build a Better Future
The 2018 National Ebook Summit – held at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans – brought together publishers, distributors, libraries, consortia, and other industry experts to create a National Agenda for the delivery of ebooks and eaudio by libraries. Hear from participants about current initiatives and future projects that will test new models using data to demonstrate the power of libraries in connecting readers to new titles and expand the relationships between these industries. Industry thought leaders will discuss the how and why of cross industry data sharing and collaboration the critical next steps to building a better future for ebook lending.
173 Days of Congress: An Examination (ALA - Washington Office)
Alan Inouye, Director, Public Policy, American Library Association; Kevin Maher, Deputy Director, Government Relations, American Library Association
In the first six months of the 116th Congress, policies impacting a wide range of libraries priorities are front and center. Whether its net neutrality, federal funding, copyright, access to information and broadband, or education policy, libraries are on the minds of Congress. Come hear about what this means from your Washington “insiders” and other policy experts.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Persons in Public Libraries: What We’ve Learned, Where We’re Heading (ALA - PPO)
Melanie Welch, Project Director, ALA Public Programs Office; Rebecca Norlander, Researcher, New Knowledge Organization; Erica Freudenberger, Outreach and Engagement Consultant, Southern Adirondack Library System; Jonathan Fein Proaño, DOJ Accredited Citizenship Manager, International Rescue Committee - Los Angeles; Madeleine Ildefonso, Managing Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library
ALA's Public Programs Office recently completed a year-long exploration of public library programs and services that support immigrant, refugee and displaced persons populations. This initiative, originally titled the “New Americans Library Project,” included a landscape review, library site visits and consultation with a panel of public library and community-based organization staff. This session will review project findings such as opportunities and challenges in programming, existing resources and initiatives to help facilitate strong library public programming, gaps in service that could be addressed through training or other resources, and opportunities and challenges involved in library partnerships with community organizations.
Tracking Your Career Development Pathway with PLA’s Professional Development Theory of Change (PLA)
Mary Hirsh, Deputy Director, Public Library Association; Angela Maycock, Manager of Continuing Education, Public Library Association
Following a membership-wide survey related to competencies, PLA developed a Professional Development Theory of Change (PD ToC) that describes four high level outcomes: build data driven leaders; build public library advocates oriented toward community needs; build stewards of the public library and its values, and; build networked innovators. A series of incremental steps map back from each outcome area, describing a skill to be mastered. This session will introduce attendees to the PLA PD ToC, place the objectives and interim steps in the context of learning goals, and provide guidance on using the ToC to track individual career development.
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
ACRL/SPARC Scholarly Communication Forum: Collective Reinvestment in Open Infrastructure (ACRL)
Libraries are increasingly considering scaling back their subscriptions or cancelling big deals altogether. Yet, the question of how and where to reinvest the resources that become available is both far from settled and increasingly pressing. As we start to move away from the subscription model, we should be intentional about crafting the vision for open research communication we strive to build and how we intend to build it. This forum, "If I Had A Million Dollars: Collective Reinvestment in Open Infrastructure," will invite active participation throughout the session in a facilitated discussion with experts representing both libraries and research funders. The highly popular forum series is co-sponsored by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).
A Tale of Three States: Responding to Needs and Emerging Trends (IMLS)
Teri DeVoe, Associate Deputy Director, Grants to States, U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services; Mark Smith, Director and Librarian, Texas State Library and Archives Commission; Randy Riley, State Librarian, Library of Michigan; Mary Soucie, State Librarian, North Dakota State Library
In recent years state libraries looked deeply at user needs and trends in library services, through Five-Year Evaluations and Plans submitted to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Now that the 2018-22 plans for spending LSTA funds are underway, chief officers from the states will discuss the needs they anticipated, as well as emerging trends they might be seeing. IMLS will also share trends from its vantage point as a national funder. To convey how broad plans translate into specific projects, the session will cover tools to search across the more than 1,500 library projects that IMLS funds annually.
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Confronting White Nationalism in Libraries: A Panel Discussion
Jarrett J. Dapier, Young Adult Librarian, Skokie Public Library; Nora Flanagan, English Teacher, Northside College Preparatory High School; Emily Knox, Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Eric Ward, Executive Director, Western States Center
As white nationalism becomes a growing concern in communities across the country, a new toolkit from the Western States Center, “Confronting White Nationalism In Schools: A Toolkit,” helps educators focus specifically on the potential targeting of youth for recruitment. Join educators, librarians, and civil rights activists for an exploration of how youth are recruited into the white nationalist movement, what the signs of white nationalist activity in library spaces might look like, recommendations on how to respond, and questions of intellectual freedom that may arise as we work to preserve an inclusive democracy.
United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) - Books Bridge Homes and Hearts (AASL, ALSC, YALSA)
Padma Venkatraman, author of the middle grade novel The Bridge Home, will speak about her background, inspiration, research and writing process, and address the need for books that include multicultural narratives and highlight diversity in varied ways, in our nation and in our world.
Sunday June 23
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
DPLA Update
Join the Digital Public Library of America for an update on their current work and a look ahead to the organization’s plans for 2019. DPLA Executive Director John Bracken and the DPLA team look forward to an engaging discussion and interaction with attendees.
Measures that Matter: Kicking the Tires on the Action Plan (COSLA)
Ken Wiggin, Connecticut State Library and Chair of the Implementation Group; Kate Lovan, Middleton (Idaho) Public Library; Alisha Gillis, Urban Libraries Council; Teri DeVoe, Institute of Museum and Library Services
Beginning in the Fall of 2018 a new and broadly-constituted Measures that Matter Implementation Group (MtM IG) and several Working Groups have been advancing portions of the Measures that Matter Action Plan. A little over one year after its release in April 2018, progress has been made on at least six of the fourteen action areas. In this session members of the MtM IG will discuss that progress, lessons learned, and a vision for continuing to move forward with the plan’s proposed Public Library Data Alliance. Measures that Matter is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in cooperative agreement with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Update on ACRL's Value of Academic Libraries Initiative: Communicating Assessment Results to Stakeholders (ACRL)
Stephanie Mikitish, User Engagement and Assessment Librarian, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Director of Library Trends and User Research, OCLC; Marie L. Radford, Chair & Professor, Department of Library & Information Science, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; Vanessa Kitzie, Assistant Professor, School of Library & Information Science, College of Information & Communications, University of South Carolina; Diana Floegel, PhD Student, Department of Library & Information Science, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; Laura Costello, PhD Student, Virtual Reference Librarian, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Assessment mandates are a reality for librarians. One of the most difficult tasks in the assessment process involves reporting assessment results to non-librarian stakeholders in a manner that addresses their unique concerns. In this interactive forum, participants will complete a guided exercise where they will identify which common stakeholder concerns are most appropriate for the audiences at their institution. Next, they will brainstorm the types of assessment data they have or need to collect that will address those concerns. The participants then will consider strategies for communicating the results yielded by these data to their specific stakeholder audiences.
Literacy for All: Resources for Serving Learners Across the Lifespan (ALA - ODLOS)
Kristin Lahurd, Assistant Director, Literacy and Continuing Education, ODLOS, American Library Association; Kevin Reynolds, Dean of the Library, Wofford College; Jacqueline Kociubuk, Kent State University's School of Information
Join ALA’s Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services and Committee on Literacy for highlights from our key literacy initiatives, the newly-published “Literacy for All: Adult Literacy through Libraries” toolkit and the ALA Literacy Clearinghouse. These free resources will help you add, expand, and advocate for literacy services at your library. Learn about model library literacy programs, resources from across the Association for serving target populations, and how libraries are helping to increase access and opportunities across multiple literacies.
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
LITA Top Technology Trends (LITA)
LITA's premier program on changes and advances in technology. Top Technology Trends features our ongoing roundtable discussion about trends and advances in library technology by a panel of LITA technology experts and thought leaders. The panelists will describe changes and advances in technology that they see having an impact on the library world, and suggest what libraries might do to take advantage of these trends. More information about the program is available at the Top Tech Trends site.
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Update on the ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics Survey (ACRL)
Georgie Lynn Donovan, Associate Dean for Collections and Content Services, William & Mary
This session will bring attendees up to date concerning the elimination of the NCES Academic: Library Survey and the migration of some components into IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System). Implications for the annual ACRL Academic Library Trends and Statistics will be discussed.
Public Libraries, Data, and Evaluation: Tools You Can Use (PLA)
Emily Plagman, Manager, Impact and Evaluation, Public Library Association/American Library Association; Linda Hofschire, Director, Library Research Service, Colorado State Library
Attend this session to learn how PLA’s Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment Committee (MEAC), consisting of public, state and national library staff, is working to improve the data landscape for public libraries. Learn about tools and training opportunities that are helping libraries capture better data about the value of their libraries, including PLA’s Project Outcome and the Colorado State Library’s Research Institute for Public Libraries (RIPL). Gain a better understanding of how PLA’s MEAC is working to improve and streamline long-standing survey instruments, such as the PLDS, and create a more efficient process for data capture and usage of PLA products.
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
The Digital Literacy Frontier: From Broadband Access to Skill Development (PLA)
Scott Allen, Deputy Director, Public Library Association; Monica Dombrowski, Executive Director, Sycamore Public Library
Bringing people online to participate fully in today’s digital world is crucial, and libraries have long been leaders on that front. You know your efforts to teach and provide digital resources help patrons get jobs, gain knowledge, increase their productivity, and engage with others. But how can you leverage and strengthen your library’s resources to best meet these needs? How can you and your co-workers close the gap of lacking digital literacy skills? Hear a diverse panel of digital literacy experts share tools, resources, and partnership strategies to help you enhance digital skill development in your community.
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
You Have a Voice in Accreditation (ALA - Accreditation)
Join Committee on Accreditation (COA) members for a discussion on how librarians can become engaged in the accreditation process and the role they have in providing guidance to master's in library and information studies programs.
Monday June 24
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Research Focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries (ALA - LARC)
Martha Adkins, Assistant Professor, Copley Library, University of San Diego
We hear a lot of anecdotal information about the value of equity, diversity and inclusion in libraries and for library workers. What evidence do we have to show the status of equitable practices, diversification and inclusive initiatives? In this session we will introduce you to existing research about EDI and make recommendations for further research. Available resources to begin or further you own EDI research will be included. You will leave this session with an awareness of current EDI research, EDI topics that need to be researched, and resources to get your own EDI research started. Presented by the Committee on Research & Statistics.
Resources for Rural and Tribal Libraries - Advocacy and Literacy (ALA - ODLOS)
Paulita Aguilar, Librarian and Associate Professor, University of New Mexico; Dr. Anthony Chow, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Join ALA’s Committee on Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds (RNTLOAK) for a look at advocacy and literacy in rural and tribal communities. Members of RNTLOAK will present their updated toolkit and a look ahead to projects for 2019. Researchers Aaron Lafromboise (Director of Library Services, Blackfeet Community College) and Anthony Chow (Associate Professor, UNC Greensboro Department of Library and Information Studies) will share findings from their work "Reading Nation: Understanding Attitudes on Libraries and Literacy on Blackfeet Reservation." Build your knowledge of rural and tribal libraries and engage with a community of advocates.
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
OCLC Research Update: Active Engagement
Andrew Pace, Executive Director for Technical Research, OCLC; Lynn Connaway, Director of Library Trends and User Research, OCLC; Chela Weber, Senior Program Officer, Research Library Partnership, OCLC
OCLC Research examines the challenges and issues currently facing libraries and explores new and emerging areas of librarianship. In this session, Andrew Pace, Executive Director for Technical Research, will share how OCLC Research has established a continuous cycle of active engagement with institutions to discover research needs, explore topics in collaboration with partners, and develop resources that can be shared among and adapted by libraries and their stakeholders. Pace will provide examples of this cycle in action, drawing from current projects that cover discovery and access, open content, Wikipedia, and more. The session will provide details about OCLC’s recent linked data prototype effort with 16 institutions. Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Director of Library Trends and User Research, will share progress on case study research of public libraries responding to the opioid crisis with community partners. And Chela Weber, Senior Program Officer, Research Library Partnership, will talk about the work the partnership is doing with libraries and archives in the area of special collections. Time for Q&A will follow the presentations.
You Learned to Plan Programs Where?! Findings from NILPPA, ALA's National Study of Library Public Programs (ALA - PPO)
Mary Davis Fournier, Deputy Director, ALA Public Programs Office; Rebecca Norlander, Researcher, New Knowledge Organization; Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein, Researcher, New Knowledge Organization
As a library worker, you see the impacts of library programs every day -- from young people developing skills through summer reading, to older adults finding solace through homebound outreach programs. But while the library world knows anecdotally how important programs are, the field lacks sufficient data on whether, and how, these efforts are working. For the past two years, the ALA Public Programs Office and a team of researchers have surveyed thousands of library professionals about their work. In the process, we have unearthed some fascinating findings about public programs and the skill set of the library staffers who run them. Join leaders of the IMLS-funded National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA) for highlights from our white paper and next steps.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Cause for Collaboration: Integrating Journalism and other Allied Professions into Library Instruction to Fight Fake News
Laura Saunders, Associate Professor, Simmons University; Lisa Hinchliffe, Professor/Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In an era of “fake news” and “post-truth,” news literacy skills are crucial, but research shows many people cannot identify mis- and disinformation. Librarians are uniquely positioned to support the development of news literacy, but they do not need to work alone. Allied professionals such as journalists, educators, and the tech sector are all impacted by misinformation and engaged in fighting it. Building on outcomes from the Know News Symposium, which convened 80 journalists and librarians to discuss responses to misinformation, this session will explore opportunities for collaboration, including embedded professionals, local news collaborations, and news makerspaces.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in the School Library (AASL)
Dr. Lucy Santos Green, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina (Moderator); Donna Young, Library Media Specialist, De Pere (Wisc.) Middle School; IdaMae Craddock, Library Media Specialist, Burley (Vir.) Middle School; Susan Sclafani, School Librarian, Oregon (N.Y.) Middle School
Virtual reality and augmented reality tools are increasingly popular in K-12 schools. These technologies bring with them the promise of high student engagement, and learning experiences that take us on realistic and imaginative journeys. From augmented reality books to virtual reality headsets, the options for tools, apps, resources, and activities can be overwhelming. In this session, three school librarians discuss the ways they integrated VR and AR technologies into their library programs, their co-teaching, and their school communities at large. Come hear about their challenges and successes, and leave with a fresh perspective on VR and AR in school libraries!
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Advocating for Health at Your Library: Equity Starts with Us (PLA)
Leighann Wood, Program Manager, Public Library Association; Scott Allen, Deputy Director, Public Library Association
As a part of PLA’s commitment to equity, we are involved in many health-related initiatives that your library can be a part of to advocate for healthier communities. This session will introduce attendees to resources, trending issues, partnerships, communication assets, programming ideas and training materials to help public library staff with assisting patrons with health inquiries and developing healthy habits.
Data Pathways (PLA)
Crystal Chen, Young Adult Librarian, New York Public Library; Aurelia Mandani, Technology Services Librarian & Web Developer, NOAA Boulder Labs Library; A.J. Muhammad, Librarian, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library; Claire Nickerson, Learning Initiatives and OER Librarian, Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State University; Tracy Drake, Archivist, Chicago Public Library
Data Pathways is a project that was sponsored by the Emerging Leaders Program in 2018 and was directed by the Public Library Association (PLA) and RIPL (Research Institute for Public Libraries). The Emerging Leaders were tasked with creating and finding resources for public library staff to become more familiar with data resources. This presentation will explain the process that the Emerging Leaders Group I went through to develop this online digital tool, and will explore how library staff (public, academic, special, rural, and more) can use this tool to learn the basics about data competencies.