Education Program Preview

In this session, participants will learn how to engage with bookish social media spaces as a site of professional development. Whether you enter as a passive observer or an active creator, these online spaces can be a robust tool for collection development, programming ideas, lesson planing, and advocacy. Plus it's fun! Participants will leave this session with ideas for how to find content on social media to ignite ideas and address needs in the school library, as well as inspiration for how to join in by sharing content of their own!

Librarians around the globe are adjusting to the new normal of the endemic Covid world. How will these changes affect librarians who are interested in working internationally? This program is for information professionals in all stages of their career who are interested in working internationally. This popular annual program hosted by IRRT’s International Connections Committee features librarians discussing their own unique international experiences. Sessions are split between prepared topics and audience Q&A time. This program will feature topics such as leveraging networks to find work abroad, pre-departure language and etiquette training, adapting to regional librarianship as well as cultural standards, the practicalities of life overseas, and any significant changes in our post pandemic world.

The past two years changed so much in our industry, more managers are choosing to retire or reduce their hours, which in turn creates exciting new openings. Here we will examine closely the excitement, reward and yes the pitfalls and demands that come from transition from coworker to supervisor. Group discussions will focus on internal promotions and upward mobility. Also encouraged to attend are coworkers looking to support peers as they move into Supervisory and Leadership roles, as well as Managers and Directors who want to ensure that recognizing potential and promoting from within will maintain healthy dynamics within the library. With an emphasis on the positive effect of clear equitable mentoring and network activities we will share tips and strategies to build diverse, inclusive and empowered leadership. We will focus on new networks, how to set and maintain a professional tone, as well as how to manage the balance between old relationships with new responsibilities. As a group we will identify potential areas of concern, we will brainstorm how to proactively de-escalate problem situations. Our approach is innovative, interactive and empowering.

"Nothing about us without us" has become a rallying cry for the disability community. But the representation of disabilities in library classification and controlled vocabularies has been created with little input from disabled people. That’s slowly changing, and you can help be a part of making our systems better!

In this jargon-free session, everyone interested in disability justice will discover how libraries represent disabilities on their shelves and in their catalogs. You’ll learn about how physical and mental disabilities are currently treated in the Library of Congress Subject Headings & Classification, the Dewey Decimal Classification, and the National Library of Medicine Subject Headings & Classification, as well as what’s changed in the past few years. You’ll find out how you can help flag problem terminology and share strategies for better classification choices. You’ll also hear about alternative vocabularies that you can adopt to provide greater access for your patrons.

This session will provide multiple ways to get involved to ensure we’re working towards equity of access for ALL our patrons.

Programming for older adults in libraries has traditionally skewed to the negative or banal aspects of aging: end of life planning, retirement preparation, degenerative health conditions, insurance assistance, and the like. While those programs do indeed hold an important place in our services to this population, we also should celebrate this wonderful, dynamic, creative stage of life. Far from ignoring the difficulties that come with aging, we must put those realities into context by regarding them as just one element of a multifaceted and potentially highly fulfilling stage of life. There is great potential in older adulthood, as it is a time to grow, reflect, and make meaning. Creative and social engagement, and the joy that is found through pursuing such endeavors, fosters a healthy and happy older adulthood. In this session, we will delve more deeply into the "why" and "how" of Creative Aging programs that bring opportunities for artistic expression, learning, and celebration to the older adults we serve.

Find out about some of the fantastic things that public libraries can do to make the third stage of life the best stage of them all!

In a 2022 press release, the American Library Association affirmed its commitment to ensuring freedom of access to information about reproductive health stating: "we stand firm in opposing any effort to suppress access to information about reproductive health, including abortion." In this session, attendees will learn about how state laws enacted to penalize and prevent abortion and other reproductive health care make libraries into targets, what legal protections are available for libraries and library workers, and proactive steps libraries can take to protect the privacy and intellectual freedom of their patrons.

Combining public, research, and academic librarians, this panel will explore public, research, and academic libraries efforts to reach indigenous patrons through projects dedicated to sharing indigenous art, Andean and Mesoamerican languages, and cartography. The participants will discuss collecting indigenous histories for the Special Collections in a public library; the complexities of working with a Quechua collection at the Library of Congress; mapping indigenous lands in the American Mid-west; sharing indigenous art and documents through digital initiatives; and reproducing Mixtec art in the 19th century.

Do you want to move past marking that diversity checkbox and take your LGBTQIA+ collection development to the next level? As seen through the work of Diverse BookFinder, how historically underrepresented identities are portrayed in our collections is just as important as increasing the number of books depicting these identities. This presentation moves beyond asking if there is LGBTQIA+ representation in recently published picture books and instead explores the more complex questions of who is being represented, in what ways, to what extent, and why each type of narrative is important to children and their families.

Join us to gain a better understanding of the current landscape of LGBTQIA+ representation in picture books and learn about new tools designed by the presenters to help you develop and advocate for rich collections that feature an array of authentic LGBTQIA+ stories.

Is your library considering a critical cataloging or reparative description project? Are you planning to replace outdated subject headings or other inaccurate terminology? Do you want to implement local subject heading changes in your library system? Are you part of a small team and feeling overwhelmed about where to start? Join us and learn how the Cataloger, Archivist, and Metadata Manager at Central Michigan University, a Carnegie R2 institution, moved from theoretical to practical implementation of a critical cataloging and reparative description project to address biased and problematic language in the catalog. The group has successfully implemented local changes to multiple Library of Congress subject headings, impacting thousands of bibliographic records. Attendees will learn benefits and challenges of local record remediation with limited resources, approaches to research, project prioritization, decision making, establishing sustainable workflows, and cross-departmental and community collaboration.

Who gets to use a library’s digital collections? For Iowa, where 83.6% of residents have an Internet connection at home, you’d think the majority of communities would have easy access. However, this statistic overlooks a demographic that doesn’t always show up in day-to-day library work: patrons with low to no vision. How can a patron who cannot see find and listen to an audiobook on Libby? What assistive technology exists to break down the barrier between library collections and our patrons with visual impairment or blindness? This session covers the why, what, and how library staff can assist these patrons in borrowing and listening to their audiobook collection.

During this panel discussion, we present the Talk Story community of practice to recenter youth literacy programs with emphasis on oral traditions, intergenerational and intersectional community building, and cultural sensitivities. Following this session, participants will recognize how to differentiate between racial and ethnic subcultures within literacy programs and service areas, and why differentiation is crucial and foundational to literacy justice and community building during program development and implementation. Additionally, participants will be equipped to evaluate library programs and partnerships, particularly framed as an assessment of agency, reclamation, and redistribution of power to stakeholder communities. After two short storytelling sessions, one presented by a representative of the American Indigenous Library Association (AILA) and another representative from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), participants will learn about how oral traditions honor cultural pasts, present, and futures.

Does your community have diverse stories to tell, but you are not sure where to start? Come learn how Tacoma Public Library undertook a project to broaden their existing local history collection by co-creating, with local organizations and partners, a new community archive that incorporates previously missing voices from underrepresented people of Tacoma. Hear practical strategies for undertaking the co-design process and learn about resources in the project toolkit to help you implement your own community archive. This session will be useful whether you have an existing local history collection or are just starting out on building a community archive. During this moderated panel, each phase of the project and its related resources will be discussed, giving attendees a comprehensive overview of the process. This session will offer examples and resources for facilitating the collection and dissemination of ignored and/or erased histories from underrepresented people and communities. It will offer both a theoretical framework and practical strategies for helping to overcome institutional and historical biases which inhibit the inclusion of a full range of community voices in traditional archives.

Are you responsible for health and wellness programming in your library? Have you ever wondered how to create a mental health program that speaks directly to your community? Learn about two of NYPL’s innovative wellness projects: the Community Mental Health Project and the IMLS grant:Building Public Library Capacity for Supporting Young Adult Engagement and Wellbeing. You will leave this session with practical ideas that you can implement at your library, big or small, to support community mental health and wellbeing.

This session will explore the intersection of literacy and digital equity, especially for unserved and underserved populations. You will hear from libraries who have implemented successful programs in the areas of digital literacy and literacy and who are engaged in digital equity work. They will share how they have connected with the communities that they serve; and we will explore opportunities for libraries to become more involved in and collaborate with the broader digital inclusion movement. Finally, our panelists will offer a range of available resources for teaching and learning in the areas of both literacy and digital skills. These tools include, such assets as the Northstar Digital Literacy assessments and materials available from ALA, Literacy Minnesota and others.

Health Literacy is an important component to a public library’s program offerings, as any patron can benefit from connecting with local health resources, obtaining access to health professionals, and learning about their own health status. Public libraries can be integral in delivering vital health information and resources to the communities they serve, but it can be daunting to know how to introduce health programs. No matter what size system you come from, it is possible to get a health program off the ground at your library and create something with a big impact. 

The COVID-19 pandemic decentralized many workplaces, including those at libraries, providing alternate ways of providing services and resources not bound by physical buildings. As the pandemic has continued, so too have conversations of various labor issues including fair compensation, flexible work locations, and more meaningful assignments or positions. In addition, many people have left education and service-based roles, citing lack of respect, workplace discrimination, few opportunities to advance, neglect or overburdening of employees, and poor or imbalanced financial compensation. With these shifts in expectations in higher education and increasing numbers of employees exploring the many options available to them as a result of the Great Resignation, what are academic libraries doing to retain their employees and to provide additional support for retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce?

This presentation brings together panelists from a range of academic libraries, as well as experts on workforce retention, who are applying various techniques to successfully retain employees. Their methods are resulting in a more resilient workforce thanks to leaders across their divisions who are directly engaging with employees and working to shift their work environments to cultures that are more accommodating and inclusive. 

DEI capacity-building is a measurable improvement in an organization's ability to fulfill its DEI efforts through a blend of sound management, strong governance, and dedication to assessing and achieving DEI results. Leading organizational DEI efforts requires a nuanced understanding of DEI - how to balance the organization's needs as you navigate various dynamics, identities, and perspectives. Organizations must develop clear, usable tools with an equity plan that institutionalizes diversity, equity, and inclusion into an organization’s identity, policies, and procedures Organizations must also consider organizational and individual capacity before embarking on the DEI Journey to create a workplace of equity, diversity, and belonging that is sustainable in the long term. The Building DEI Capacity presentation works with leaders to help them build capacity around DEI dialogue, collections, holding space, and avoiding burnout.

This presentation will highlight some of the ongoing initiatives, projects, or staff development by librarians in technical services roles focusing on staff training and how they are working to actively engage staff with DEI in their workplace and duties. Panelists will be selected to ensure that this showcase is of value to librarians and administrators in a variety of roles and from many types of libraries.

As librarians seek to rise to the challenge of combating many of our institutional histories of white privilege and systemic racism, programs and initiatives are emerging driven by practitioners committed to effecting change. Attendees of this session will learn about innovative approaches being adopted and adapted across the profession, including those that are experimental or so new they have yet to be written about in the literature.

If you picture the layout of your favorite supermarket or book store, chances are its physical design is successfully responsive to the needs and wants of its customers. In addition to analyzing sales, inventory, and market trends, stores also conduct qualitative research to obtain direct feedback and suggestions. That feedback and research influence how they arrange the shelves, the flow of shoppers, and attractive displays that introduce new products and attract repeat purchases.

In the business of librarianship, patrons are our customers, and librarians provide "products" that reflect their needs and identities, respond to their requests, and present innovative ideas. Evaluating the efficiency, attractiveness, and diversity of our physical spaces helps us identify how we can improve customer service and create a better reading experience for a wider diversity of student backgrounds, abilities, and interests. Responsive and proactive design ensures repeat business and referral – in library terms, a strong circulation and healthy engagement of all types of readers.

Do you find yourself faced with overseeing a facilities, renovation, or construction project? This session provides a project management overview that can be applied to all types of library improvements that will help you achieve your system’s objectives. You will be presented strategies for effectively communicating your project goals to a design and construction team and will leave with the tools necessary to prepare a detailed needs assessment and project scope. This presentation is geared towards anyone with an upcoming improvements project, but the project management strategies presented can be applied to a wide range of ventures not limited to construction. Those that have worked on design/construction enterprises before will find innovative ideas for successful project implementation and those that are new to this practice will learn the groundwork for efficiently advancing projects. Attendees will have the opportunity for a question-and-answer session, as well as relevant contact information for post-conference follow-up.

Libraries, as civic institutions, have a responsibility to embody the values they promote in their communities. A Net-Zero Energy library building is a way of demonstrating a commitment to long-term sustainability. This program is structured for an audience of all experience levels, and will educate attendees on the core principles of passive building design and the basics of Net-Zero Energy. Attendees will leave the session better equipped to advocate for sustainable energy in their own libraries.

Libraries have long been called on to support interdisciplinarity in academia. But despite both past and recent calls for swift and significant reimagining of support and services for interdisciplinary humanities scholars, there is evidence that libraries and humanities librarians are adapting at different rates, and with varying degrees of enthusiasm. As academia, research, and libraries themselves continue to change, the conversation about effectively supporting interdisciplinary research and humanities scholars continues. This panel will be a next step in this timely conversation, incorporating research findings, lived experiences, and panelists’ reflections.

We know that interdisciplinarity in humanities teaching and research is generally regarded as both desirable and necessary in higher education. But how extensively, and how well, are libraries and librarians adapting? And, as disciplinary boundaries continue to blur, what is the future of the “English Literature Librarian” or “History Librarian? In this session, panelists will highlight research that sheds light on how libraries can support interdisciplinary humanities scholars, and how it can help shape librarian roles in the future. The panel will also consider the way forward by examining how libraries have already adapted, and where (and why) movement has been slow.

In order to present multiple perspectives panelists will represent different roles (researcher, librarian, faculty member), different types of organizations (academic libraries and a non-for-profit research organization), and multiple areas of academic study. Attendees will be engaged through our quick-moving panel format, in-person panelists, video content, and opportunities to ask questions.

In 2021, the US Department of Justice reported that federal agencies processed over 830,000 requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Scholars speculate that this number will continue to increase, soon reaching 1 million. To this, hundreds of thousands of requests under state and municipal Freedom of Information Acts add to the yearly public demand for governmental information. Where do these requests come from? What role should librarians as information professionals have in facilitating them? Do librarians have a role to play in how the information is used?

Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA) at the federal, state and municipal level provide that any person has a right to obtain access to government agency records not protected by special exemption. Initially intended to provide an avenue through which concerned citizens and journalists could provide oversight of governmental activities, in recent years their diversity of purpose have dramatically increased. The growth in both purpose and volume of requests has had a significant impact on librarians and archivists across libraries–from academic libraries, public libraries, and archival repositories.

This panel will examine how these institutions have responded to demands for open access to government information. First, it will detail how scholars have utilized FOIA to obtain restricted, historical documents for their research projects. It will then explore these information requests within public libraries and public librarians’ paradoxical role of facilitator–and at times the recipient–of FOIA requests. The panel will then close with a presentation from the National Archives at Chicago about FOIA requests and the archives’ complex mission to both provide and limit access to historical information.

Public libraries serve the entire community, including individuals who are justice-involved. Library resources and services can be vital to people affected by the justice system, and it is imperative to connect with and welcome this population to the library. Discover innovative methods St. Louis County Library has developed to serve justice-involved people in St. Louis. Learn how SLCL has successfully brought virtual library programming to individuals at the St. Louis County Justice Center, with more than 60,000 views of 50 library programs in just six months. Discover how to reach justice-involved teens, as SLCL does by providing books and in-person programming to Lakeside, a St. Louis County Court School. Finally, learn how innovative collaboration among Bail Project St. Louis, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the circuit court led to the creation of the Tap-In Center at St. Louis County library. The Tap In Center provides a welcoming and safe space for individuals to meet with an attorney, get their case information and court date, apply for a public defender, and even resolve active criminal warrants—all in a safe place without risk of arrest.

The pandemic’s effects are still being felt at libraries across the country, especially when it comes to teen engagement. In this panel conversation, participants will hear about the approaches and strategies that we’re employing to be a resource for our teen patrons when they aren’t sure what libraries mean to them. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussion on the delicate balance that is teen services in public libraries and explore what it means to re-engage teens whose interests and needs may have changed over the past two years. 

Academic librarians are uniquely poised to be trusted facilitators in the changing information landscape brought about by the pandemic. Dedicating time in outreach to help round out curriculum with Open Access (OA) materials provides more quality and innovative resources that our students can have access to long after graduation. Although proponents of both traditional publishing and OA can seem to oppose the other—building robust curriculum and collections should not be an either/or process when it comes to accessing quality resources. Rather, librarians can transform our offerings to reflect the very best that traditional publishing and OA has to offer.

Critical visual literacy is a set of skills allowing one to “investigate the sociocultural contexts of visual texts to illuminate power relations” (Kim, H. Y., & Serrano, A., 2017). The presenters developed a research study in which they analyzed the critical visual literacy skills of students studying elementary education when applied to picture books to determine teacher candidates’ abilities to exhibit critical visual analysis skills without prior intervention. This is important because it demonstrates how these teacher candidates are likely to evaluate the pictures in picture books once they are in their own classrooms without targeted instruction. Academic libraries serving education programs must be able to support the development of critical visual literacy skills through library instruction for education students, with specific attention paid towards picture books.

In this session, the presenters will introduce participants to concepts and skills of visual literacy and critical visual literacy using picture books, as well as introduce research findings about teacher candidates’ awareness and ability to apply critical visual literacy. Participants in this session will reflect on how to purposefully integrate critical visual literacy instruction in the library classroom, and in their own reading and selection of picture books.

Students of all ages are attracted to the character of Sherlock Holmes. How can this curiosity be harnessed into active learning experiences in a course structure?  Holmes' and Watson’s methods can be translated into four life-long learning skills: Interaction, Introspection, Intercultural Awareness, and Information Literacy. Participate in active learning exercises that demonstrate Sherlock’s methods and serve as springboards for acquiring learning skills; learn proven techniques for use of media, library materials, and other resources; and gain insight into generating joy in the learning experience. 

In this session we will share practical considerations that libraries of any size can use to create programs, equip public spaces for media production, and build creative communities at any scale. Hear from a cohort of small and large public library media studios within The New York Public Library system on their experience building public media spaces and implementing programs to meet the creative needs of their local populations. Learn from our scalable AV studio models and how to create dynamic media programming that is adaptable to your library. During the latter portion of the session, we invite you to join the conversation and brainstorm with us ways that public libraries can continue to bridge the gaps in access to key digital literacies like creative media production.