Presentations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/10918

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    Vendor Relations: Evolving ethos and etiquette
    (8/10/2018) Sammonds Crawford, Laurel
    As vendors consolidate and the electronic resources market matures, products are increasing in complexity and vendors are marketing ev¬er-changing acquisition models. To safeguard the financial health of our institutions and the utility of our collections, librarians must adapt to changes in the library market and vendor behavior. The University of North Texas Libraries has embarked on a multi-year effort to improve our ability to do this, by proactively preventing problems and by re¬sponding effectively to new situations as they arise. Our session will explore practical techniques and everyday actions that help librarians successfully meet these challenges. We will explore librarians’ attitudes toward vendor activities, including how our tolerance for adverse behaviors and our reactions affect our ability to prevent and solve problems. And we’ll look at how librarians’ responses and behaviors are changing as traditional approaches become less effective. We will also examine four important aspects of vendor-librarian relations. First, how librarians should examine and adjust their mindset upon entering a business relationship. Second, evaluation of products and services as an important step that both heavily influences and is influenced by the vendor relationship. Third, negotiating pricing and features and how it is essential to maintain control over the library’s finances and the patrons’ ability to access important materials. Lastly, we will discuss the concept of setting boundaries and how personal steadfastness can create successful vendor relationships.
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    Reference is Dead: A Peer Research Assistant Program
    (8/10/2018) Smith, Andrew
    The classic reference interaction with patrons is all but a thing of the past. At our institution, the reference desk itself disappeared altogether five years ago, with reference shifting to an on-call model. This ghosting of the reference desk and its affiliated service was ushered in by a sudden influx of new furniture and technology brought in to “dress up” the library’s drab first floor, but was likewise buoyed by dwindling reference statistics and overburdened staff. Due to various factors (librarians’ lack of visibility, perceived indifference from students and faculty, the so-called “information literate” millennial generation), reference statistics sunk to an all-time low over the subsequent years. Thus, we decided two things: 1) bring back the reference desk, and 2) staff it (primarily) with student workers. Hearing of similar services being introduced at fellow Oberlin Group college libraries and beyond, we moved forward with piloting a program where we hired and trained a small staff of work-study eligible student workers to serve as the first point of contact in the reference interaction while staffing the reference desk. The rationale for this, in part, was data supporting the notion of “librarian fear” or “library anxiety,” coinciding with our belief that students are more likely to seek help or advice from other students—their peers—than they are from a librarian. This session will articulate our experience introducing this service – from the impact on our statistics, to the best practices, pitfalls, and lessons learned that we incorporated for the coming academic year.
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    Preparing for the Main Event: Creating a culture of customer service
    (8/10/2018) Pittman, Shedrick
    Customer Service is more than just being nice. It is a teachable skill as important, if not more, than technical skills in our service-oriented industry. In 2017, NCTC Libraries--Gainesville Campus participated in a 6-month long customer service-building project employing many of the concepts detailed in “The Customer Service Revolution” by John DiJulius. This project laid the foundations for cre- ating a “culture of service” within the front-line staff. This staff-driven process produced a vision statement, a promise to our customers, customer service standards, and a customer service training manual for new hires and old hands. Walk through the process and be inspired to create your own culture of service within your library!
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    What’s Up, Doc? Free U.S. Government Health and Medical Resources
    (8/10/2018) Shank, Paige; Morland, Marna
    Paige Shank and Marna Morland, members of the Cross Timbers Government Information Affinity Group, demonstrate free U.S. Government databases and websites on the topics of health and medicine. From statistics to images, come and see the variety of resources available!
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    Batteries not included? Enhancing customer service
    (8/10/2018) Christenson, Troy
    Every person is special but many times we simply answer the question or take action to solve the problem. Frequently there is more we can do with the people we touch that makes them want to come back to you or your organization. The objective of this presentation is to provide some suggestions on how you can provide that special touch to your daily job and make people feel special by taking customer service to the next level.
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    Making HerStory OurStory-Building a Wikipedia program from the ground up
    (8/10/2018) Dodd, Samantha
    In an effort to provide increased access to Special Collections and open access library materials, staff at UT Arlington libraries designed a program to utilize Wikipedia’s reach and resources. The program began with outreach to faculty during Open Access week in fall 2017. A former Wikimedian-in-residence walked attendees through reflections on his 11 Years as a Wikipedian. Following his presentation, a panel of faculty from across the metroplex discussed using Wikipedia based assignments in the classroom, and how these projects affected student learning. Library staff participated in a compacted version of the Wikipedia + Libraries Better Together program to understand the complexities and logistics of editing the world’s encyclopedia. The Wikipedia program culminated in the first edit-a-thon on campus during Women’s History Month in 2018. Partnering with the Women’s and Gender studies department, HerStory offered students, staff and guest the opportunity to contribute content to overlooked and marginalized groups on Wikipedia. With over 61 editors contributing to HerStory, the edit-a-thon shattered expectations. As the number of editors is growing on campus, the number of citations to library resources added on Wikipedia is increasing. Wikipedia offers libraries a way to serve 21st-century information needs. It is how we can improve access to knowledge, teach digital literacy, and a way to empower our communities.
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    I “art” libraries: Exhibiting 101
    (8/10/2018) Ross, Bethany; O'Pella, Sarah
    Art is essential for expressing a community’s cultural identity and promoting the growth of ideas. Libraries can leverage local resources to provide patrons with access to quality art experiences and services. Embrace your art community by scaling exhibits based on budget, grant opportunities, community need, and audience interest. Plano Public Library began hosting local art exhibits in 2016 and expanded exhibit space to all 5 libraries by 2017 driven by demand in the community. Learn how to create community driven art exhibits, create policy and expectations, and connect with your local art community.
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    Organizing Campus-Wide Graduate Student Workshops Using Digital Badges
    (8/10/2018) Baeza, Victor
    Academic libraries exist in large part to support users and their learning experience at the university. The spectrum of how to do this has widened to include new types of services and resources. The challenge then is to promote the library’s resources to their target audience. A growing trend at universities is to use micro-credentialing (digital badges) to capture the “soft skills” students gain outside of the classroom through various training and workshop opportunities. Libraries can use this trend as an opportunity to become the campus leader in micro-credentialing, using the system to promote their programming as well as to coordinate campus-wide workshop programming. Oklahoma State University Libraries has used digital badges to become the program administrators for the Graduate College, serving as the central organizer of information on campus training activities for graduate students. The Library now organizes workshops offered to graduate students by the Library, Career Services, the Writing Center, the High Performance Computing Center, University Wellness, and the Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence. The library has also become the location where the majority of the workshops are held, solidifying the library as the hub of graduate workshops. With the success of the program, the Graduate College has turned to the library to support other training activities using the infrastructure developed to support the digital badges. So the Library is providing the new service of organizing workshops for users, just as it organizes other sources of information and learning, while facilitating distribution, awareness and access.
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    Pronunciator: A powerful tool for language learning
    (8/10/2018) Katzenstein, Lisa
    Pronunciator is a phenomenal tool for learning any language. I will be focusing in on how a foreign language student can learn Spanish, one of 87 languages taught on Pronunciator. For this pre¬sentation English will be the interface language and Spanish will be the target language. Pronunciator offers a main Spanish course with five different levels of difficulty, and Learning Guides, which are 8 week long highly structured courses of different language levels for 5 days a week, 1-2 sessions per day. Live 30 minute free conversation classes are offered on weekdays, but one must be the first of 5 people to sign up 5 minutes before the class begins online. The main Spanish course offers drills with phonetic spellings of each word, along with the opportunity to record oneself and be graded by Pronunciator for accuracy in pronunciation. The drills also give the student practice in vocabulary, listening comprehension, reading, and writing. The student then can go to the quiz section and be tested on all of these language skills. Movies, poetry and popular music are offered as well. Teachers can also customize Pronunci¬ator for their students. Participants should bring their laptops or tablets. Headsets are helpful, but not mandatory. One month access to Pronunciator will be provided.
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    But I'm Boooooorrrrrred!: Decoding the Tween brain at your Library
    (8/10/2018) Mai, Resa
    Remember being a tween? That curiosity, excitement, and often fearful awkwardness, about growing up? In this session we'll explore the middle school years with a look at tween brain development, and hear from some tweens themselves, via recorded interviews about preadolescent awkwardness. We will combine the findings with successful programming plans proven to reach, engage and serve tweens. The highly interactive discussion will include volunteer opportunities, programming and readers advisory ideas, with plenty of time to exchange your ideas, experiences, and challenges for serving tweens.
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    Things I didn't learn in Library School
    (8/10/2018) Cox, Kayleen
    Online learning opens educational opportunities for working adults and this presentation aims to open a discussion for ways to improve curriculum and opportunities for students. Online library programs provide an alternative for adult learners when on-campus coursework is not a viable option. However, the digital nature of the degree has its drawbacks, especially for those students with little or no library work experience. This presentation discusses some of these challenges while comparing the online learning experience with a traditional face-to-face program. These difficulties include perceived job preparedness and connection with faculty, classmates, and the university.