Search is ever-evolving. From Google’s frequent algorithm changes that affect our search results to new sources of information appearing on the web, innovative approaches by information professionals are necessary. Info pros have a unique set of skills that give us the ability to own the search space. But equally important is the ability to challenge our assumptions about search and hone our search skills. This practical full-day workshop provides the latest tips, tricks, and techniques for unlocking the “black box” of search. With search engines adding, altering, and removing functionality on a regular basis, it’s difficult to keep up. Our search experts reveal what you need to know to perform better and more effective searches, analyze search results to surface value, teach others good search practice, and remain on top of search innovations. There’s always something new to be learned from these leading-edge info pros. Whether you’re a novice or expert searcher, you will come away with a new appreciation of innovations in search, new resources to share with colleagues, and more search tools for your professional toolkit. Topics our experts cover include the following:

As part of our series of workshops focused on preparing for the future, this half-day workshop begins with a look at the lifecycle of services, determining the needs of your audience, and moving ahead. It features current processes used by academic, public, and special libraries as they plan and implement new services and consider retiring old services that are not providing an appropriate bang for the buck or value to clients. Get a road map for evaluating your services, determining those at the end of their lifecycle, as well as preparing for new services which maximum positive impact for your community.

Libraries require appropriate technology in order to best fulfill their strategic missions. They invest in many types of tools for managing their collections, enabling discovery for patrons, and fulfilling access in the most efficient way. As the proportions of electronic and digital content continue to increase, libraries need to align their technology infrastructure. In this half-day workshop, Breeding outlines some of the types of technology products and services available to help libraries face these challenges. The workshop focuses on the issues raised by the attendees to help guide their development of technology strategies which best serve their organizations.

This workshop focuses on the new types of programs and services libraries are providing for their communities—creating and evolving makerspaces, innovation labs, and an assortment of studios. Up-to-date about tips and techniques, our experienced speakers give you all you need to get started within your area and to move it into an engaging, customer problem-solving and learning space! Building a STEM learning or entrepreneurship program alongside a makerspace, a studio alongside 3D printing or music, or an innovation lab with AR & VR? Come explore new community engagement possibilities. Learn about the bleeding-edge technology and how all the basic hardware/ software components work to create engaging experiences in your library and far beyond it. An HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, Google Cardboard, a DIY hologram viewer, and other technologies are present, so participants have an opportunity to play with all the latest and greatest AR/VR technologies as well as to identify opportunities to use these technologies in their communities. Full of practical insights and techniques, this workshop provides a road map for building or taking your exciting new program to the next level. It also discusses challenges, such as dealing with tech and funding, presents real-world examples, and inspires you with the impact of these types of initiatives.

Learn graphic design in a fun and relaxed setting with celebrity designer Ithan Payne. Using the industry’s top design software, Adobe Photoshop, attendees gain practical skills and how to apply them to create professional-looking layouts! This hands-on workshop is perfect for beginners and people looking for a great refresher course. You will need to have a Mac or PC with at least the minimum requirements for Adobe Photoshop CC. Information can be found on the Adobe website. Get an overview of the most common graphic design practices and the thought process behind these principles; learn current color design principles and how they apply to the world around us, from products and art to branding and advertising; get an understanding of typography theory and how type plays a major role in both print mediums and digital media; get an overview of user interface, experience design, and image composition; receive the latest trends on logo design and branding and how your organization can use these ideas to increase positive engagement; and practice graphic design principles using Adobe Photoshop with a chance to get advice from an expert. You’ll be ready to create your own new and exciting designs!

We are taught in library school and in many advocacy training sessions that stories will lead to public support and action. The problem is, the storytelling model of advocacy relies on trusting our supporters and leaders to take action on good ideas. However, if the previous few years are any indication, this simply is no longer the case. Stories don’t drive action, and they don’t lead to real political power. Sweeney explores the significant amount of work that is necessary beyond storytelling to engage supporters and influence leaders in order to enact change through true organizing. He discusses the use of big data, messaging, and using digital tools and platforms and specifically focuses on how to identify, cultivate, and empower supporters in order to encourage real and tangible action to build support for funding libraries and information services. By rethinking your library’s online activities, you can do more than just raise awareness of your library and its services in your community. He shares specific practices you can use on your website to generate feedback, resources, and more. See how you can get real financial and political benefits with your library’s online activities.

How do we design for changing technologies and flexible smart spaces? How do we incorporate new gadgets, apps, and technologies to engage our communities? Get some insights and ideas for planning for the future for successful user library experiences. Includes a discussion on floor planning for social distancing!

Technology has changed the face of libraries and is continuing to change how we work and how we deliver services to customers. This workshop introduces emerging technology trends and shows how those trends are reshaping library services. Examples are provided of how to incorporate these evolving trends into libraries. Attendees learn what trends to look for, find out the difference between a technology trend and a fad, and get ideas on how their library can respond to technology.

With recent events, our digital branches are busier than ever. How can we take them to the next level? Tanzi discusses the changes we need to make to meet the growth in users and the strategies to do so while still operating within a budget. He covers such topics as preparing your digital collection for an influx of users, running a digital branch in the face of sudden growth, identifying the library's needs and constraints, and developing a plan of action. Get lots of ideas and insights for growing your digital branch or collection to the next level.

It is time to blow up old methods and process and to replace them with something new. This workshop focuses on getting things done—accomplishing more on a faster timeline! Join our practitioners to gather new tools, techniques, and technologies to get more done in meetings and collaborative projects, improve workflows, and have a more productive operation. Jones shares techniques for addressing priorities, agendas, and planning as well as easy tech for improving workflows and project discussions and actions. She presents 10 visual tools that help you plan more effectively, allocate resources more efficiently, track progress more diligently, communicate more clearly, and manage change more compassionately. Kowalski looks at popular tools like Trello, Evernote, Bullet Journals, and more. She discusses productivity activities, like the Pomodoro and Getting Things Done methods, and shows techniques and processes for integrating these tools and activities into your professional and personal projects. You will be amazed at what you learn and can put into practice!

Join our gamers and gadget lovers for a “date night”-style evening of fun, playing, learning, and networking. See how you can transform your thinking, your programs, and your spaces with the latest games, gadgets, and ideas! Share with a poster about what your library is doing with creative making and makerspaces. Also check out the great items offered in our online Silent Auction with funds going to EveryLibrary. Led by Brian Pichman & Tod Colegrove this event will start your conference experience with lots of learning and laughing! Refreshments included.

For the past decade, our speaker has been teaching people how to augment their cognition by becoming more effective online researchers. He’s taught thousands of people (think students, librarians, professional researchers, and just plain folks) how to find out what they seek through Google (and many other online resources and tools). Russell shares his experiences in learning how to teach these skills, as well as what he’s learned from direct interactions with students and various studies run in the lab and with live search traffic. He discusses his MOOC (PowerSearchingWithGoogle.com), which has had more than 4,000 students, live classes, and various publications in paper, book, and video formats. He discusses which methods work best, why, and how they change the way people think and answer difficult research questions.

Our popular and knowledgeable speaker is always reinventing and transforming the world of search. Bates is a super searcher, an annual favorite whom attendees flock to hear as she continues to surprise and impress with new strategies, techniques, and tips for getting the most out of web research. The host of Searchers Academy (where even more secrets are shared), Bates provides an up-to-the-minute and jam-packed-with-valuable-tools-and-tips talk that’s always a hit! Bates tells us she takes 2 days to research this session, so take advantage of her knowledge, and gather tips and tools to share with others!

Can you be the intelligence officer for your organization or community? Absolutely! Find out how from our popular and knowledgeable speaker, Price, who each day curates thousands of news items and reports to publish online briefs that thousands of people depend upon for reliable, usable information. He shares how to build an open web resources database that suits your clients. He elaborates on the tools and techniques he uses to build a timely collection and gives you a road map to build your own!

Hear from libraries using open source discovery to empower their patrons to discover new titles easily within the OPAC. CLiC deployed PIKA from Marmot Library Network, and the Basin Libraries Consortium launched Aspen Discovery from Turning Leaf Technologies, an offshoot of PIKA, this year. This presentation includes discussion from staff at both libraries, Aspen’s developer, and a Koha support specialist on how they got the discovery layer up and running, including integration of third-party tools such as Novelist Select, Syndetics, Open Archives, Kanopy, and RB Digital.

What is the new generation of search technologies? Take a quick tour through the latest developments, from laptop search engines to cellphone search apps. Discover the new features of smart speakers and augmented reality on mobile. Search continues to be at the center of the online universe. Come and hear about the latest changes that impact the casual searcher and challenge the expert information professional.

World, national, and local events have, in these uncertain times, resulted in the proliferation of misinformation, disinformation, malicious information, and a worrying distortion of the very concept of the word "facts." From visual fake news to finding unbiased, high-quality information, our speakers, along with a sponsor/vendor, discuss these issues and propose solutions. Futurizing facts is fundamental to our roles as information professionals.

Information Today, Inc. invites all conference registrants and exhibitors to a special Networking Reception in the Sponsor Showcase on Tuesday, October 20th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is a great time to gather with fellow Internet Librarians and suppliers, renew acquaintances, meet new colleagues, sample tasty goodies, and check out the latest products and services in a relaxed atmosphere.

How can we systematically review web content to improve both accessibility and usability? Hear how one library did it and get its tips to use in your organization. In fall 2019, the UC Santa Cruz Library began developing its Universal Design Assessment Checklist to evaluate both the accessibility of its web content using WCAG guidelines and the usability of its web content using established writing for the web techniques in an effort to employ a Universal Design approach to its web content. Accessibility, usability, and inclusion are closely related aspects, and it made sense to tackle them together. The library engaged and trained undergraduate student workers to systematically review web content using the checklist to guide their evaluation and indicate areas that needed improvement. Hear how the checklist was developed, the accessibility and usability resources consulted for its creation, the training of undergraduate student workers in the use of the checklist, and the library’s experience in the deployment of the assessment using the checklist, as well as lessons learned.

Library websites necessarily connect to a variety of vendor-supplied web applications, where the basic customization options may appear to be limited to a library logo and color scheme. However, many of these platforms, such as LibGuides, various discovery layers, and OPACs, allow for the integration of custom HTML and CSS. Years ago, it was a Herculean task to customize vendor interfaces to be cohesive with library websites. However, modern CSS frameworks, or standardized libraries of scalable CSS and JavaScript, may be utilized to quickly build consistent and fully responsive web interfaces without having to reinvent the wheel. By moving beyond simple color schemes and logo branding, libraries that take advantage of such tools provide a more cohesive user experience for patrons. Get details of how to make your library's website and connected web apps as consistent as possible through the integration of CSS frameworks, including selecting the right framework, development procedure, and execution.

Have you redesigned your library's website lately? If not, then it's probably time! Hear how the Topeka & Shawnee County PL worked with a website agency to redesign its library’s website. What caused the redesign? What new features were incorporated into the redesign? What hurdles had to be overcome? How did they achieve buy-in from staff and from customers? Come and learn some tips and current best practices on redesigning your website.

Reference services are increasingly moving online to meet library users at their point of need, yet do users’ perceptions of different virtual reference methods actually match how they use them? This talk shares the results of a research project investigating differences in question type and level between texting, email, and live chat with the goal to better understand how these methods can meet user needs and to identify best practices for staffing and promotion. Our speakers discuss a user point of view through analysis of interviews investigating the purposes of different virtual reference methods, compare the findings with what content analysis of virtual reference transcripts tells us about question complexity and type, and share experience with the READ Scale, a well-known assessment tool for categorizing reference questions. Their findings suggest dissonance between how users perceive virtual reference methods and how they actually use them. Hear more about this unique project that compares user perceptions with actual use and aims to narrow the gap between them by improving the promotion of virtual reference services through rebranding chat more explicitly as a method for intermediate and advanced research queries and for those involving instruction.

In any crisis, everything can change on a dime. In the recent environment, libraries have been called upon to support their communities in new and demanding ways. Hear how some stepped up to the plate, the challenges they overcame, the new partners they collaborated with, and the experts they depended upon. Our speakers also speculate on a number of library evolution and ‘the future of library’ questions: Will we start to de-emphasize print and have a digital-first approach to what libraries do? Will we focus on stories (of all types and formats), online learning, and community-building in new and exciting ways and with interesting new partners? Will people even visit our physical library buildings in the future? Or will we do more weeding of our print collections to make room for more community and collaborations within our buildings, makerspaces, etc.?

Information Today, Inc. invites all conference registrants and exhibitors to a special Networking Reception in the Sponsor Showcase on Tuesday, October 20th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is a great time to gather with fellow Internet Librarians and suppliers, renew acquaintances, meet new colleagues, sample tasty goodies, and check out the latest products and services in a relaxed atmosphere.

The focus on online engagement, such as social media, video, patron sharing, etc., has been front and center over the last few months. Libraries have learned that they definitely need more skills to promote their econtent. They have been scrambling to adapt what they do to an online setting by using Zoom and other collaborative programs, asking for patrons to submit short video book reviews, doing Facebook and Twitter-based reader's advisory suggestions, creating more direct elearning opportunities and support for both student and faculty of school and academic institutions, and more. Our speakers share their insights, learnings, and tips on moving forward online!

In spring 2011, the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale found itself at the center of a media frenzy. The public relations office at the school was fielding daily, often hourly, telephone calls and emails from print, radio, and television journalists across the globe, all eager to get the scoop on the latest development at the Yale Law School. The story featured on NPR, appeared in newspapers from Sydney, Australia, to Taiwan, and, at the height of national interest, was the most emailed article in The New York Times. Staff at the library had expected a high level of public attention and planned accordingly, but we were nevertheless surprised by the sheer volume and persistence of media inquiries. Happily, the story was a uniquely positive one, in that sitting at the heart of the media storm was a small brown cross-breed terrier named General Montgomery, Monty to his friends: the newly minted Yale Law School therapy dog. Our speaker discusses how the library began the therapy animal movement in U.S. higher education, why it did so, and how it helped develop similar programs across the world and shares a detailed introduction to how others can start similar programs in their own libraries.

We can’t do it all ourselves, but we can partner with others in our communities! This panel shares examples of library partnerships between public and academic libraries, government programs, and libraries, as well as corporate and industry partnerships with different types of libraries and information organizations. See how we can be better together!

South Carolina Read Eat Grow is a food literacy initiative for implementation in all communities, especially “food deserts” and “food swamps”—low-income areas without access to fresh and nutritious food. Using the Charlie Cart mobile kitchen and Kitchen in a Box kits, the State Library trains and supports library staff in providing food literacy programming. Program activities include food preparation, kitchen safety, recipe reading, and STEAM elements. Learn how to integrate traditional literacy and food literacy into collaborative learning experiences, fostering personal and family health, and how these programs can benefit the entire community.

Our cities and towns are made up of countless valuable resources, but barriers of cost, convenience, know-how, and social capital stand in the way for many. Who can help? That's right, the library. Enabled by new and old technologies, librarians have been enhancing library membership with benefits beyond the library walls—brokering public access to non-library resources, including cultural institutions, community goings-on, transit, nature, and more. Check out some of these under-sung efforts with an emphasis on the underlying technologies and see if some will work in your community. These types of projects have a strategic fit for libraries!

Information Today, Inc. invites all conference registrants and exhibitors to a special Networking Reception in the Sponsor Showcase on Tuesday, October 20th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is a great time to gather with fellow Internet Librarians and suppliers, renew acquaintances, meet new colleagues, sample tasty goodies, and check out the latest products and services in a relaxed atmosphere.

Like all libraries today, yours is likely part of a busy community where it fights for attention among a network of users. Would you like to know how you can elevate its presence and increase its value? This talk discusses the basics of branding strategy to help your library become more visible, accessible, and relevant. Using as a case study a medical library, our speaker illustrates how a prominent library used brand strategy to build awareness and relevance through a process that involves brand architecture and strategic communication. She highlights the brand architecture methodology by showing how to deconstruct the elements of a brand (in this case, a library’s services) to identify how these elements best serve users. The process helps to discover your library’s most promotable strengths (system offerings, physical spaces, services, etc.) and illustrates how strategic messaging can be used to promote those strengths, events, resources, and programs. As your library makes upgrades and acknowledges the need to communicate its core competencies, the development of brand-building tools allows it to grow and thrive. Come to this crash course on promoting your library as a brand!

To improve patron engagement, Schwartz and his team of writer/editors at the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled use creative communication as the key to share experiences, increase a sense of community, and widen the promotion of the organization. A supportive relationship with other sections of the organization increases visibility through events and social media to build new partnerships. Schwartz discusses visual storytelling with Facebook posts and pics, sharing best practices for alt text on social media, and how to drive people to your website. Find out how you can increase user engagement through story.

This session highlights a number of libraries and the marketing programs they created on the fly during the latest health crisis. Learn what worked and what didn’t, key messages that resonated with their audiences, getting a distributed staff on board in order to continue library service, and more!

Value is at the core of every organization's purpose. Without value, organizations die. Libraries—as well as museums, archives, and galleries—have traditionally added value to their communities through their collections and services, but yesterday's collections and services are no longer enough. In order to remain sustainable, today's libraries must explore new ways to add value that resonate in the lives of their customers. Harnessing the "5 C's" of adding value—content, context, connection, collaboration, and community—enables organizations to find new ways to invigorate their services, better serve their communities, and thrive today and tomorrow. It addresses adding value in the context of other key topics, such as crowdsourcing, embedded librarianship, makerspaces, self-publishing, and repurposing spaces. Our speaker shares some new methods libraries can use to find new and innovative ways of adding and communicating the value they deliver in the lives of their customers.

Institutions can achieve social capital just like individuals. The social capital of an organization affects its reputation and influences its success. Social capital is more than just a social network; it includes the goodwill that comes through that network. Dilworth outlines the benefits of social capital for any type of library and discusses the three main vehicles for achieving it.

Information Today, Inc. invites all conference registrants and exhibitors to a special Networking Reception in the Sponsor Showcase on Tuesday, October 20th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is a great time to gather with fellow Internet Librarians and suppliers, renew acquaintances, meet new colleagues, sample tasty goodies, and check out the latest products and services in a relaxed atmosphere.

In times of crisis, self-care helps build resilience. Explore practices, apps, and online tools to help build resilience and sustain during tough times.

Learn how Central Unified School district and Fresno School district collaborated with their public library to bring ebooks to their students in a joint effort. They used OverDrive offering of a public connect for public and school libraries for school districts that have a contract with them. This is NOT a commercial presentation, it shares collaborative experiences in boosting student access to digital books!

Kids spend on average 6-9 hours a day consuming digital media. Help your students go from consuming technology to creating it! Learn from our first speakers how to use easily accessible tools to teach kids how to use coding across the curriculum to create, invent and problem solve. Makerspaces can make coding accessible to all students even when traditional computer science classes are not available. Inspire your students to become innovators and digital designers!

As we look to planning for the future, Price shares the latest and greatest tools that can help us dig deep for free resources helpful to schools. Our popular eagle-eyed intelligence gatherer has once again curated a group of cool tools for schools, both kids and teachers! Not to be missed if you want to impress your school community!

Explore how students learn about key organizations and sources in sustainability through an information literacy search process studying whistleblower cases. Students focus on scholarship as conversation, and learn information literacy strategies like determining effective sources, noticing bias, and examining equity.

Information Today, Inc. invites all conference registrants and exhibitors to a special Networking Reception in the Sponsor Showcase on Tuesday, October 20th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. This is a great time to gather with fellow Internet Librarians and suppliers, renew acquaintances, meet new colleagues, sample tasty goodies, and check out the latest products and services in a relaxed atmosphere.

Our speaker is a veteran of the laser, digital fabrication and 3D printing industries and discusses her new collar job skills research, lifelong learning research, and her new book, People of the New Collar Workforce: Augmented Reality Brings Human/Machine Stories to Life, which tells the stories of new collar workers in everything from 3D printing to laser machining. Boisvert also discusses the skills needed to operate in new industries such as AI, 3D printing, and robotics and how libraries can help in that regard! After selling her laser machine tool company, Boisvert took up research residence at a lab at MIT, where she began to interact with other researchers and expand her interest in the processes and learning necessary to use digital fabrication and other tools. Boisvert was most interested in alternative education methods to expand the skills gap for new disruptive industries. As the manufacturing and tech author says, as tech expands, many skills that modern workers have and were hired for will no longer be needed in the future. She explains how new technologies such as 3D printing are evolving rapidly and cites examples of how new technologies will not have the benefit of calling on experienced veterans of the industry for help with machines and tech when problems arise because the technologies are evolving so quickly that everyone is new to them. As a result, these new technicians will have to be adaptable and have the ability to troubleshoot in the moment. They’ll need to be problem-solvers in order to stay afloat in an ever-changing technology space. She notes that many employers are hiring workers with no college degree to fill these new roles. Join us and hear how your library can have a strong future in your community. Whether you represent a school, college, academic institution, industry, or public library, there is role for you in futurizing your community!

In the past year, many libraries had well-developed digital branches, while others did not. Hear from our speakers how (or if) they were ready to deal with an influx of users during our health crisis.

Digital Branch continues with Session A202, 11:30-12:15.

In the past year, many libraries had well-developed digital branches, while others did not. Hear from our speakers how (or if) they were ready to deal with an influx of users during our health crisis.

What did we learn in the past 6-plus months? Where did our libraries and communities fail? How can we improve our services and readiness now and into the future? Our panel shares their past failures, plans, and actions for improving their services, as well as their recent community experiences.

During the recent health crisis, many publishers, archives, museums, zoos, authors, musicians, theaters and others created or provided access to new and exciting content, online events, and more. How do we incorporate these into our digital branches? How do we bring awareness of our new channels for content and learning to our communities? In addition, many publishers responded to the health crisis by removing paywalls and making their content free. At some point, that may change, and library patrons who became accustomed to free content may be asked to pay, as will libraries. How can we work with the publishers to find a positive solution? There have also been new initiatives to digitize print materials, memorabilia, grey literature, and archival information. How do we keep up with these and connect them to our communities? Our panel of speakers tackle these questions promising a lively discussion!

University libraries are being driven by the digital transformation movement, and in recent years, discussions have included the “smart library.” As part of this movement, university libraries have begun to embrace innovative methods that create multidimensional collaborations. No longer just a face-to-face interaction between patrons, librarians, and third parties, libraries now include machine-to-machine communication and connection. At one smart library (UEH), Internet of Things (IoT) air quality, humidity, luminosity, temperature, and noise detector sensors have been combined into a single-point device that delivers data back to the library monitoring and managing system in real time. The system automatically adjusts the “smart” devices to provide green and energy-saving spaces for library users. Its resources are available in everyone’s hands via a mobile app with a package of systems, a touchscreen application that integrates with a bundle of four library software systems incorporated into user services to provide hyper-personalized and timely support. The library’s operational efficiency is extended as staffing intervention is reduced. Librarians’ skill sets are changing, requiring collaboration with industrial partners. Hear about the process of building a smart library conceptually, how smart devices are actually “smart” in the library space, finding suitable technological stakeholders, and challenges of a brand-new smart library. This case study illustrates how to innovate libraries that are short on staff and have limited budgets.

Academic library collections now include a significant number of ebooks to support students enrolled in both on-campus and online courses. Delaware County Community College has invested in developing a large-scale ebook collection to support both sets of students across a number of campus locations in two counties. Students, faculty, and staff had no access to a physical book collection during the second-half of the Spring 2020 semester due to COVID-19. During this period, library services actively promoted electronic resources, including its ebook collection, to support all courses online. This presentation examines ebook usage data from the same period during the previous academic year and ebook usage data from the period when the college moved all classes and library services entirely online. This information will inform how libraries manage ebook collections and the relevance of this format for academic libraries moving forward.

Communities of all types are discovering the value of their significant history for current and future endeavors. By identifying, organizing, and broadening awareness of historical artifacts using technological tools, public and private communities are futurizing their organizations. Hear how a combination of physical and digital archives represent the founding of the small City of West Hollywood, home of the famous Sunset Strip. Learn about another small but vibrant nonprofit religious community that is using their organization’s archive to expand awareness of their mission, including a controversial period when the Catholic Church was in a time of great transition.

Walden University recently launched an internal activity reporting instrument to collect and highlight the accomplishments of our faculty. This presented an opportunity to harvest faculty research publication data for inclusion in the university’s open access institutional repository. With very limited staff capacity to manage this new work, it was critical to develop an efficient, sustainable workflow for conducting faculty outreach, including gathering copyright info and manuscript files, data processing, and uploading into our repository. Speakers discuss efforts to design a semi-automated process—using Excel macros to parse data and pre-filled web forms for faculty email outreach—that has been successful, but not without its challenges. Educating faculty about open access, copyright agreements, and manuscript versions is also baked into the workflow. Ultimately, the library has established another positive connection with faculty by ensuring their scholarly work is available open access to a wider audience. This framework can be applied to other projects and populations, and attendees leave with an adaptable workflow to implement similar projects at their own institution.

This talk explores strategies/methodologies for academic libraries to extend their traditional support services to faculty and students beyond the spectrum of scholarly research. Professional colleges have extended their curriculum to include new programs in data analytics, both from a theoretical and a practical perspective, often involving the use of large datasets and commercial software such as SAS, SPSS, JMP, Python, and Tableau. Most university libraries are unprepared to support such efforts. Speakers share resource development and a practical road map to follow to enable librarians to provide support in terms of research, information, and content for these academic programs. He describes the journey of a national university in Southern California as an example of the development of a viable road map for the transition of library support to include data analytic programs.

BCG continues pushing self-service research to organizational customers into the future with a help bot, Ask Sandy on Research Center, their self-service research portal. Learn from their journey: from ideation to deployment, and all the fun in between. Find out how they balanced optimizing bot usefulness with minimizing potential user frustration, along with the technologies they used to succeed. Wingrove shares how the bot is doing 6 months after deployment and how users have reacted.

Topic mining, modeling, and extraction are improving rapidly with technologies such as text analytics, machine learning and deep learning. Combining these powerful tools with intelligent virtual assistants (aka conversational agents) have the potential for augmenting researchers by automating some of the more routine aspects of research, including Information gathering, filtering, and mining. Researchers can then focus on identifying topics for research, deriving and presenting insights. Our speaker provides a framework for virtual research assistants and explores some ideas for prototyping them.

Just as early online services didn’t just improve on the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature but revolutionized how information is accessed, so librarians and info pros can look at artificial intelligence from a different point of view and identify opportunities to lead the AI discussion within their organizations. Hear from an experienced and future-focused info pro about strategic approaches to this transformative technology and how info pros can leverage their skills and thrive in this new information environment.

When it comes to being loved, libraries are right up there with kittens and rainbows. But it’s only our value—when decision makers understand it—that keeps us alive. Value turns “love” into commitment. How can corporate libraries demonstrate their value all the way up the line, from skeptical unit heads to executives poised with red pens to keep the organization lean? Is it marketing? Is it through testimonials and word-of-mouth? Is it through nurturing enterprise-wise relationships? Dogged communication even when the parent unit may seem less than interested? Finding ingenious ways to showcase projects and successes to leadership? Yes. Explore ways that one special library has overcome, and at times continues to wrestle with, these issues and questions.

In today’s quickly changing world, it is nearly impossible to separate the library from IT professionals who support the broader institution. Job boards are often teaming with listings for positions like “IT Librarian” or “Technology Librarian.” Regardless of library type, librarians must develop relationships and a common language with the broader IT departments administering the network, gateways, and security profile of the larger institution. Without a common language, librarians and IT professionals lose valuable time—and often money—identifying and fixing issues that could have been avoided. Monti examines the current state of librarians’ collaboration with IT professionals and ways they can ensure continued success and uninterrupted services to their patrons.

Extended Reality (XR) includes AI and VR (augmented and virtual reality), and these technologies are storming every industry. Libraries are taking advantage of the wave in a big way. Hear the latest about the technology and what’s on the horizon. Learn about the types of programs being offered in libraries and be inspired by our innovative and imaginative speaker.

During the last 3 years, California and Nevada have launched statewide initiatives to integrate extended reality (XR) systems and programming into libraries. Our speakers discuss XR programming use in libraries and the best practices developed in each state as libraries installed XR systems. They cover the XR setup, installation, and staff training with examples and assessment of what worked and what didn't work. They share the process of how libraries introduced AR and VR to patrons through demonstrations, and community events and made XR an integral programming component as a digital "collection." They look to the future of new devices and applications with examples of wireless VR and AR headsets and share how to have an adaptable system in place for an emerging field where standards are just beginning to emerge.

As you move your institution forward, balancing robots and humans in the workplace; navigating union, funding, and political environments; and building more inclusive points of connection across and within evolving communities, do you feel like you are leading in a minefield? If you do and you are, this session is for you! Come learn and exchange pragmatic pro tips with library leaders.

Zaffino shares how machine learning/AI technology is being used to develop the Librarian Brain dataset that powers a new product, MyLibrarian, a data-driven book recommendation engine. Attendees will have the opportunity to beta test this modern way to browse for books. This ML/AI book discovery product uses big data and expert librarian brains to disrupt a $40B industry. In the Stacks (a book discovery tool that uses expert data to select stories, books, ebooks, audio, TV and film) is building the MyLibrarian app for book lovers, a tool that leverages the expertise of book-reviewing librarians, and brings that skill out of the library, to users online. Montella discusses how in the spring of 2018, SCCC began piloting a virtual reality lab within its library. While the process of building and implementing the lab proved to be an arduous task at times, it eventually provided the college community with a valuable resource for learning. Hear about the aspects of the VR lab that brought it to fruition (conceptualization, finances, logistics, etc.) as well as the envisioned outcomes and future trajectory. There are lots of challenges and questions that need to be addressed when thinking about bringing virtual reality (VR) equipment into your library. Get some answers here!

In spring of 2018, SCCC began piloting a virtual reality (VR) lab within its library. While the process of building and implementing the lab proved to be an arduous task at times, it eventually provided the college community with a valuable resource for learning. Hear about the aspects of the VR lab that brought it to fruition (conceptualization, finances, logistics, etc.) as well as the envisioned outcomes and future trajectory. There are lots of challenges and questions that need to be addressed when thinking about bringing VR equipment into your library. Get some answers here!

Learn about how a yearlong science research project culminated with podcast interviews with scientists. Students learned to synthesize and expand their research while becoming proficient with GarageBand for editing, transcription tools (Sonix, Google) to provide accessible text transcripts, and Photoshop to create their podcast logos. Learn how to replicate similar projects and what tweaks make it more successful.

How did school librarians respond to urgent remote learning needs in the recent health crisis? Learn some of the roles librarians played to help their faculties and K-12 students with adapting to teaching and learning online.

Our pioneer of the Internet for learning, discusses helping communities bridge classroom and career by using evidence to evaluate and improve work-based learning opportunities. Focused on development of “New Collar Workforce” skills, this evidence is used to strengthen employer/educator engagement, helping every student be “ready for what’s next”. The aim is for students to become more effective by incorporating the power of digital learning communities focused on talent development. Get lots of insights and ideas from this inspiring speaker!

From virtual field trips offered by a range of agencies and institutions to teacher-led Google expeditions and greenscreen scene-shifting, technology is enabling new, location-independent content and responsive personalized active learning. This talk involves exploring Google Translate and Google Lens and using MergeCubes and QuiverVision for augmenting reality as well as processes for creating 3D experiences.

A 2019 survey showed only 12% of the instructional faculty were using Open Educational Resources (OER). However, high interest in making the shift toward affordable textbooks was evident, especially with institutional focus on equity. The main barriers to transitioning were described as a lack of professional development, the need for support from knowledgeable OER leaders, and the call for monetary incentive.

Consalvi shares her experience with how she responded to the faculty concerns in shifting to OER focusing on the development of a stipend grant for the faculty, which promoted an equity commitment while also providing professional development as well as other strategies—like forming an OER task force with faculty or commandeering the all-faculty mandatory meeting for a workshop. She aims to encourage and equip others who are encountering faculty resistance while embarking on the important shift toward OER.

This fun reunion of musical Information Today alumni, provides a chance to sing, dance and relieve stress in prep for a discussion about our recent past in our various communities. Join Bill Spence, Ferdi Serim, David Lee King & others as they jam and we party like there’s no tomorrow. After all, we’re celebrating and making up for all the time we could not do this together!

Laughter, creativity, and play are among our most powerful tools for problem solving and group decision making, but they are often left off the table when it comes to tackling society's biggest problems. Why?  In this seriously fun and challenging evening event, our digital strategist and design coach lead participants through a serious play process to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on our library communities and explore how we might be creating change for a better world. No previous experience is necessary — just bring an open mind and a playful spirit. Edson and Silvers have used LEGO Serious Play, design thinking, and improvisational theater techniques to help a range of groups solve big problems, from Fortune 500 companies to global museums and libraries, philanthropies, and even the United Nations. Get some new tools and do some debriefing of the last chaotic months in our libraries and communities.

In this turbulent era of uncertainty, we need to be resilient as we engage in our digital future. Lynch shares his thoughts about where we are headed, what our challenges are, what we should be watching and preparing for, and how we can create new and exciting programs and services to our communities in the future.

In a time of great complexity and rapid change, strategic planning needs to be flexible, responsive, and easy to understand. Edson, an innovative digital thinker and former Director of Web Strategy at the Smithsonian, walks us through the fundamentals of creating an “emergent” strategy process that creates clarity and confidence within your organization and catalyzes innovation and action in your team and community. The process includes mapping, assessing, and looking at multiple scenarios to create an appropriate “emergent” strategy.

Visioning your library’s or organization’s future should be active, engaging and energizing. Strategic planning is not about word-smithing mission and vision statements. Setting your strategies and priorities, especially in a post-pandemic environment, demands collaborative, challenging exercises and conversations among staff and stakeholders. Be ready to sample planning techniques used in scores of libraries to align strategically with their communities, campuses and corporations.  Learn proven tools and approaches for creating practice, progressive plans that take ideas to results.

Risk-taking is not at the top of list of strengths for libraries, but there are ways to assess risk and identify or develop mitigation strategies. This process includes risk management exercises, brainstorming what can go wrong both externally and internally, and prioritizing risks according to their risk ranking on a scale, as well as mitigation strategies. Our speaker discusses work done at IFLA as well as a nonprofit center in Washington, D.C. Among the benefits of looking at this topic are raising awareness of leadership and staff about what could possibly go wrong, what the impact might be, and whether or not there is a plan to deal with the possibility. Let’s be prepared!

Based on recent trends and activities, our world and our communities will never be the same. How will libraries evolve their programs, services, spaces, and expertise to be relevant, supported, and loved in those communities? Hear predictions from our panel of thought leaders, practitioners, and futurists as they present possible scenarios, extend current thinking, and make us thing about the possibilities and opportunities for the future of libraries.

In this regular IL event, Breeding relates the latest events and trends in the library systems and technology industry. Breeding authors the annual “Library Systems Report,” published in American Libraries, which covers strategic technology products used by libraries and the vendors that develop and support them. Following the rounds of consolidation in recent years, technology products and strategies have evolved according to new priorities. Open source products are well-established and continue to have a major impact on the industry. Breeding shares the results of his report and looks forward to possible changes in the future.

Mobile technology has been rapidly evolving since the first iPhone was introduced in 2007. In 13 short years, a mobile revolution has taken place. People have largely switched from using flip phones to smartphones and have started to use tablets instead of laptops. Mobile app use has replaced using traditional software on a computer, and even website use to a certain extent. Mobile apps connect to and interact with other real-world devices, like a smart watch or a home thermostat. The continuing growth of mobile technology is impacting libraries in many ways. Hear about current trends in mobile technology, the needs of customers using mobile devices inside and outside the library, the digital divide, and staff use of mobile technology.

With libraries transforming their campuses because of technology developments, they are migrating many of the library’s management activities, including cataloging, acquisitions, course reserves, booking of space, electronic resources, analytics for data in the system, authentication, and circulation, to systems that are accessed and facilitated using digital or cloud computing. Martin examines various cloud computing services, platforms, and resources used within library services and shares implementation experiences long with possible new services.

The rapid emergence of COVID-19 as a health emergency resulted in many colleges and universities quickly transitioning to an environment in which services were provided offsite and online. This case study recounts the experiences of one library, which rapidly transitioned from face-to-face to virtual-only services in March 2020. During this time, with checkout, requesting, and returns of physical items suspended, the library worked quickly to maintain, as much as possible, articles and videos available in born-digital environments; migrate all assistance and bibliographic instruction to an online-only environment; identify processing tasks that could be performed offsite by circulation and technical services staff; and continue to comply with accessibility requirements. This session will include opportunities for others to compare experiences and share approaches.

COVID-19 has been a game changer for many of us. It has brought to light the essential need for our libraries to have a disaster plan in place when our physical locations shut down and we are completely reliant on technology to interface and service our clients and peers. Managers are balancing the increased demands of technology-reliant end users, delegating work virtually, and keeping teams engaged and on-task with virtual projects. Ford discusses disaster planning drafting and considerations, leading virtual teams, and dealing with the psychological impacts that create barriers to productivity.

Libraries' information and community services take on heightened importance during emergencies and natural disasters. Following devastating flooding and hurricanes in South Carolina and Texas, a team from University of South Carolina's School of Library and Information Science and the South Carolina State Library has taken a more concentrated interest in providing emergency preparedness, communication (including crisis communication and social media), and health resources to help libraries and partner agencies better plan for various disasters. Hear how LIS programs and cooperative organizations and agencies can strengthen librarians' abilities to respond in times of crisis. Get the project team's findings and resources to help your community become better prepared for future emergency and weather events.

Just when leaders thought they had learned to manage any change, Covid19 hit. The tsunami of change swept in by a pandemic identified how critical it is for leaders to be resilient. Yes, they must be strategic and able to make things happen. But it is those leaders with resiliency and emotional intelligence who led the organizations for which they are responsible successfully through that massive disruption and into this new reality. Jones shares the results of interviews she’s conducted during the past 4 months with Directors and Deans who weathered the storm and are rebuilding and reframing services and operations in a digital-physical blended environment. How did they develop their resiliency? What can we learn from them? What are ways in which resiliency and emotional intelligence can become an enduring competency in all libraries?

Libraries have an opportunity to affect real change, make an impact in important areas in their communities, and use their position to be part of the solution. Having a substantial minority achievement gap in San Diego spurred the library to create programs to address that in their community. In addition to a now well-funded after-school homework program, the library has been working with UC San Diego on a major project called Library NExT that exposes youth to STEAM education and provides college-prep assistance and career certification programs for high school students. Hear how they align with stakeholders, build partnerships, and have a positive impact on their communities.

Using a take on the title of the book by Willy Sutton, a renowned bank robber, our speaker discusses where libraries should focus their attention to ensure they are adequately funded. A public librarian and library vendor, Abram’s insights provide some great ideas for supporting a successful future for libraries.

Building on last year’s Internet Librarian presentation by Christa Werle and Rebecca Jones, Price and Harden demonstrate “outcome-driven innovation” using a “Jobs-to-Be-Done” (JTBD) worksheet to close the loop on their textbook affordability initiative. From inspiration to funding, these Texas librarians were able to get the job done—reducing student textbook costs—by placing the faculty, rather than the student, as the “customer” at the center of the JTBD model. They revised the focus of their grant proposal to incentivize faculty to “innovate in the classroom,” not just simply “reduce student textbook costs.” Leading an ad hoc committee, Price and Harden named and launched the faculty-centered AIM (Affordable Instructional Materials) initiative by creating the proposal and marketing materials as well as a faculty OER tutorial. With the proposal now funded by the provost and vice provost, AIM is part of the university’s strategic plan and falls under the broader umbrella of “Grants for Innovation in the Classroom.” Join our speakers as they share their JTBD worksheet as well as the challenges, decisions, and outcomes of this multiyear project.

Space is at a premium in the branch, but the demand for makerspace activity is high. The solution twofold: incorporate a different makerspace station each week as part of the homework center activity, and hold a monthly theme makerspace fair (promoted via social media, email blasts, school contacts, and good old-fashioned fliers) that focuses on technology, arts and craft, or a balance between the two. These successful makerspace fairs bring in families and individuals of all ages as well as a mix of established patrons and first-time visitors to the library. Despite space limitations, any library can have a successful and active makerspace program!

Maker culture is growing and taking over social media. We see a reflection of that in our libraries. There is an abundance of innovation labs and makerspaces becoming commonplace in libraries. But for libraries who want to enter into this maker culture, where do they begin? It can start with an iPad. Our avid maker demonstrates and provides the tools necessary to start or grow a makerspace for a library of any size. She illustrates how to build a makerspace-styled program around an iPad and an app. Originally designed for teens, both the program and these ideas can be adapted for all ages and all styles of libraries. In addition, the accompanying applicable tools and machines that can be utilized with iPad designs are explained and provided.

This session looks at the many ways libraries used their makerspaces and resources to support the recent health crisis. Many have stepped up to help manufacture 3D printed PPE. It is amazing what the 3D printing/maker community has done during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear what worked, what didn’t, and what was learned for future crisis situations.

Revolutionize your makerspace through coding! Kids spend, on average, 6–9 hours a day consuming digital media. Help your students go from consuming technology to creating it! In this session, you learn how to use easily accessible tools to teach kids coding across the curriculum to create, invent, and problem-solve. Makerspaces can make coding accessible to all students, even when traditional computer science classes are not available. Inspire your students to become innovators and digital designers!

Connecting with our communities, looking ahead, taking advantage of partnerships, understanding demographics. As Internet librarians and information professionals, what are our biggest challenges and opportunities for the future? Our panel members from different communities share their thoughts and ideas and hopefully spark some insights for experimenting and trying something new in your community.