Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Are you ready for your library to become of, by, and for your community? For 7 years, Nina Simon has led dramatic change as director of the MAH, a small museum in Santa Cruz, Calif. Around the world, community-rooted organizations like the MAH have opened up museums to new people in new ways. Now, they are sharing the OFBYFOR ALL playbook for community transformation— and invite you to join in. Imagine libraries that are reflective OF their communities. Co-created BY their communities. Welcoming FOR their communities. Join the movement and help chart a new future for libraries as beloved institutions of, by, and for all.

Our popular and knowledgeable speaker is always reinventing and transforming the world of search. Bates is a super searcher, an annual favorite who 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) 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!

TinEye and other graphical search tools promise non-text search results display while ever more tools search by vocal commands. Alexa, Google, Siri, and more search on cellphones and smart speakers. Meanwhile artificial intelligence (AI) bots are doing some interesting mining/searching. What does the future look like for exciting new search tools? Which are easy to use and provide a great user experience? Notess looks at the landscape and projects into the future to please us, or scare us. Or challenge us!

Each day, Price curates thousands of news items and reports to publish online reports 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!

Getting the most out of publishing and connecting structured data on the web is what linked data is all about. Want to make your data more accessible and easier to find? Get tips from our expert, find out how you can better link data across the web, hear about the current landscape and how it’s evolving, and learn about the challenges still facing libraries.

Despite developments in online availability of information, researchers in pharmaceutical and life science companies still find it difficult to get access to vital information, to easily move from one information source to another or to work effectively outside of the office. The industry body ABPI estimates $11.4M per day is spent on R&D by the pharmaceutical industry. Library and information managers, researchers, publishers, and technology partners are keen to ensure that researchers have a smooth journey to access that valuable data. Bentley shares the results of research carried out with global pharmaceutical companies worldwide to assess the key challenges and possibilities for collaboration. He presents the six key challenges and five insights from the research. Attendees also receive a copy of the analysis: “Identity and Access Management for Global Pharmaceutical Companies.”

In digital strategy and structural design, we serve as tomorrow’s architects. The websites, services, and experiences we imagine and build may endure longer than we expect; and our users and use cases may prove to be far more diverse than we imagine. To create successful, sustainable digital places and cross-channel ecosystems, we must embrace what Brian Eno calls “the big here and the long now.” Known as the “founding father” of information architecture, Morville shares stories from his work in crafting digital strategies and information architectures for the Ann Arbor District Library, Baker Library, the Library of Congress, and the National Cancer Institute and explains how to design for the future.

This interactive talk explores the user-centered design (UCD) methodology and how it can transform the experience for your patrons. Our experienced UX designer explains the design process and looks at the various frameworks you can use to introduce UCD to your library projects. He presents findings from his most recent user research across libraries in the U.K. and U.S., highlighting the trends which have an impact on user behavior.

We’ve all seen good and bad library websites, but these library leaders from academic and public libraries choose several of each type, critique them, and help you understand what the most important features and functions are for making your library website as successful as it can be!

Learn the basics of color theory (colorology) and how to use color in design and art. Color psychology is not only about “cool blues and warm reds.” It studies the impact of color on the human mind and behavior. Each color focuses on a particular part of the body, evoking a specific physiological response, which in turn produces a psychological reaction. Essentially, color psychology provides you with a framework to be able to pull together colors, textures, type, pattern, and photographic or illustrative styles that will work together and help you communicate consistently to draw your audience into the content. Norlin provides the basics of color psychology and explains how to make this knowledge work to bring new life to your library marketing strategy, web design, and promotional materials. Diaz and Wilson share Caltech Library’s recent experience in implementing the Stacks website and bento discovery layer. Using geology research questions to demonstrate the researcher’s experience, Diaz and Wilson show how Stacks’s metadata-driven approach bento manifests in the user experience, as well as how the Library has curated the website and search experience over the past year.

These presentations focus on UX in different applications. Harrison discusses the shift from the A La Carte platform to Springshare’s LibGuides CMS, a popular, mobile-friendly platform for curating library resources in guides. LibGuides has robust capabilities for creating rich interfaces using Bootstrap, and his library created a handbook for those not familiar with Bootstrap that outlines brand/identity and content standards and includes tools to create the code behind customized Bootstrap-specific features. Get tips, links to the handbook as well as UX best practices in LibGuides. Dahlen & Garcia talk about optimizing the simplified search interface of discovery systems for different search behaviors. Hear how one academic library employed usability testing to collect data on user behavior via scenario-based usability tests and a series of A/B tests, in which two simultaneously live versions of Primo captured search traffic from a large number of users performing authentic search tasks. Hear the results from Primo Analytics, which measured variables on user behavior. 

Big or small, urban or rural, every library has three critical aspects that will always affect customers: content, connection, and community. Learn how to harness the C equation: the power of traditional and emerging content needs; face-to-face connections, whether online or in-person; and community building. Put these three C’s to work and help your library achieve the ultimate goal: contented customers.

Although there has been lots in the news these days about how libraries are handling the opioid crisis, libraries have been responding to community needs for years, including employing strategies to help those experiencing homelessness. Since implementing a Community-Led model of service delivery in 2008, one of the first, EPL has been able to more effectively identify and respond to changing community needs. Speakers highlight relationship-building strategies, share some creative approaches to maneuvering around unique barriers, discuss common road blocks and how to overcome them; describe some of their popular and valuable programs; as well as all you need to know to develop a responsive program for your Community-led library!

In the first talk, Goff discusses growing a mindset of play and shares tips, ideas, strategies, and examples of the various online and unplugged activities and programs she’s hosted as a librarian for different levels of students from elementary to high school. This should be a fun time for those with big budgets, no budgets, lots or little space, bright-eyed wunderkinds, and grouchy students. Absolutely no experience with coding at all is necessary (but she’ll show you it’s not such a scary thing). From bingo games and movie nights to Makey Makey and Sphero, there is something for every student to enjoy. The second presentation shares examples for reaching neophytes and nerds beyond the classroom: the tech savvy and late adopters. Technology discussion groups can fill that gap. Since everything is better over a cup of coffee, Vernon Area Public Library’s Computers & Coffee offers senior citizens a safe, comfortable place to discuss, learn, and practice technology skills. Nerds with Beer, which meets at a local bar, connects Millennial community members for lively discussion about technology trends. Speakers demonstrate the benefits of monthly technology discussion groups, attendance statistics, evaluating ROI, and how these programs could be implemented at your library, big or small. Walk away with the tools to start these discussion groups in your community. Public libraries have made significant strides toward providing free cybersecurity-related outreach and education for adults, but many lag behind in reaching teens, who instead turn to camps, classes, and after-school programs for the same content. In this third presentation, Markman addresses game-based and privacy security education for teens and shares his experience and lessons learned as a 2018 Global Minecraft Mentor utilizing the Minecraft Education Edition platform to introduce security topics to a new generation of library users. He compares this new learning ecosystem to past efforts and future opportunities for a “gamified” library learning landscape.

This fast-paced mini workshop shares many engagement case studies with tips and lessons learned! Baer discusses the art of digital storytelling and how a number of California public libraries partnered with Berkeley-based StoryCenter to create opportunities for engagement through digital stories.Library staff and community members learned to capture meaningful life stories using recording equipment and a video editor to create customized, multimedia, digital artifacts of these experiences. To expand libraries’ capacity to collect digital stories and conversations, StoryCenter collaborated with several of the California Listens libraries to develop the Listening Station, an iPad-based recording kit and app, which facilitates the recording of stories, StoryCorps-style conversations and interviews, in audio or video formats, and which automates the upload and delivery of recordings to participating organizations and individuals. Hear how leveraging user-friendly tech to collect and share community stories can help libraries build better relationships with the people they serve. McNamara discusses the creation of a Democracy Wall Project using a low-tech approach as a means to engage public discourse, build community capacity, and support civic engagement. Questions asked on the wall focus on city services and neighborhood issues, and it acts as a simple whiteboard where questions and responses are written using a dry erase marker. The project utilizes social media as a marketing tool to promote the project. Lynch discusses reaching out to patrons digitally via Google Tools. He’s been using the tools provided with Gmail to extend the reach of a special library, enabling him to provide outreach to people both local and visiting from outside the area. Get tips libraries of any size can use to extend reach beyond traditional means with minimal budget outlay and much appreciation by patrons. Ward covers strategies that a college uses to address the information needs of freshmen and transfer students. The digital portal provides essential support to students in navigating their way through their first year of college, increases freshmen GPA scores, and aids in retention efforts. Ward discusses the creation of a comprehensive Library Guide as a platform for library instruction for freshmen, faculty, and staff.

Imagine one of Japan’s largest book and media retailers joining forces with cities in Japan to create dramatic new “cultural department stores” that combine a library, a full-service bookstore, a Starbucks, and often a sit-down restaurant including a bar. It is happening, and our speakers share the secrets of true public/private partnerships in which the private partner designs the facility in cooperation with the city (these are all either totally new facilities or total refurbishments), puts up a share of the capital needed to build it, and then operates the entire facility—including the library portion— under contract to the city. Most serve populations of 50,000 to 100,000, some, in quite rural areas; facilities are open 12 hours a day, 365 days a year. The focus is on books, and the combination library and bookstore allows them to serve both those who want to buy and those who want to borrow. There are no public access computers … but there is Wi-Fi everywhere and you can borrow an iPad from the reference desk if you do not have your own device (most people bring their own). There are no databases, and there are no dedicated meeting rooms. They do lots of programming, but furniture and fixtures are designed to be rearranged to accommodate programs, and they are hugely successful, with visits in some locations up as much as 1427%, with comparable increases in circulation, and the average length of visit has increased dramatically from 30 minutes to 3 hours in one facility, with comparable stats elsewhere.

Book-lending is declining, and there is a critical library bypass. When our position as a library is closely linked in the public eye to lending books, and librarians are on call in the physical library, we need to rethink the entire concept of what we do as library professionals and how we do it. While still maintaining that ever important library DNA, the Copenhagen Libraries are undergoing massive changes in both form and function, which calls for a radical new role for staff members, new targeted library services, increasing self-service, and a more digital mindset. The Copenhagen Model explains the why, the how, and the what in a strategic and practical turnaround of the libraries. It shares tips for other libraries in other countries to use in their communities. Abram then shares the “better together” strategy used by Ontario Public Libraries and its three representative associations to increase funding, develop stronger ties to decision makers, and share the tasks for library success province-wide. Get tips for building your support team and lots more!

This talk focuses on how an academic library is becoming a community partner and resource in addressing the challenges faced by Detroit youth. In an effort to support UM–Dearborn community outreach initiatives, the Mardigian Library is providing resources through its community engagement collection, spaces, technologies, and electronic resources for hundreds of community partners. The campus offers training on state-provided resources, basic information literacy instruction, and research skills building. It hosts community conversations to determine how to best serve the needs of community partners. Approximately 25,000 Detroit youth are disconnected from work and education.

In an effort to combat some of the challenges facing youth, UM–Dearborn partnered with local schools, nonprofits, and workforce development agencies. The group worked to create a network that helps to address basic needs of the youth that are not being met (food, shelter, clothing, trauma), provide workshops and tutoring to get them to grade level, prepare them for higher education, link them to employers, and provide mentor support. Students from the university are placed with community partners or in schools in Detroit to support work with youth. Many workshops and activities are based on what youth identify as their needs. Within the first few weeks alone, the impact has been a tremendous morale boost for the youth. Join a mock community conversation, learn about discussions on community engagement training and resources, and more!

Join Peterson as he reflects on the recent integration of the Simpson County Public School libraries with the Goodnight Memorial Library. He shares how they were able to partner up with the schools to give the students in all locations access to all the Goodnight Library’s resources, including its subscriptions to EBSCO, World Book, OverDrive, RBdigital, and others. He discusses some of the shortcomings, workarounds, and fixes for the issues they’ve had so far and answers questions about implementation and upkeep.

What does it mean to be a future-ready librarian? How will being a future-ready librarian affect my library, school, teachers, and especially my students? What can I do to become a future-ready librarian today? These questions are central to the Future Ready Librarians initiative and also what we ask ourselves every day as we embrace our roles within the library and school community. Miller explores the critical role that librarians play in the strategic work of schools and educational systems connected with educational technology leadership, empowering students as creators and learners, content curation, innovative instructional practices, collaboration, community connections, and more. She shares stories and inspires us to embrace the change we can bring through our roles as librarians. Leave this presentation knowing you have what it takes to be a future-ready librarian!

Based on recent experience teaching a Rutgers University course for librarians, this talk provides an overview of interdisciplinary literacies needed and discusses how to share them with students, offering tips on how to get started. Literacies explored include connected and social learning; information ethics and remix culture; curation; communicating knowledge and creative expression; media, global, and data literacy; computational thinking; mobile technologies; digital citizenship/leadership; social reading; making; and coding.

Go beyond expeditions and discoVR a whole new world. A world you can create. A world you can explain. A world for all to explore. Harness the power of 360 creation and make virtual reality interactive. App-smash 360 tools for increased engagement and intriguing learning experiences. Although expeditions and field trips are pretty amazing, there is much more to the 360 world. The first talk gives you the tools and techniques to enable students to not merely be consumers, but also creators of virtual reality. Then learn from another school’s AR/VR journey about what works and what pitfalls to avoid to successfully bring VR to your school library. Explore ways to integrate VR across content areas and to support social emotional learning initiatives in your school.

The most important thing that anyone can do to improve what they do is to become more capable at generating ideas. This conversation explores the role that ideas have in catalyzing innovative practice in libraries and discusses the strategies and techniques that you can use to become better at building better ideas tomorrow. Join us for a provocative conversation about how you can nurture, curate, incubate, grow, extend, and remix ideas that enable you to create the raw material that supports innovative library practice.

The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), in collaboration with Florida State University, is conducting a 2-year study to explore the role of school librarians in advancing the use of open educational resources (OER) for teaching and learning. Funded by the IMLS, the study seeks to document school librarians’ current digital and OER curation practices and to develop a framework and a set of practical recommendations for advancing open digital resource collections for the benefit of students, educators, and communities. After introducing the what, why, and how of OER, the session presents the digital curation habits that are emerging through the study’s interviews with school librarians across the U.S, and discusses the implications of integrating OER into the everyday curation practice of school librarians.