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Publication Coffee Connections: Rebuilding Connections Among Coworkers in the Library(2022-06-03) Lim, Edward Junhao; Cowan, SusannaThe Coffee Connections project was designed to facilitate Community-building in the UConn Library through unstructured, short, one-on-one virtual conversations. Proposed as a strategic project several months into the pandemic, the project’s aim was both to strengthen existing relationships between staff members, especially beyond their immediate work units, and also to create new connections between staff who knew each other minimally or not at all. We encouraged staff to use the Connections to get to know each other as individuals and to focus on non-work topics. To facilitate conversations, we provided both a list of prompts and the option to use a deck of purchased conversation-starter cards. By the end of the project, nearly half of our staff participated. Feedback from those who participated was overall very positive, so much so that we are currently working on incorporating the program into new employee orientation and as an ongoing optional activity to bolster connection-building. After briefly introducing the project design and implementation in our library, this workshop will share how to facilitate one-to-one connections between library colleagues in this format. We will highlight how one can structure these interactions to keep them simple and safe while still enabling colleagues to discover new things about one another, deepening trust based on emotional bonds and interpersonal relatedness. We’ll share how one can prepare such an initiative with little or no budget, ensure random matching from interested participants, and collect feedback for this activity. Our hope is that staff at other libraries will adopt a version of the Coffee Connections that fits their organization in order to strengthen their organizational culture. This simple project can help facilitate connections and break down silos between functional and physical divisions. And best of all - it’s a lot of fun! Learning objectives: Strengthen ties and establish new ones between library colleagues Promote better communication between individuals with the use of teambuilding questions to help colleagues discover new things about one anotherPublication Advocating for Individual and Collective Agency Through Community(2022-06-01) Baer, AndreaAgency can be defined as the ability of an individual and/or a group to enact power and choice in their surrounding environments. Our understandings of and experiences of agency play tremendous roles in how we experience the world and engage in it, both individually and in community. While often agency is discussed in terms of individual choice and action, literature from the social sciences and critical theory tend to approach the concept of agency in more collective terms, as a phenomenon that is influenced by larger structures and systems and by the unique context of any given moment. Within academic librarianship, our views and experiences of agency are affected largely by our relationships to communities within and beyond various library circles. This is reflected in findings of a survey on academic instruction librarians’ conceptions and experiences of agency that the presenter conducted in 2021. This interactive workshop will begin with a brief introduction to the concept of agency through an ecological lens, one that takes into account the complex environments and systems in which individuals and groups find themselves and in which they interact. The presenter will then draw from findings of her 2021 survey on librarians’ experiences of teacher agency and share examples of librarians’ working to foster and to grow professional community and to encourage cultures of individual and shared agency. Participants will then engage with the following activities and objectives: Explore experiences of individual and shared agency, including in relation to community and community building. Generate ideas for further growing professional communities that support and sustain librarians as individuals and as collectives, and that allow space for shared understandings and values alongside differing views and dissensus.Publication Building Community With a Wellness Library(2022-06-01) Walsh, Renee; Chaput, JenniferThe workshop will begin with an overview of several existing Wellness Library collections at university libraries. It will then explain the reasoning for collecting titles on topics like self-help or memoir that are normally outside of the collecting scope of Psychology and Health acquisitions. The UConn Wellness Library is made up of a Springshare Libguide and a Primo page. The Wellness Library collaborated campus-wide with Student Health staff and undergraduate students. The library’s subcollections include themes like: BIPOC Wellness, Community & Friendship, Self-Care, Depression, LGBTQIA Wellness, Grief, Mindfulness, and Sexual Health. The Libguide is designed as an educational tool at the first year undergraduate level, which offers introductory information on wellness themes. Finally, the library hosted an event in Spring 2022 with a student entrepreneur, Allie Davenport, who created a journal to promote mindfulness and self reflection for her peers. The library distributed free copies of the Starmind journal to students attending the event. After looking at the steps taken to create the UConn Wellness Library, participants will receive materials to brainstorm how to create a similar initiative at their home institution. Participants will be able to identify community stakeholders, outreach opportunities, and possible themes for their collection. Participants will also learn to advocate for funding for their Wellness Library in the form of a proposal. The first half of the workshop will present materials about Wellness Libraries in university libraries, while the second half will focus on brainstorming and collaboration amongst attendees. Attendees will leave with a draft of ideas for creating a Wellness Library at their home institution. Finally, they will also have ideas for how to create a short funding proposal to submit to their library.Publication Backwards Design: A Critical Approach to Instructional Design(2022-06-03) Owen, Heather C.; Oakleaf, MeganHow can librarians ensure their sessions have an instructional impact on their students? How can librarians design lessons which centralize universal design of learning, encourage student-centered learning and equitable learner engagement, and emphasize critical and meaningful understanding? Backwards design, a pedagogical approach, encourages instructors to begin their lesson planning with an enduring understanding, instead of a list of activities. By doing so, instructors can ensure their lessons inspire critical thinking and reflection, while also reinforcing an inclusive and accessible approach to education. Attendees will leave the session with the ability to create their own enduring understandings, essential questions, learning outcomes, and assessments, and the capability to embed backwards design into their lesson plans.Publication Rainbow Reflections: Exploring LGBTQIA+ Representation in Curriculum Materials Library Picture Book Collections(2022-06-02) Vaandering, Alicia G.; Rosenzweig, James; Melilli, AmandaIn order to prepare future preschool to twelfth grade (P-12) educators and researchers, it is vital that youth literature collections in academic libraries reflect diverse and intersecting identities. However, simply including books with historically underrepresented characters in our library collections is not enough. A deeper understanding of the breadth of representation is necessary to prepare students for the communities they will serve. Current and emerging librarians who work with pre-service educators and researchers must be well versed in the different types of representation found in youth literature and know how to communicate with their communities about the power of inclusive collections to reach and empower young readers. In this presentation, the presenters will share their adaptation of the Diverse BookFinder categories (focused on racial and ethnic representation) to analyze LGBTQIA+ representation in picture books. In building a detailed glossary for classifying the representation of specific LGBTQIA+ identities, the presenters examined which identities are represented most prevalently, how frequently LGBTQIA+ characters are depicted with intersecting marginalized identities, and which identities are still lacking in picture book representation. Finally, the presenters will share their findings from a secondary analysis on the terminology used in picture book summaries and professional reviews to determine the scope of LGBTQIA+ visibility in information used by librarians and readers to discover LGBTQIA+ materials.Publication Out of the Classroom, Into the Archives: Developing Successful Collaboration between Faculty and Archivists/Librarians to create high-impact learning experiences for students(2022-06-02) Chiles, Michelle; Alyssa, Lopez; Lessard, MeganIn this session, Michelle Chiles, Head of Archives and Special Collections, Megan Lessard, Media Support and Outreach Coordinator, and Dr. Alyssa Lopez, Assistant Professor, will discuss the planning, project management, and outcomes of a recent student-curated exhibit and social media project. In collaboration, the team developed a hands-on research and curatorial project for a graduate level history course entitled: Civil Rights and Black Power. Planning began with several brainstorming sessions between Michelle and Alyssa to design archives research visits for the class that went beyond the typical one-shot session. Using several relevant collections from the Providence Archives and Special Collections, Michelle designed a project for students to gain valuable research skills and use their findings to curate an exhibit for the library. To further enhance the students’ engagement with the collections, Megan developed a social media takeover project for students to showcase their research process and the collections using the Library’s social media platforms. Alyssa included public history and relevant resources, such as historiographical texts, in the course readings to further strengthen the students’ understanding of the work they were doing. Class time outside of the archives was also used to collaborate on the exhibit’s overall narrative to help tie the students’ research together. This presentation will include tips for developing successful collaborations between archivists/librarians and faculty, getting buy-in for new and untested projects, approaches to identifying shared learning outcomes and course goals, managing workflows and timelines for overlapping student projects, leveraging staff expertise, strategies for scaffolding student research to produce effective results, pros and cons of embedded projects versus one-shot instruction sessions, and thoughts on the reproducibility of a high-impact project. The session will also leave time for questions and some discussion on creating similar student learning opportunities.Publication “So Tell Me About Your Research”: Using Faculty Interviews to Build Research Partnerships(2022-06-01) Toole, Eric; Martel, Allison; Hopkins, Alicia; Dunn, Mackenzie; Sochrin, SheriThere has been increasing recognition of the need for academic librarians to move beyond access and demonstrate their value directly to researchers. Through a research project consisting of a series of interviews to better understand faculty needs, we developed an outreach model that can be used to extend library services into new areas of research support. This presentation aims to deliver broadly-applicable lessons to aid academic librarians in the development of research partnerships with faculty.Publication Rethinking how we build communities: the future of flexible work(2022-06-02) Birrell, Lori; Allen, AmySharing research study findings and offering recommendations for the future of academic library work.Publication Books at Berklee: Re-Imaginations for a Time of Resilience(2022-06-01) Pinnolis, Judith S.I will give a presentation about the creation of the “Books at Berklee” program. This program was an adaptive outgrowth created during the pandemic to bring the Library’s resources closer to the Berklee community, and to keep our community informed, curious, and engaged. Starting in early 2021, I opened up a new avenue of opportunity to create engagement by interviewing many faculty and staff about a book of their own authorship or creation, or, a resource from the Library of special interest to them. I then reviewed the resource or read the book and developed a series of questions to use during the interviews. These interviews were recorded on Zoom. Later, links were sent to various Berklee community lists and newsletters throughout the campus and added to the Library’s Youtube pages and listed on the Library’s social media presence. The videos not only marketed the Library’s resources, but gave faculty an important platform in which to promote a topic or book of special interest to them, stay connected, and enhance morale at a time while the pandemic wore on and on. The workshop will focus on building connections around campus, how to look for those opportunities, and building community through interactive discussions. A brief presentation will be followed by workshop. Questions will be welcomed during the workshop portion of the presentation. Workshop will talk about 1) approaching faculty or staff; 2) Reading books for developing questions; 3) Brief primer on online interview techniquesPublication Escaping Our Fishbowl: A Case Study on Expanding Participation by the Connecticut Digital Archive(2022-06-02) Colati, Gregory C.; Kemezis, Mike; Owen, Heather; Nutt, RachaelA case study on expanding participation in the CTDA the DPLA Service Hub for ConnecticutPublication Walk this Way: How the Library Can Build Community on Campus by Creating a Physical and Virtual Walk(2022-06-01) Wilson, Laura; Villa, Lisa; Tabolt, Corinne; Skoog, SusanIn January 2020, the Outreach and Engagement Team at the College of the Holy Cross began preparing a poetry walk, which was reconfigured to a social media “poetry event” due to COVID-19. With the anticipated return of students to campus for the Spring 2021 semester and a need for the community (especially students) to have recreational opportunities that were safe, socially distanced and preferably outside, the Team attempted to plan another poetry walk. The Outreach and Engagement Team collaborated with both academic and non-academic departments to assemble a mile-long loop through campus featuring original student poetry and poetry from the library’s Distinctive Collections. In addition to communal and recreational benefits, the project also served to promote the College’s Distinctive Collections and institutional repository, CrossWorks. Most rewarding has been the feedback from students and faculty, who appreciated the poetry walk as a way to feel connected to campus and community despite the many ways people were disconnected.Publication IDEA in Collections Principles & Pathways(2022-06-02) Kauffman, Rhonda; Rodriguez, Michael; Parmer, RebeccaIn early 2021, as a direct response to the socio-political climate in the United States, UConn Library staff formed a working group to investigate how their work in collections could better reflect and realize the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA). Under the aegis of the UConn Library’s values and strategic framework, the Working Group collaborated to ensure that the Library’s policies and practices foster IDEA in the collections that staff build and steward. With representation across campuses and various library units, the IDEA in Collections Working Group crafted guiding principles that will help shape future collecting activities; access to and discovery of library collections; collections-related policies and practices; and engagement with faculty, students, researchers, donors, and other stakeholders. This session will walk through our grassroots process for creating the definitions, principles, and pathways for realizing the principles of IDEA in UConn Library Collections work. It will describe our stakeholder engagement work, including hosting semi-structured conversations with the many library units that do collections or collections-adjacent work, the Working Group’s use of tools like Google Jamboard to help identify themes that emerged from those conversations, and how stakeholder feedback informed our final report and recommendations. We will also share recommended pathways for implementing the guiding principles in all areas of collections work. Attendees will come away from this session with concrete ideas and practices for leading similar IDEA in Collections initiatives at their own institutions, including locating potential collaborators, crafting shared understanding, engaging with stakeholders, and soliciting feedback. We will also share the lessons we learned, ways to improve on our process, and our next steps.Publication Creating and Sustaining a Teaching Community: Discussing the Instruction Exchange at Northeastern University Library(2022-06-02) Brown, Molly; Homol, Lindley; Pagani, ReginaIt is all too common for teaching-focused library staff to become siloed, working within their individual disciplines or departments. This approach can lead to feelings of isolation, or each individual library instructor encountering and trying to solve the same obstacles alone. This presentation discusses how three library staff members with significant instruction responsibilities built and maintained an interdepartmental library teaching discussion—an instruction exchange—to encourage community and social knowledge sharing. The presenters describe how this group has grown and evolved over time, from a primarily in-person monthly meeting within a research and instruction department to a virtual cross-departmental community, detailing the planning involved in first establishing the space and then onboarding new members. The presenters also share the monthly prompts, topics, and discussion questions, detailing the variety of meeting formats the instruction exchange has taken over the past two years. Presenters describe the thinking that goes into facilitating this monthly gathering, factoring in staff needs, goals, and morale, and the formal and informal ways they assess how well the exchange is meeting staff needs in these areas. Attendees are given a nuanced example of community building among library colleagues and can take away key considerations, scaffolds, and relationship-centered approaches to embed in the development of any collective sharing space.Publication Hired During COVID: Interviewing and Onboarding in a Pandemic(2022-06-01) Grandy, Roslyn; Fletcher, Lauren M.; Whitney, Rachel; Thurman, FaytheThe pandemic forced those working in higher education to navigate a myriad of changes in all facets of day-to-day operations. From January-February 2022, we conducted a study that surveyed hiring managers for professional academic library positions to identify how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their hiring and onboarding processes. We will present our preliminary findings from the mixed-methods survey in advance of a published article. Our study identifies changes in hiring practices and reflects the current attitudes of hiring managers in regards to future employment practices. Because many interview processes have transitioned to an online format, some hiring managers are reconsidering the necessity and duration of in-person interviews. Our study identified issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Not all candidates have access to the space and technology required for an all-day virtual interview. However, virtual interviewing also expands opportunities for those who have health, financial, or childcare concerns. A common thread that emerged is that there is still much uncertainty regarding what hiring will look like in the future. This study also explored the ways that job descriptions, the work of search committees, and the use of collaborative tools have been impacted by the pandemic. Some participants reported increased DEI training for search committee participants as well as more guidance on using technology. Study results identified challenges experienced when onboarding and acclimating an employee to a new institution in the pandemic environment. At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to: Identify trends in changes to hiring practices that occurred as a result of the pandemic Discuss difficulties associated with onboarding new employees during the pandemic Describe common practices in conducting virtual and hybrid interview processesPublication From Supercharging to Rewiring to Thriving: Dissertation Support and Partnerships(2022-06-03) Denneler, Alyssa; Johnson, Anna MarieThe brainchild of our former colleague Celestina Savonius-Wroth, IU Libraries’ event “Supercharge Your Dissertation” has become an avenue for community, connection, and one of our most popular offerings for dissertating graduate students. We have taken up the mantle to provide a welcoming atmosphere and support network for our graduate students. Routinely through surveys and discussions, graduate students note that they feel quite alone during the dissertation process. They have support through their department, colleagues, and other avenues, but the writing process itself is a very solitary activity and can be isolating. The Supercharge event is one way to combat this by bringing them into a community where they can learn and discuss their process and challenges together. Initially structured as a day-long “mini conference,” featuring presentations, a lunch, and chance for discussion, we have had to innovate its format while still maintaining its original goals of inspiration and support during the pandemic. Through partnerships with the University Graduate School, Writing Tutorial Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, subject librarians, IU Press, and more, we are able to connect students to the wide array of resources, people, and services available to them through each step of their writing journey at this large and sometimes labyrinthian university. This presentation will discuss the event’s original format as well as its pandemic iterations which differ radically to meet the time and needs. I will highlight successes, developments, and difficulties with this initiative, as well as the partnerships it maintains through the university community. This session will be of interest to programming librarians, and also those who routinely work with support offices on campus. I hope it will also be helpful to those attempting to assess and address graduate needs, particularly those of students who have made it past the coursework portion of their PhD program.Publication Community Tracking Indicators for Open and Inclusive Scholarship(2022-06-01) Altman, MicahThere is evidence that scholarly processes have bias and create barriers to inclusion; more openness in scholarly communication is needed. Progress towards a better scholarly ecosystem requires standard, reliable measures of the desired attributes of a better system. This project will produce standardized indicators that describe who contributes to open science outputs over time.Publication Public Service Loan Forgiveness and what recent changes mean for you(2022-06-02) Amory, MattThis presentation is an explanation of the basic rules of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and the changes to the program under both COVID-19 Emergency Relief (scheduled to remain in effect until 8/31/2022) and the PSLF Limited Waiver (in effect until 10/31/2022). It includes step-by-step instructions for librarians and other public servants to earn forgiveness of their student loans through loan consolidation, certification of employment, and consistent monthly payments for 120 months.Publication Remote Onboarding: Growing and Maintaining Community(2022-06-03) Elliott, Christine R; Movlai, LaurenIntentional on-boarding of new hires into the library’s community is even more important during and post pandemic, where many librarians are finding themselves starting jobs remotely or in a hybrid way. This presentation will detail the experiences of two relatively new hires at UMass Boston and their recommendations for how libraries can successfully provide support to incoming staff/faculty during and post pandemic.Publication Teaching with Data in the Social Sciences: Local Perspectives and Library Contributions(2022-06-02) Berger, Kathleen; Buckley, Louise; Condon, Patricia; Exline, Eleta; Jerome, Erin; McGinty, StephenData literacy is an increasingly important and complex set of skills that students need to navigate and critically evaluate our data-driven information environment. Libraries at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of New Hampshire were among the 20 institutions conducting parallel studies in Ithaka S+R’s Teaching with Data in the Social Sciences project, an exploratory study of the pedagogical practices of social science instructors who teach using quantitative data in undergraduate courses. In addition to exploring the ways instructors teach and understanding their support needs, this study aimed to develop actionable recommendations for campus stakeholders and identify opportunities for the development of resources, services, or activities in the library to support the use of quantitative data in the classroom. This panel presentation advances conversations in data literacy by highlighting evidence-based recommendations for campuses and libraries to consider when expanding services to support instructors teaching with data and students working with data in the classroom. Each research team will discuss findings from their local research studies and present ideas for supporting communities of practice around teaching with data, collaboratively developing shared support resources, and strengthening library supports for these endeavors. Attendees will learn about participating in a multi-institution study, gain an understanding of the primary issues around teaching with data in social science disciplines, and hear about ideas for supporting data-driven pedagogies in local campus contexts.Publication Podcasting to Spark Community Conversation(2022-06-02) Butler, EmilyLaunching a podcast is one way that librarians can shed light on the work that we do and start dialogues across our institutions, as well as in the broader community. This presentation will teach attendees the steps required in launching a podcast at their libraries. Many decisions go into starting a project like this, from determining what technology is required, to brainstorming topic ideas, to finding the best options for hosting and sharing episodes. The project requires a range of skills including audio editing and interviewing. This presentation will demystify the process of launching a podcast so that many common pitfalls can be avoided. The presentation will include examples of library podcasts, with information on their topics, and their formats, to give attendees an idea of the existing landscape of the medium. In the Q & A session, Emily will address any specific roadblocks which might be getting in the way of individuals taking this on. Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of the staffing, time, and technology requirements of podcasting, as well as some topic ideas that a podcast at their library might explore, and the potential benefits of starting one.