Session Description:
Find out how space utilization, perception, and needs assessment data provide an understanding of what students need in library spaces in order to design buildings that transform their experience of library as place. This project aimed to fill a gap in research on community college student needs for library spaces that support three activities shown in the literature to be the focus of library design: quiet study, communal work, and content creation. This research and programming process represents an attempt to develop a model for a 21st Century community college library.

Session Description:
Are you concerned about student retention of information literacy skills? Do you ever notice students eyes’ glazing over halfway through your one-shot instruction sessions? Research shows that our digital devices are changing the way we learn, process, and retain information. In this session, we present the results of a causal study on the effectiveness of frequent, short instruction sessions compared to traditional 60-minute one-shot sessions in learning basic information literacy concepts. It’s time to recast the one-shot for student success. In a participatory session, attendees will learn to apply these research findings to their own information literacy instruction practices.

Session Description:
Should academic libraries embrace a narrative to reframe services and instruction to marginalized users? Despite an array of inclusion initiatives, libraries may still fall short when servicing these individuals (e.g., people of color, queer individuals). Existing literature addressing service pitfalls uses a bewildering number of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, thus creating a confusing landscape of guidelines for practice and research. This paper suggests an innovative and overarching structure that uses Collins’s (2000) intersectional theory to recast the LIS narrative to inform design of excellent and equitable service and instruction needed to strengthen academic libraries’ impact (ACRL 2017).

Session Description:
Learn more about whether hiring non-MLS candidates to fulfill new and evolving roles within the library has benefited and/or challenged institutions based on survey results. Hear from the outsiders turned insiders themselves—three recently hired library faculty from non-MLS backgrounds—speak to their experiences and how these positions can be mutually beneficial in order to provide richer services and experiences to patrons.

Session Description:
The recent #metoo and #timesup movements have shifted the national narrative about workplace sexual harassment. Previous research suggests that female-dominated professions experience a high degree of sexual harassment, not only from coworkers but also from clients. Does librarianship fall into these patterns seen in other fields? Anecdotal evidence suggests it does, but a quantitative analysis has not been conducted – until now. Our research team administered an established survey intended to measure the prevalence and incidence of sexual harassment, collecting over 600 responses from academic library employees. We will discuss our methodology, our results, and areas for future research.

Session Description:
This paper will apply the framework of critical librarianship to assess the role of the ethics of librarianship in both the governance of OCLC and its use by the library community. Although self-defined as a “global library cooperative” serving users around the globe, OCLC operates legally as a nonprofit corporation governed by a board made up of representatives from the business world as well as the library world. Libraries may have an ethical obligation to hold OCLC to the ethical standards of the profession in order to provide users the unique service the cooperative can provide.

Session Description:
This session is a case study of navigating change in an academic library whose organizational structure does not include a director. We will discuss how a shared model of leadership and a team-based approach enabled us to adapt to and learn new roles to provide strategic direction during a time of great flux. Through successes and pitfalls, we have been able to recast our net in order to create a library that can more effectively serve the campus community and its evolving needs.

Session Description:
Libraries are increasingly devoting resources to programs and services related to equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as including these as core values of the organization. Despite this, there is a dearth of literature that highlights the voices of students of color. While we often boast about our community outreach programs on diversity, there is a lack of engagement in research about servicing students of color and understanding their library experiences. We will introduce a qualitative research study that explores Black/African-American undergraduate students’ experiences with libraries both before and during college, as well as sharing preliminary findings.

Session Description:
This study analyzed responses from 318 academic librarians in order to understand what leadership traits had a positive effect on their work lives and what traits future library leaders need. Their responses were grouped into seven leadership themes for past positive leaders: emotional intelligence, empowering, visionary thinker, communicator, librarian/manager, trustworthy, and a catalyst for change; and six themes for future library leaders: people first, visionary, change agent, experienced librarian, role model, and communicator. The leadership themes of past positive and future library leaders overlap on five themes: inter and intrapersonal skills, visioning, communicating, change agent, and competent and experienced librarian.

Session Description:
Incoming students often leave their library orientation session overwhelmed and overstressed, but this does not need to be the case. Visual literacy and visual culture can be leveraged to engage students and improve library orientation sessions. Students enrolled in select sections of the First Year Experience (FYE) courses at 2 public universities engaged in an alternate approach to library orientation, which made use of hands-on learning and peer teaching, as well as visual literacy. This session will discuss the activity’s structure, theoretical basis, and assessment, and the importance of addressing the social and emotional dimensions of learning in library instruction.