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Don’s Conference Notes
Column Editor: Donald T. Hawkins (Freelance Editor and Conference Blogger) <dthawkins@verizon.net>
Column Editor’s Note: Because of space limitations, the full text of my conference notes will now be available online in the issues of Against the Grain on Charleston Hub at https://www. charleston-hub.com, and only brief summaries, with links to the full reports, will appear in Against the Grain print issues. — DTH
The 2021 CIL Connect Conference on March 22-24, organized by Information Today, Inc. (ITI), featured 140 speakers and moderators and 16 exhibitors in the virtual exhibit hall, and drew over 1,000 attendees. On each of the three days, Erik Boekesteijn Senior Advisor, National Library of the Netherlands, began the day with a “Talk Libraries: Stories From Around the Globe” interview with an information professional, which was followed by an opening keynote. Each day ended with a keynote session. A recurring theme of the presentations was resumption of services in the “new normal” following the COVID pandemic and looking forward, not back where we have been.
Barbara Lison, Sr. Library Director, Bremen City Library, Germany and IFLA President-Elect, the first “Talk Libraries” speaker, noted that in Germany, libraries are the most frequently visited cultural institutions in their communities.
The opening keynote by R. David Lankes, Professor and Director, School of Information Science, University of South Carolina, entitled “Libraries Leading the New Normal” was very challenging. What do we want the new normal to be even as we hope we are nearing the first phase of the end of the pandemic?
John Formica spent ten years at Walt Disney World and managed their hotels and resorts in the midst of a big expansion. Customer service is important, but we must also focus on customer experience (the next battleground) because most people will spend more to get a better customer experience.
Amy Affelt, Director, Database Research Worldwide, Compass Lexecon, presented an informative overview of fake news related to COVID-19. There are two types of fake news: misinformation — fake news shared with no ill will — and disinformation — fake news shared with an intention to deceive.
Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian and Founder of the Internet Archive (IA), presented the first closing keynote address. The IA was founded in 1996 and now serves 1.5 million library visitors per day. Its most widely known product is the Wayback Machine, a robust global resource providing access to an impressive collection of content.
Erik Boekesteijn’s second day guest was Peter Kok, CEO, LocHal, in Tilburg, a city of 220,000 in the Netherlands. The LocHal won an award in 2020 as the best library in the Netherlands.
The second-day keynote was presented by HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who has a long record of combatting illiteracy in the Netherlands and internationally and is the author of several children’s books. She listed three things about technology — digital inequality, reach, and human-centered government. Complex issues such as child poverty require generations to solve.
Cindy Hill from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank described how the Bank has shifted to a digital first environment and how we can thrive in it. Virtual is our new reality, and we need to think about the “new next,” not the “new normal.”
Sara Teas from the Fort Vancouver WA Regional Libraries (FVRL) described her experiences with a contactless consumerfocused approach for libraries. FVRL plans to continue offering curbside pickup when they reopen.
Barbie Keiser, President, Barbie E. Keiser Inc., described a survey by ExLibris on what scholars and libraries contribute to supporting academic research. Libraries are perfectly positioned in the research ecosystem to help others because they are on both the content side and the technology side. We must think about people working in the library, not as librarians but as information professionals. Peer review is changing and becoming more open, and reviewers are waiving rights to anonymity.
In her day 2 keynote address, “Demand Proof: The Urgent Need For Data Lineage and Provenance,” Beth Rudden, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Principal Data Scientist, said that we frequently make investments in technology, then do many experiments and find that we cannot reduce all costs in the organization. We need to design the relationship we want with AI, and then invest in human beings.
Erik Boekesteijn’s Talk Libraries guest for the final conference day was Nick Poole, CEO, CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals), who said that there must be equitable access for everyone. We need to start looking at where we are going, rather than where we have come from, must ensure that we build back bolder, and not try to go back to the way we were.
Phaedra Boinodiris from IBM began her day 3 keynote address “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Tech, and Ethics” by observing that AI is used in many high-stakes decision-making applications, but just because a decision is made by AI does not make it morally or ethically clean. Trusted AI depends on four pillars: fairness, explainability, robustness, and transparency.
Amy Jiang from LaVerne University noted that many campus units are now loaning laptops, cameras, physics lab tools, and computer lab devices, which is an opportunity for libraries because they can become the central campus point from which to circulate everything. The library is the only campus organization that can handle a large volume of materials, track overdue items, and is open long hours to serve all campus groups.
Rice Majors, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, University of California (UC) Davis Library, discussed UC’s strategy and experiences and its recent contract negotiations with Elsevier. Negotiations for renewal ended in 2019, and in July 2019, UC’s access to Elsevier articles stopped. In June 2020, negotiations resumed, and a settlement was reached in March 2021. In March 2021, UC and Elsevier reached an agreement which provided for reading access to all Elsevier journals without a fee.
The closing keynote was a panel discussion of libraries’ biggest challenges and solutions for the future.
Read the full report at https://www.charleston-hub. com/2021/05/dons-conference-notes-the-2021-computers-inlibraries-cil-connect-conference/.
The 16th ER&L conference was held virtually on March 8-11, 2021. It drew over 1,300 attendees and featured 215 presenters in 90 sessions and short talks.
The opening keynote panel session examined 3 questions on where we have been this past year and how we are presently thinking about taking care of ourselves: • Prior to the pandemic, many libraries lacked the basics of a healthy work environment. What have you experienced personally? • What are some non-negotiable conditions for a healthy work environment? • What support practices are necessary to have an equitable employee-centered environment?
Day 1 sessions
Journal Pricing Transparency: Reality or Myth? Different libraries are being charged differently for the same things. The future journal market should be marked by transparency and a rejection of non-disclosure agreements.
Libraries taking back control of e-books. SimplyE, developed by the New York Public Library, is a freely available reading app that makes e-book and audio books available as a single unified collection.
The Future of Online Books at Oxford University Press. OUP is moving its digital books to the Oxford Academic Platform.
Post-Cancellation Access Rights. As libraries cancel their Big Deals, the issue of post-cancellation access (PCA) rights is becoming important.
Federated Access to Content. COVID has not been the only driver of authentication for access to digital materials and research from outside of a library’s physical location. Seamlessaccess.org can be applied to any service where affiliation needs to be proven. GetFTR is a service used by researchers searching online databases for full-text articles.
Welcome to Your New Office. This was a fascinating description of the process of bringing a new employee into an organization during the COVID pandemic. How to welcome a new team member to an environment built on in-person service that is shut down is a problem.
Access Fees. Access fees, which began in the early 1980s, are charged by vendors to cover the costs of hosting and maintaining a purchased online resource. Sometimes an access fee continues during the entire time the library has a resource, and the library may end up paying more than its purchase price.
Is Your Big Deal Still a Good Deal? Find Out With Unsub. The value of Big Deals is declining, so there has never been a better time than the present to think about eliminating them. Unsub was built to provide a data dashboard to help forecast and explore alternatives to a Big Deal.
Day 1 Closing Plenary: insights From a Challenging Year
Rebecca Seger, VP, Ithaka, described how JSTOR responded to meet the crisis of the very challenging year 2020 and supported users and the library community.
Days 2 and 3 sessions
Adapting to a Zero Trust Network: What Libraries Can Do When e-Resource Access Models Break Down? Authentication of off-campus users was formerly done by IP addresses. When the COVID pandemic hit, one university moved to a zero-trust network, so simply being on the network was no longer proof of authorization to access resources.
Stop Sharing Too Much Information (TMI): Applying Plain Language Principles to Database Descriptions. Database descriptions on many vendor and library websites are too long and suffer from TMI, so they were rewritten to be concise and to remove jargon which is not important for students.
Keep the Library Relevant — Implementing an Online Resource List System. Talis Aspire creates resource lists from a variety of sources and integrates them into a learning management system, allowing librarians to check copyright, access the back end of courses, and increase conversations with the faculty.
Packages, Packages Everywhere and None of Them Quite Right. Selecting e-resource packages of databases or collections is time consuming because many packages have similar names. A standard and consistent identifier like books and journals have is needed.
Living Through the Chaos: ILL in Uncertain Times. RapidILL was acquired by ExLibris in 2019. It focuses on fast turnaround of article and chapter requests using automated and efficient workflows. The power of the RapidILL community has been especially impressive.
T is for Tickets: Using Troubleshooting Ticket Data to Unearth New Mysteries. Dedicated tools for assessing troubleshooting data are available, but they are not affordable for some libraries. Benefits of analyzing troubleshooting data include improving the functionality of e-resources, understanding the frequency of problem types, and the ability to work with vendors to resolve problems outside of the library’s control.
US Public Access Compliance 2021: The Academic Librarian’s Role. Universities receiving grants from government-funded organizations are mandated to publish the results of their research in OA publications, but they face multiple challenges in compliance. Libraries can assist with metadata, contact authors, and are a trusted source of reliable information. CHORUS provides data and an audit service to funders, publishers, universities, and institutions. Libraries are encouraged to join the CHORUS community and publishers are encouraged to require ORCID IDs on submitted articles.
Leveraging the IR to Support Faculty and Students During (and Beyond) a Pandemic. At the University of Montana, two university conferences were added to the institutional repository, and student presenters were required to deposit their presentations in the IR. The conference was a success, showing the importance of relationships as well as the support and values that the IR can provide.
Metadata Distribution: An Experience from a Scholarly Publisher. It is essential for scholarly publishers to share metadata with data services, A&I services, discovery, and linking systems to automate working relationships and data sharing with partners. Content must be represented where the users begin their searches. Incorrect metadata leads to linking errors.
Read the full report at https://www.charleston-hub. com/2021/04/dons-conference-notes-the-16th-electronicresources-libraries-erl-conference/.
Ascending into an Open Future: the 2021 Virtual ACrL Conference
The 2021 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference, originally planned to be held in Seattle, WA, was held
virtually on April 13-16. It attracted about 3,650 participants and featured two keynotes, three invited presentations, contributed papers, a virtual exhibit hall, and several social/wellness events.
Opening Keynote
Tressie McMillan Cottom from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill said that the academic library is uniquely positioned to help determine what information is, its implications, and how it derives its value. It is a front porch into the community and tends to be one of its more accessible spaces.
Should an academic community develop a code of data rights similar to a code of human rights? In a university, we rarely talk about the rights of users. Students should expect more than just privacy.
Day 1 sessions
In a fitting opening to her presentation, “Taking the Temperature: Research in the Time of COVID-19,” Lynn Silipigni Conaway from OCLC Research, noted that the Merriam-Webster word of 2020 was “pandemic.” A survey of 29 library leaders found three areas of impact: the work experience, the collection experience, and the engagement experience.
Three librarians from Rutgers University described how their library transitioned immediately to remote services, which resulted in a sudden and extensive impact on reference services. More students and faculty were accessing resources from off campus. Respondents wanted free access to all online textbooks, 24/7 access to librarians, a librarian embedded in every online class, and an emphasis on the importance of context.
In her invited presentation, Katrina Davis Kendrick from Winthrop University said that there is a current excitement in higher education. COVID has revealed the true value of libraries; students now see them as a social area, not just for academic work. Library employees should become leaders on the campus and in the community. They are ambassadors, and ambassadors don’t stay home!
Three librarians from Oklahoma State University discussed learning analytics (data about learners) and privacy of student data. If required data privacy policies are lacking, harm to students can result. Students care about their privacy, and we should too.
Two librarians at Cornell University were approached by the great-grandson of one of the early editors of The Modern Farmer and found that the Cornell library had the only known full run of the journal, so they decided to digitize it. A Wikipedia page and LibGuide were created, which resulted in several opportunities for the library.
Statement, a student authored and edited prize-winning magazine containing creative writing and art that began in 1950 has recently been digitized. The workflow consisted of training, scanning, post processing to check the quality of the scans, converting them to text, and metadata creation using Dublin Core standards. This project gave students insight in what is necessary to convert text to digital media.
Two librarians who had worked as pages in libraries described imposter syndrome (IS) — feelings of intellectual incompetence in high achieving white women and their inability to internalize accomplishments. In order to advance, pages and library school students are required to sacrifice time with friends and family, leading to symptoms of IS such as low self-esteem, pressure to succeed, long working hours, and a lack of acceptance of praise. In libraries, there is a fear of open conflict because of a desire to be well liked. What is the organization’s responsibility when someone shows IS symptoms? How have IS conditions surfaced during COVID-19? What can managers do to prevent a culture of IS?
The COVID pandemic has forced many academic libraries to make budget cuts. Some innovative actions included getting faculty input before budget cuts were required, negotiating as a consortium, emphasizing access rather than collection building, and using ILL in public services. It is important to recognize that faculty members often have misconceptions of what things cost, and cutting budgets does not always mean that resources are irrevocably lost.
Librarians from two Chicago area academic libraries described some physical space projects in their libraries, which included family study rooms, meditation spaces, classroom updates, and kid kits. Both of the colleges provided services tailored to the special needs of their students; for example, a “power closet” with clothing for students going on a job interview, a student pantry, and funds for emergency situations (car repairs, etc.).
In her invited presentation entitled “There Are Many Ways to Be Open” and in consideration of the conference theme, Meredith Clark from the University of Virginia addressed how we might be more open, provide access, and think more about the future. This presentation was an invitation to radical imagination: a practice or engagement for work in liberation and a state of living in the world as it should be, not as it is.
An interesting project, “On The Books,” at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill libraries was to create a corpus of North Carolina laws from 1866 through 1967 and then use machine learning techniques to identify those which were Jim Crow laws. It required expertise in the historical subject, project management, technical skills, and data skills. The project expanded to investigating whether search engines reinforce racism.
Ian O’Hara from the University of Scranton reviewed algorithms and epistemology as applied to information searching and literacy. An algorithm is commonly described by computer scientists as a description of a method by which a task is to be accomplished. Philosophers define epistemology as the study of the nature of knowledge and justification, and an epistemic crisis occurs when a community begins to question the correctness of its rules and structure. Although 2/3 of searchers believe that search engines are neutral and unbiased, Google is an advertising platform and does not rank results on their content or information efficacy.
techConnect group
Three librarians described how they integrated technology to create innovative applications in their libraries.
Ascending Above the Pandemic Blues: Engaging First Year
Students with a Digital Escape Room — At Cleveland State University, a digital escape room, in which a team of students collaborate to find a way out of a room, was created.
Augment Your Library: Creating an AR self guided tour
in your library — At Appalachian State University, there was a demand for library tours, but librarians rarely had time to conduct them, so an augmented reality tour was created using the Assemblr app to generate QR codes for markers which can be printed and placed in tour locations.
Expanding the Experiential Library: Using Twitch to Adapt
Hands-on Learning Spaces During a Global Pandemic — Services of the North Carolina State University Library were live streamed on Twitch, an informal live broadcasting service to publicize the library’s drop-in hours, makerspace, VR studio, and digital media lab.
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