2024 C&U / TSRT Joint Spring Meeting
All Inclusive AI: All the Awe-Inspiring Access, Archives, Acquisition and Ingeniously Innovative Instruction, Interlibrary Loan, and Information Literacy Initiatives in Nebraska Libraries
May 22, 2023
Program Archive
Keynote: Using Communication to Advocate Intentionally for University Libraries
Jackie Ostrowicki, Assistant Vice President for Marketing, University of Nebraska System
In this session, Jackie will share why libraries matter to her as a higher education administrator and a public library board member. She will discuss how to use communication as advocacy via media coverage and personal communication with state senators. Jackie will present a case study on the University of Nebraska’s “NU Advocates” program. Lastly, she will leave session attendees with actionable tools such as letter to the editor templates, op-ed examples, and suggestions for both NLA and local libraries.
Jackie Ostrowicki leads marketing, branding and digital media at the University of Nebraska System, bringing over 20 years of experience in marketing—including several years teaching at the university level—and 10 years as a higher education administrator. She is passionate about community service and public education and is a library board trustee for Lincoln City Libraries. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Jackie holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising and a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Nebraska and is currently working on her doctoral degree in educational administration.
Accessible and Inclusive: A New Open-Access Handbook on DEI Metadata
Harriet Wintermute, UNL; Nausicaa Rose and Heather Campell, Iowa State University
DEI metadata work has several goals: enhancing diverse representation in descriptive metadata; improving discovery of diverse resources; and mitigating negative effects of inaccurate, outdated, or offensive terminology. Through this work, librarians support their institutions’ commitments to foster a welcoming environment, provide access and opportunity, and promote a sense of belonging.
With the collaboration of the Iowa State University Digital Press, and building on the important groundwork laid by many others, five librarians wrote a handbook to provide guidelines for metadata work that focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our vision was to produce a one-stop, introductory reference, and make it freely available through open access.
Attendees will gain a broad awareness of DEI-related issues in metadata creation and management; learn techniques for retroactively reviewing and updating existing metadata to address these issues; and develop strategies to create metadata that better meets DEI needs.
Digital Libraries as Digital Third Place: Virtual Programming in the Age of Loneliness
Jenny Haddon, UNK and Craig Finlay, UNO
Brick-and-mortar libraries are commonly cited as examples of “third places,” community building spaces outside of home and work which embody qualities of equity and access without placing demands upon those who use them. However, as libraries increasingly invest in digital services, can they continue to serve in that role through virtual programming? Amid what public health officials are currently referring to as a “loneliness epidemic,” with the highest self-reported rates of loneliness and social isolation measured since sociologists began tracking it in the 1970s, the community-building role of libraries is perhaps more essential than ever. While much has been written on libraries as third place, digital libraries and, to a lesser extent, digital third places, literature examining the possibility of digital libraries as digital third places is scant. By examining existing library efforts to address loneliness among their patrons, virtual library public health initiatives, and existing research on loneliness in the age of social media, we argue that digital third places can indeed serve the same community-building function as physical third places, given certain circumstances and intention of design. This presentation also offers an identified list of features common to successful digital third places, as well as likely pitfalls which occur due to deficiencies in design and moderation and concludes with a list of suggestions for virtual library programming with third place in mind.
Tenure and OER: Using Assessment to Strengthen the Case for Excellence in Teaching
Craig Finlay and Isabel Soto-Luna, UNO
We plan to discuss interviews we conducted with numerous departmental chairs and school-level administration faculty at UNO regarding using OER work in tenure packets. Specifically, that OER adoption and assessment is an extremely effective way to gain an “excellent” rating in tenure packets. Tenure narratives and packets require demonstration of performance in three areas: research, teaching and service. New faculty often begin their careers with a good idea of their research interests and how to publish in the field. They do not, however, often know how to achieve a rating of excellent in teaching. It is not enough to simply teach a certain number of courses and provide positive student evaluations. Faculty must demonstrate innovation and development. OER work and assessment provide a highly effective way to do just that. We will close with a list of recommendations based on these interviews for how to go about such a project.
Attendees will understand what is required to achieve an assessment of excellence in teaching in tenure. Attendees will understand that OER adoption and assessment presents a uniquely powerful tool to gaining an assessment of excellence in teaching during their tenure review.
A&I at Creighton: Concentrated Efforts to Expand Access and Innovation
Peterson Brink and Greg Hollins, Creighton University
The Creighton University Libraries, Archives & Special Collections team has been leveraging technology to provide greater levels of access to materials than we ever have before. We are also attempting to innovate in numerous areas including instruction, reference, processing, metadata, and more. Members will each talk about projects and tools and how they have helped us provide better access and focus on innovation.
A Classroom of Our Own: An exploratory case study of archivists teaching outside the archives
Lori Schwartz and Claire Du Laney, UNO
What happens when archivists are asked to create and teach a public history course? In 2023, an academic department chair at UNO wanted to offer a public history course for the first time but did not have the necessary faculty expertise. They turned to archivists Du Laney and Schwartz, both of whom had relevant degrees, public history experience, and a willingness to teach. What Du Laney and Schwartz did not have was experience creating and teaching a 3-credit course and balancing those activities with normal faculty workloads in an academic library and archives.
In this presentation, Du Laney and Schwartz will share what happened as they developed and taught the course, what will likely change when they next teach it, how they hope to foster innovative instruction and access for faculty and students, and how they see this experience connecting to broader research topics. These include the positioning of archives within the library and public history disciplines and the typical experience of archivists in teaching courses. For all the professional literature on public history pedagogy, they have discovered essentially nothing in the literature addressing archivists' role in this (outside a traditional library instruction session). To fill this gap, they are collecting data from archivists and librarians about teaching experience, institutional support for teaching and curriculum development, and personal and professional benefits. Through this presentation, they hope to connect with librarians who have taught outside their library and seen it shape both their librarianship and scholarship.
Using AI to Enhance Your Marketing Graphics
Todd Jensen, UNK
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force in the field of graphic design, revolutionizing how designers approach their work. Libraries, as hubs of information and community engagement, can benefit significantly from integrating AI into their marketing and outreach efforts.
By understanding how AI can assist in graphic design, you can save time and reduce frustration. Consider AI as a powerful tool that can help you create and modify photos, images, and graphics, and has redefined how designers conceive and execute their ideas. One of its most impactful contributions is the availability of AI-powered design tools. It is essential to recognize that not all AI services are equal. For instance, Copilot yields different results compared to AI tools like Adobe Express.
At the University of Nebraska Kearney, Todd Jensen, the Web Services and Engagement Librarian, leverages AI tools to enhance graphic design for marketing and social media at the Calvin T. Ryan Library.
Kludge Cataloging: Cobbling Together Hebrew Bibliographic Records When You Can't Read Hebrew
Angela Kroeger, UNO
Sometimes, you just need to catalog a book in a language you don't speak, written in a character set you can't read. Can't read Cyrillic characters? The ALA romanization table has your back. Can't read Hebrew characters? The ALA romanization table does NOT have your back. Written Hebrew omits the vowels, and the romanization table only gets you the consonants. To catalog hundreds of Hebrew-language books in the Kripke-Veret Collection of the Jewish Federation, I needed a variety of tools. My process is convoluted and sometimes downright ugly, but it gets the job done. I'll open my toolbox for you and show you how to cobble together some Hebrew and Yiddish romanization for those linked 245 fields. Some of these tools are specific to Hebrew, but may inspire you on the types of resources and techniques that could assist with other languages.
Expedited Cataloging: Using Ex Libris Alma normalization rules to speed up record enrichment.
Eric Feikert, Creighton University
Record enrichment is an essential activity for any catalog librarian. However, many manual changes can be tedious and time-consuming. Luckily, users of the ILS platform Ex Libris Alma have a special ally: normalization rules. These rules provide special shortcuts for catalog librarians when they modify their records. Against the backdrop of the Health Sciences Library Reclassification Project at Creighton University, this presentation provides an overview of what normalization rules were created and why, special areas of consideration when using these rules, and how to make your own. If you have a love of coding, then this is for you!