Quick Question: What conferences should I attend?

It feels like every week or two I receive an email promoting a conference to attend. With limited budget and a desire to attend conferences centered around issues related to technical services and resource management, I reached out to the TS and OBS-SIS listservs for recommendations. Keep reading to discover your next favorite conference outside of the AALL Annual Meeting.

Stay local

• Check out your local chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries for their annual meeting. Chapters tend to have more programs relevant to TS and OBS librarians.
• Look for regional TS-based workshops or conferences. If you're a Northern California resident, check out the Northern California Technical Processes Group (NCTPG)
• Your local ALA chapter may also have an annual conference with a technical services or library systems track.

ILS Conferences

• Innovative Users Group (IUG)
• Regional Innovative user groups also host their own conferences.
• ExLibris Users of North America (ELUNA) 
• Regional ExLibris user groups also host their own conferences.
• Another ExLibris resource to check out is the Alma Law Library Special Interest Group. This group meets annually at ELUNA, and also has an active listserv.

E-Resource Management Conferences

• North American Serials Group (NASIG)
• Focuses on serials and electronic resources management.
• Budget friendly: this conference is less expensive than a lot of other conferences - yay!
• Many of our colleagues recommend this annual conference, so you can count on meeting some TS/OBS-SIS folks!
• Electronic Resources and Libraries (ER&L)
• Held annually in March in Austin, Texas and online.
• The conference is organized into tracks/subtopics, so it's easy to see if there is an area of interest to you.

Other great recommendations

• Charleston Conference: Issues in book and serial acquisitions
• Held every year in Charleston, S.C., the Charleston Conference is devoted to technical services, electronic resources, serials, etc.
• This conference is recommended by many of our colleagues.
• Computers in Libraries 
• Held annually in Arlington, Virginia
• Focus on emerging and leading-edge technology. Great place to network with other information professionals from a variety of library backgrounds.
• Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge 
• Geared towards acquisitions and collection development librarians
• Single-track conference with limited enrollment.
• Society of American Archivists (SAA)
• Joint annual meeting of the Council of State Archivists and the Society of American Archivists 
• Special Libraries Association (SLA)
• Focused on special libraries and information professionals. 
• Explores trends in knowledge and information management.

Is your favorite conference missing? Leave your recommendations in a comment below!

GLA Conference Review: Workshop on Digitization for Small Institutions

A while back I did a post called What About Conferences? aimed at newer members as part of our "Quick Question" series. In that post I specifically talked about memories and experiences from state and regional librarian organization annual meetings. One of those (perhaps the organization I am most fond of!) is the Georgia Library Association. I have been actively participating in this state association affiliated with ALA, ACRL, and SELA since I attended my first GLC (Georgia Libraries Conference) in the fall of 2014. It has always been a welcoming and lively group with a crazy awesome mixture of library types and individuals.

Co-presenting at GLC 2019 with colleagues
Szilvia Somodi and Marie Mize.

What I love perhaps most of all about GLC is that you will find all levels of librarians there (not just "faculty-level" with "Librarian" in their title). The very best sessions I have attended often come from library staff. As a librarian who worked a few public libraries while studying librarianship, and as one with past positions which until recently were entirely "paraprofessional" or I.T. titles this is where the on-the-ground, behind-the-scenes knowledge and skills are found and shared: at the local events candidly. GLC isn't pretentious or intimidating like some conferences and their crowds can feel. It is also not overly techy like many I.T. and web developer conferences I have experienced where all you hear is jargon that feels distant and mysterious. There is a beautiful happy medium at GLC where you can network, actually learn, and find encouragement to follow your interests and grow as a librarian without judgement. It is here that my love of libraries grew stronger, although it took me a few years to get comfortable enough to sign up for one of the pre-conference workshops.

Table of recommended project management
software from DLF's awesome wiki.

This year I finally did it, and I am so glad that I did! The workshop held Wednesday October 9 in Macon,GA gave myself and my colleagues an excellent excuse to spend more time together. It was a long day but definitely worth the trek. Digitization for Small Institutions was presented from 9 am to 12 noon with a short break in the middle of the session. The two presenters opened by talking about the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) and right away shared links to resources including a toolkit for Project Managers from the Digital Library Federation (DLF): https://wiki.diglib.org/DLF_Project_Managers_Toolkit. For folks new to using a project management tool, this wiki has an excellent table of recommended software with summaries of each, links to them and pros and cons side by side. Many of the tools you expect to find are here (Jira, Asana, Trello, Slack, Google Suite) although I was personally disappointed that KanbanFlow was not included (insert sad-face emoticon here), there were a few I had not yet heard of or tested out which is ALWAYS exciting.

Photo from my messy notes of a favorite, useful visual.

In the first hour I quickly learned more about DLF, DLG and DPLA (Digital Public Library of America). This was an extremely interesting portion of the workshop that served as the backdrop for the rest of the session's more detailed "how to" segments. Although I had heard of and visited each of the aforementioned DL sites before it had been quite a while since I had taken a moment to just learn more about them and familiarize myself with the "why" of each site and their respective purposes. This seemed particularly relevant after I returned from the conference as we prepared for Open Access Week just a few weeks later. I did not realize how many wonderful resources DLF made available for free online. The project manager toolkit wiki is invaluable, and even if you are not working on projects that will eventually feed up into a DL site, the kit contains so many best practices and tips that it could be useful for many types of digitization projects. One such best practice was this 5-step process (as seen in my messy note photo here): 1. Selection & Planning, 2. Metadata Creation, 3. Prep & Scanning, 4. Post-Processing (crops & edits), 5. Ingest & Preservation (into institutional repository). Before we had a short intermission the attendees were divided into break-out groups of 3 to 4. In this form we discussed why we were there, what projects we were undertaking and what our role was at our institution. Another takeaway takes me back to what I love so much about GLC: there were more staff than librarians in attendance, and a surprising number of public library or museum attendees.

Slide dissecting "Title"

For the rest of the workshop we were shown workflow charts (I LOVE a good visual aid for wrapping my head around a process and grasping a project's big picture) and given what might as well have been a micro-course on metadata terms with a focus on descriptive data, and specifics on Qualified Dublin Core. There was even a little LinkedData talk! What was most helpful about this section were the slides that included specific examples of Title fields. You know a session is worthwhile when you can take that nugget of info back and start using it immediately at work when you return. This was that particular nugget for me!

Hands-on Digitization Station

I was able to share in my breakout group and with the entire group of presenters out loud the challenges of a certain project I have been collaborating on in our library for properly and efficiently archiving thousands of photographs. Lucky for me our project is dealing with media that is already digital, and I already have a space that exists and is ready for hosting the images and metadata (Digital Commons). It was super cool to hear the stories and challenges of others, including what types of media they are digitizing, organizing and archiving to make accessible to their patrons. Not everyone has a repository in place, and not everyone has the staff or tools to achieve their goals right away. This workshop also provided a hands-on station to practice digitization before you left the room. I love that the session enabled everyone, even those interested in the topic (lots of MLS students were there too) but not currently working in a place or role that allows them to get their hands dirty to do just that!

I left the workshop feeling inspired and with an added confidence for the project waiting for me back in the office. Many of the tips I gained from the workshop I am currently utilizing this very week. I had such a wonderful experience that I will certainly sign up for future pre-conference workshops next year! In particular I have enjoyed taking part in GLA's interest groups like Technical Services and Information Technology, and their division sponsored activities like the Academic Library Division, the New Members Round Table Division, and the Paraprofessional Division. What local, state or regional organizations would you recommend to AALL TS-SIS and OB-SIS members who may be from the same area of the States that you are? Share with us in the comments below and link to the association, group or conference!

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Sidney Lanier

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 
I am Sidney Lanier and I am the Catalog and Archives Librarian for Syracuse University College of Law.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?
Yes and no. We all wear many hats in our library. While I am primarily the cataloging librarian, I have certainly tried to learn some of the ins and outs of database maintenance as well because the two go hand and hand. Sometimes I work circulation and sometimes I work reference. The archival aspect of my job, while probably the most fun part of it, often gets put on the back burner because of more time-sensitive projects. I think most job titles are just an attempt at describing what someone actually does. In reality our jobs often demand cross-training and continuous learning, which I look at as a good thing.. although it can be exhausting at times.

3. What are you reading right now?
Nothing for leisure, haha. I am taking classes in the graduate school, so my free time is occupied by assigned readings and R-coding projects. I look forward to reading for pleasure again after this semester!

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?
I think the library of congress is one that many of us would love to work in and I definitely would love to do that one day. On a divergent note, though, I always thought it would be great to work in one of our national parks’ libraries. The Grand Canyon National Park’s research library would be a very cool experience.  I know they get a lot of high quality research data and it would be amazing to be able to sift through some of it to contribute to our parks’ information databases and publications.  

Getting to Know TS Librarians: Kevin Carey

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). 

Kevin Carey, Technical Services Librarian at The Ohio State University Moritz Law Library.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?  

Yes!  I actually love my title, Technical Services Librarian, because it is so general and yet specific at the same time.  We are a small department at Moritz, which provides great opportunities to get involved with all aspects of the work we do—as well as sometimes the obligation to take on tasks which typically might not be assigned to a “professional” librarian.  I primarily oversee the diverse cataloging work of all our print and electronic resources, but I also get to work with serials, microforms, bindery and preservation, collection maintenance, and even our college archives.  There are so many things we get to be involved with simply by virtue of the work being “technical” in nature.  And having a title that connects directly to our half of the traditional library divide is often a great opportunity to explain to colleagues just what “technical services” is, in libraries generally and then in terms of how our work supports the rest of our institution.

I also have an additional title as Building Coordinator for Drinko Hall, which houses the Moritz College of Law, and in that role I am responsible for all aspects of facilities maintenance, housekeeping, security, and emergency procedures for the college, not to mention all our renovation projects, large and small.  That part of my job is probably how most of our faculty and non-library staff know me best—and it always keeps things interesting!

3. What are you reading right now?  

While I was flying Southwest earlier this year, I read an article in the in-flight magazine about their founder Herb Kelleher, who just died in January, and I was really taken by his ethos of “love” as a manager and business leader.   So while I look forward to one day reading a biography of Herb Kelleher the man, in the meantime I have been learning about his company in Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?  

I have spoken with many of my fellow librarians who would answer the same way: I would love to be a children’s librarian at a public library.  I have two elementary-school age daughters—plus a handful of young nieces and nephews here in town—and I actively embrace the role of personal librarian for these fascinating little people.  In fact, much of my non-work reading relates to children’s literature, as I try to come up with the next just-right recommendation for my growing readers, and I just love to shepherd them through that process of figuring out what they want to read—and why.

Reflections from CALICon19: Two Best Sessions

Looking out over downtown Columbia, SC #CALICon19

Some talk has been floating around in My Communities for covering conferences that may relate to TS, OBS and even CS members. There is understandably a lot of variation in many member job duties and with that plenty of room for overlap of these SIS individuals. Coming from an I.T. department position before my current role this makes total sense, and I can see the benefit to many of us not only having backgrounds in computer science and other technical fields, but also the advantages to continuing education in those areas as library professionals. This is where CALICon comes in.

With Web Developer Leslie Grove at CALICon19

Many of us are familiar at least in some way with CALI the organization (a.k.a. Computer Assisted Legal Instruction). They provide our law students with extremely helpful study aids, plus have resources that help faculty members with all sorts of things. Librarians fit into this section of folks CALI has resources for too. I first heard of CALICon a few years ago when my friend and web developing office-mate Leslie flew to Denver, CO to co-present with our Information Technology Librarian Jason. Their talk titled "Enough to be Dangerous: 00000110 Things Every Beginner Needs to Know about Coding", gave a snapshot of the main programming language fundamentals to the varied CALICon audience. What a neat conference I thought at the time. I had only been to either Drupal Camps full of I.T. guys or state librarian conferences which were full-on librarian attendees, and the idea of a conference that brought librarians, tech-heads and faculty together sounded... well downright phenomenal!

A couple years later I lucked into CALICon coming to Atlanta. Being in Athens, GA it was a short drive. I presented on infographics, and realized I was right - CALICon is pretty amazing. The unique mixture of attendee's makes for interesting discussion and highly useful content that naturally lends itself to collaborative relationships. In true tech-event fashion CALICon live streams all of the sessions and at hyper-speed uploads them all for streaming on YouTube. So, if you have never been to CALICon before, I encourage you to consider it next year. One only has to browse the CALICon playlists of session videos to wonder why everyone doesn't attend.

This brings me to my top 2 sessions from #CALICon19 which I felt would be most useful to  TechScans followers:

• Leveraging eResources for Affordable Course Materials - Mary and Lisa were excellent presenters who didn't just share something cool (maybe their topic wasn't the flashiest on the schedule) but certainly brought one of the more relevant sessions for me throughout CALICon's two-day whirlwind. What institution isn't interested in saving money for their law students? What library doesn't grapple with ways to make things more cost-effective? This session not only discussed measures that would greatly benefit students but also ideas for faculty members who want to publish their own course content. In this session I learned about lulu.com (CALI actually uses them to publish their books! SUPER affordable, 600+ page books for around $25 shipped!), Powernotes, H20 open casebook platform and more. The presenters even shared strategies for liaising with your registrar office and faculty members to offer alternatives before or alongside booklists, and how they reviewed their own booklists from past semesters to locate and suggest cost-saving measures for specific courses. 

John Presents at CALICon19

• Automating Processing and Intake in the Institutional Repository with Python - Wow, just wow is all I could say after this session. Most of us deal with our IR in some form or another. As my own role with our Digital Commons site continues to increase, I went into this session with high hopes and seated next to our law school web developer (the office-mate mentioned before), and we were not disappointed. If you have ever manually entered items into your own IR one at a time as I typically do, you smile at the prospect of batch loading. With a large project of archiving old photos in our own IR looming I have been postponing preparing my own spreadsheets - I know it will be tedious and a worm hole of a project. After John's session I am SO glad I waited. My colleague, the coding goddess, and I sat in awe of the automation John was sharing. I was pleasantly rejuvenated leaving the session with a collaborative game plan which I am happy to say we are already making great progress on. Although the presenter's project was with Law Journals and pulling content from PDF's, our own is actually much simpler since we are pulling titles, image URLs and (hopefully) basic descriptions. By far this session left me feeling the most excited about returning to work with something we could instantly put to use.

Click on the session hyperlinked titles for slides and streaming video. Did you attend CALICon too? What were your favorite sessions or biggest takeaways? Find other sessions from CALICon 2019, or past years in CALIorg's YouTube Playlists.

Getting To Know TS Librarians: Jean Willis

1. Introduce yourself (name & position). Please provide a picture to be posted to the TechScans blog.

Jean Willis.  Currently Interim Director at the Sacramento County Public Law Library.  My “usual” title is Assistant Director for Support Services.  Our Board of Trustees appointed me to the position of Interim Director when my boss, Coral Henning, sadly passed away in late March.

2. Does your job title actually describe what you do? Why/why not?

Interim Director is quite accurate.  However, I feel that my “usual” title is squishy.  What does it mean?  Essentially, it is “Not Public Services.”  I supervise Technical Services and IT for our Library, which is an independent local district government.  So our IT Team handles all of the technology needs for our Library.  We are not part of any overarching organization, such as the County government, despite the Library’s name.

Our Technical Services Team consists of a Tech Services Librarian, who handles Acquisitions and Claims but also works regularly at the Reference Desk, handles virtual reference shifts, teaches legal research basics classes and serves on our Collection Development Team.  We have a Cataloger, who also works at the Reference Desk and handles virtual reference.  Both Librarians also are responsible for updating and maintaining some of website content, including Legal Research Guides, Step by Steps and Everyday Law articles. Then we have a Serials Control Assistant, who checks in most of our materials, handles some copy cataloging, and she also works regularly on our Circulation desk. 

Our IT Team consists of two Systems Analysts who handle everything from soup to nuts involving technology at the Library.  I supervise these two Teams, plus fill in at Reference, teach legal research basics classes, serve as a Passport Acceptance Agent and generally assist in the day-to-day management and administration of the Library.   Of course, the latter duties have increased exponentially since the Director’s untimely demise.  Because our other Assistant Director for Public Services retired about a year ago, and was not yet replaced, I am also now fully supervising our Public Services Department and our Civil Self-Help Center, which is staffed by an attorney and a paralegal.  Yes! I am ridiculously busy right now, especially considering that my “usual” job was already full-time.  Time management plays a huge role in my work life these days.  Plus I am grateful to have super, hard-working staff, who have really stepped up to the plate at this challenging time.

3. What are you reading right now?

Typically, I have several books going at one time.  Right now, I am really fascinated and taken by the Neapolitan Novels authored by Elena Ferrante.  Just wonderful novels about love, friendship and growing up in post WWII Naples.  Today I started book two, The Story of a New Name.  HBO is also dramatizing these works, and the video of the first novel, My Brilliant Friend, is available for viewing and highly recommended. 

The other book I’m reading is called The Betel Nut Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu.  This is set in 1930s Singapore and presents an interesting counterpoint to the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, which I also enjoy as light reading.

4. If you could work in any library (either a type of library or a specific one), what would it be? Why?

I am working in the exact type of library that I would choose (really).  Throughout my career, I’ve worked in almost every type of law library: in law firms, law schools, courts, legal aid and more recently public law library.  I’m truly happy to provide such a needed public service to our constituents.  It was exciting, challenging and stimulating to work in all of those other types of law libraries, but this answers my interest in providing true public service to our community plus access to justice for all. 

5. You suddenly have a free day at work, what project would you work on?

We want to expand our Lawyers in the Library program, perhaps to collaborate with the Sacramento Public Library, to offer this service in different areas of our county and on more and different days and times.  I simply don’t have time to develop this project right now but would love to see it come to fruition. 

BIBFRAME goes International

A recording of the Library of Congress webcast BIBFRAME Goes International. 2019. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8682/ presented April 2, 2019 has been made available. A number of speakers addressed experimentation and implementation of BIBFRAME and/or linked data concepts in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.

Some highlights:

Kungliga biblioteket, The Swedish National Library of Sweden has a production BIBFRAME based union catalog available for exploration. They are actively seeking a path out of the MARC environment.

Judith Cannon spoke at length about the PCC/LD4P grant funded group. Seventeen selected PCC libraries are working in a "sand box". Metadata will created and saved using "Sinopia", a linked data platform developed by Stanford University. More information about the project and its goals is available at https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/LD4P2/LD4P2+Project+Background+and+Goals. The Library of Congress is developing initial training material based on LC's BIBFRAME editor. It is not clear when these tools might be available for non-participating libraries to play with.

Paul Frank and Jodi Williamson spoke about Share VDE, a collaboration with Casalini Libri focused on converting MARC bibliographic data to linked data. "VDE" stands for Virtual Discovery Environment. The environment is available for exploration at http://www.share-vde.org/sharevde/clusters?l=en.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has an experimental Bibliographic Linked Data Learning Platform. With this tool, you can view and compare bibliographic data presented in different serializations, plus information about the work contextualized using Wikidata knowledge cards. The site also has an experimental SPARQL query form that can be run against their bibliographic data.

The National Library of New Zealand has made their Ngā Upoko Tukutuku / Māori Subject Headings available as linked data as an aid to bibliographic description centered on a  Māori world view.