Professional Development Opportunities

Developed as a non-coder’s guide to exhibit best practices, presentation, and promotion, this course will provide students with an introduction to exhibit building using Omeka; one of the more popular platforms for digital exhibits. We’ll discuss how to craft objective and interpretive text with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in mind; how to make your audio/visuals engaging; common rights and reproductions issues; and adding elements that draw your patrons in and create a good user experience, like ADA compliant downloadable materials, crowdsourcing applications, and more.

This class will not cover digital collections and exhibits workflows and procedures; a basic understanding of these is required for full participation in this class. People who work at museums, academic libraries, historical societies, and archives, and have a need to create fresh and meaningful digital content for their organizations, will benefit from this class.

In this class, participants will learn the basics of determining whether a work has risen into the public domain in the US, either because the copyright term has expired, or because the work is one of the limited categories of works that are not eligible for copyright protection. The class will focus on the types of copyrighted works most frequently found in archival, museum, and library collections, including books, unpublished archival materials, works of art, and scientific data. Participants will learn about tools and resources to help their public domain determinations, as well as ways to communicate those determinations with their users.

This session will demonstrate, through three case studies, how IIIF tools can be used to create engaging online learning experiences. The case studies will demonstrate using collaborative annotating and comparing image-based resources such as maps, manuscripts, artworks, photographs, and more. The tools covered in this session will be especially useful to teachers, librarians, or other people engaged with learning to create engaging online learning experiences.

Supporting open infrastructure is a hot topic in the library community. Much of the conversation focuses on the sustainability of open source software and how communities fund their work. The focus on software development and the costs associated with it largely ignore how intricate and nuanced community work, like all technology work, is.

Stay on trend and build anticipation for your Summer readers of all ages. Join us for an hour of trends and new titles in Summer Reading for your library users. We'll discuss ways to promote Summer Reads and programs through your library.

Instructional videos are a versatile staple of online library learning. In this non-technical session by an experienced instruction librarian, learn the best approaches for designing and creating clear, useful videos for your library learners. We’ll discuss how to apply teaching principles to the video medium, easy techniques for making videos look good without being an expert editor, and how to approach accessibility in video tutorials.

As a librarian you already know that there are numerous tasks that you perform that require professional graphic design skills. You are proud of your work and do a good job but you would like a bit more guidance. In this class, you will learn what the professionals know about creating graphic designs.

This two-hour webinar introduces participants to design thinking through the exploration of a process that begins with an empathic approach to problem finding that leads to a thoughtful solution. Attendees will gain familiarity with the different phases of the design thinking process through examples of how they are applied in a library environment. While there are other methods leading to decisions for making libraries better, design thinking lends itself to staff engagement opportunities for collaborative problem finding and solving.

Effective library signage can bring new patrons into the library and assist patrons in finding the information they need. Often, however, library signage is unclear, cluttered, and ineffective.

In this course we will show examples of effective library signage. We will evaluate the wording and appearance of library signs, contrasting signage that works from signage that confuses.

This course is designed to work with copyright concepts introduced in the previous four copyright courses offered by LYRASIS and the Virtual Copyright Education Center in Spring 2021, so that students can take a strategic approach when integrating copyright practices into the operations and policies of their respective museums, libraries, and archives. In particular, students will learn to devise and implement rights data management and copyright assessment protocols to better mitigate risks and identify opportunities when working with collections in the online environment; develop or integrate copyright policies in collections management and preservation activities; and find potential access solutions to the digital dissemination of collections materials based on their expertise in collections management, preservation, and their newly developed copyright literacy skills.

This class will provide a broad overview of quantitative methods and the focus will be on understanding terminology and concepts used by quantitative researchers. We’ll discuss some of the most commonly used statistical tests, outlining the types of research questions they address and the basic mechanics of the tests. T-test, correlation, chi-square test of independence and regression will be briefly explained. Along the way we’ll touch upon variables, level of analysis and the role of theory in quantitative methodology. This course is accessible to those without a math background as it focuses on providing a broad overview of quantitative methods concepts.

When it comes to cataloging and classification, consistency obtained through standards is important. That does not mean you have to be at the mercy of the national standards. This presentation will cover many ways in which you can adapt catalog records to make sure they work for your library users – from homegrown classification systems to local subject headings – and offer tips to make sure these practices still provide the consistency needed in a good catalog.

This class will discuss best practices and current issues in digitizing rare books. The instructor will cover scanning and specialized equipment; post-process and digital authenticity; the need for specific metadata description; and the publication of digital rare book collections. A discussion of common types of rare books and their handling needs, along with third party digitization agreements and donor stipulations, will be included. Finally, we’ll cover how to build dazzling and significant rare book-based digital collections, over time.

This two-part webinar will introduce participants to podcasting, a medium defined by a complex "systems ecosystem" consisting of digital audio files (namely WAVs and MP3s), distribution mechanisms (RSS feeds) and platforms providing services to both podcasters and listeners. In part one of the webinar, PTP will step through the curriculum devised by the PTP team, briefly go over the history of the development of podcast technology, and "prove" that some of the earliest podcasts have, in fact, disappeared. Part two will focus on RSS technology and how PTP devised their own homegrown mechanism to preserve their own podcast and website beyond their grant funding. We will end with providing some examples of current institutional podcast collecting efforts, and discuss how participants might envision incorporating elements of the PTP curriculum into what they do at their respective GLAM institution or organization.

You can’t read the news these days without coming across AI, but what is it, and what can it do in libraries? In this session, we’ll cover some basic definitions of AI (no programming skills required!). Then we’ll explore real-world examples of AI applications in libraries, spanning cataloging, discovery, and community engagement. Finally, we’ll touch on ethical concerns. You’ll leave with a sense of what it takes for a library to do AI and where you can go to learn more.

This class will review several freely available tools that can help you test a website’s adherence to accessibility standards. The tools can help you test content you are considering for your institution, or resources that you already provide but want to improve either internally or through advocating for improved accessibility. We will also review common standards and best practices that are used to evaluate online content.

This class is designed to provide librarians with a foundational understanding of instructional design concepts that can put them on a path for creating effective online instructional experiences. The session will include an introduction to the instructional design process, followed by a sample workflow for creating an online learning object. Attendees are encouraged to come with a specific instruction need in mind that they can use to practice with the process. Although this topic is particularly salient for academic librarians who teach online, the content can be applicable to any librarian who develops online materials to help patrons effectively and independently navigate library resources.

Disaster can strike at any time in any locale, disrupting operations, threatening human safety, and damaging or destroying collections. Having a plan in place before disaster strikes makes good business sense; institutions that view emergency management as critical and provide staff with the authority and tools to plan will ultimately respond more successfully than those that have not prepared. This class is an overview of different steps that cultural heritage institutions can take to be better prepared for a disaster of any size. The sessions cover risk assessment and mitigation, creating a disaster plan, collections salvage procedures, techniques for training staff, and touches on creating emergency response networks.

Authority control – the process of ensuring that all access points in a library catalog are used consistently – can be a great help to patrons using the catalog. But it also can be confusing for librarians who are not familiar with it. Free for members, this session covers the basic principles of authority control, how to implement it in your catalog, and the value that it brings to library users.

All libraries provide vital services to their communities, but libraries that serve very small, remote rural populations have the potential to go beyond providing necessary information and access—they can inject vitality and encourage their communities to thrive. Addressing the challenges faced by rural areas can be daunting to a library with few staff and limited resources, but any tiny library can find more ways to support the specific needs of its community. Learn how tiny library director and 2018 Library Journal Mover & Shaker Allie Stevens uses strategic thinking to set priorities, creates new connections with stakeholders, patrons, and volunteers, and applies the concept of growth mindsets to library work to avoid burnout as a solo librarian.

In order to serve all patrons, libraries must create and distribute accessible materials. Accessibility enables us to serve all library patrons through ADA compliance. Library services and materials are shifting to increasingly more patrons requiring online services and resources. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach that calls for multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement that can be applied to creating online materials.

In this webinar, a public service Online Learning Librarian from a mid-sized, public university will present on training librarians on creating and purchasing accessible material, as well as tips and tricks for auditing e-resources for accessibility issues.

One of the toughest tasks expected of library managers and leaders is to make good decisions. Whether the stakes are small or significant, getting the decision right will enable library workers to make the best possible use of library resources for great service delivery. Effective leaders decide within reasonable timeframes, avoid analysis paralysis and achieve fair, practical resolutions. This two-hour webinar introduces participants to the art of decision making through the exploration of time-tested approaches to making thoughtful, service-centric decisions.

As librarians, we are in the business of supporting people. Today, many of our responsibilities include helping people find information, showing them how to use a new technology tool, and connecting them to resources. Due to these responsibilities we often serve in the role of teacher, coach, and/or facilitator. However, many of us are not trained to be teachers.

Therefore, knowing how people learn can help us grow professionally and better serve our communities. This workshop will include overviews of the following learning theories:

Constructivism
Andragogy
Experiential learning

Attendees will leave the session with practical ideas for applying the theories of constructivism, andragogy, and experiential learning in their day-to-day work.

One of the most exciting aspects of working with historical collections is when items can be annotated, either through crowdsourcing or machine generated annotations. This session will cover how annotations work with IIIF and how you can use off the shelf tools to run crowdsourcing or remote teaching use cases for annotating your IIIF collection. The IIIF standards are a set of a community-driven set of technologies developed by world-leading research, national and state libraries, archives, museums, companies, and image repositories. The combination of standardized ways of accessing images and a/v material and its integration of the W3C web annotation format puts IIIF in a unique position to support the development of annotation tools and many have been released as open source.

Have you experienced a crisis in your community and wanted to immediately start collecting materials to document the event, but didn’t know where to begin? This class will help your institution prepare to respond to an unexpected event in your community and quickly collect and provide access to digital materials including photos, videos, and social media.

This session will provide an overview of best practices for emergency collecting that institutions can put into practice before an unexpected event occurs. Emergency digital collecting experiences from the University of Virginia will be used as a case study to demonstrate how best practices can be implemented.

The LYRASIS 2021 Research topic is challenges and opportunities in open source software (OSS). This session will be dedicated to reviewing the methodology and the results of the LYRASIS 2021 Research OSS Survey. The webinar will discuss different areas of the survey results, including how institutions are justifying participation in OSS communities, allocating financial and staff resources to OSS, and choosing OSS services.

Every beginning genealogist knows that Federal Census records are a great place to start searching for our ancestral history. However, we can learn more from records than just the places, dates, and names listed. Knowing the history and historical importance of data collected by census records is a necessary tool in every genealogist's kit. Gleaning information not indexed in a database can lead to major breakthroughs in your research. Learn how to sift through and interpret enumerator’s abbreviations as well as your ancestor's historical data.

Students will learn how to make online instruction accessible to students with a wide variety of disabilities. We will start by laying the foundation for understanding Universal Design for Learning and Accessibility standards. In the second session, we will focus on applying the concepts of UDL and Accessible Design to the unique challenges of online library instruction. Students are encouraged to bring real world problems or questions from their own practice to the second session.

How many times have you heard "I can learn a new language through the library?" or "You have a free program for learning to speak new languages?" or "Is this something new?" Libraries of all sizes invest collection budget money and staff time to offer fantastic language learning databases and products. Often library users are unaware of these resources. Join us for this bite-sized session focused on fun and innovative ways to promote those language learning resources. Get your library users learning and speaking new languages for work, travel or just entertainment.