Professional Development Opportunities

This class is designed for library staff who support, or want to support, nursing and allied health professionals. This class will provide an introduction to the professions of nursing and allied health and NLM databases used by health professionals. The class concludes with you developing your own plan on how to use this information in your own work.

Join the ACRL Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee for this interactive discussion on the promotion process in academic libraries. Our distinguished panelists will discuss all aspects of the promotion process including the value that promotion and tenure bring to librarianship, how to prepare your documentation, and where to find support from within your institutions or professional organizations. If you are new to the profession, or are facing the daunting task of beginning this process, this webinar will be of value to you. Challenges including the mysterious process of determining when you are ready, and dealing with the likelihood of imposter’s syndrome will also be discussed.

Join us as we continue our Classics Revisited Webinar Series with Michael Sugrue, Ph.D. Enter the world of Werther in this tragic introduction to Romanticism and the powers of human passions. This lecture will dive into Goethe’s impact on German literature and the perils of strong emotions followed by live Q&A.

Like many colleges and universities across the country, Miami Dade College (MDC) in Florida was forced to rapidly pivot to support remote learning due to COVID-19. But even before the pandemic, ebooks and audiobooks were instrumental to student success at MDC. Join us as we share MDC’s story along with key insights for responding to this increased demand for digital resources. You’ll come away with the latest strategies for dealing with the changing landscape of education, and best practices to prepare your institution for the next challenge.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the next generation of evolution and change among libraries and librarians. Faced with ever-changing environments and a new normal, how can libraries continuously envision, respond and adapt to future changes in the environment?

Phased reopening presents libraries with many challenges and opportunities. Join us for a collaborative discussion featuring Jeane Galvez, Library Director at the State University of Amazonas, Brazil. Discover how libraries in Brazil are leveraging self-service and compliancy technology to keep people safe.

Presented in Portuguese, this webinar will include interpretation in English and Spanish.

Public health practice depends on quality information but there isn't a lot of time for busy practitioners to find what they need and put it to use. This webinar will share resources and strategies from three public health-trained librarians to help you optimize the time you spend searching so you can focus on sharing what you find with your clients and colleagues. Through examples of diverse questions, we will suggest efficient and quality health information sources, as well as strategies to address technical challenges with terminology, a lack of useful evidence, and limitations to access to journal articles and other content for professional audiences.

Join Copyright Clearance Center for a complimentary one-hour webinar that explores global copyright challenges in a business environment.

In business, there are no geographic boundaries. Employees exchange information regardless of where they are located. Yet copyright obligations often vary from one country to the next, creating a complex set of challenges for global organizations.

What is civic information and what role does the library play in providing access to it? Join Laura Saunders of Simmons University School of Library and Information Science for a webinar on the important role libraries play in the civic life of their patrons and how that role is shaped.

The past year saw no shortage of political and social protests and unrest that underline how much work still needs to be done in the name of racial justice and equity. In this second part of a two-session webinar series, join expert Derris Hawkins-Smith for a thoughtful discussion about the state of Black America today and a look at the crucial steps that must be taken on the path forward.

Digital humanities, defined as the application and intersection of digital technologies with the disciplines of the humanities, offers new methods of access for intellectual inquiry. Olivia Peacock will share about her efforts to create Digital Black History, a free searchable listing of digital Black History projects that have been created by individuals and institutions. This website not only curates those projects, but also lets users use keywords to search for the appropriate resources to supplement their research. Dr. Jan Davidson (Cape Fear Museum, NC) will describe a new online map and timeline which pieces together a timeline of the events that led up to the 1898 Wilmington Massacre.

Describe some issues and concerns surrounding the current publishing landscape.
Articulate NLM responsibilities and practices in collecting and providing access to the biomedical literature.
Explain what is referenced in the PubMed database.
Describe the selection criteria for the different components of the PubMed database.
Find additional resources for authors and librarians on assessing publication quality.

This webinar will:

Convey the historical, contemporary, and emerging missions of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.
Examine this institution’s publicly available curricular and research resources.
Examine historical resources available from the Academy’s Library and Museum documenting individual midshipmen and historically prominent graduates of this institution.

This session addresses some ethical issues that occur when engaging with digital health products. The concept of digital health is vast and rapidly changing, exposing how different processes across commercial, medical and recreational sectors engage with consumer health data. Along with the development of these technologies there has been a shift in how health and medical interventions are conceptualized, diagnosed and interpreted. Specifically, the emergence of self-testing and self-reporting biometrics has accelerated the datafication of health as a commodity. What has emerged from these processes is a blurring between consumer and data, where health analytics take on a life of their own as they are transferred to cloud storage, become composited, and then repackaged and sold in bundles to divergent markets. This has been brought on by the availability of software capable of handling vast amounts of data and interpret trends and behavior across all aspects of social life. Data ownership, crowdsourcing and privacy issues are among some of the most pressing concerns affecting digital health developments. In this seminar, I argue for a revision of guidelines on the use of health technologies, ownership of medical information, privacy settings, and patient consent.

Wikipedia is a go-to resource for health and medical information, not just for the general public but for health care providers as well. Over 50% of physicians and 94% of medical students use Wikipedia to find medical information on the Internet. (Heilman, 2015) (link is external) It may be popular, but library staff want to know how reliable it is and how they can assess that reliability on behalf of their patrons. This course will help you build the knowledge and skills you need to confidently guide your patrons to authoritative medical and health information online.

This webinar will demonstrate how to use tools within MarcEdit to batch process and enhance MARC records. Viewers will learn how to validate and check fields for errors, remove records from sets, use the Task Manager to consolidate tasks, and add URIs to access points.

Responding to questions involving topics on mental health is challenging even for the most experienced librarian. In Caring for the Mind, participants will learn how to effectively provide mental health information at their libraries. Participants will learn about the best electronic resources to consult as well as ways to improve their print collections. Best approaches for handling interactions with emotional patrons will also be discussed. Other topics covered include: bibliotherapy; assessment/testing; and the future of mental health. This class will increase participants' skills for providing mental health information for care providers and the public.

This webinar presents research on the role information formats play in student evaluation of search results and identifies practical applications for libraries of all types.

Grab your coffee and tea and join us for an intimate discussion with ALA Executive Director, Tracie Hall. Tracie promises "Real Talk" and we are all in for her wisdom, grace, vision, intellect and insight about librarianship and about making life choices.

Do you ever feel like you give your team the same feedback over and over again with no change or results? Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all these “great ideas” other people have and you don’t have time to implement them? Who has time or that additional project? Who has money for that? Can I just file that thought and move on with my day? Sometimes by looking at projects in a new way, our attitude can change. We’ll look at 10 obstacles that turned into opportunities at my small library.

The Annual Copyright License from Copyright Clearance Center provides content users campus-wide with the copyright permissions they need in a single, multi-use license. The license offers coverage regardless of where instruction is taking place - on campus or online. Created in partnership with colleges and universities, the Annual Copyright License was designed to meet the unique copyright challenges faced by today’s academic institutions.

Explore the MeSH Database
Describe a Controlled Vocabulary
Explore the four types of MeSH Terms
Locate and explain entry terms, date introduced, previous indexing, automatic explosion

When put to the test with COVID-19 restrictions, public libraries pivoted quickly to evolve tactics and outreach. Join three passionate public library leaders as they share lessons learned and updated visions for how to elevate engagement to meet changing community needs—now and in the future.

Ten thousand people will turn 65 every day in the United States through 2029! After a person retires their social circle often shrinks resulting in social isolation. Research has shown that loneliness is as detrimental to health as smoking 15 cigarettes daily. The pandemic has greatly increased the potential for isolation since it’s unsafe to gather in person. This session will offer examples of how local libraries can support the older adults in their own communities with engaging in-person and virtual programming ideas to keep them physically and mentally active and help prevent social isolation.

The speaker will discuss privacy concerns related to the use of health technologies including contact tracing apps during the COVID-19 pandemic, and attitudes toward the use of telehealth modalities to support health and wellness among vulnerable populations. During the seminar, the speaker will discuss the value of librarians contributing to health technology design processes, and strategies for assisting users who may be interested in using digital health to support their health and well-being.

The IUG 2021 conference offers a wide variety of program sessions covering technical training, open forum discussions, soft skills training, case studies, best practices, product highlights and demonstrations, and more.

It’s challenging to turn assessment aspirations into reality. How do we operationalize collection assessment theory in a way that is actionable and sustainable? What structures and strategies can set us up for success? In this webinar, participants will gain practical strategies for implementing collection assessment and analysis projects, see how these strategies play out in a selection of distinct example projects, and learn where to find easy-to-adapt methodologies for their own assessment needs. Data expertise not required!

MathSciNet is the most accurate and reliable guide to the literature of mathematics, with extensive coverage of both pure and applied research. Learn how to help your patrons make best use of its many useful features, and get a look at how the database is created and maintained. Mathematical Reviews Executive Editor Edward Dunne and EBSCO Product Manager George Hurvitt will cover both MathSciNet via EBSCOhost and also drill down into the native MathSciNet interface for a look at its unique functionality.

The last several years have not only seen an uptick in exciting diversity and social justice work and scholarship in libraries and related organizations, but also in the negative comments and opposing opinions that have been registered as a result. Free speech is certainly something that we embrace, but harassment, bullying, trolling, doxxing, and other mentally and physically harmful behaviors go well beyond free speech and cannot be tolerated.


In 2019 we began these important conversations and linked these phenomena to library and information science, and now in 2021, we will continue this work by strategizing ways to combat bullying and trolling.

Libraries across the country are increasingly working to address food insecurity in their local communities. Presenters from the South Carolina State Library, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health SNAP-Ed program, and Richland Library will provide examples of library food access initiatives including seed libraries, community gardens and farmers markets. Guidance will be provided on how to start food access initiatives with limited local partnership options, few staff and limited resources in rural, urban and suburban settings. The session will also explore how two statewide organizations support local libraries in this work through technical assistance and funding.

During the pandemic, many institutions have adjusted their approach to providing physical access and virtual materials to patrons. As we plan for repositories to open more in the fall and beyond, the profession has the rare opportunity to rethink our service model and enact changes based on experience. This session will be an opportunity for these archivists to talk about both how their service model has changed during the pandemic, and their vision for the future of physical and remote access to materials in our collections. The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session.

Join us for a candid conversation with world-renowned scientists on advancing diversity and inclusion in STEM.

A free 3 day virtual symposium for library staff focused on their health and wellness.

In this session participants will describe ways in which Universal Design for Learning (UDL) promotes self-regulated learning, discuss efforts at their own libraries, and list ways in which UDL could improve information literacy instruction in the LMS.

Additional Speaker:
Karen Sobel
Teaching and Learning Librarian/
Associate Professor
University of Colorado Denver

This webinar will discuss a four-part racial justice blog series composed by a librarian, archivist, and staff writer at Emory Libraries. The panelists will describe the origins of the project and its organization, goals, and impact. Attendees will leave with a practical example of how to work across divisions and use their communication channels to demonstrate the relevancy of their collections to the current social climate.

How PubMed Works: ATM (Automatic Term Mapping)

Describe the contents of the 3 Translation Tables.
Explain the order of ATM
Analyze Search Details to verify term mapping.
Locate PubMed's list of indexed phrases
Describe 3 Ways to bypass ATM

Seguimos Creando Enlaces 2021 will be a meeting place for librarians with diverse experiences, from public and academic libraries, and from both sides of the border and around the world. The conference is fully bilingual and presentations are in both English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation services available. Seguimos Creando Enlaces is presented by the Southern California Library Cooperative in partnership with the SERRA Library Cooperative, California State Library, Library 2.0 Virtual Conference Series, and the iSchool at San Jose State University. This conference is supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Librarians, library staff, and library school students are encouraged to attend.

Courts keep deciding cases—but the context of teaching, publishing, news reporting, and entertainment has changed radically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the legal challenges and consequences now unfolding will be with us long after the pandemic has ended. It’s incumbent on librarians and educators to develop an understanding of fair use that recognizes its strengths and flexibility. In this free webinar, esteemed copyright expert Kenneth D. Crews will lead you on an exploration of some of the latest legal cases involving fair use, considering new possibilities and their implications specifically for librarianship and education. You’ll learn the legal ramifications of what Crews has deemed an “evolving normal,” with heightened demand for remote education, work from home, and online content, and you’ll learn where fair use fits into these contexts.

Additional speaker:
Ashley Todd-Diaz
Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections and University Archives
Towson University

Attendees will learn how to recognize misinformation, how to read and understand published health information, and how to help patrons understand or work around jargon.

Join us for a discussion about strategies and best practices for Digital Humanities Librarianship.

Join us in this collaborative forum for discussing support for open research and reproducibility within academic and research libraries.

Please join us for three presentations on the findings from 2019-2020 ACRL Library Impact Grant Projects. During this one hour session, each team will present their research on the following topic for 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for Q & A.

As research libraries look for ways to make their metadata more inclusive, catalogers describing published materials in a MARC environment may feel they have less freedom to change their practices than their archivist colleagues using free-text description in finding aids. In particular, subject analysis using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) may feel restrictive.

Transfer student populations continue to grow as part of the college and university landscape, but they may not have a firm foundation in information literacy and, to a large extent, can be underserved. This deficit can contribute to “transfer shock” and impact student persistence toward graduation.

Information literacy is multi-disciplinary; therefore college and university libraries and librarians can play a vital role contributing to the academic success of and holistic support for transfer students.

The speaker will provide resources and tips on how to find reliable health information to better assist patrons with reference questions.

Produced specifically for the publishing community, “Copyright Basics for Publishing” focuses on the basics of U.S. copyright law, including a copyright holder’s privileges and obligations, and when permission may be required. Participants will also have the opportunity to take part in an interactive question and answer session for clarification on some of the nuances of copyright they may encounter in their everyday work.

This webinar will increase participants' skills for providing mental health information for care providers and the public.

This webinar will introduce select historical and contemporary sources of U.S. Treasury content available on the open web; publicly-available textual and data sources covered will include press releases, annual reports, rates of exchange, fiscal statements, and sanctions-related repositories.

Our current media ecosystem is pretty messy. It is filled with a mix of both professionally produced and user-generated content that tends to get blended together on internet social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook. In this webinar, Michael Spikes of Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy will discuss how this mix of content leads to a “blurring of the lines” between various types of content making it difficult to tell what is trustworthy and what is not.

Beneficial as both an initial exposure to copyright, as well as a refresher for those who contend with these issues regularly, Copyright Basics for the Proprietary Institution is appropriate for librarians, faculty and staff members, administrators, bookstore, copy shop and reprographic personnel, IT professionals, course developers, students, and anyone who wants to gain a basic understanding of copyright in a for-profit academic environment.

This "train the trainer" class is designed to help library staff assist their older adult patrons find health information. Discover techniques for helping older adults find health information on the Internet, learn what makes a website older adult friendly; plan library programs on health topics; and explore some recommended health websites for older adults.

With recent events highlighting specific issues and challenges around racism in the U.S., libraries have started asking questions about how to transform themselves into anti-racist institutions. In this session, we will focus on anti-racism as action, rather than using the word anti-racist as an identity. Can changing how we define organizational culture in library workplaces be an example of anti-racist action? We will take a critical look at how certain hallmarks of white supremacist culture inform our notions of professionalism and workplace norms. These commonly accepted norms can actually contribute to low morale, the prevalence of microaggressions, retention issues, etc. This session will present specific actions to resist these norms, which libraries can then implement to create more equitable workplaces.

Chances are, you or a colleague of yours have created online programming content for your library recently. Creating media content has become easier than ever, thanks to the wellspring of new platforms and free tools. In this webinar, Kurtis Kelly of Estes Valley Library will walk participants through how to discover their voice through media creation, while gaining awareness of their personal digital footprint.

Members of the Correctional Workforce have long agreed that educational programs have a significant impact on recidivism rates. However, educational rehabilitation is concentrated at the State Prison level. Local jails must rely on local funding to provide rehabilitation and educational resources to their inmates, and most rural areas cannot afford to fund resources of this type.

The Cherokee Regional Library believes that this is too late into the lives of these inmates. Educational resources are needed at the local jail level, when incarceration periods are short and there is a higher chance for these individuals to remake their lives, and prevent a lifetime of incarceration and separation from families.

Children are exposed to more news at earlier ages through parents and teachers, students and friends, and digital devices.

Join Tom Bober, school librarian and 2018 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, to gain an understanding of tweens’ and teens’ news literacy realities.

Librarians of all kinds will leave the webinar with a practical set of simple terms, resources, and approaches librarians can support their news literacy growth.

This is a presentation on librarian visioning, leadership, management, and trial by fire. It provides a unique perspective on launching and leading an international network of librarian volunteers in a new role: emergency responders in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional speakers:
Olivia Wikle
Digital Initiatives Librarian
University of Idaho

Mike Wurtz
Assistant Professor
Head of Special Collections and Archive
University of the Pacific

Join us to discuss your needs and experiences with open educational resources like those found in the ACRL Framework Sandbox. Participants will walk through the process of depositing instructional materials in the ACRL Framework Sandbox.

Grab your coffee and tea and join us for an intimate discussion with ARL Dean of University of Houston Libraries, Athena Jackson.

Mindfulness and self-care are well-intentioned buzz terms, but, how often do we really have the time or extra energy to follow through with them? Now more than ever, keeping your emotional well-being afloat can mean the difference between surviving and thriving, and not just at work. Drawing from various sources and personal experiences, including both successes and failures, discover how one hot-headed and persnickety librarian found a slice of inner peace (and can even sleep at night). Ideas and examples for self-care and stress management will be given. Handouts will include an extensive bibliography. This session asks tough questions and addresses the stress in our lives; however, it is not intended to replace professional care and/or advice.

Join Copyright Clearance Center for a complimentary one-hour webinar that explores global copyright challenges in a business environment.

In business, there are no geographic boundaries. Employees exchange information regardless of where they are located. Yet copyright obligations often vary from one country to the next, creating a complex set of challenges for global organizations.

Once again, you’ll hear from top authors in genre fiction, literary fiction, and nonfiction and learn about the latest titles and trends. And you still get to dialog by visiting virtual booths, talking with authors, and networking with colleagues.

Join us for a discussion on outreach, engagement, and marketing.

Learn how libraries around the globe are using the SDGs to make an impact in their communities and how libraries compare regionally in their use and awareness of SDGs. Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Director, Library Trends and User Research, and OCLC Global Council will share the results from the 2020 OCLC Global Council survey on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and gather your additional insights on how SDGs have impacted your library and thinking.

Join us for a discussion on outreach, engagement, and marketing.

Join us for a discussion on outreach, engagement, and marketing.

Please join us for three presentations on the findings from 2019-2020 ACRL Library Impact Grant Projects. During this one hour session, each team will present their research on the following topic for 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for Q & A.

If you've ever been puzzled by copyright questions, don't miss this opportunity to learn from the copyright experts and to expand your respect for intellectual property. Not only will you get answers to your copyright questions, but you'll also learn how to minimize your company's exposure to illegal content use. Please join us for this engaging and educational webinar.

Concerned about climate change? Help your library “go green” by leveraging the super power of libraries everywhere: the make-do mindset! You’ll learn solutions for everything from sustainable programming practices, environmental partnerships, as well as easy eco-friendly swaps, based on the experience of the Eureka Springs Carnegie Library.

This session features three talks:

(1) Out of the Archives and Into the Classroom by Theresa Hessey
(2) Discovery After Digitization: Encouraging Research Through Engagement by Selena Bryant and Deborah Cooper
(3) Sharing a Digital African American Newspaper Archive: The “Weekly Challenger African American Digital Newspaper Archive and Research Guide” by David Shedden

Join thousands of faculty, administrators, thought and practice leaders across global universities and colleges on June 9-10, 2021 to discover immediate ways to improve online and blended class delivery for higher education. REMOTE provides a forum to identify and promote the best possible pedagogy, techniques and tools for online and blended learning and helps educators design the most engaging experience for learners.