Professional Development Opportunities

Join this session to learn about research on first year information literacy and high school to community college information literacy preparedness.

Providing a safe environment for collections is one of the key tenets of preservation. This is because temperature and moisture have a direct impact on the condition of collections. Cultural institutions are often advised to collect temperature and relative humidity data to monitor the environment. The collection phase of this process is easy. Managing the data and understanding what it is telling you about your spaces is more difficult. This webinar focuses on de-mystifying the process of environmental data collection and analysis. Topics covered include good, better, and best practices for setpoints, analysis software, and communicating findings with stakeholders. 

Discover the power of generative AI personas in this webinar designed to improve communication, build empathy, and solve challenges in academic and administrative settings.

In libraries, especially during times of rapid change and uncertainty, a key challenge arises: How can we create space for a culture of learning while navigating social changes both within and outside the organization? How can we equip staff with the skills to adapt and thrive amidst ongoing organizational change efforts? This session will explore the 'what' and the 'how' of organizational change, focusing on strategies to promote continuous learning and support staff development in dynamic environments.

Learn about the recently launched Nature Reviews Bioengineering and Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering and the value of industry-based research.

Webinar series hosted by the ACRL/EBSS Communication Studies Committee focused on presenting useful and timely resources, tools and ideas for Communication Studies (and beyond!) librarians

To say the college workplace has experienced dramatic changes since the pandemic is an understatement. Retention remains in crisis, and faculty and staff members report alarming mental-health challenges. In addition, younger employees and people of color are more likely to leave their jobs in academe.

What can administrators do to create supportive environments in a fast-changing, politically unstable environment?

The results of a recent exclusive Chronicle survey may have a roadmap to solutions.

The use of generative AI tools to analyze data, conduct research, drive innovation, enhance instruction, and bring greater efficiencies to workflows continues to proliferate on a daily basis. To deliver meaningful value, generative AI systems need to be trained using high-quality materials, including copyrighted content. This complimentary webcast is designed to help you understand the implications of using copyrighted content within AI systems.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership in collaboration with the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute, welcomes Nicol Nicola as she presents, “Are Jobs Leaving Your State?” This pressing question has captured the attention of politicians, the media, residents, and scholars alike. This session will offer a data-driven analysis of job movement in New Jersey using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data, specifically leveraging Job-to-Job Flows metrics. It will examine where job shifts are occurring—both geographically —breaking down key indicators such as origin, destination, and net change. Finally, it will contextualize these movements by comparing them to the total workforce size, providing a clearer picture of New Jersey’s employment dynamics.

Customer service skills generally consist of the knowledge, processes, expertise and the understanding that are needed to make customers as satisfied as possible. These skills are developed through several different avenues, including training, support and experience. There are generally two different types of these skills: people and technical.

Master’s students in library and information science (LIS) programs face unique challenges that can affect their mental health and well-being, from academic pressures and financial stress to job uncertainty and balancing personal commitments. This session will explore the mental health struggles common among LIS students, including feelings of isolation, burnout, and vocational awe. We will discuss strategies for fostering resilience, building supportive networks, and promoting inclusivity within LIS programs. Participants will also learn how institutions and peers can better support student well-being, ensuring a healthier and more sustainable pathway into the profession.

Discover how librarians and faculty can create an effective APA Style orientation toolkit for students.

Join us to discuss initiatives and strategies on how to incorporate passive outreach into your library programming.

In a 2024 Chronicle survey, 86 percent of administrators agreed with the statement: “Generative artificial intelligence tools offer an opportunity for higher education to improve how it educates, operates, and conducts research.” In contrast, just 55 percent of faculty agreed, showing the stark divisions between faculty and administrative perspectives on adopting AI. Given this increasing ‘trust gap,’ how can faculty and administrators work together to preserve academic integrity as AI seeps into all areas of academia, from research to the classroom?

Learn about AI’s research applications and new developments in ScienceDirect.

In this webinar, Kelly Osthoff, Senior Director of Programs for Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado, and Cristy Moran, Adult Library Services Senior Consultant for Colorado State Library, will guide librarians and staff from all types of library institutions through resources suitable for meeting the information needs of their community members.

Join us for a webinar on March 25, 2025 at 1pm EST, exploring how libraries can play a pivotal role in supporting student success by fostering college literacy and college fluency.

This workshop will show attendees how to build a community profile using Census data. We will start by locating a business address and then retrieve information from data.census.gov to describe the surrounding area. The major Census geographic areas will be discussed, but the session will focus on finding data for the Census tracts that are located around that address. Attendees will then learn how to analyze the data with mapping, MS Excel, and Google Sheets. We will also apply the basic principles of effective data visualization.

Are your reference skills ready for a refresh? Join us for a practical and engaging webinar designed for librarians and library staff who want to sharpen their foundational reference abilities.

At Northern Arizona University's Cline Library, we've created a unified student employment model that fosters community and collaboration through cross-training, standardized core competencies, and a clear career development and promotion path for student employees. In this session, attendees will learn how to centralize their student employment and implement a dynamic, cross-functional, and efficient student workforce to meet the library's needs while promoting student success through advancement and leadership opportunities.

Looking for money and resources, but overworked and overwhelmed? A former librarian, grant writer and entrepreneur, Ira Revels, created My Grant CoPilot. My Grant CoPilot is an AI + EI-powered tool simplifying grant discovery and writing. Using Graham - our AI assistant, learn how AI enhances research, connects you to foundations, corporate sponsors, family funders, and coaches you on how to refine proposals. The live demo shows how AI streamlines applications, helping entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and professionals access funding with confidence and ease.

Our communities are facing divides and loss of community. From the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation to the strong political divides we face, members of our communities are feeling separated from one another. In this session, we'll discuss how these divides are occurring, the ramifications of these social separations, and how libraries can provide a direct impact on these issues and the lives of our communities.

From Data Profiles to Subject Tables, the American Community Survey (ACS) offers many types of pre-tabulated tables for data users. This webinar will cover the different data products provided by the ACS, where these products can be accessed, what each data product offers, as well as products and guidance that will help you compare ACS data. Additional resources on the ACS webpage will also be shared.

In this webinar, Beth Brevik, account manager and former microfilm project manager at Backstage, will lead you through exploring your microfilm collection, understanding what you have, assessing potential risks, considering long-term preservation, and finding ways to make these largely hidden collections available to your patrons

Which are the intricacies involved in making music material accessible? Accessibility for music material presents significant challenges compared to text formats and these complexities will be discussed.

Immediately following the pandemic, Cecil County Public Library developed Grow. Perform. Succeed., A GPS for Performance Development. With a focus on SMART goal setting and regular opportunities for feedback, supervisors apply effective coaching principles resulting in a culture of collaboration. Join CCPL staff to learn how coaching within a performance development framework benefits staff, supervisors, and the entire organization.

Learn how declassified government documents enhance academic research and primary source collections.

Coaching plays a vital role in developing agile teams and effective leaders. Organizations who can build these relationships into their professional development plans keep their people engaged, boost their confidence, and encourage personal and professional growth. This session will explore coaching principles and applications from two different lenses: technical coaching and adaptive coaching. We’ll discuss the opportunities and challenges of these often time-intensive relationships, as well as tools to ensure everyone involved has appropriate expectations and a shared definition of success. Finally, we’ll brainstorm together to imagine productive coaching relationships across library career paths.

Library managers and supervisors are responsible for creating a welcoming, supportive, and safe environment for the staff and teams they supervise. In this webinar, gain an understanding of the term neurodiversity and learn about the strengths of those who are neurodiverse.

Learn from real-life workplace scenarios and gain practical strategies and tools for supporting inclusion of the neurodivergent volunteers and employees in your organization.

The workplace is evolving, and organizations need scalable, accessible, and people centered solutions to keep up. How do you ensure continuous learning, real
engagement, and real-time support for your employees—without overloading your HR team? Join us for this exclusive one-hour webinar to explore CultureRoad, a revolutionary platform designed to transform workplace learning, leadership development, and employee support.

This session will explore best practices for designing, facilitating, and analyzing focus group discussions tailored specifically for the unique needs of libraries and non-profit organizations. Whether you’re seeking to enhance community engagement, refine program offerings, or evaluate user experiences, this webinar promises to provide actionable techniques and valuable guidance to maximize the impact of your organization’s initiatives.

Nearpod is a web-based presentation creation tool that includes interactive slides, videos, and game-based learning activities. These either can be in-person or asynchronous lessons. Nearpod encourages students to enter responses even if they don’t want to speak up in class. Thus, keeping them focused on the instructor’s teaching and while giving feedback. In addition, it offers reports on the lessons that are shareable for assessment and statistics. Participants will need to bring devices with internet access to take part in the sample lessons.

Coaching Circles® are a trusting environment for a small group of peers to coach each other in exploring the challenges and complexities of their roles and in designing effective and authentic ways to achieve what matters most to them. During Fall 2024/Winter 2025, a small group of library leadership facilitators engaged in a Leadership Coaching Circle to develop their coaching skills and support each other’s growth and development. This program explains the benefits of leadership coaching and introduces you to Leadership Coaching Circles as a potential model for engaging in peer coaching.

We know too well the challenges with constant change. The rapid pace of change calls for an intentional look at how we lead and inspire people to be more committed to the next change initiative. In Determined to Change, you will learn and apply five evidence-based strategies to lead meaningful change through others. These people-centered strategies are designed to help organizations and the people in them thrive in highly demanding time

How can primary sources be used to drive innovative, pioneering, and impactful research opportunities that can shape the future of our planet?

In this session participants will become familiar with the QM rubric for instructional design, identify the steps of conducting peer review assessment for online instruction module and be able to identify strategies for creating Multi-campus library collaboration.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live each day enthusiastically and energetically? Your fatigue, which is telling you something, can stem from your food choices, mindset, sleep cycle, decision making, thinking patterns, movement, grief, lack of purpose, or worry.

Librarians focused on copyright and licensing from five institutions conducted research and analysis of peer institutional metadata policies, vendor agreements, and U.S. law in an effort to better understand the legal disposition of bibliographic metadata created both locally by institutions and from partner institutions across the U.S. Based on our analysis, we assert that the vast majority of bibliographic metadata is simply not copyrightable. While there may be “thin” copyrightable material, institutions should release these records under a CC0 Public Domain Dedication to ensure the widest possible distribution to support research, aid in the dissemination of knowledge, and promote innovation. In this panel, we will review our findings, share our analysis, and make recommendations for libraries to openly share their metadata records.

Join us to learn how a question becomes part of the American Community Survey (ACS). This webinar will cover the content test process, provide information on current questions and why they are asked, as well as provide additional resources found on the ACS webpage.

Whether you’re managing resistance to feedback, addressing negativity, or resolving team conflicts, this workshop will empower you to confidently lead with effective communication and proven strategies for success.

This panel will explore the role of spirituality in the library workplace, discussing how it can contribute to mental health, resilience, and a more balanced work life. We will examine the intersection of spirituality and inclusivity, providing strategies for fostering a respectful and supportive environment for diverse spiritual and religious beliefs. Through a blend of philosophical insights and practical recommendations, this session will highlight ways to integrate spirituality into workplace culture in a way that respects personal boundaries and enhances collective well-being.

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.

By the end of this session, attendees will:

- Understand the role of empathy, compassion, and intuition in a leadership capacity
- Gain strategies for integrating these qualities to inspire their teams and drive meaningful success
- Learn ways to create a positive work culture where individuals and organizations thrive

How can librarians use transformative agreements to support authors and strengthen partnerships with stakeholders on campus?

Join us in this workshop for a personal conversation about how we internalize systems of oppression, how they are reflected in our teaching practices, and how we can create a new vision for how we want to be as educators.
In this session participants will engage in self-reflection, mindfulness practices and large group conversations.

Computers in Libraries is the world's leading technology and innovation conference for librarians! In this session I will cover some of the awesome ideas, tools, tips, and tricks of the trade I picked up while in D.C. this year.

In 2024 the Institute of Museum and Library Services launched a new website to provide resources to teach about the different types of literacy there are including information literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, health literacy, and science literacy. The website includes programming resources to help develop skills in using and understanding information in a quickly changing world. In addition, the website includes training resources specifically for professionals, funding opportunities to promote information literacy, ready-made lesson plans, evaluation tools and more. Please join us for a look at what can be accomplished using the materials available on the website.

Trauma-Informed Libraries has become a buzz word in the field and seemingly everywhere, but what exactly does it mean? In this webinar, we will take deep dive into providing easy to digest explanations of what it means to be trauma-informed, why does it matter, and simple, actionable steps that professionals working in libraries can take to implement at their libraries from small scale to large scale. Trauma is ubiquitous, so what do we do about it? Join Bea and find out.