10am: Be a Guide (Kristin Charles-Scaringi, Howland Public Library)
As libraries evolve, so too must the work we do in libraries. We need to adapt in order to help people navigate the digital world and not just do it for them. In this workshop, we will discuss how our jobs, especially those in reference and public services departments, have grown and would benefit from us taking on more instructional roles. We will discuss how you don’t have to be an expert to teach something. A willingness to learn and try is an excellent teaching tool. We will talk about how to change the mindset for patrons and staff and identify some instruction tools that will help you be a guide at the library and better serve your patrons, and yourself, in the long run.
10:30am: Active Learning Strategies Using Jeopardy and Peer-to-Peer Inquiry for Information Literacy (Jaclyn Savolainen, Dutchess Community College)
Information literacy one-shot sessions are often forgettable. We wanted to make our one-shot sessions more interactive and memorable so we developed two new class formats in Fall 2021: Ritz Library Jeopardy and Peer-to-Peer Inquiry (where students teach each other what they discover). We will discuss how we did this and what we learned.
11am: Building Relationships (Laura Mosher, Alicia Mauldin-Ware, United States Military Academy Library, West Point, NY)
During the summer on-boarding process for new faculty members at West Point, a significant number of first-time instructors undergo orientation and training in their departments and across the academy. This orientation process includes a session in the USMA Library, during which their Department Liaison Librarian introduces these instructors to the resources available through the library and explains the many ways we support both faculty and cadets in our departments. A highlight of these tours is a visit to our Archives and Special Collections, where materials specific to each department’s interests are presented. These new faculty members are able to examine rare and unique items (such as old textbooks, examples of cadet course work such as drawings, workbooks, and correspondence, and photos of classes and life throughout West Point’s history, and learn how the resources in this collection can be incorporated into their instruction. We will give an overview of the faculty on-boarding process, discuss how we select items to display for the variety of departments we serve, and give examples of how presenting these unique materials to new faculty has resulted in increased librarian involvement with both faculty and cadets through classes and research projects.
11:30am: Vote Down the Library!? (Jessica Kerr, Library Consultant)
Facing a consolidated effort to defeat your library vote, you're not alone. Suggestions, things to keep in mind for any budget or bond vote, and... defending your public library from a hostile takeover.
Noon: Securing Your Organization Domain (Zack Spalding, Southeastern NY Library Resources Council)
An overview of security features available for those places that use Google to host email for their organization.
1pm: The Program Experience (Amy K Smith, Red Hook Public Library, Renee Zhang, Red Hook Public Library)
Popular perception of public library programs is that they’re educational and about literacy of some kind. At RHPL, we strive to develop programs that foster experiences at least as much as they impart content. In this presentation, RHPL’s programming librarians Amy Smith and Renee Zhang discuss how to reorient your program planning to consider how cultivated experiences meet community needs. With an interactive presentation, Smith and Zhang encourage librarians to consider fresh approaches to their communities’ social and emotional needs through programs that won’t break the budget or require weeks of prep. With examples to share for ages from preschool to senior citizen, Red Hook Public Library’s programmers talk frankly about their successes and duds to help others develop program experiences their libraries’ users want and need.
1:20pm: Traveling Vanished Streets (Mary McTamaney, Newburgh City Historian)
Despite massive changes in their landscapes, most communities have images that can visually stitch the past back together for new generations. Newburgh's city archives include old assessment photos and inventory photos taken as urban renewal made plans to buy and demolish neighborhoods. Using Airtable and then Content DM, it has been possible to compile and describe scanned images from several sources using a variety of devices and platforms. Partnering with Urban Archive in NYC, many of these images can be found and followed in a handy phone app that expands the city map offering views of its past.
1:35pm: SIFTing Through Information: Teaching Reliability of Information Sources (Gina Trask, Mount Saint Mary College)
Critically evaluating an information source is a skill honed overtime and the methods applied will change as our information environment changes. One such recent method is the SIFT technique by Mike Caufield. Using lateral reading techniques, this method offers just one way to determine the reliability of a source. The presenter of this session will explain the method and demonstrate a lesson that actively engages learners through a real-world example. By the end of the session, attendees will be able to evaluate, and teach others how to evaluate, an information source to determine if it is appropriate for a specific information need.
See the lesson materials here:
Trask, Gina. "Source Evaluation via SIFT Technique." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2022. https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/source-evaluation-sift-technique.
2pm: Nonfiction Refresh: a look at the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction (Meredith Inkeles, Kinry Road Elementary School Library)
Think back to when you were in elementary school. Do you remember the nonfiction books of your youth? Most of the old nonfiction books were filled with high vocabulary text, not many pictures, and boring covers. Perhaps that is why today, when adults are asked to list their favorite books, they are often fiction. However, the children today read a variety of colorful and exciting nonfiction books and, more often than not, would prefer to read a nonfiction book over a fiction book. Prolific, award-winning nonfiction author Melissa Stewart has been classifying this new surge of nonfiction. After years of thinking and analyzing, she has created the Five Kinds of Nonfiction. Melissa Stewart, along with Assistant Professor of Literacy Education, Marlene P. Correia, published 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children's Books in July 2021. Librarians must be at the forefront of this new evolution of nonfiction and help introduce this new vocabulary to our readers. In this presentation, be prepared to learn the five kinds of nonfiction categories based on Stewart and Correia’s book and see exemplar titles for each category.
2:30: Get Outside Your Four Walls with a Poetry Walk, (Rosemary Farrell, Nyack Library)
One of my goals when taking on the position of Programming & Community Engagement librarian in January 2020, was to get the library beyond the walls of the building. During the difficult winter of 2020-21, I thought of ways to celebrate spring, add some joy to the Village and support local businesses. I wanted to highlight our Village’s strength in the face of so much uncertainty, economic hardship and illness.
The programming committee decided on the theme of “resilience” and, in January 2021, I emailed dozens of poets and asked them to spread the word. The majority of writers were from the library’s service area – a few lived in nearby towns, and one woman from Ossining sent in a poem. The work was not judged – the prize was to be displayed for two weeks in April, National Poetry Month. I hoped for a dozen and received thirty-six. With help from the Chamber of Commerce and Nyack Merchants United, I contacted community partners and business owners to find homes for the poems. We created an interactive digital map, a web page with links to the authors’ and organizations/businesses, and sponsored a “tour” of the hung poems led by one of the writers. With the hashtag #nyackpoetrywalk, we encouraged people to “find a poem, post a poem.” Besides time, costs were minimal–I created the broadsides on Canva, printed and laminated in house. It was completely worth it, surpassing all my expectations and creating enormous good will among all who participated. We’re doing it again!