AACRL/CUS Best Practices Lightning Talks @ ALLA Annual Convention 2024
Session #1 – Friday, April 12th from 2:00 to 2:50 PM
Artificial Intelligence: Is it in Your Library?
Teisha Robertson, Science Librarian, Alabama State University
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a phenomenon of the twenty first century. It is the theory and development of the computer systems. AI performs tasks that require human knowledge. It is becoming a staple in the educational community and the world. Academic disciplines such as computer science and technology are the building blocks of AI. Artificial Intelligence is used in many fields such as banking, science, medicine and now it is increasingly being used in the field of library science. It is a technology used in social media, text editors, and Google searches. In this presentation, the future of AI and its uses in academic libraries for example in ChatGPT, reference services, research and other uses of AI will be discussed.
Hands-on Data: Make Data Tangible and Accessible Using Interactive Displays
Marla Hertz, Research Data Management Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham
To celebrate International Love Data Week, our library provided a tactile data visualization experience. These displays offered a unique form of engagement, and required minimal time, effort, and resources to prepare. This form of low-stakes programming offers patrons a fun and accessible way to get involved at the library. Additionally, displays can be customized to spotlight new or relevant library resources, as well as promote information literacy. Finally, the project served as an unconventional means to gather statistics on patron interests and preferences. This presentation will review the steps involved in implementing a collaborate data visual display to equip attendees with the necessary information to replicate this experience at their organization.
Quality Improvement in Medicine and Libraries
Lindsey Baird, Clinical Reference Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham & Amanda Jenkins, Reference Librarian and Liaison to the School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Quality Improvement (QI) in the healthcare field is a theory and practice that has evolved over the last several decades that creates enhanced quality of care quickly. This process can be repeated in a constant cycle for the betterment of patient safety and outcomes. Quality Improvement can be an external activity, but it is mostly used for small-scale internal changes within healthcare facilities. There are several different frameworks a Quality Improvement project can incorporate from the basic methodology and measurement tools. Medical quality management (QI) has grown to be a central aspect of clinical service that it is an area of specialization under the American Medical Association.
The popularity of QI has been expanding over the last few decades and trends show it will continue to grow. One way it has expanded is in the education of future healthcare workers. As part of their training, it has become more and more common for these types of projects to be assigned. With this progression, librarians have a unique opportunity to play a supportive role in this previously clinical-only practice. Newly created library resources, such as OVID Synthesis, can assist with this progression. Multiple departments at UAB are delving into this platform to help streamline the QI process with librarian support.
As librarians are becoming more involved with the Quality Improvement process, we have incorporated the theories to create a continuous method of updating our services to better serve our wide constituency.
Session #2 – Saturday, April 13th from 9:00 to 9:50 AM
Starting an Early Career Academic Librarian Peer Group
Grayson Murphy, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Academic librarianship comes with a multitude of responsibilities that can overwhelm an early-career librarian. It can be difficult to figure out professional service opportunities and participate in scholarly activity, all while learning your day-to-day librarian responsibilities (not to mention finding your way professionally as a whole). As a newly minted academic librarian just out of graduate school, the presenter wished there were a group for fellow early career academic librarians on campus that could meet regularly and support each other in building our careers in academic librarianship.
The lightning talk will cover the process of starting this group, its goals, unexpected outcomes, and lessons learned along the way as it nears its first year in existence. The presenter will also note ways in which this kind of group is beneficial at all kinds of libraries and advocate for institutions supporting their early career librarians.
Making Patent Coloring Books for Campus and Community Outreach
Ashley McNeill, Engineering Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham
The COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during the societal lockdown of 2020, brought about a fun new opportunity for libraries and archives to share their collections with the world in a way that people of all ages could enjoy – the #ColorOurCollection movement. The work presented in this lightning talk is inspired both by this movement and by the creative work of UMass Amherst Science & Engineering Librarian, Paulina Borrego. The Engineering Librarian at the UAB Libraries is creating a series of coloring books featuring patent images from Alabamian inventors, many of which are affiliated with UAB or other Alabama public research universities. This ongoing work, which can be viewed on the dedicated guide at https://guides.library.uab.edu/coloringbooks, has already forged new relationships between the UAB Libraries and the UAB Research Foundation, the Harbert Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Depot, which bridges the UAB community to the greater innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem of Birmingham, AL. Future collaborations with units across the University – academic, medical, and administrative – are planned in the coming months, which will facilitate improved visibility and engagement between the UAB Libraries and the populations served. This presentation will describe the motivations behind the project, how these items are created, and the intended uses of these patent coloring books for outreach and educational purposes.
Building a Popular Science Collection to Support Leisure Reading
Jennifer Long, Science Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Students, faculty, and staff do not always associate leisure reading with their campus libraries and are often unaware that they have popular (non-academic) books. To build upon my library’s Café Collection of popular fiction, I created a popular science collection to highlight general interest non-fiction titles in STEM disciplines to support recreational reading and mental well-being. This lightning talk will cover the evolution of this project from a virtual display of book covers on a LibGuide to a physical display with owned and leased rotating reads on bookcases, promotion and marketing strategies to increase awareness and usage, and impact of patron discoverability on circulation statistics.
Session #3 – Saturday, April 13th from 2:00 to 2:50 PM
Gather ’Round: There’s a New Round Table in Town!
Jeff Graveline, Associate Dean for Research and Scholarly Communication, University of Alabama at Birmingham & Charlotte Ford, Library Director, University of Montevallo
In 2023, a group of Alabama Library Association members petitioned ALLA to form a new Round Table focusing on scholarly communication. Just last month, the petition was approved! ALLA’s new Scholarly Communication Round Table will be dedicated to promoting and supporting scholarly communication throughout Alabama. The goals of the Round Table are:
- to provide a forum for librarians and others to discuss scholarly communication topics, trends, and best practices with colleagues from around Alabama;
- to explore opportunities for collaboration among ALLA members; and
- to promote scholarly communication through education, communication, advocacy, and collaboration.
Join us for a preview of some of the ideas and events that the new Scholarly Communication Round Table has in mind and help shape the future of the SCRT with your own suggestions! If you care about issues such as the ever-changing nature of scholarly publishing; providing open access to research; diversity and inclusion in scholarly communication; managing research data; the future of the digital humanities; or the evolving landscape of copyright – then this is a session you won’t want to miss.
Toward Equitable Access: How STEM Textbook Reserves Empower Student Success
Ashley McNeill, Engineering Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham &
Jennifer Long, Science Librarian, University of Alabama at Birmingham
The cost of textbooks is a major barrier to education, particularly in STEM fields where resources can be especially expensive. Students from underrepresented groups, low-income backgrounds, and first-generation families are disproportionately impacted by these costs, creating an uneven playing field and hindering academic success. This lightning talk will discuss efforts to provide STEM undergraduate and graduate students with access to their course textbooks, many of which also function as useful reference texts for their respective fields, by purchasing them in print or electronic format with collection development funds. The presenters will share challenges associated with purchasing textbooks, potential impact including number of titles acquired, promotional strategies to increase awareness, and assessment of usage statistics to gauge whether or not STEM students are utilizing the library for their course materials.
Let’s Talk About Artificial Intelligence in the Academic World
Lisa Vardaman, Education Reference Librarian, Troy University
We have all heard the bad things about AI in education but what about the “good” things about AI in education? Are there any good things about AI in education? What are some of the AI programs that our students are using these days? Is It cheating to use AI in research and class assignments? How are other Universities and Colleges handling the issue of AI? What other departments on campus are using AL and how? How is AI going to affect the Modern Library? These are just some of the questions that many Academic Librarian have about Artificial Intelligence these days. This is a hot topic in education these days with new information coming out daily. While this Lightening talk will just scratch the surface of AI in education, it will hopefully to further discussion on the topic.