The VLACRL Conference-within-a-Conference is designed for academic librarians in Virginia. Peer-reviewed sessions will discuss a wide range of topics, including improving library instruction, collaborating with faculty, diversifying library collections, and leveraging survey data for impact and improvement. The VLACRL dine-around will be an excellent opportunity to network with other college and university librarians in the Commonwealth. See you in Norfolk!
For more information on the Virginia College and Research Library Forum, visit the VLACRL forum page. To view the full schedule for the 2019 VLA Annual Conference, download our preliminary program. Descriptions for the VLACRL Conference-within-a-Conference sessions and the VLACRL poster sessions are listed below.
Viva Users Group Meeting 2019
Thursday, October 24 4:00-6:00 pm
The Future Starts Now: Exploring Innovative Practices in VIVA Libraries
Through a series of lightning talks, VIVA members will share innovative practices that bring the future into our libraries. Covering interesting uses of technology, fresh programs or services, and leveraging digital resources for new purposes, member institutions will share creative ways to inspire and partner with their students, faculty and administrators. The library of tomorrow is in reality the library of today. In addition to the lightning talks, VIVA will update attendees on consortium activities, vendors will provide brief updates on their VIVA-subscribed products through a game show-style format, and door prizes will be awarded.
2019 VLACRL Conference-Within-A-Conference Session Descriptions
Thursday, October 24
Love the Source You’re With: Moving Beyond Popular vs. Scholarly
Under the ACRL framework, all source types should be considered for use, rather than privileging “scholarly” as best. We developed an activity that promotes a more holistic look at sources and prompts discussions related to diversity and inclusion. Learn why it’s gotten rave reviews, and how you can adapt it.
Presenter: Candice Benjes-Small, William & Mary Libraries
Wikipedia in the Library Classroom
What happens when we replace a traditional research paper assignment with a Wikipedia-editing project? Students become less caught up on rules about page length and font, and are better engaged with the ACRL Framework. This presentation discusses a Wikipedia project that effectively teaches information literacy skills to undergraduate students.
Presenter: Kelsey Molseed, Randolph College
Expedition Library: Using Breakout Boxes as Library Orientation
Following years of sending students on a Selfie Safari as an orientation, our University’s Library decided jump on the escape room bandwagon! Thus Expedition Library was born. What could go wrong? Spoilers, a lot! Join us for a session on the successes and pitfalls of puzzle-solve orientation activities.
Presenter: Jennifer Beach, Longwood University
Disturbing the Peace: Engaging a Quiet Classroom
In library instruction, peace is not always a good thing. Learn several practical and proven methods of building librarian-student rapport in quiet classrooms. Go beyond think-pair-share with high- and low-tech learning activities that foster participation and collaboration, and are adaptable to any lesson plan.
Presenters: Kristy Borda, Liz Bellamy, and Natasha McFarland, William & Mary Libraries
Love Means Listening: Using an Icebreaker to Assess Student Knowledge Gaps
Icebreakers aren’t just a way to kick off a class. Learn how we used one such activity to collect data on student knowledge gaps, providing insights for outreach and instruction, and how it became an opportunity for librarians to show empathy and openness toward student concerns.
Presenter: Paul H. Showalter, William & Mary
Hacking the Stacks: Diversifying Collections through Community Connections
How do academic librarians ensure broad representation in our collections—especially of voices often neglected through traditional collection strategies? Librarians at our institution partnered with community representatives to answer this question. These efforts present a picture of community-engaged collection development from idea generation through selection and resource promotion.
Presenters: Abby Flanigan, Sony Prosper, Luci Stylianopoulos, Miguel Valladares, and Christine Slaughter, University of Virginia
Friday, October 25
How Accessible is Your Library? Using an Audit to Build Awareness, Grow Community, and Drive Change
Libraries provide access to a wide range of people, including those with disabilities. But how accessible are our libraries? A formal space audit can answer this question. It can also help raise awareness of the importance of accessibility among your staff and grow relationships with your local disability community.
Presenter: K.T. Vaughan, James Madison University
Promoting Inner Peace with Information Literacy Instruction
How have librarians’ educational autobiographies helped and/or hindered their teaching acumen? Have they empowered us to be authoritative figures or do we chafe under the notion of ourselves as authorities? This workshop provides an open space for examination of how librarians develop teaching self-efficacy.
Presenters: Janna Mattson and Maoria Kirker, George Mason University Libraries; Jason Byrd, Adelphi University; Mary K. Oberlies, William & Mary Libraries
Podcasts, Posters, and the Library? Oh my! A Story of our Librarian/Faculty Collaboration
Embedded librarianship can mean a lot of different things. In this presentation we will share our experience as a librarian and faculty partnership when designing new multimodal projects for two courses. Participants will leave our session with the ideas, tools, and confidence to explore embedded librarianship at their institutions.
Presenters: Cori Biddle and Maria Paz Esguerra, Bridgewater College
Share Your Love for Your Library Student Employees: Forum on Aligning High-Impact Practices (HIPs) to Library Work Study Positions
Many academic libraries are considering or actively pursuing initiatives geared towards aligning their student employee positions with those High Impact Practices proven to increase student retention and engagement. This forum is geared towards participant sharing of successes, failures and challenges in enhancing and assessing the student employment experience via HIPs.
Presenter: Lisa Vassady, Radford University
Metaphors Be With You, and Other Tricks for Improving Library Instruction
Are your first-year college students on the Dark Side when it comes to understanding how to use the library? In this session, two teacher-turned-librarians will share research-supported instructional strategies that you can employ to equip your students to conduct research like Jedis.
Presenters: Rorie Fredrich and Lyn Mathews, Liberty University
Project Outcome for Academic Libraries: Data for Impact and Improvement
Come learn about the new Project Outcome for Academic Libraries, a free survey toolkit that helps libraries measure four key learning outcomes – knowledge, confidence, application, and awareness – across seven areas and use that data as the basis for improvements and advocacy. This session will include opportunities for questions and discussion.
Presenter: Eric Ackermann, Radford University
Read, Research, Respond, a Library & Writing Center Collaboratively Designed Course
Librarians can take a proactive role in developing curriculum that is responsive to the needs of the institution. This session will outline the processes used to develop and team teach a course with Writing Center staff as well as the outcomes and plans for future iterations of the course.
Presenters: Sue Erickson and Denise Snee, Virginia Wesleyan University
2019 VLACRL Poster Session Descriptions
Thursday, October 24, 3:15 – 4:00 pm
Horror (Genre) in the Classroom: The Power and Applicability of Popular Culture Metaphors and Analogies for Information Literacy Instruction
Academic libraries welcome students from diverse backgrounds: First-Gen, international, low SES background, and more. Some of them are encountering U.S. higher education for the first time, even as they are having formative encounters with libraries. Yet the availability of portable media may make them more prone to interact with it. Metaphors can help us reach them, especially when tied to popular media.
Presenters: John Glover and Sergio Chaparro, Virginia Commonwealth University
Finding the Fairness in Fair Use
Navigating the quagmire of the Doctrine of Fair Use is intimidating. Focusing on the librarian’s role as consultant to scholars with advanced fair use questions, this session addresses common and not-so-common queries in this area, and investigates whether fair use currently provides fairness to scholars and copyright holders.
Presenter: Howard S. Carrier, James Madison University
Love in a Time of High-Cost Textbooks
To improve textbook affordability, William & Mary is considering a textbook pilot program with Barnes & Noble. Before that pilot begins, the Libraries wanted to learn more about students’ textbook preferences and the ways students tackle textbook expenses. In 2019, a survey was launched assessing format preferences, purchase costs, and student success.
Presenters: Jessica Ramey and Marian Taliaferro, William & Mary Libraries
Finding Your Way into the Open
Do you want to help your campus navigate the world of textbook access and affordability? See how Longwood University developed an open and affordable resources plan through a collaboration between the library, the bookstore, instructional designers, the Center for Faculty Engagement, and the Registrar’s Office.
Presenter: Mark Hamilton, Longwood University
Wild Goose Chase or Effective Library Instruction? A Change of Approach to the Library Introduction for First Year Students.
This poster will describe a collaboration between a librarian and faculty to develop a physical and virtual treasure hunt designed to introduce on-campus, first year students enrolled in University Enhancement and living-learning communities to library services and resources. We will share activities included, assessment data, lessons learned, and future plans.
Presenters: Lucinda Rush Wittkower and Jamie S. Cook, Old Dominion University
Myth Busting: Which Journals Are Needed for Accreditation? You Decide!
Many of us use disciplinary accreditation as a reason to keep subscriptions to specific journals, but our study has shown that accreditors have stopped asking for title lists. For better or worse, collections are under less scrutiny from accreditors than they were before, allowing us to cancel titles more liberally.
Presenters: Kristy Borda and Georgie Donovan, William & Mary Libraries
3D Printing Assignments at Small Institutions
Working with several Humanities faculty we've developed assignments that take advantage of 3D printing to get students interested in non-writing, scholarly output. There is an increased focus in technological/digital literacy on our campus, the 3D printer is an easy technology for some students to get excited about.
Presenter: Gardner Treneman, Randolph-Macon College
Sticky Notes to the Rescue: Kinesthetic Learning and Keyword Development
Keyword development is an essential skill taught in most one-shot instruction sessions, but teaching it in an effective and interesting way can be difficult. Using simple tools, learn how to get students working in groups, out of their seats, and developing keyword searches that will get results.
Presenter: Sarah Reynolds, Longwood University
Big Read: Big opportunities for town and gown collaboration
Successfully writing and receiving an NEA Big Read grant requires planning, partnerships, and perseverance. This session will explore our University’s successful process, including collaboration with many stakeholders and community partners, sometimes with opposing goals. Explore how we cultivated partnerships that worked and adapted when things went pear-shaped.
Presenter: Jennifer Beach, Longwood University
Community Engagement in Academic Libraries
This poster will discuss how our Library developed intentional programming in alignment with its new strategic plan, ALA’s Core Values of Librarianship and our institutional mission, and institutional learning outcomes. By leveraging campus partnerships the library is living its new strategic directions by encouraging community engagement.
Presenters: Sherry Matis and Sue Erickson, Virginia Wesleyan University Library
The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Government Documents
We all believe in the importance of government documents, right? But many libraries struggle with the amount of space we have dedicated to the physical collection that has dramatically declined in use. Join us as we discuss the magic of tidying up (weeding) our government documents collection and learn about the interesting materials we discovered that sparked joy.
Presenters: Libby McDaniel and Lisa Nickel, William & Mary Libraries; Trillian Hosticka, University of Virginia
So Many Books, So Little Time: Streamlining Collection Development Workflows for a Smaller Team
Creating and maintaining a great collection can be a demanding and time-consuming process. Join us as we discuss our library’s move to a smaller, more consolidated collection development team and the strategies we’ve employed to help simplify and automate monographic selection. Presenters will address the development of approval plans, implementation of DDA/EBA programs, and other methods for easing the collection development workload.
Presenters: James Glosson and Katherine McKenzie, William & Mary Libraries
Sexual Harassment in Academic Libraries: a National Study
Anecdotal evidence suggests that academic librarians experience a high degree of sexual harassment, not only from coworkers but from patrons. Our study is the first quantitative analysis to examine the incidence and prevalence of sexual harassment, collecting over 600 responses. We’ll discuss our methodology, results, and implications for the profession.
Presenters: Candice Benjes-Small, William & Mary Libraries; Jennifer Resor-Whicker, Radford University
On Display: Libraries as a Platform for Student Voices
Librarians and an English professor share their experiences collaborating on an assignment in which students proposed and curated library displays on topics important to them.
Presenters: Anne Anderson, Paul Chapman, and Carlos Schroder, Northern Virginia Community College
