As I’m sure you’re all aware, the annual American Library Association conference was held last month in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rutgers was well represented, with plenty of posters and presentations being delivered by folks from the Libraries (check out our Faculty & Staff News page for more details). I reached out to our colleagues for their takeaways from the conference—here’s what they had to say.
Tara Maharjan (l.) and Megan Lotts (r.) presented on using a button maker for outreach to students. Credit: Megan Lotts.
Katie Anderson: I had the opportunity to learn more about ACRL’s Signature Initiative on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) during the ACRL Leadership meeting. Everyone is encouraged to take this quick poll (open until July 13, 2018) for feedback on priorities. Along with the many business meetings for my section (Anthropology and Sociology Section), a highlight of the conference was a program addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion in academic libraries. Three panelists presented an engaging and thought-provoking program to a packed room entitled “When to Speak Up, When to Listen: Allyship, Race, and Communication in the Academic Library”.
Megan Lotts: What I enjoyed most about our poster session was learning more about what’s happening at other libraries, as well as sharing what we are up to at Rutgers. I also met a woman who is on a design team in Newark, I think within the libraries, and she was excited to take home a Rutgers button, so she could wear it to her next meeting. Kind of warmed my heart, total cheese, but true story. It was also great presenting at the same time as Jordan. I learned more about my RU colleague’s work, and we got to take pictures of each other!
Christie Lutz: It’s tough to beat the food and architecture (and heat) in New Orleans, but at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) conference I had a great experience presenting on the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive and chatting with people about music scenes and special collections. And I conducted some inadvertent collection development—I met a conference attendee from the University of Delaware who is married to a former Court Tavern bouncer, and she texted him right away about my presentation and it looks like he’ll be donating! I attended some thought-provoking sessions as well, in particular on challenges and new ways of thinking in archival collection management, and challenges and opportunities in working with underrepresented communities in developing their own archives.
Tara Maharjan: What I took away from the conference was that a lot of people stopped by and mentioned that their institutions already had a button maker, but were not really using it. People were surprised that we were using it to promote collections, talk about copyright, collaborate with departments, as well as a fun tool to engage with students. I also learned that I apparently talk with my hands in a lot of photos!
Lily Todorinova: I am the incoming chair of the Emerging Technologies Section (ETS), which is part of the ALA Reference & User Services Association. As part of my section, I attended an interesting session regarding formal vs. informal project management, how to make a decision matrix, as well as “rightsizing” projects. It was super useful.
Zara Wilkinson: My co-authors and I presented at the Library Research Round Table (LRRT) Research Forum. The forum had a total of four presentations, so we got to hear about a group of diverse research projects, from first generation college students’ experiences using the library to the resources and repertoire knowledge catalogers rely on in their day-to-day work. I enjoyed the breadth of topics and methodologies, especially in the context of our own project, which examined academic librarians’ experiences with research and their successful development of research skills and confidence.
