Events

Trust is the foundation of a strong, successful library team. In this session, Meghan Kowalski will explore the importance of trusting your team and how it can lead to greater individual and organizational growth. Attendees will learn how to foster a culture of trust, identify and celebrate the strengths of their colleagues, and promote their team's work with confidence. Kowalski will also address common challenges, such as overcoming self-doubt and imposter syndrome, and will provide actionable steps to help staff feel valued and empowered. By the end of the webinar, participants will be equipped with the tools to build trust within their team and create a more collaborative and innovative work environment.

Learning Outcomes:

• Cultivate a Culture of Trust: Participants will learn strategies to build and maintain trust within their library team, fostering a supportive and collaborative environment.
• Empower Team Members: Attendees will discover methods to identify and celebrate the strengths of their colleagues, promoting their skills and projects both within and outside the organization.
• Overcome Barriers to Trust: The session will provide practical tools to help staff overcome challenges like self-doubt and imposter syndrome, leading to a more confident and cohesive team.

Meghan Kowalski is the Outreach & Reference Librarian at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, DC.

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Sponsored by NC LIVE

In Florida, many schools and public libraries have recently experienced an increase in book challenges. While most academic libraries have not yet experienced these challenges, it is vital that we are prepared to handle potential challenges. A well-crafted reconsideration policy reinforces the values of intellectual freedom, diversity of thought, and responsible collection management in an academic library. It establishes a structured framework for addressing concerns while upholding the core principles that underpin the mission of educational institutions. In light of current events and threats to intellectual freedom, our academic library team developed a formal Reconsideration Process, saw the documentation through to adoption by the larger organization, and provided training for staff and librarians. This Reconsideration Process documents and outlines the procedures and guidelines for reconsideration of library items, ensuring a fair and thorough review process that respects the rights and perspectives of all individuals involved.

In this session, we will outline the approach we used to create our reconsideration process, important possibilities to consider when drafting such a system, and the method we used for obtaining approval from the larger institution. Participants will leave the presentation with a deeper appreciation for the necessity of a reconsideration policy in academic libraries, a clear understanding of the components required for an effective reconsideration process, and practical strategies for creating and gaining approval for such a system within their own institutions.

Learning Outcomes:

Participants will gain an understanding of why having a well-defined reconsideration policy is crucial for academic libraries. Participants will gain insights into the steps involved in developing or enhancing their own reconsideration process and training staff on these new procedures within their academic library. Participants will learn how to develop a workflow for receiving and reviewing requests for reconsideration and communicating decisions to stakeholders.

Presenters:

Susan Mythen is the Interim Associate Provost of Curriculum & Instruction at Florida State College at Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida. She holds a Doctor of Management in Community College Policy and Administration, a Master of Library and Information Studies, and a Bachelor of Science in Social Science. Her research has focused on collection management in community college libraries. She enjoys being an empty nester, eating Italian food, and taking her dogs on outdoor adventures. 

Lea Cason started her library career as an Adjunct Librarian at FSCJ and St. Johns River State College. She also worked as a media specialist in a local high school for a short period, during which she established a reconsideration committee. In January 2023, Lea became a faculty librarian at FSCJ's Deerwood Center. Since then, she has participated in ALA training and presentations to expand her knowledge of the reconsideration process.

Amber Arroyo has a Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) from the University of South Florida and a B.A. and M.A. in History from the University of North Florida. She currently works at the Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) where she serves as a Faculty Librarian. She also works at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) as an Associate Adjunct Instructor. She has over 10 years of experience working in higher education. One of the things she loves most about her jobs is working 1-on-1 with students. On a more personal note, she enjoys playing tabletop games, painting miniatures, listening to audio books while she colors, and hanging out with her husband and three special needs cats, Twila, Nebula, and Aurora.

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Sponsored by FLVC

Location: Founders Memorial Library, 217 Normal Road, DeKalb, Illinois. Room number FO 20.

Directions.

Parking: Visitor parking passes can be obtained at: https://www.niu.edu/parking/find-parking/visitor-parking.shtml. Parking is available in the parking deck south of the Library as well as the parking lot directly adjacent to the south of the library.

The entrance to the Library is on the north side of the building. Upon entering, please proceed through the lobby and you will see an elevator bank on your left-hand side. Take the elevator to the Lower Level. Upon exiting the elevator, you will see Einstein's Bagels directly in front of you. Room F20 is the staff lounge on the lower level of the library behind Einstein's Bagels.

These “listening sessions” will be informal 2 hour sessions. The sessions will offer library directors an opportunity to talk about their library’s challenges and successes. Although the gathering is intended to be very informal, here are some questions that might help frame the day:

• Are there opportunities that you see that you can’t take advantage of that maybe CARLI could help you with or leverage for you?
• Are there other opportunities for collaboration that CARLI should be pursuing? 
• Are there best practices in your organization that exemplify collaboration through CARLI that we could share with the rest of the consortium?
• Is there a program/service that you are conducting that could be leveraged at scale?

Registration: To register, please click on the "Register" tab above. The registration deadline is October 29. Please note, lunch will be served at the "listening sessions". 

If you have any questions, please email CARLI at support@carli.illinois.edu.

Recordings from the sessions will be posted; please do not register if you will be unable to attend the session just for the recording.

To Register: Use the "Register" tab at the top of this page.

Planned topics:

• Overview of Alma Fulfillment
  • How to log into a fulfillment workstation and change locations
  • Review of Alma screen for fulfillment staff
• Staff searching for item records
  • Review of item records
• Staff searching for user records
  • Review of user records
  • Creating Internal user record
  • Editing Internal user record
  • Review of External user records
• Fulfillment functions:
  • Checking an item out
  • Modifying due dates at time of charge
  • How to check in items
  • How to check an item in or out when the barcode is missing or illegible
  • How to set an item status to "missing"
  • Loan renewals

We plan for these sessions to be "hands on" with examples provided to attendees so they can follow along.
If the Alma Sandboxes are too slow for this in real-time (we will find out!), attendees will be asked to watch during the session, and will be provided with a recording of the session to do the examples on their own time (contacting CARLI staff with questions).