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2024 WAAL Conference

Poster Presentations & Lightning Talks

 

 

 

In addition to a full day of live online learning sessions, WAAL conference attendees will have access to the following pre-recorded poster presentations and lightning talks.  Registered attendees will have access to these recordings by August 7 and through September 7.  

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Celebrating Women in Architecture - Inspiring the Next Generation with a Reflective Library Collection

Sara Mautino – Cunningham Architecture Library, Oklahoma State University Libraries

Throughout history, the architectural realm has often marginalized the influential designs and unwavering determination of women, downplaying their contributions to human ingenuity and creativity. This poster session discusses the rationale, planning, implementation, and preliminary results of building a comprehensive 'Women in Architecture' library collection. Through a curated selection of resources, the presenter aimed to illuminate the indelible mark women have left on the architectural landscape. Shining a light through a historical lens and promoting contemporary practitioners. The collection uncovers the stories of pioneering female architects who defied societal norms and shattered glass ceilings, their innovative designs forever shaping our cities, structures, and the spaces we inhabit. The library collection portrays women in architecture, presenting their diverse viewpoints, groundbreaking designs, and unyielding determination. It provides a platform for aspiring architects, particularly young women, to connect with the legacies of these trailblazers, fostering a sense of empowerment and belonging within the profession.

 


Gettin’ SASI and HIP in the Library: Fostering Engagement Activities outside the Classroom through High Impact Practices

Gina Nigro and Christina Chester-Fangman, Woodward Library, Austin Peay State University

The Woodward Library at Austin Peay State University (APSU) creates unconventional experiences for student engagement with the University’s internal Student Academic Success initiative (SASI) grants that encourage student engagement within the academic community and foster faculty-student interactions outside of the classroom.  The presenters have spearheaded high impact practices (HIPs) that establish a community of learning, collaboration, and engagement in unique and interactive settings where students can thrive.  From academic integrity and style guide workshops to culinary adventures like “Cooking with Crockpots” and the elegant Charcuterie Board soiree, the presenters have promoted learning opportunities, life skills and community building among students.  These events encourage students to explore new interests that promote life-long learning and a sense of belonging.  The ultimate goal is fostering an environment where learning extends beyond the conventional and becomes a vibrant, all-encompassing experience for every student.  The presenters will share with attendees how they can: 1) identify ideas for innovative programs that facilitate diverse ways of learning and active student engagement; 2) foster holistic student development, including intellectual growth, a sense of belonging, and a nurturing community outside traditional classrooms; and 3) assess programming using surveys and feedback.  By sharing rich visuals such as promotional materials and photographs from Woodward Library’s events and fun active learning segments, this presentation is an invitation for participants to learn from the presenters’ experiences and discover the potential for customizing their own programming that transcends traditional student engagement in the library.

 


 

 LIGHTNING TALKS

 

Citation Managers, Literature Mappers, and AI

Peter Conlon – Ripon College, Lane Library

In this era of academic research, managing large numbers of citations efficiently and accurately is crucial for researchers and librarians. Traditional citation management tools, which have widespread adoption, have long served this purpose. With the current trends of artificial intelligence (AI), new possibilities emerge to potentially radically revolutionize the way citations are handled. This presentation explores the intersection of AI and citation management, grappling with the applications, challenges, and opportunities this new arena presents.

In this presentation the presenter will discuss how AI-powered citation managers and literature mappers use machine learning algorithms to recommend new articles to their users. From summarization using LLMs to citation analysis, these tools promise to deliver a more frictionless research experience while ensuring that citation standards are being met.

The presenter will examine the implications of using AI with literature mappers and citation managers on scholarly communication and information retrieval skills. How have they impacted citation analysis and bibliometrics? Does a student truly learn Information Literacy skills if they use one of these services which ‘recommends’ an article to them?

Through showcasing a few of these new tools, such as Researchrabbit.ai, Scite.ai and Petal.org, the presenter will illustrate the benefits and limitations of AI driven citation management and literature mappers. Examining and contributing to the academic research done by librarians and other scholars, this presentation will be analyzing some of the explicit claims of these services as well as where they fall short of those claims.

  


  

Doing More Than Required: How Volunteering Made My Work Meaningful and Advanced My Career

Michael Kahn – CUNY Library, Bronx Community College

In this presentation, the speaker will discuss common experiences librarians face, such as the desire to advance in their careers and dealing with fluctuating workloads, characterized by periods of intense busyness followed by quieter times. These shifts can sometimes leave librarians feeling either overwhelmed or underwhelmed by their responsibilities.

Drawing from fourteen years of experience, the speaker will share their journey of taking on additional duties in information literacy instruction, reference, and Open Educational Resources, making the most of every opportunity along the way. By embracing these extra responsibilities, the presenter found greater fulfillment in their role and paved the way for career growth. This journey ultimately led to their current dream job as a tenure-track Instruction and Open Resources academic librarian. The presentation aims to inspire fellow librarians to seize opportunities for professional development and find balance in their workloads.

 


 

Offering Born-Digital Students Analog Technologies: Anticipating Service Scope & Expectations When Offering Born-Digital Patrons Legacy Technologies

Candace Joy Lewis – Brown Daniel Library, Tennessee State University

At Tennessee State University in Nashville, Access staff of Brown-Daniel Library frequently directed patrons off campus for fee-based faxing until the Dean mandated Staff offer free fax services on an operable fax machine & phone line in a back office. Access staff immediately recognized dilemmas offering a free legacy service incurs, especially when “FAX” is not in born-digital native students’ vernacular. Responding to the mandate, the Head Access Librarian wrote a fax policy to delineate scope of service and script explanations for digital natives of a receding technology. 

Here, the characteristics of faxing and fax delivery were elicited using specific examples like timestamping of faxes versus emails to demonstrate the difference between an analog and a digital technology.  Access Staff experience students arriving minutes before a fax deadline expecting their fax to be timestamped the moment “send” is pressed like an email.

The policy’s liability disclaimers further illustrate the quality, confidentiality and failures inherent in transmitting data and documents via fax, thus helping to rein in digital native’s expectations that fax transmissions will mirror the quality, confidentiality and success rate of digital transmissions like emails, email attachments, cloud-based document sharing, etc.

Lastly, the policy outlines how faxes must be prepared to illustrate the hardcopy nature of preparing a fax.  Such clauses are yet more nods to Access Staff’s need to address completely understandable ignorance of born-digital patrons who are required to fax important documents include FAFSA, Social Security, and military paperwork without understanding the characteristics of fax delivery much less what a “fax” is.


 

Confidence, Creativity, & Community: Lessons from a Librarian-Archivist Instruction Collaboration

Claire Cannell and Joshua Altshuler, Lawrence University

This lightning talk will focus on the experiences of an instruction librarian & archivist at a small liberal arts institution providing embedded support throughout a historical research methods course. Topics covered will include the planning and structure of the course, the benefits of librarian-archivist-faculty collaboration, and insights for future applications in the college classroom. The value of shaping information literacy outcomes through personalized, ongoing scaffolded learning will finally be briefly explored. 


 

Connection & Community

Rachel Arndt, Rachel Arndt Consulting and Katharine Clark, Middleton Public Library

WLA’s Nominations Committee will share their leadership experiences which have provided opportunities to connect with librarians across the state, gain valuable professional development, and have fun in a community of interesting and engaging individuals. The lightning talk will include perspectives of leaders at various stages in their careers.