Past Sessions
July 12, 2023: ‘Sure, I Can Definitely...Probably...Possibly Help You With That": Think-Aloud-Based Referral Training for Student Employees
Erica Jensen and Robin Anderson, Watzek Library, Lewis and Clark College
Referrals are a critical part of any tiered reference model, but the knack of making deft and appropriate referrals is easily taken for granted. At Watzek Library (Lewis & Clark College), student employees are frequently the first point of contact for patrons approaching a combined service desk, with Access Services supervisors nearby, and subject librarians potentially on call during normal business hours. Training for these student Circulation Assistants has long included a segment on referring questions to subject librarians. In 2019 two staff members in Access Services and Research Services, respectively, began to question the sufficiency of that unit on referrals and to develop additional activities and training. After experimenting with several rounds of an activity that gave students a chance to practice simulated referrals, they have found more success with the think-aloud-based approach that they will share in this presentation. This new activity preserves much of the messiness and nuance of real questions asked at the desk, encourages students to reflect on their confidence and uncertainty in receiving questions, and gives the trainer insight into how students understand their role in the library.
May 2023 Summit Programs
Library services for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals
Enrique Rivera, Multnomah County Library
Does your library prioritize lifelong learning and promoting literacy? If so, then it's time to bring those initiatives to patrons who are incarcerated. Low literacy is linked to incarceration and recidivism while access to higher education has been shown to reduce recidivism by 43%. Even so, in Oregon only 6% of the prison budget is dedicated to education! Libraries can play a crucial role in increasing equity and dismantling mass incarceration by providing Adults and Youths in Custody access to books, information, literacy programs, and by forming community partnerships that remove barriers for those recently released.
Libraries as Partners in Natural Disasters:
Meeting the Civil Legal Reference Needs of Communities in Crisis
J Elizabeth Mills, OCLC WebJunction
The Department of Land Conservation and Development has identified six natural hazards common to Oregon – floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, coastal erosion, and wildfires. Your library may have plans to secure its facilities and collections for these events, but are you prepared to support your patrons’ need for information about civil legal issues that will arise? This area of reference gets too little attention in an environment with an increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, and preparation is critical for any size library. Learn how you can increase your reference skills to support your community members through this civil legal turmoil and guide them toward positive outcomes, all while applying trauma-informed approaches to the emotional intensity of disaster. A host of urgent needs can emerge around Federal Emergency Management Agency applications, landlord-tenant disputes, property issues, required documentation, and more. When library staff know what to expect in a crisis and have some training in providing natural disaster-based reference and referrals, their informed reference services will be a beacon to those in the community who need it most.
Consumer Health Reference: An Introduction to Best Practices
Carolyn Martin, Network of the National Library of Medicine Region 5 (part of the University of Washington Health Sciences Library)
With health topics often in the news, when family or friends are experiencing poor health, or when communities experience disease outbreaks, people need good health information. Your library can be a trusted source for quality health information. You and your library staff may lack confidence as health reference can be challenging and intimidating. This session from the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) will provide some tips and best practices to help you be better prepared to address health questions ethically and confidently.
Empowering Pro Se Litigants
Emily Donnellan, State of Oregon Law Library
Melissa Beer, State of Oregon Law Library
There is a Pro Se Justice Gap in Oregon. More people than ever before are representing themselves in Court proceedings. The problem is the legal system is tough to navigate and uses language that is difficult to understand. This presentation, hosted by Melissa Beer and Emily Donnellan with the State of Oregon Law Library, will share the structure of the Oregon Legal System discussing the differences between federal and state courts. Additionally, we will analyze the free and low-cost legal research websites available online as well as the databases available through the State of Oregon Law Library.
Oregon School Library Information System Online Resources
Jean Gritter, Oregon Association of School Libraries
The Oregon School Library Information System (OSLIS) is a collection of online resources for K-12 library instruction, including short instructional videos and related activities, as well as an accurate and ad-free online citation tool, to help students learn research steps and how to use library resources. This session will provide an overview of these resources so that both school and public library staff will be able to share them with students.
April 28, 2022: Remote Access for Special Collections: Going Virtual in a Material World
Allee Monheim, Cali Vance, Claire Cannell of the University of Washington Special Collections
In September 2021, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections launched the Virtual Reading Room (VRR), a 55-minute Zoom appointment where a user consults material while a staff member operates a document camera and handles material. By the end of Fall Quarter, over 75% of our available appointments had been booked, and it became clear that this service was providing access to those who were far outside our normal user pool.
Learn how we launched the VRR, including technical and logistical considerations you’ll want to take into account when deciding to launch your own service. We’ll also share our own reflections on the service, as well as survey data that we’ve collected from our users about their own experiences.
Legal reference questions are a special breed. During a year-long pandemic, figuring out how to best assist patrons with their (often intense) legal reference needs is especially difficult. This session will look at reference interview strategies and scripts for effectively responding to patrons legal questions.
I run a weekly walk-in "open lab" at the Redmond Library where we provide one-on-one training and tech help for anyone who wants technology help. With 3 laptops, 2 staff, and one volunteer we help the community with any computer problem, from phones to software to email and excel. In this presentation I'll give an overview of the program, what people ask, how it is marketed, and how the audience can run an "open lab" as well.
Making Customizable Interactive Tutorials with Google Forms: Meredith Farkas, Portland Community College
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best! Meredith will show how she's approached building interactive tutorials using Google Forms, why she chose the platform, and what the impact has been, especially since the Library had to pivot to all online instruction last Spring.
The State Library of Oregon recently loaded more than 750,000 digitized index cards from the Oregon Index into its digital collections platform. This lightning talk will explain the newspaper, periodical and book sources covered by the Oregon Index, briefly describe how it was made, and show how to use this powerful heritage research tool. In addition to the indexing of Portland and Salem daily newspapers, the index also includes dozens of Oregon specialty newspapers, magazines, trade periodicals and select books on Oregon’s history from 1913-1986. After a live demo putting the index through its paces, the talk will also show the companion Libguide, which explains how to interpret the information contained on the cards.
Are you considering using students to help staff your reference department? Come and hear what two institutions have implemented: a peer-training program at Washington State University Libraries that creates leadership opportunities for students, and Seattle University’s Student Peer Research Consultant (SPRC) program which has increased student representation in the library while maintaining the value and expertise provided by professional librarians. Attendees will learn how such programs build on existing expertise, extend the reach of services, and empower students to succeed.
July 29, 2021: A Panel Discussion on how the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Academic Libraries
This event will be a sharing session about how academic libraries have been evolving during the pandemic.
We will have volunteer panelists share some specific experiences to get the discussion started, and then continue the conversation as a group. Share the challenges, successes and failures you experienced at your library.
2020
Ciara Doyle and Gabe Wright, 211info
Now more than ever it's vital to be able to connect people with resources that can help them. Whether you are new to the job or are looking to refresh your skills, in this webinar you will learn to identify things that make an Information & Referral encounter challenging and develop a set of tools for success, even when you have to say "No." We will provide examples of scripting to use when resources aren’t available, and talk about strategies for controlling the call, and how to manage difficult interactions. Finally, we will talk about ways to de-escalate and tips for debriefing difficult calls.
Amy Coughenour, State Library of Oregon
What percentage of Oregonians speak Spanish? What is the total number of Oregon-based wineries and where are they located? How many Oregonians in a given zip code or census tract live in rented housing? Library users are increasingly asking these types of data-driven reference questions from many different points of view: student homework, social services, consumer research, small business owners or entrepreneurs, and more. This presentation will review and demonstrate recommended resources for assisting users with data and statistics reference questions. Afterward, attendees will be equipped with lists of recommended resources and methods to add more data and statistics resources to their lists.
Kristine Alpi & Tova Johnson, Oregon Health & Science University
Health Questions for All Species is a broad session to address supporting people with questions about human and animal health and nutrition, and how those may interrelate in their lives. We will start with sharing examples of questions received at academic health libraries in Oregon and North Carolina about human and animal health, and suggesting efficient and quality health information sources to address common questions. Then, we will address the interpersonal and technical challenges with searching the literature for evidence, and how to help consumers and families navigate these challenges. Strategies offered will vary based on audience literacy levels, position in the health care decision making process, and access to journal articles and other content for professional audiences available through your library. Finally, we will discuss options for referring questions that have exceeded a library’s capacity to assist the requester, the associated privacy issues with sharing health care information, and what requesters can expect on referral.
In this presentation, participants will be taking a look at how whiteness and white supremacy have affected our library systems, and what we can do to be more aware of our internalized oppression(s). By analyzing our relationship to whiteness we are better able to understand the historical context behind race/social constructs, implicit biases, and how each of us play into a larger system of institutional/systemic/and structural racism. Once we are able to begin thinking about these, we are able to lessen the emotional burden on our patrons, and our colleagues in coming up with solutions on how to better diversify, and make equitable choices within our library systems. First, we will build some historical knowledge on what it means to be “white” in America, what has been lost by those who choose to pursue it, and how this social construct has led to the birth of racism. Then we will discuss how this influences our implicit biases, how pervasive these ideas are, and how this shows up in the library, and in our patron interactions. Lastly, we will discuss how we can better support one another, and mitigate some of the impacts that pursuing whiteness has on ourselves and our patrons. By looking at whiteness, we take the burden from our Black and Indigenous People of Color-- both our colleagues, and our patrons. It allows us to look rather at our relationships with ourselves, and our history, rather than relying on others sharing their traumas, and harm, as well as othering those who are not among the dominant culture.