Abstracts in Alphabetical Order

A Circumstantial Librarian’s Journey: Navigating Hopes, Challenges, and Opportunities During Uncertain Political Times

In 2022, I became Texas Tech University’s (TTU) first Multicultural Services Librarian, launching the Peters Family Legacy Library (PFLL) for the Black Cultural Center’s historic opening, the first such center at a Texas public university. My vision was to foster intercultural education through curated resources and specialized services like outreach & engagement programming. However, Texas Senate Bill 17 (SB 17), effective January 2024, banned diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, reshaping my role into Academic Engagement Librarian and redirecting PFLL’s mission. This presentation traces my journey as a “circumstantial librarian”—an unexpected career path—exploring hopes, challenges, and opportunities amid anti-DEI legislation.

Accessibility Overhaul: Preparing Your Library for ADA Title II 

An important aspect of library services is ensuring that digital content is accessible to all patrons. Not only is this something we strive for as a core value of librarianship, but it is also mandated by federal law. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act was updated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to include new rules on “the Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Apps Provided by State and Local Governments.” For most libraries, the deadline to make the necessary changes is April 2026.  

Velma K. Waters Library began instituting these changes during the past year. We updated colors, fonts, and branding. Additionally, we used tools to check our web content for tabbing, alt text, and other errors and made changes as needed. We are doing this with the goal of surpassing the WCAG v2.1, Level AA standards and striving to meet Level AAA in most cases.  

Advocacy and Sanity: Are Both Simultaneously Possible?

Advocacy is essential and necessary, but can be an emotionally charged and overwhelming experience, especially in the current political climate. It is vital that our lawmakers take an informed approach when drafting policy and librarians and library staff are in the best position to help educate them during that process. Having first hand experience, they can help lawmakers understand what is in the best interest of their constituents, but staying engaged and maintaining their composure is vital. 

An Introduction to The Portal to Texas History

The Portal to Texas History is a digital repository for historical and cultural heritage materials. These materials are the product of collaboration between the UNT Libraries and Portal Partners, including genealogical societies, museums, libraries, and more. The presentation will provide users with an overview of the Portal to Texas History, how to navigate it for their research interests, and highlight unique collections and items on the Portal. 

Can We? Should We? Investigating the Ethics and Risks of Generative AI Use Throughout the Academic Research and Publishing Process

A wide variety of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools now exist that promote greater efficiency in conducting, analyzing, and writing academic research for publication. And while these tools have benefits to offer, some are also fraught with risks and ethical questions. This session will consider numerous stages of the research process—such as research question development; literature searching and synthesis; methods; data management, analysis and visualization; and writing—to reflect on both the effectiveness and the ethics of generative AI use in context. Participants will engage in both hands-on and reflective activities, gain a better understanding of best practices, and will leave better prepared to discuss AI use with researchers at their institutions.

Creating New Access Points for Print Theses and Dissertations

The Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library at the University of Dallas has a print collection of over 950 theses and dissertations. One day, a faculty member came to us and wanted a list of theses and dissertations which she had supervised. Unfortunately, that information was not included in any MARC records for our theses and dissertations print collection. We realized that our MARC records were quite inadequate, so we had to re-catalog them. In this presentation, I will show the template I used to update our theses and dissertation collection MARC records so that the collection is now accessible to researchers online. 

Creating the student lead position: maintaining operational efficiency during a period of transition

Since early 2024 the UNT Libraries Subscription and Resource Management Unit has been experiencing a period of transition related to multiple personnel changes. During this time, the current student supervisor also became the Interim Unit Head. As Interim Unit Head most of the time went towards learning new tasks or completing typical job tasks. This limited the time available to train the new student assistant. Not having a reliable and thorough training program for the new student assistant would have severely impacted the efficiency of the unit. The senior student assistant excelled in her tasks and was eager to develop her skills further. The Interim Unit Head created the Student Lead position to promote the senior student and transfer the new student training responsibilities to her. This resulted in supporting the training needs of the new student assistant while also maintaining the unit’s operational efficiency. 

Digitization Lab Breakdowns and Procedures

Following, creating, and implementing digitization lab procedures with adequate management tools is no easy feat. At the University of North Texas Digital Projects Lab, managing a 30-person lab with 17 scanning equipment and numerous collections going in and out, the staff is constantly finding ways to improve efficiency and communication. In this presentation, I will break down our current project management tools, instructional materials, and lab cleanliness procedures we use daily to have a functioning digitization lab. 

Digitizing the 1614 Boerne Bible: Overcoming Challenges in Scale and Scanning

This lightning talk walks through the digitization of the 1614 Low German Bible, stewarded by the Boerne Public Library, for inclusion into the Portal to Texas History. The 1614 Boerne Bible is one of only six known surviving Low German folio editions of Martin Luther’s translation and is the only one to have parchment covers. The 1614 Bible was sent to the University of North Texas Digital Projects Lab for digitization. Capturing the Bible using a Phase One DT RCAM Reprographic camera system while fulfilling lab standards created unique obstacles for this item, which was oversized for the scanning setup and fragile. Presentation attendees will hear how Digital Projects Lab students and staff collaborated to overcome these issues by utilizing a drop-camera technique on alternating pages, conservation-style weights, and hear the results of the digitization process.

Embedding Support, Empowering Success: A Resilient Library Model for Graduate Student Research

This presentation explores the impact of embedding a research and instruction librarian within the graduate school at East Texas A&M University to improve access, visibility, and support for graduate students. In response to low engagement and challenges faced by hybrid and online learners, the library strategically relocated a librarian to a central location within the graduate school. This initiative led to increased faculty collaboration, enhanced outreach, and measurable growth in research consultations, workshops, and event participation. Attendees will gain insight into the practical steps taken to implement this model, challenges encountered during the transition, and data demonstrating its effectiveness. The session will provide actionable strategies for libraries seeking resilient, advocacy-driven solutions that foster equity and academic success. Ideal for librarians serving graduate populations or exploring embedded services, this session showcases how intentional physical presence can lead to stronger academic partnerships and improved student outcomes in uncertain and evolving times.

Engaging Honors Students through a Peer-to-peer Book Club

Academic libraries support diverse student populations, which can present challenges when building community across interests and schedules. This presentation showcases how a librarian and graduate students collaborated with Honors College staff to launch and sustain a peer-to-peer book club. Rather than follow a traditional model where all members read the same book, the team adopted a flexible, genre-themed approach that prioritized student led discussion. Presenters will share insights into initiating and maintaining the club, including format decisions, promotional strategies, digital and physical engagement spaces, and lessons learned. This session will benefit any library professional interested in low-cost, high-impact programming to support student engagement, especially in academic settings. 

Everybody and Nobody’s job: Creating a plan for maintaining a shared work environment with limited custodial resources

Do you have crickets and dust accumulating in the office and no custodial services to clean the mess? Learn how a team of library employees at an off-site university office building addressed these needs by creating a bi-annual cleaning schedule. We will discuss how it is going so far and how we plan to continue. 

Find Your Voice: Cultivating Confidence, Connections, and Professional Community

Libraries are about building community, but sometimes finding your fit as a professional can be daunting. Cultivating a strong professional community isn’t just helpful, it’s a form of advocacy and a key to resilience. Presenter Jaime Eastman shares first-hand experiences from her involvement with the TLA Children’s Round Table and ALA’s Association for Library Service to Children to illustrate how engaging with opportunities beyond your community can strengthen your career growth. Learn about opportunities from blog writing and working on virtual committees, to volunteering at conferences or investing at a national level to building your collaboration network. Leave with best practices for getting involved, growing your confidence, and building support systems. 

“From Beacon to Bonfire: Building a Brighter Library with LIT”

Thirty-eight faculty members work in the Baylor University library system, covering areas such as archives, electronic resource management, research and engagement, and digital scholarship. While faculty meetings occur regularly, they don’t always offer insight into colleagues’ daily work. Listening sessions revealed a disconnect between knowing and valuing one another’s contributions. In response, the Library Faculty Leadership team launched Library Insight & Trends (LIT) sessions—intentional gatherings where librarians share their expertise with colleagues. This lightning talk explores how LIT fosters community and professional development, especially amid budget reductions and limited travel support. Presenters have included science and data librarians on institutional repositories, liaison librarians on evidence synthesis, and leadership on AI in academic libraries. With a successful semester completed and more sessions ahead, LIT provides a model for sustainable, peer-based learning. This talk will offer practical steps for implementing a similar initiative in any library setting to build collegiality and cross-functional understanding.

Ignite Readership with Relevant and Revitalized Collections

Learn methods to help determine what areas of your collection need to be improved, help you find new titles that meet your needs, and identify books that you may not have in your collection. Explore tools to support your weeding and collection development decisions as well as resources to build balanced collections that engage readers of all ages.

Keeping up with the Chromebooks without Losing Your Mind

Juggling books and devices? Join me as I share practical, time-saving strategies for managing 1:1 and classroom cart devices in a busy school library. With nearly 1900 students and 200 staff on my campus, I’ve learned to streamline everything from resource fine tracking to staff damage reports—without losing my sanity. This session will focus on easy-to-implement systems using Google Sheets and Forms, including templates you can copy and customize for your campus. Whether you’re new to device management or looking to tighten your processes, you’ll leave with ready-to-use tools and tips to track assignments, simplify accountability, and make tech management (everyone’s least-favorite job responsibility) less stressful. 

Library on the Go: A Pop-up Library Initiative

Over the 2024-2025 academic year, the University of North Texas Libraries created a pop-up library kit to expand the reach of the Libraries’ services and resources. The kit was created to be reservable by all library employees for a variety of purposes. It incorporates aspects of traditional library circulation and research services desks, but mobile, so that pop-up events are recognizable as a library point-of-service. As a result, the kit has enabled the creation of temporary physical spaces outside of the Libraries to bring resources directly to students, rather than simply telling them what they can get if they come to us. The project team will share their experiences with researching, purchasing, and assembling the kit, along with a discussion regarding the various types of pop-ups that were piloted for the project. The team will share lessons learned and ideas for other types of pop-up libraries.

Literary Armor: Teaching Empathy and Resiliency Through Books in a Complex World

In today’s increasingly hostile world, students need more than academic skills—they need emotional resilience and empathy to navigate challenges with strength and compassion. This session explores how intentional use of literature can support social-emotional development across K–12 classrooms. Attendees will discover developmentally appropriate books that serve as mirrors, windows, and doors into diverse experiences, helping students connect, reflect, and grow. The presentation features specific titles and ready-to-use activities that build empathy and inner strength, from gratitude drawings in Last Stop on Market Street to Socratic Seminars on justice in Long Way Down. Ideal for educators, librarians, and counselors seeking practical ways to support student well-being through story

Luminarias Book List (Illuminating Bilingual Readers)

This presentation explores the power of selecting high-quality Spanish literature to transform language education. We advocate for a mission-driven approach: prioritizing linguistically rich and This presentation explores the power of selecting high-quality Spanish literature to transform language education. We advocate for a mission-driven approach: prioritizing linguistically rich and culturally authentic texts with proven educational impact.

Our focus will be on literature that not only enhances language skills but also cultivates crucial qualities in students. By engaging with carefully chosen Spanish books, educators can foster empathy, ignite cultural pride, and promote a deeper understanding of the Spanish-speaking world.

This session will provide insights and practical strategies for selecting literature that goes beyond basic language acquisition, ultimately enriching students' lives and preparing them to be informed and globally aware citizens.culturally authentic texts with proven educational impact.

More Giggling, Less Wiggling: Captivate Early Learners with Tried & True Takeaways

Capturing the attention of young learners in the library can be a challenge—but it doesn’t have to be! More Giggling, Less Wiggling is a fun, energetic session packed with practical, ready-to-use strategies to create budget-friendly, engaging, interactive, and developmentally appropriate library experiences for early childhood students. 

Learn how to integrate movement-based learning, interactive read-alouds, and phonological awareness into your lessons while establishing smooth routines and behavior management techniques for stress-free library visits. Discover songs, fingerplays, storytelling tricks, and hands-on activities that keep little learners engaged while reinforcing literacy and math skills for over 25 themes. 

Perfect for school and public librarians working with PreK and early elementary students, this session provides proven, low-prep strategies to make your library a place of excitement, discovery, and joyful learning. Walk away with an abundant toolkit of ideas, resources, and confidence to bring more giggles (and fewer wiggles!) to your library! 

ORCID Profiles for Academic Researchers

In this pre-conference workshop, you'll learn about the value and functions of the ORCID researcher ID, a profile platform that helps improve discoverability, author identification, proper citation, and professional collaboration. The ORCID is quickly becoming a standard requirement in research grant applications, faculty information systems, promotion & tenure reviews, and many publication submission processes. It also allows researchers to document and share their publications, grants, professional history, collaborations, and name variations to allow for proper citation and credit for their work. The platform itself is free, nonprofit, and not affiliated with any institution or government agency, so your information remains under your control.  We’ll begin with a short pre-recorded overview of the platform and its functionality, followed by a live discussion and an opportunity to begin creating your own ORCID. 1 hour.

Quantifying Cooperation: Crafting the Vendor Reciprocity Scale

Negotiating with vendors is a routine part of acquisitions work, but understanding patterns of vendor behavior often depends on informal, experience-based knowledge. To address this, we developed the Vendor Reciprocity Scale (VRS), a tool designed to document and quantify vendor behaviors to better inform negotiations and internal decision-making. In this session, we will present the first iteration of the VRS, shaped by community feedback, and share our documentation, workflows, and internal guidance. We'll highlight key feedback received during earlier presentations, explain the structure and categories of the finalized scale, and provide real-world examples of how it will be used to guide vendor interactions. By offering a shared language and framework, the VRS supports more equitable, transparent, and efficient negotiations. Attendees will be invited to reflect on their own experiences and contribute to an evolving conversation about standardizing vendor relations across institutions. 

Spark Spaces: Engaging Your Library Community Through Interactive Exhibits

Engaging patrons through live programming, resource promotion, and service marketing requires significant staff time and effort, valuable resources that can often be limited or unevenly applied amid daily operations. But what if your library could offer an interactive space that draws visitors in and promotes core services, upcoming events, and opportunities for patrons to slow down and engage meaningfully? 

Presenters will discuss how Plano Public Library utilizes the Spark Space concept to engage library users with eye-catching displays and self-serve activities. We will share ideas for creating and scaling Spark Spaces to meet your library’s capacity and needs. Learn how Plano Public Library selects and prepares content, deploys rotating themes, and manages workloads to create visible, consistent, high-engagement learning opportunities for patrons at each library location. 

Strengthening Library Research through Community, Mentorship, and Recognition

This 25-minute presentation, led by the LRRT Past-Chair and Chair-Elect, will explore how the LRRT supports both budding and seasoned researchers. Attendees will gain insight into LRRT's key initiatives, including the Virtual Research Mentorship Program, which pairs emerging researchers with experienced mentors. The presentation will also highlight how participants can submit their research to the Shera Research Awards, which recognize excellence in library research at the ALA annual convention. In addition, the presenters will discuss how to get involved with or present for the LRRT's webinar series, which cultivates a nationwide community of practice focused on library research.

The Librarian's Playbook: Game Plans for Engaging Programming

Ready to amplify your impact and showcase your expertise? Join us for an inspiring session where you’ll discover a variety of creative, low-cost programming ideas designed to captivate students, teachers, and families alike. From small-scale activities to larger initiatives, you’ll explore projects that foster literacy engagement, strengthen community ties, and promote inclusivity in an economical way.

The Story of Captured Histories: Digitizing the UNT Oral History Program Collection

A not so long time ago, two departments, both alike in dignity, began a collaboration in digitization within fair UNT Libraries. From the Oral History Program, the volumes did flow into the hands of the Digital Projects Lab so on the internet they would go. Tis a tale of steady effort, moving buildings and batches at a time. Of iteration, collection clean up, and teamwork combined. Attentive eyes and ears will see and learn about how two groups worked to (mostly) complete a project that is long-term.

Tiny Pages, Big Impact: The Story of the UNT Zine Library (So Far)

Tiny Pages, Big Impact will provide attendees with the information and resources on incorporating zines into their libraries and even the opportunity to learn how to make their own mini-zine. Using the UNT Zine Library as a case study,  topics of discussion will include the UNT Zine Library’s collection development policy, the process of selecting the appropriate housing and display options, resources consulted when making decisions about zine acquisitions and their processing, zine instruction and outreach initiatives, and successes and challenges experienced along the zine library journey thus far. After the presentation, an open discussion on the role of zines in libraries will conclude the workshop while attendees can work on their newly created mini-zines.

Touching Base: How Student Assistant Feedback Improves Scheduling and Training in Academic Libraries

Student assistants are are a vital part of our Access Services department at Texas Woman’s University Libraries, and their feedback helps shape our operations. Since 2021, we have used an annual Google Form survey to improve scheduling and training. Targeted questions help us understand students’ comfort with tasks, their familiarity with library services, and their available work hours. Their responses have led to streamlined scheduling processes, revised training materials, and improved communication among supervisors. As their responsibilities evolve, so does the survey, giving them a clearer voice in shaping their work experience. In this 25-minute session, we’ll share our survey design, how we analyze responses, and anonymized examples. Attendees will leave with simple, adaptable strategies to gather student input and enhance library workflows.