Schedule

This session describes a collaboration between a STEM Librarian, a Health Sciences Librarian, and a Student Partner to integrate and evaluate narrative medicine and dialogue-based science communication into undergraduate curricula. By embedding storytelling practices in Health Sciences and STEM courses, the initiative fostered critical thinking, communication, and reflection while exploring storytelling's role in professional practice. Student researchers contributed to curricular and research design, including interviews assessing the perceived value of narrative approaches. Preliminary findings and strategies for interdisciplinary integration will be shared. This work underscores the potential for librarians to transform information literacy instruction by emphasizing knowledge creation, interdisciplinarity, and empathy-driven professional engagement.

In this lightning talk we seek to discuss our project in progress, the adaptation of Open Education Resources (OER) material to create short, specialized modules on STEM Information Literacy (IL) topics for an audience of primarily undergraduate Science and Engineering students. Our purpose is to provide new ways for STEM students to learn about information sources used in their field as well as to use modules as a flexible, engaging outreach opportunity. Modules of this type provide flexibility as faculty struggle to fit traditional IL one shot instruction into their full syllabus and academic librarians are fielding additional requests for topics to cover such as AI literacy. They also offer greater opportunities to enact Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and support a wider variety of students' learning differences. Our hope is this module development will further IL integration into courses in which tight instructional time is a barrier. We aim to identify similar modules and seek advice and collaboration from the audience. . Our collaboration brings the perspective of interdisciplinary science to our project, with our two librarian roles encompassing Science, Engineering and Data.   As we begin this project, we consider ways that it can advance DEIA-R goals. In addition to our use of UDL, we are planning for accessibility from the ground up. We aim to integrate diversity and equity through the content we include (e.g. addressing citation bias), selection of sources to analyze (e.g. for standards, IEEE 2890-2025 IEEE Recommended Practice for Provenance of Indigenous Peoples' Data), and in our processes for seeking feedback from students and faculty. We also choose to adapt and create OERs as a means of supporting access to information.

Background: This presentation will first provide an introduction into how medical librarians support and work within an interdisciplinary team to create Health Technology Assessments (HTA) at Ontario Health. This will be followed by a case study focusing on the NHS Economic Evidence Database (NHS EED), which was proposed for retirement by the Medical Librarian team. Because this methodological change would directly affect the work of Health Economist (HE) colleagues, a librarian presented the supporting rationale and invited the HE team to make the final decision on the database’s future use. This approach supported shared decision‑making and strengthened cross‑team collaboration. The proposed presentation would be of interest to library workers embedded within multidisciplinary teams, those involved in evidence-synthesis work, as well as anyone interested in learning more about Health Technology Assessment. Methods: The Medical Librarian methodology working group at Ontario Health identified internal usage data and external evidence supporting the retirement of NHS EED. The librarian then presented the evidence to the HE team to facilitate a structured, informed deliberation regarding the database’s continued use. Results: After reviewing the justification and evidence, the HE team unanimously chose to retire NHS EED. The mutual respect and trust between these teams, built through years of close collaboration, contributed to this effective decision‑making process. Conclusion: This case study demonstrates the value of approaching methodological changes through an interdisciplinary lens. Actively involving Health Economists in the decision to retire NHS EED ensured that their evidence needs were understood while enhancing transparency around librarian decision-making. This collaborative approach supports methodological rigour and reflects a broader commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and reconciliation (DEIA-R) by valuing diverse expertise and promoting shared ownership of HTA methods.

AI, and Generative AI (GenAI) in particular, has become omnipresent, including in the research endeavour. Students and faculty in STEM have concerns about the use of GenAI tools in research. How can librarians help?   Librarians have been teaching information literacy for a long time. Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (ALA,1989).  AI literacy is a subset of this. Consideration of whether to use AI, and if so, knowing how to evaluate a given tool and understand the purpose it serves are important skills to develop. To help researchers frame their consideration of AI use, it is beneficial to consider the end product of academic research: publication.  Common declaration requirements regarding AI use can be found across major publishers, but differences also exist.  It is therefore prudent for researchers to explore the policy of a publisher they intend on submitting to, before getting too far into their research.  This will ensure they are aware of the extent to which AI can be used, and how to document its use.   This presentation showcases a workshop for graduate students and faculty in a biology lab journal club setting about the use of GenAI in research. The goal of the workshop was to facilitate discussion of the benefits and concerns of using AI at different stages of the research process and the impact for publication. This approach emphasizes metacognitive skill development over tool use and can be implemented in diverse disciplines.

We are living in an age of unprecedented big data creation. Information literacy skills, such as evaluation and utilization of data, are now more essential than ever. And while academic libraries are often poised to provide support to researchers and students in navigating data, it is rare that academic libraries get to participate in large data-based projects using their own internal data. However, creating an auditory display provides the perfect opportunity. “Auditory display” sounds like something you’d find in your car’s radio, but instead it is the method in which information is presented to an audience through sound. A subset of auditory displays, called data sonification, is common in areas such as climate research, oceanography, and astronomy where it incorporates an interdisciplinary approach to data analysis by utilizing skills in information science, data science, mathematics, art, and music. Data sonification– a relatively underexplored method of displaying data– ranges from unique sounds assigned to individual data points to complex musical compositions built from larger datasets. Sonifications allow listeners individualized interpretive experiences, granting them the opportunity to hear complex data patterns otherwise hidden in spreadsheets and visualizations while reducing barriers to understanding through sound.   In this presentation, we will describe a collaborative data sonification project between our university’s library and visual and performing arts department that leveraged day-to-day data from the library. We will discuss the process of sonification, how it all started, the challenges, and the outcomes. Attendees will walk away with a better understanding of what data sonification is, and how to potentially start a sonification project at their library, including tips for free or open source software tools, and engaging potential collaborators.

As Gen AI chatbots, search features and research tools have exploded in popularity, students’ search habits and librarians’ information literacy instruction have been in flux. In my one-shot instructional sessions for engineering and engineering technology students, I wanted to both learn about and draw on students’ authentic starting points and habits as they seek information using tools that have a Gen AI-influenced “answer first” orientation (Lo, 2026) rather than ‘source first.’ In this lightning talk I will discuss how I used the student response system Mentimeter to achieve these goals. The icebreakers, web search activities and reflection questions I shared with students in Mentimeter supported learning outcomes related to critical evaluation and prompted discussion about Gen AI tools. Mentimeter’s anonymity encourages greater participation from students who might not otherwise feel comfortable answering a question in front of a large group; this is particularly important with questions that involve Gen AI, given complex issues of academic integrity and ethics. Mentimeter responses, gathered from a wide range of students in university and college engineering classes, have also provided me with insight into their use of Gen AI tools that I would not otherwise have. This real-time feedback has helped me iterate revisions to my lesson plans in a period of rapid change.

LaTeX is an open source typesetting software that allows for simple & elegant formatting of equations, figures, and more. It is an essential part of the research and scholarly communication workflow for scientists and engineers across disciplines. As a highly sought after skill, it's also a great opportunity to bring early-career STEM researchers into the library.  In this lightning talk, we'll share a brief overview of the themes that emerged from a collection of 12 case studies submitted by academic libraries across North America and beyond that provide LaTeX instruction. We'll discuss the range of program structures, instructional formats and styles, and participant demographics, as well as lessons learned and tips from seasoned LaTeX instructors. We hope that this lightning talk will inspire attendees to consider whether LaTeX instruction is a good fit for their library, and provide guidance for getting started.

Access to scholarly literature should not be limited by paywalls, yet many valuable research publications remain locked behind them. Librarians play a crucial role in connecting users to free, legal versions of scholarly works through open access (OA) discovery tools. This session introduces participants to some powerful, easy-to-use resources:  Open Access Helper  Unpaywall EndNote Click   Through live demonstrations and real-world search scenarios, attendees will learn how these browser extensions and plugins streamline the process of locating OA research articles. These tools may be embedded in library instruction, used for reference services, and integrated into faculty research support. Participants will leave equipped with strategies to promote OA scholarly literature to patrons, faculty, and researchers, maximizing their reach and impact.