BACK TO BASICS: CROWDSOURCING A VIRTUAL REFERENCE PRAXIS

The past year has been full of change! Join us on April 12th & 13th, 2022 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm EST to unpack your experiences and connect with other reference service providers at the ALA Connect eForum: Back to Basics: Crowdsourcing a Virtual Reference Praxis.

This year’s Virtual Reference and Emerging Technology eForum will focus on changes to reference services, emerging trends, and shared introspections on how reference work has evolved.

• • Find lively discourse on topics such as the changing models of reference, the future of work, upskilling staff, creative marketing practices, and more!

  • Spark a conversation, share your experience, hot tips, and tools, and make friends in the process!

  • We have a topic for what you geek, regardless of whether your passion is diversity, equity, and inclusion, emerging economic trends, or revitalizing our foundational ideas.

To Join the Virtual Reference & Emerging Technology Workspace Community

• Navigate to ALA Connect: https://connect.ala.org/

  • Already an ALA member? Log in

  • Not an ALA member? (ALA membership not required) Create your account first

• Search for Virtual Reference & Emerging Technology

• Click the “Join Community” button

• Trouble subscribing to the list?

  • Contact Melissa Del Castillo (medelcas@fiu.edu) for help

• Troubleshooting ALA Connect: https://connect.ala.org/faq/home

• Find FAQs for community notification, posting, and “following” discussions

This eForum will be a two-day event that we hope will spark a lot of great conversations about virtual reference and emerging technologies.

• Throughout the day we’ll post new questions to the Community Discussion Board in ALA Connect.

• You can interact by opening the eForum discussion page and replying to discussion questions.

• You can also join right in your email inbox.

  • When you receive an email notification for a post to the discussion board, click the “Email a reply to the discussion” button.

  • Find out how to use the notifications just like a listserv in our FAQs.

• After the eForum concludes, we will share a summary of each day’s conversation and a final summary.

DISCUSSION NETIQUETTE

• Be polite and assume good intentions when interacting with the eForum Discussion.

• All are welcome to share their own experiences and advice, whether you are a guru or a novice.

• You can also use this opportunity to ask questions of the collective of this community.

NOTIFICATIONS

• Please review and adjust your ALA Connect notification settings to receive individual email notifications or a digest format.

• To change those settings, when logged into Connect, click on "My Connect", then "Community Notification Settings".

LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH HOUR'S TOPICS

• Check out the recommended readings for each hour.

POSTING TO THE DISCUSSION BOARD

• When a discussion topic is posted, members of this community will get an email notification.

  • You will be able to respond directly via email, using the “Email a reply to the discussion” button.

  • Or by logging in and responding to the discussion post within the ALA Connect community.

  • You can engage in the conversation how you want and feel comfortable. Reply and post in the ALA connect interface or through email.

• Please reply to the question thread and feel free to interact with past discussion question threads.

• Please consider entering a signature with your posts to let everyone know what institution you are joining from.

• All are welcome to share their own experiences and advice, whether you are a guru or a novice.

• You can also use this opportunity to ask questions of the collective of this community.

UPVOTING

• “Recommend” or “follow” posts you like.

NETWORKING

• Add those who post to your ALA Contacts to network or connect with their Linkedin profiles if available.

• Schedules, Topics, & Readings

• ALA Connect FAQs

• Meet Our Team