2019 Program

Download all presentations, handouts, and notes

Saturday, May 18, 2019

2:30 – 4:30 pm — Registration, Main Lobby
4:30 – 6:30 pm — Opening Reception, Raven’s Nest
6:30 – 8:00 pm — Dinner, Ullman Hall

Sunday, May 19, 2019

8:00 – 9:00 am — Breakfast, Raven’s Nest
9:00 – 10:15 am — Welcome and Keynote Address

10:15 – 10:30 am — Break
10:30 – 11:15 am — Presentation

  • Participatory Collection Development: Collaborating with Students to Reimagine Collections
    Mary Wegmann, Sonoma State University
    Marjorie Lear, Colorado Mountain College (formerly of Sonoma State University)
    The SSU Library’s small juvenile book collection is under-utilized by students in the School of Education, prompting the Library to assess the role of this collection in relation to other collections offered in public libraries, school libraries, and the Sonoma County Office of Education. In spring 2018, the liaison librarian to the School of Education was approached by undergraduate teacher training program students who were compiling thematic text sets for their classes with questions about how librarians determined what to add and withdraw from the collection. The Education liaison and Collection Development Librarian were inspired by the discussions with these students and decided to collaborate with graduate students in the School of Education on an assessment of the collection, comparing the criteria students use to select books for their classrooms with the criteria librarians use to weed collections. The librarians worked with five graduate classes focused on literacy instruction to evaluate a selection of books in the collection. After this activity, the librarians led focus group discussions on the students’ experiences and perspectives on the collection. The librarians will use the information collected to inform collection management, organization and wayfinding.

11:20 am – 12:00 pm — Presentation

  • Planning and Implementing a Just-in-Time Collection Development Model in an Academic Library
    Coby Condrey, University of North Texas
    The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries adopted a new collection development (CD) philosophy in order to respond more effectively to emerging acquisitions models, unstable budgets, and the evolving scholarly communications landscape. Prior to 2014 the UNT Libraries experienced numerous disruptive trends related to high inflation in materials costs, fluctuating funding, new models for evidence-based CD, changes in scholarly communications, unpredictable patron demand, and rapidly increasing options for electronic resources. In 2014 the UNT Libraries adopted a new CD method that acknowledges these influences and addresses the results of these variables. The librarians named this system Access-Based Collection Development (ABCD). The ABCD philosophy centers on some key concepts: envisioning collections as a service to users rather than a built assemblage of items; focusing on just-in-time selection and access rather than ownership; decreased emphasis on balancing between subject areas; a shift from title-by-title selection to big-picture collection sculpting; and infrastructures that support iterative assessment and frequent action. This presentation will describe one way to manifest these ideals in a real-world setting, discuss the challenges and benefits to adapting to meet an evolving environment, and the ways the system has (or has not) worked thus far.

12:00 – 1:30 pm — Lunch, Raven’s Nest
1:30 – 2:45 pm — Presentation

  • Navigating to the Sustainable Stream (Presentation and Handout)
    Joshua Keyes, The Claremont Colleges
    Elsa Loftis, Portland State University
    With increasing student and faculty expectations of on-demand streaming video content, how are academic libraries keeping pace with costs and licensing models? As the common access models for video add additional subscriptions to the mix or feature Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA) options that escalate costs as usage increases, collections librarians must perform a precarious balancing act to ensure vital information resources are available at sustainable cost levels. We will share the recent experiences of The Claremont Colleges Library and Portland State University Library, and how our models have adapted to meet growing demands on our budgets and staff time. This participatory program is intended to share information about our collection priorities, providing affordable and accessible media access, as well as balancing between our commitments to stewardship and responsiveness. How do we ‘right-size’ the media stream? Come with your experiences and ideas to share!

2:45 – 3:00 pm — Break
3:00 – 3:45 pm — Presentation

  • The Business of Consortial Deals
    Kathi Carlisle Fountain, Oxford University Press
    Amy Pawlowski, OhioLINK
    Libraries have been acquiring electronic content via consortia for well over 20 years, but the details of how consortial deals work are not always apparent to individual libraries. This session will detail the business of consortial deals, focusing on how they are constructed (pricing and content), managed, and the impact they have on consortial members. In addition, Amy and Kathi will lead a discussion on how market shifts in academic publishing could affect consortial deals, member libraries, and end users.

3:50 – 4:35 pm — Presentation

  • The Application of Financial Analysis and Business Concepts within Academic Libraries: The Good, the Bad and Ugly in Determining the Value a Library’s Purchasing Practices (Presentation and Handout)
    Kerry Falloon, College of Staten Island – CUNY
    The researcher will discuss how financial concepts used in business, such as ROI, Cost Benefit Analysis, and Cost Effectiveness, can be appropriately used to help deductively determine the value of four PDA/DDA programs versus other legacy purchasing practices, such as subscription and firm order purchasing. The researcher will term these ‘just-in-time’ procurement methods as ‘mindful’ collection practices. Other traditional legacy practices within the library, such as the new OER textbook initiative across CUNY campuses versus traditional print textbook collections, will also be analyzed according to these financial terms. An appropriate spend analysis methodology, based on the performance of library resources, will be shared and established. These various business practices can lead to more holistic collection development and mindful procurement practices as an approach. In sum, spend analysis with performance analysis can help to propose a plan of action for library collection development, but that story can be flawed if the right data, consistency in analyzing the data, and the value of an investment is not determined properly. Successes and challenges will be discussed. In essence, acquisition analytics need to start modeling current business practices with the potential for ‘smart’ automated purchasing and spend analysis methods.

4:35 – 5:00 pm — Wrap-up for today
5:30 – 6:30 pm — Lodge Tour, meet in Lower Lobby near Barlow Room
7:00 – 8:30 pm — Dinner, Raven’s Nest

Monday May 20, 2019

8:00 – 9:00 am — Breakfast
9:00 – 9:40 am — Presentation

  • Team-based Negotiations for Library Collections (Presentation and Negotiation Prep Template)
    Courtney Crummett, MIT
    In an effort to maximize the potential of the collections budget and establish future opportunities to redirect savings towards more open and transformative scholarly communication models, the MIT Libraries created a cross-functional team to handle subscription negotiations using principled negotiations methods. While this team handles all subscription types, finding ways to harness saving for purchases that support the Libraries’ goal of moving the scholarly communications environment toward more openness is a core aim of this team. This talk will describe team structure, processes, and member roles. The principled negotiations techniques, templates, and best practices implemented by the team will be shared along with anonymous descriptions of some completed negotiations and estimated savings. Lastly, audience questions and sharing are highly encouraged.

9:45 – 10:25 am — Presentation

  • Developing a Vendor Scorecard as a Tool to Re-Allocate Acquisitions Dollars and Transform Scholarly Communication
    Christine Turner, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    The UMass Amherst Libraries aspire to vendor partnerships that support its stated mission and values. In addition, the Libraries seek to contribute to a global scholarly communication system that is open to and representative of a wide range of participants, perspectives, and purposes. Given the Libraries’ mission, values, and limited financial resources, it will apply additional criteria to guide its decisions about which providers to choose. The Libraries are developing a vendor scorecard which will serve as a tool to guide acquisitions investments. This presentation will address the project goals, as well as the processes for developing the criteria, rating system and implementation plan. Inspired by Roger Schonfeld’s “Red Light, Green Light: Aligning the Library to Support Licensing,” the “University of North Texas Manifesto: Expectations for Vendors of Library Collections,” the “University of California Declaration of Rights and Principles to Transform Scholarly Communication,” and other standards and checklists, UMass Amherst proposes to contribute comprehensive benchmarks which could potentially be developed, adapted and used collectively with other academic libraries. The criteria, rating system, and their practical applications will be open for discussion.

10:25 – 10:40 am — Break
10:40 – 11:25 am — Presentation

  • The Role of University Press Ebook Platforms in the Scholarly Ecosystem
    Jessica Lawrence-Hurt, MIT Press
    Kristen Twardowski, Duke University Press
    In 2019, two university presses, Michigan and MIT, will join Duke, Oxford, and Cambridge in hosting their own ebook platforms and selling directly to libraries. Why are they choosing to do so? What pain points in the scholarly ecosystem do they think they can address? What have they learned from their predecessors, aggregators, and the library community? Representatives from MIT (new to the publisher platform) and Duke (over ten years of experience with their own platform) will examine their processes and programs and engage with the audience to explore what might be on the horizon.

11:30 am – 12:30 pm — Table Talks
Seven Table Talks were held this year. Four were decided by the Planning Committee ahead of the Institute, and participants nominated 6 additional tables and voted to hold the three listed below.

Notes from Table Talks

  • Converting Journals to OA
    Facilitated by Keith Layson, Annual Reviews
  • New Acquisition Methods for Individual E-Textbook Titles
    Facilitated by Yumi Yaguchi, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
  • If Feeling Were First: Improving Collection Practice through Emotional Awareness
    Facilitated by Fred Folmer, Connecticut College
  • Learning Collection Development On the Job
    Facilitated by Rose Reynolds, Smith College
  • Decolonizing Acquisitions and Collection Management
  • Streamlining / Restructuring Acquisitions Budgets
  • Promoting Your Purchase: Marketing Strategies & Success Stories for Acquisitions

12:30 – 2:00 pm — Lunch, Raven’s Nest
2:00 – 3:15 pm — Presentation

  • Beyond the Classroom: Providing Meaningful Collections Internships
    Pamela Jacobs, University of Guelph
    Helen Salmon, University of Guelph
    Paul St-Pierre, University of Guelph (non-presenting contributor)

    In the past two years, the Collections and Content Team at the University of Guelph Library has embarked on a successful program to hire MLIS students for four- or eight-month full-time paid internships. This session explores the origins, goals, and underlying philosophy of this program as they relate to the future of collections librarianship and the need to provide real world skills development opportunities and professional mentoring for MLIS students as they are choosing their career path. The parameters and implementation of the program since its inception are discussed. The many ways that internships can benefit both employer and student are explored, ranging from practical considerations such as increasing the team’s capacity and providing genuine work experience, to less tangible but important impacts derived from mentoring, exposure to new ideas, and encouraging the development of professional values for a new librarian cohort. The contributions that these students make in both formulating and realizing the goals of the collections team, other library service areas, and to a library’s organizational culture is also considered. Finally, challenges that arise from employing library school students in collections internships is described, and some possible solutions proposed.

3:15 – 3:30 pm — Break
3:30 – 4:15 pm — Presentation

  • Building Inclusive Collection Management Strategies in a New Career Environment
    Jee Davis, Villanova University
    Kristen Hogan, Barnard College
    In the course of a librarian’s career path, we occasionally take a big leap to advance our professional capacity. This type of career move can be risky, yet exciting. It offers an opportunity to enrich our portfolios and expand experience to a wide range of library functions. This is particularly true when you are moving from a large library, where functions are specialized/siloed, to small/medium library, where functions are crossed among units. As collections strategy directors committed to diversity and inclusion, we have evolved our approaches to collections in new career environments. Both presenters recently made career changes from a large state university library to portfolios including collections in small college/medium university libraries. In this session, we focus on transferring skills in inclusive collection management when transitioning from large to small/medium institutions. We focus on a few skills that operate differently in the more expansive portfolio of smaller academic library environments: leadership in building and educating collections strategy teams, creating budgets accountable to diversity and inclusion, affirming students of historically marginalized identities through collection development work, noting the role of libraries as employers of students of color, and the gap between student employment/engagement and the persistent whiteness of librarianship.

4:15 – 4:45 pm — Wrap-up for today
5:00 – 6:30 pm — Wine Tasting, Barlow Room
7:00 – 8:30 pm — Dinner, Y’Bar, Wy’East Day Lodge

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

7:00 – 9:00 am — Breakfast, Raven’s Nest
9:00 – 10:30 am — Full Institute Wrap-up, Evaluations, and Planning for Next Year