2022 Program

2022 AITL Wrap-Up Community Notes

2022 Table Talk Notes

Saturday, May 21, 2022

2:30 pm – 4:30 pm — Registration, Barlow Room
4:45 pm – 6:00 pm — Welcome & Keynote, Ullman Hall

6:15 pm – 7:45 pm — Dinner, Raven’s Nest
7:45 pm — Optional gathering at Ram’s Head Bar

Sunday, May 22, 2022

7:30 am – 9:15 am — Breakfast, Cascade Dining Room
9:20 am – 9:30 am — Welcome & Housekeeping, Ullman Hall
9:30 am – 10:20 am — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • A Community Curated Collection in an Academic Library: Empowering Students through Collection Development
    Randyn Heisserer-Miller, Colorado State University
    Kent Library at Southeast Missouri State University implemented a student grant initiative and a subject area nomination program to engage students in collection development. The library awarded Carrie Woodburn Johnson Endowment grants to recognized student groups for the purchase of materials related to their areas of interest. The groups were asked to work with librarians on lists of materials and provide justification for their requests to receive consideration. Separately, the library called for nominations of subject areas that students deemed important for their success. These nominations were reviewed and voted on by the student body. Materials were selected in the winning subject area to enhance the collection. As academic libraries examine ways to better serve their communities, student success and engagement have come to the forefront. While the selection process for adding to an academic library’s collection must include support for teaching and learning, the definition of support is changing. By allowing students to select materials, the library can engage their communities and support student success. This presentation will examine these two student-led initiatives and engage the audience in a critical discussion of student engagement in collection development and what voices are important to building relevant and vital collections.

10:20 am – 11:10 am — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • The Anti-Racist Collections Workbook: Building More Equitable Practices at CU Boulder
    Arthur Aguilera, University of Colorado Boulder
    Amanda Rybin Koob, University of Colorado Boulder
    Many academic libraries have strived to diversify their collections, a task made more difficult by the systemic racism integrated into all parts of scholarly publishing and acquisitions. This conversational presentation will provide participants with a digital workbook (PDF version) grounded in Diane Gusa’s White Institutional Presence framework. The workbook explores how whiteness manifests in library processes like approval plans, purchasing, selecting, and weeding. The workbook poses questions about how we can enact anti-racist practices in our work. The first half of the presentation will focus on the content and structure of the workbook we developed. For the second half of the presentation, participants will then engage with the workbook through facilitated exercises and small group discussion (view photos and transcription of small group output here) where we will ask participants to reflect on how we can build more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist collections in academic libraries.

11:10 am – 11:20 am — Break

11:20 am – 12:30 pm — Presentations, Ullman Hall

  • Diversity Evaluation and Vendor Communication
    Elizabeth Speer, University of North Texas Health Science Center
    Recent events and our effort to embody UNT Health Science Center’s code of culture have necessitated the evaluation of policies and collections in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In our evaluation of resources, we found that few electronic resources provided medical quality images on multiple skin tones. The inclusion of culturally inclusive images, especially those dermatologic in nature, is imperative for the future education of doctors who will treat patients of diverse backgrounds. Recognizing bias and a lack of relevant materials in our collection, UNTHSC drafted documentation which we shared with our vendors explaining our decision to immediately use DEI as a purchasing impact factor. This session will discuss the process, conversations, and results of our communication with vendors on our collection and relationships.

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm — Lunch, Cascade Dining Room

1:30 pm – 2:20 pm — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • Using Business Analytic Tools to Manage A Large Approval Plan
    Arthur Aguilera, University of Colorado Boulder
    Approval Plans are common acquisition tools used by libraries of all shapes and sizes and can contain all levels of complexity. The University of Colorado Boulder’s main approval plan consists of 147 active profiles with instructions that support book acquisitions across 50+ academic subjects. This level of complexity produces large amounts of data that can be analyzed to effectively manage the program. This presentation will cover how CU Boulder uses a business analytic tool to establish performance metrics and assess the effectiveness of the approval plan. The session will explore how a data model was developed to create custom reports analyzing ordering and financial trends, subject coverage, profile overlap, and DEI benchmarks. These reports were designed for liaison librarians, as well as acquisition and collection development staff. Attendees will walk away with basic concepts of data modeling, resources for free business analytics tools, and considerations for combining vendor-provided data with library-collected data.

2:25 pm – 3:15 pm — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • Balancing Equity and Freedom in Collection Development Policies
    Andrea Jamison, Illinois State University
    Safeguarding libraries against censorship during a time where politically charged book challenges aim to suppress the ideas of marginalized communities is paramount. Libraries are considered a “cradle” of democracy. To maintain our commitment to equitable library services, we must interrogate the role that policies play in the selection and removal of library materials. This presentation will focus on the importance of crafting collection development policies that combat both censorship and collection inequality. The presenter has conducted content analyses on hundreds of collection development policies to determine how these policies address diversity and how they align with ALA’s Bill of Rights. Research indicates that sampled policies generally lack “specificity, transparency, and embeddedness.” Many policies also fail to adequately have statements of reconsideration. Strong policies are important for safeguarding libraries against censorship. This session will discuss the historical role of libraries in fighting against injustice and will highlight findings from the presenter’s research on policies. The goal is to highlight best practices for crafting policies that align with library core values and the tenets of information freedom.

3:15 pm – 3:30 pm — Break

3:30 pm – 4:40 pm — Presentations, Ullman Hall

  • The Unseen Work of Developing Multilingual Collections: Workflows, Automation, and Inclusion
    Adam H. Lisbon, University of Colorado Boulder
    Developing diverse collections that include foreign language materials is a challenging endeavor. For every university researcher needing a book or document in a foreign language, a library cannot hire a team of professionals with the language abilities to speak to vendors, browse bookshops or online stores, and catalog the materials that make up the world’s scholarship. Non-Latin scripts increase the challenge to support their selection and acquisition. However, at the University of Colorado Boulder, I created an inclusive collection development approach that brings scholars into the collection development process with simple tools like online forms and cloud-based spreadsheets to build collections in languages I cannot read. Further, the online databases and library catalogs of the world provide data in a structured way that can make it possible to develop scripts that extract the language data we cannot read into metadata that we can effectively work with. Taking advantage of such structured data, we can automate a tremendous amount of work that improves the speed and accuracy of our purchasing and acquisitions, as well as processing donations. These techniques have been used broadly to improve the acquisition process for all subject librarians in the CU Boulder Libraries.
  • International Book Fair Book Buys for Inclusive, Diverse Collections, and Social Justice
    Alma C. Ortega, University of San Diego
    Every year, there seem to be fewer funds to build and maintain collections regardless of format. COVID-19 made this challenge more difficult. Fortunately, international book fairs continue to provide opportunities to expand collections without overspending, to make connections with vendors, and to stay abreast of the latest global research trends. Fairs offer myriad materials at minimal cost, especially in areas where keeping up with foreign language materials is essential, such as courses in World Languages, Cultures, and Literatures, and Areas Studies. The pandemic has made acquiring these materials an issue of social justice. The decline in purchases impacted publishers and vendors worldwide, and particularly in the global south. Although there are even less funds available, we must continue to support foreign language publishers and vendors, as their survival is at stake. To achieve social justice, it is our job to ensure that we support the intellectual output produced by independent and/or small presses only available at book fairs. Otherwise, the voices of the subaltern, the indigenous, and the non-mainstream could be lost to us if we don’t continue actively acquiring these materials. We can’t afford to lose these access points that enrich our collections with multiple worldviews.

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm — Lodge Tour (sign-up required), Barlow Room

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm — Dinner, Raven’s Nest

Monday, May 23, 2022

7:30 am – 9:15 am — Breakfast, Cascade Dining Room

9:20 am – 9:25 am — Welcome & Housekeeping, Ullman Hall

9:25 am – 10:15 am — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • Improving Transgender Student Resources and Services
    Coby Condrey, University of North Texas
    In 2020 and 2021, two librarians at the University of North Texas pursued a project to improve resources and services for transgender individuals in the University of North Texas community. Current research indicates that transgender people encounter numerous barriers to information, and their needs are significantly different from others in the LGBQ+ community. In addition, this population is hidden unless self-identified. The project, named the Trans Accessible Libraries Initiative, sought to provide more equitable access to services and collections, to cultivate good information-seeking skills, and to enhance the collections to include materials that would appeal specifically to this user group. This presentation will share the needs assessment, collection development process, promotion and outreach efforts, end-of-project assessment, recommendations for best practices, and strategies that other libraries can adapt to serve similar marginalized populations in their communities.

10:15 am – 11:05 am — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • Putting Acquisitions into Dataset Acquisition
    Sarah Forzetting, Stanford University
    Stanford University has been acquiring datasets for many years, and activities around licensing and curation of acquired datasets often takes place outside of standard Library workflows. As researchers have incorporated more computational methodologies into the research process, and demands for access to licensed data have increased, the Libraries have focused more attention on acquiring datasets for the purposes of campus-wide research and teaching. These efforts have challenged the way Acquisitions staff define electronic resources and the department’s responsibilities for management of the electronic content the Libraries purchase. This presentation will discuss challenges of licensing, ordering, describing, and providing access to datasets and how Stanford Libraries and the Acquisitions department have taken steps to integrate dataset acquisitions into existing e-resources management workflows. In particular, I will focus on the staffing implications of adding a new resource type to standard acquisitions processes.

11:05 am – 11:20 am — Break

11:20 am – 12:30 pm – Table Talks (including wrap-ups), Ullman Hall
Six talks have been decided by the Planning Committee ahead of the Institute to serve as launching pads for conversation among attendees. Two or three additional table talk topics will be decided on by Institute participants. A document with discussion questions and suggested reading is available.

  • Writing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Collection Development Policies: Pushback, Purpose, and Promise
    Facilitated by Erin Hvizdak, Washington State University
    In 2019, Washington State University Libraries recognized the need to improve its services and practices related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and formed several working groups. One of these groups has begun the process of reviewing the collection development policies of peer institutions in order to create and improve upon our own. In the process, several questions have arisen, including: For whom are we writing these policies? How do we actually use these policies, or how do they translate into practice? Should we incorporate DEI values into a single policy, or should we have a separate statement? Who should be involved in writing this statement? The working group has unearthed gaps in our own discipline-specific policies and brought to light issues of document accessibility, but we have also learned more from our colleagues about how they practice DEI values in their own collecting. This table talk will bring library professionals together to examine their own policies, hear from others about the successes and failures of creating and improving upon their policies, better understand how these policies are used, and gather ideas for improving outreach and accessibility surrounding these policies.
  • A Format-Neutral Proposal for Monograph Acquisition
    Facilitated by David Gibbs, California State University, Sacramento
    Public libraries purchase popular titles in multiple copies and formats: print books, e-books, and audiobooks. Academic libraries, on the other hand, typically only purchase one copy of a given title and must choose between print and E. We know that patrons want both formats – each has affordances that make it preferable for different modes of reading. So how are academic librarians supposed to choose? Unlike journals, whose print and electronic versions were bundled for some time before electronic emerged as the preferred format, print books and e-books have always been sold as separate products. But why? Is there a pricing model that would allow us to obtain both print and e-book formats of the same title for a fair price? What might be the logistical acquisitions challenges with such a model? I hope to have a good mix of publishers and librarians at the table.
  • Easy(…ier) Acquisitions for Affordable Course Materials Programs
    Facilitated by Marianne Watson, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical
    The Affordable Materials Project (AMP) at Villanova University is a University-wide initiative, with a mission to provide resources and options for selecting quality course materials while reducing the cost for students, and to create student awareness of affordable options for obtaining course materials. A key component of the AMP program involves providing unlimited seat eBook options for course materials acquired by the Library at no cost to students. Since 2017, Falvey Library has created and modified an acquisition workflow with fast turnaround, simple outreach, and sustainable processes. This discussion at Timberline will focus on the academic library landscape of affordable course materials programs, sharing lessons learned with peers, and envisioning what the future holds for student affordability and library engagement.
  • Streaming Video Plucked from Obscurity: A Solution to the Needle in a Haystack
    Facilitated by Millie Fullmer, University of San Diego
    At an academic library, there are two reasons acquisition departments might not provide streaming of a film, documentary or television title. The first is simply the budget; however, the second relates to the lack of institutional streaming licenses available for some titles (particularly those that can not be supplemented with a DVD or home viewing service like Netflix). As with other library acquisition requests, it is frustrating when they cannot be fulfilled — for example, an out-of-print book or an e-book that is only available on a Kindle. Hard-to-find streaming video requests are far more daunting for the acquisition librarian because there are so many avenues to explore, from locating a director or distributor, making sure a title includes licensing to the United States, and determining if your institution will need to host the digital file on their server (to name a few). Searching for streaming video requests that are not available on platforms like Kanopy, Alexander Street Press, and Swank can be incredibly time-consuming and often unsuccessful. This table talk will explore one possible solution to this challenge: what if libraries could collaborate on a shared database, union catalog, or humble Google spreadsheet to share information on these hard to find titles?
  • Triumphs and Pitfalls in Implementing a Deselection Project
    Facilitated by Jennifer Leffler, University of Northern Colorado
    The University Libraries at the University of Northern Colorado (UNCO) began a deselection project in spring 2021. A new dean, new strategic priorities, stacks that had been moved to become ADA compliant, and the lack of organized weeding in more than thirty years were all contributors to the timing of this undertaking. As a member of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, University Libraries at UNC has access to Gold Rush, a collection comparison tool. While it has been helpful in many regards, getting useful data in and out of the system was not as straightforward as promised. This table talk will focus on how the UNCO deselection group set priorities for identifying items to remove while not overwhelming existing staff’s workloads, the use of Gold Rush, and how dependence on outside tools affects libraries’ abilities to undertake meaningful work.
  • Diversifying Collections: Using Board Games to Make a Welcoming Library
    Facilitated by Cara Calabrese, Abigail Morgan, & Ginny Boehme, Miami University
    Until recently, our library collected a limited selection of board games focused exclusively on educational classroom titles. Since 2017, new librarians and a new board gaming events series offered the chance to expand our policies and collections. The events brought students to the different library locations around campus over the course of the semester and encouraged having fun with other students over tabletop games (and snacks). The events were a way for us to help decrease library anxiety while also building our games collection to include titles that promote collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. While we still purchase more traditional educational games, we have expanded the collection to include popular, unique, and up-and-coming publishers and game titles. We continued to see an increase in this collection’s usage, and the companion events became a staple for our students. We will talk about how the event series and collections grew together and what successes we have seen so far, such as using local grants to increase access to games made by BIPOC and Latinx creators and partnering with student groups to teach culturally significant games.

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm — Lunch, Cascade Dining Room

1:40 pm – 2:30 pm — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • Racial Equity in Collections: Building the Collections our Libraries Need
    Amy Pham, SCELC
    Glenn Johnson-Grau, Loyola Marymount University
    Librarians are trying to meet the call for fundamental and radical change in collection development practices while struggling with challenges in time, money, and subject expertise, particularly at small institutions. It will take long-term, systemic change to address ingrained biases and limitations of selectors, publishers, and social systems. Prepackaged resources from library vendors provide a limited solution for collection gaps, with recent products newly pitched to address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Do these products actually contribute value to library collections as claimed? If market-based systems do not meet libraries’ needs, what might the alternatives be? We propose to analyze selected resources for their claimed value of strengthening diversity in collections, with the goal of critically assessing standard collection development models. Our analysis will incorporate quantitative methods – including overlap analyses – and qualitative assessment methods. After sharing this analysis, we hope to engage attendees in discussion of methods for building and sharing practices related to diversifying collections, recognizing such collaborative systems could be used to incorporate more facets of diversity beyond our specific focus on race and ethnicity.

2:30 pm – 3:20 pm — Presentation, Ullman Hall

  • Licensed to Overdrive? Exploratory Use and Assessment of OverDrive DEI Collections in Academic Libraries
    Becky Imamoto, University of California Irvine
    Megan Rosenbloom, University of California Los Angeles
    This presentation will discuss using OverDrive to create DEI e-book collections at two academic libraries within the same large system, including an overview of the content creation, cost, marketing, campus adoption, and lessons learned. Results of a diversity audit of the content available in OverDrive will reveal the gaps discovered and potential plans to address those gaps in consultation with OverDrive. Through the process of curating, promoting, and assessing the collection usage, specific outcomes to measure the success of DEI collections have surfaced that could be applicable more broadly than this one platform. The benefits and disadvantages of the different OverDrive pricing models and the platform’s longer-term sustainability for academic libraries will also be considered.

3:20 pm – 3:35 pm — Break

3:35 pm – 4:55 pm — Plenary, Ullman Hall

5:15 pm – 6:15 pm — Wine Tasting (sign-up required), Barlow Room

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm — Dinner, Y’Bar, Wy’East Day Lodge

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

6:00 am – 7:00 am — Continental Breakfast (for travelers departing early), Raven’s Nest

7:00 am – 9:00 am — Breakfast, Cascade Dining Room

9:00 am – 10:30 am — Full Institute Wrap-up & Planning for 2023, Ullman Hall