Brick & Click: an academic library conference 2018

News and information literacy is an important and shifting topic that is drowning in the world of parody, 24-hour news cycles, punditry, comedic news content, and misinformation. This "new" era of fake news, while a bit overwhelming and similar to a minefield, can provide an opportunity for librarians to have applicable and relevant discussion with students about reliable resources. Many Framework for Information Literacy knowledge practices and dispositions can be considered and tested using the modern news environment. Looking back at topics such as yellow and gonzo journalism, satire, political scandal, and infamy, this presentation will place news literacy in historical context and provide guidance for the social media world of 21st century students.

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Open Educational Resources adoption is relatively low on college campuses with statistics showing implementation on campuses under 20% nationwide. However, libraries are in a great position to lead the change. McKendree University is successfully promoting the use of OER on campus through a partnership between the library, faculty, and administration. This session, led by a librarian and faculty member, will discuss their journey to OER promotion on campus from concept to implementation. Topics include benefits and drawbacks of OER, best places to find OER, creating a plan for campus promotion, gaining buy-in from faculty and administration, and their plan for ongoing promotion of OER. The presentation will include discussions of strategies that were successful, strategies that weren’t so successful, and best practices for the future.

Calculating a return on investment for libraries has grown in popularity over the past ten years. Although technology, provided by vendors and homegrown sources allows libraries to demonstrate monetary value, there has been little attention paid to the cultural implications for pursuing this kind of assessment. This presentation will focus on the broader implications that ROI has for the library community and consider some of the potential risks that pursing ROI has for institutions. Higher Education has entered into an era that demands accounting for everything. Culturally, we increasingly ask what the value of something is without much regard as to why we need an expressed metric of value in the first place. As the public perception of libraries continues to evolve, it is important that librarians consider how and why they are participating in systems that require an expression of monetary value.

There are five key pieces to building a successful social media following as an academic library. In this presentation, we will discuss how to keep social media profiles current, relevant, and hip by interacting closely with students in-person and on the platforms. We will also discuss how important it is to curate and create native content for each platform, including how to do that without going crazy and without building an enormous centralized calendar. We will share tactical tips and tricks for each platform, how to gain and engage followers, and the keys to producing original viral video content. Finally, we will discuss the importance of posting strategies and the daily discipline required to keep social media presence visible to students.

This session is about embracing technology with a purpose. It details practical ways the library at University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff accomplished this goal by repurposing library spaces and providing a collaborative environment conducive to studying, research, and activities using mobile and smart technologies. Technology integrated into the environment includes laptop checkout, collaborative video conference study centers, 3-D printing, multipurpose center with SmartBoard and projection system and an audio, photography and video production studio that allows student to create and apply applications demonstrated in their classroom environment. Additionally, I will report on the use of TablerTV Interactive System, 3D PowerPoint, and iStick and other technologies implemented to make information literacy more interactive and engaging for students, practical ways to engage students using the system, and how the library strategically adds innovations each year.

The plethora of concepts and methods of quantitative analysis in the humanities field, such as music encoding, data visualization, mapping, and more, can be overwhelming. The number of digital tools available for examining text and performance continues to multiply. How should librarians prepare themselves to support digital humanities scholarships? Where should they start and how can they approach DH from a critical perspective? Two academic librarians who work with literature and performing arts disciplines set a project goal of 6-8 months to do a deep dive into DH. We will share steps taken to gain familiarity, establish connections, acquire skills, and publicize services. In addition, we will also describe how our processes varied based on discipline. Attendees will engage in discussion of the librarian’s role as digital humanist and will leave the session with concrete ideas on how to get started with digital humanities.