On May 30, 2018 close to 200 staff from the 18 BLC Member Libraries met at Brandeis University for their annual membership meeting, Networking Day.
After a welcome by Lisa Raymond, Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and President of the BLC Board, Dr. Robert Livingston from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University gave the keynote address entitled "Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion". The presentation provided attendees with a deeper understanding of the challenges and benefits of diversity as well as practical tolls for promoting a diverse and inclusive work environment.
Following an update by Susan Stearns, Executive Director of the BLC and an opportunity to network over lunch, staff from BLC member libraries provided a series of Lightning Talks on topics ranging from integrating virtual reality into course curriculum to a data architecture framework for library collections to data visualization in libraries. Slides from all eight of the Lightning Talks can be found below.
At the end of the day, members of many of the BLC's Communities of Interest met, welcoming new members and setting agendas for future work. In parallel, the 19 participants in BLC Leads 2018 held a Kickoff Meeting to review the program, which formally launches in mid June. This six month leadership development program was inaugurated in 2017 and a number of "alums" from last year's program were present to share reflections and encourage the 2018 participants to take full advantage of what the program has to offer.
Resources