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Professional Development Alliance
The BLC, together with eight other multi-type library consortia, have joined the Professional Development Alliance, a pilot project to gauge the feasibility and workflows necessary to share professional development expertise and experience and deliver additional value to our member libraries. This new initiative multiplies the number and variety of online professional development opportunities available to the member libraries of each participating consortium. As of January 2021, the Professional Development Alliance continues to share webinars and other opportunities while collaborating on a shared calendar of timely topics.
The pilot project ran from September - December 2020, with regular meetings of the appropriate program officers to assess impact on consortial workflows, attendance from participating consortia, and attendee feedback on both the pilot project and the content delivered.
In addition to the BLC, participating consortia include ASERL, ATLA, CARLI, LOUIS, MINITEX, NC Live, SCELC, and SEFLIN.
Upcoming Professional Development Alliance webinars are listed below.
2021
January Calendar
Date & Time | Presentation Title & Description | Consortium |
Tuesday, 1/12 11am-12pm EST |
Redefining Self-Care in the Midst of a Global Pandemic - Part 1 This first psychoeducational webinar of the two-part series Redefining Self-Care in the Midst of a Global Pandemic will discuss what is needed in addition to routine self-care during a global pandemic. Characteristics of different types of stress, including traumatic stress, will be reviewed as well as the range of stress responses. The speakers will propose additional self-care steps during the current health crisis and provide considerations for when professional help may be beneficial. |
CARLI |
Wednesday, 1/13 1pm-4pm EST |
Science Librarianship in the Time of COVID-19 The BLC's Science and Engineering COI is pleased to host the second Science Librarianship in the Time of COVID-19 meeting. The event will showcase several lightning talks and presentations. |
BLC |
Wednesday, 1/20 2pm-3pm EST |
Are you ready to transition from podcast consumer to creator? In this session participants will explore how librarians use podcasts to promote services and programming. Learn strategies and tools for recording and sharing podcasts. Recommendations and tips for facilitating patron production of podcasts will also be shared.
|
NC Live |
Thursday, 1/21 2pm-3pm EST |
Classes are Online and So are We! Adapting Experiential Learning to a Virtual Environment This session will explore practical strategies and interactive tools to facilitate information literacy instruction in an engaging online learning environment. Discover how librarians at Nova Southeastern University assessed their traditional one-shot face-to-face instruction and adapted their experiential learning activities using effective low-tech, low-cost tools. |
ASERL |
Thursday, 1/28 2pm-3pm EST |
Simple Ideas to Spice Up Your Virtual Presentations and Workshops Engaging presentations can make us laugh, help us understand the subject matter and, most of all, serve as inspiration to take action. This does not happen overnight, but with practice we can tweak our content engagement strategies to make sure our message is being heard. During this webinar, I’m going to talk about scientific backed techniques to boost your content and increase audience interest. These following ideas are designed to enhance your virtual presentations to transform it from a passive experience to an actively engaged and collaborative one. |
ASERL |
2020
September Calendar
Date & Time | Presentation Title & Description | Consortium |
---|---|---|
Thursday, 9/3 12pm EST |
Creating Patron Driven Acquisitions for Your Library Due to a large online student presence, in part by two fully-accredited online degrees at Fuller Theological Seminary, the David Allan Hubbard Library recognized this pedagogical shift and developed its own patron-driven model in library acquisitions as a departure from "classic" collection development methods. |
ATLA |
Thursday, 9/3 1pm EST |
Best Practices for Effective Email Outreach Effective and appropriate communication is now more important than ever. In a profession driven by collaboration and cooperation, the nuances of communication and tone can set the tone for future interactions. Informed by the DISC model, this webinar will teach participants how to craft their message depending on the audience, successfully apply the DISC model, and draw on this knowledge for any future communications. |
BLC |
Tuesday, 9/15 12pm EST |
Introduction to Creative Commons Licensing Dr. Jeanne Pavy, a graduate of the Creative Commons (CC) Certificate program will present an introduction to CC licenses including the impact of CC licenses in higher education. She will explore how developing this expertise can better position the library to support a culture of open (OER, OA, etc.) on campus. She will also share insights from the CC Certification Course for those who might be considering enrolling in the course. |
LOUIS |
Tuesday, 9/15 2pm EST |
Best Practices for Marketing & Social Media A library’s social media presence has the potential to increase community engagement and bring your current programming to an online audience. Even with limited staff and time, Libbie Hough - Communications Manager for Orange County Public Library - will share best practices for marketing library services and events as well as ways to manage user engagement over time. Learn how social media platforms can help your library build local partnerships and connect with your community online. |
NC LIVE |
Thursday, 9/17 2pm EST |
Growth mindset, the belief that we can improve, seems simple but is nuanced, powerful, and relevant to any person. In this session, Eduardo Briceño, who co-founded Mindset Works with Carol Dweck and has two TEDx talks watched by millions, will deepen our understanding of growth mindset theory and practice. He will share key research, common misconceptions, and ways that we can all cultivate a growth mindset in ourselves and in others. Come prepared to reflect as well as capture insights and next steps. |
NC LIVE |
Monday, 9/21 1pm EST |
Chaos is a Ladder: Assessing Opportunities on the Fly The COVID pandemic challenges consortia and libraries to innovate. In this two-part session SCELC Staff will share how it responded to these challenges. First, a debrief on recent pandemic-related obstacles that SCELC converted into successful programming, and the strategic assessment techniques that drove our response. Second, we will break into hands-on breakout sessions, where attendees work together in groups, employing SWOT analysis principles to assess their own organizational challenges, with some guidance from pain points identified in the May 2020 ICOLC pandemic planning call. |
SCELC |
Wednesday, 9/23 2pm EST |
Accessibility Benefits Everyone Are you losing patrons because your web site is too difficult for them to use? Are there unintentional roadblocks hidden in your web pages? This presentation will share ideas on how to improve things to benefit all of your audiences. Things like: |
CARLI |
Tuesday, 9/29 2pm EST |
Browser and Smartphone Privacy Tips Recent news about social media, smartphone apps, and data breaches highlight the fact that much of our online activity is tracked, monetized, and often tied to our offline identities. Fortunately, there are steps we can all take to keep our online activities and identities more private. This webinar will cover tips and strategies to more privately browse the internet and use smartphones. Topics will include: Privacy tips and extensions for popular Internet browsers |
SEFLIN |
October Calendar
Date & Time | Presentation Title & Description | Consortium |
---|---|---|
Tuesday, 10/13 2pm EDT |
Librarians Across Disciplines: Mitigating Archival Chaos Librarians across disciplines unexpectedly inherit archival collections and are often faced with supervising materials despite lack of expertise and training. This situation proves especially challenging for theological libraries because of the variety of materials these collections include. Ranging from ephemera and photographs, to diaries, bibles, and congregational records, these collections offer hidden resources that document local communities and organizational history. Taking the time to minimally organize these collections creates opportunities to connect with faculty and patrons, and supports institutional and alumni relationships. |
ATLA |
Wednesday, 10/14 11am EDT |
Assessment of Student Learning in Academic Libraries The assessment of learning is not a new practice – it has unfolded within institutions of higher education since the 1980s. The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), formed in 2008, has been examining assessment processes and practices in the United States to better understand meaningful, sustainable engagement with authentic assessment of student learning. While historically, assessment has occurred within institutions of higher education, learning occurs in a variety of contexts and places. Increasingly, efforts are unfolding to capture and document evidence of student learning outside of traditional curricular experiences. Given the intensified attention to assessment and accountability issues in the higher education sector, academic libraries and librarians in the United States have felt increasingly compelled to demonstrate the value they bring to their colleges and universities. Opening with an introduction to assessment, in this session, we will explore how academic libraries have approached assessment in recent years as well as current practices and future trends in assessing and documenting learning. |
CARLI |
Monday, 10/19 2pm EDT |
Transcending Meatspace: Virtual Reality Library Events via Mozilla Hubs Meatspace: the corporeal opposite of cyberspace. In pre-COVID times, our libraries were champions of building rich, collaborative programming in meatspace. But this far into our post-COVID reality, we’ve all developed an intimate awareness of the limitations of Zoom, et al. and the kinds of programming that fits (or doesn’t fit) into a web-meeting model of video feeds and flat screen shares. |
SCELC |
Tuesday, 10/20 12pm EDT |
Teaching Information Literacy K-16 The challenges students face when conducting research can feel overwhelming. In this presentation, Reference Outreach & Instruction Librarian Linda Mork, a former high school English teacher, K-12 media specialist, and academic librarian, will offer ideas about teaching concepts from the ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy in order to help students of all ages understand and navigate the information ecosystem and provide strategies to help move them past common research roadblocks. |
Minitex |
Thursday, 10/22 2pm EDT |
Demystifying Research and Publishing in Libraries This discussion-based webinar offers guidance for academic library staff who want to conduct research and get published. The webinar comes from the perspectives of four librarian authors and editors who are at varying stages of their careers. Speakers will attempt to demystify topics such as developing research ideas and methods, conducting research projects, writing for your audience, intriguing editors with unique angles to your work, and more. Tips and tricks will be shared! Speakers will address a diverse range of publication types, from peer-reviewed articles to reviews and case studies. This webinar is designed for any and all library workers who want to explore pursuing research and publishing, including librarians going up for promotion, tenure, or review. Following the webinar, attendees will be provided with additional learning materials to keep. |
BLC |
Tuesday, 10/27 2pm EDT |
The Happy Place: Creating Positive Library Spaces Using Emotional Intelligence Employee engagement can be challenging. In this fun and interactive workshop, participants will learn how to engage staff in meaningful ways while creating a culture of positivity and respect. Based on real life situations and years of communicating and working with staff, managers from Wake County will explore the key factors they discovered that contribute to a happy work environment. Participants will have an opportunity to share ideas that have worked in their organizations. |
ASERL |
Wednesday, 10/28 11am EDT |
Git was built for programmers to keep track of changes to |
LOUIS |
Wednesday, 10/28 2pm EDT |
Tips and Techniques for Facilitating Meetings Online As libraries continue to work online or in a hybrid format, the need for well-designed and effectively facilitated meetings rises. Disorganized or poorly run Zoom meetings can lead to wasted time and frustrated teams. Attendees will learn techniques they can use immediately to plan for a meeting and develop a participatory environment where all attendees are proposing ideas and contributing to the meeting's success. |
NC Live |
November Calendar
Wednesday, 11/4 2pm EST |
Join us in discussing ways to create inclusive library instruction in an online environment. Presenters will talk about polling tools, using breakout rooms, providing captioning and/or transcripts, best practices for asynchronous video instruction, learning activities they’ve translated from in-person to online teaching, and making an environment where students feel valued with practices like pronoun go ‘rounds. We’ll talk about lessons learned from remote teaching, and provide an opportunity for participants to share their instruction hot tips with each other. |
NC Live |
Thursday, 11/12 2pm EST |
Taking Comments & Making Clarity: A Website Usability Case Study This webinar will present the usability test that was performed on the Atla Digital Library this past year. We will look at the components of the test, the results, and how changes were made. Participants will see an example of how to make a website work better for users by implementing a simple method of user observation. |
ATLA |
Thursday, 11/12 4pm EST |
The session will start with a quick review of copyright's educational exception and the Fair Use balancing test. Then we'll look at 3 recent fair use cases, with the audience testing their understanding of fair use and voting on which way they would decide the case. We'll wrap up with the actual case outcomes and conclude with questions and answers. |
LOUIS |
Monday, 11/16 2pm EST |
A Practical Guide to COUNTER Release 5 Release 5 of the COUNTER Code of Practice is the newest standard for counting usage for electronic resources. New releases of COUNTER are intended to improve reporting, and can include changes in usage metrics and types of reports offered. Librarians need to understand changes from previous to new releases in order to effectively interpret usage data. This session examines the specific metrics and reports included in COUNTER Release 5, and offers a look at how Release 5 compares to Release 4. The goal is to provide a practical guide for understanding COUNTER Release 5, as well as overall challenges and opportunities with interpreting usage reports. |
ASERL |
Monday, 11/16 4pm EST |
Google Chrome Extensions: Helpful Hacks for the Chrome Experience Google Extensions, for use with Chromebooks and the Chrome browser, are part of a rising trend. Schools and libraries are turning more toward Google for Education and Chromebooks as tech tools. Extensions are a growing aspect of the Chrome experience. This presentation will help attendees understand what an extension is and where to begin. Additionally, the presentation will demonstrate many different extensions and discuss how they can be used and which might benefit various users the most. Attendees are encouraged to follow along on their own device. |
Minitex |
Wednesday, 11/18 11am EST |
At a time of pandemic and civil unrest, many of us are glued to our devices, doomscrolling with anticipation for the worst to come. We rely on technology more than ever before to connect to each other, our students, our families. How do we use it wisely? And how do we manage and protect our attention when our lifeline to the outside world is designed to exploit it? |
CARLI |
Thursday, 11/19 11am EST |
Understanding China Data & Business Research |
BLC |
December Calendar
Friday, 12/4 2pm EST |
Are you an employee? A manager? Do you have a spouse? Children? Friends? Acquaintances? Do you volunteer in an organization? Are you on committees? Do you ever deal with people in any context at all? Of course you do! This 60-minute webinar is an invaluable tool in understanding your own personality style, as well as understanding those with whom you interact. |
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Monday, 12/7 1pm EST |
What is Data Literacy and Why Is It Important? Join us in discussing what data literacy is and why it’s important for librarians of all types. Presenters will examine data literacy in both public and academic library contexts and how this is already an integral part of librarians’ work. We’ll end by considering how librarians can leverage data literacy skills to become better advocates for themselves, their libraries, and communities. |
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Tuesday, 12/8 2pm EST |
Decolonizing Subject Headings and Collections This presentation will address the importance of ethical cataloging in challenging multiple forms of bias in descriptor assignment and collection building. Control of such bias supports accurate, equitable, and inclusive collection access and increases findability of relevant resources. Presenters will cover how cataloging and reference/instruction librarians inform each other’s work to support the goal of critical, responsible librarianship. |
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Wednesday, 12/9 2pm EST |
How to Create Fundable Grant Proposals: ASERL Grantwriting Series Building on 15 years of developing workflows and systems for managing all aspects of library grantseeking at the University of Arizona and University of Florida, this grant webinar series will share best practices including checklist examples for guidelines and workflows, funding alerts describing funding opportunities for libraries, and templates for sharing submitted and pending proposals with library employees. Behind the scenes stories will divulge unusual ways ideas were generated for fundable projects, and how ideas developed through engagement with a diverse array of experts and assets. Stories will share details of what happened after project teams received their awards, and ways by which teams managed to complete projects successfully. Featured projects will highlight a variety of grant-funded activities including outreach, digitization, training, acquisition of materials, planning and collaborations with diverse partners and for diverse materials. |
ASERL |
Thursday, 12/10 2pm EST |
Why Did I Leave the Profession? --The DEI Perspective Join us for an eye opening discussions as 3 former librarians discuss why they left the profession. Co-moderated by Twanna Hodge (DEI Librarian, University of Florida) we will ask the panelists: Why did you decide to become a librarian? How were you recruited? Describe your experience working in libraries? How long did you stay in the profession? Why did you leave? What did you like about being a librarian? What was frustrating? What advice would you provide DEI and other committees who are designing recruitment/retention programs? After our questions, we will open it up to the audience for a lively discussion. Ira Revels is the Owner and Principal of Ira Revels Consulting, LLC a Connecticut-based management consulting company. Ira has nearly 20 years operating in fast-paced, high-performance organizations and teams. Her professional background includes Strategic Management Consulting, Educational Technology, Fundraising, Training, and Facilitation. Michael Eric Owens is President of M.E.O. Consulting. He is a distinguished scholar, writer, and speaker. Michael is also the founder of and serves as the Executive Director of the Ralph Ellison Foundation. He is the host of the One Mic, One Voice show, which has an international listening audience. Rinata White is a Student Music Therapist, Teacher and Former Librarian. |
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Wednesday, 12/16, 11am EST |
Communicating Value through Storytelling Storytelling has been happening for over a century in libraries, but its applications are too often presumed to be narrowly focused on serving children. The skills involved in navigating a dynamic exchange between teller, audience, and story are applicable to the most pressing problems facing libraries and librarians in the 21st century, those of communicating our knowledge and value. This talk will feature storytelling insights based on over 40 interviews from the Storytelling @ Work project, and combining insights from librarians with those from storytelling applications in advancement and fundraising. Participants will leave with narrative structures for building informative and emotionally compelling stories from their own knowledge and experience to communicate their value. |
CARLI |