Amigos 2013 Annual Member Conference

How much is a little creativity worth to your organization and to your career? Creative thought can be used to generate new ideas, solve problems and yes, even to help you make it through your workday with a different perspective and attitude! This engaging presentation is full of exercises and information you’ll want to use immediately to engage the right (creative) side of your brain and to improve your connectivity with the left (logical) side.

In the keynote to our conference, Andrew will show you:

• Three things you can do “differently” at home to increase your creative thought connection
• Two things you can do “differently” at work (either by yourself or with others) to solve problems and generate ideas

He will also help you overcome three of the primary reasons you may not be as creative as you’d like.

Trails Regional Library recently undertook a project to acquire and learn to use equipment and software to create high-quality video content. Through extensive testing, staff were able to produce a variety of videos that served very different purposes. In this session, Kyle will share lessons learned and offer advice on starting from nothing and ending with a working video production environment.

Librarian Design Share is a website hosted by April Aultman Becker and Veronica Arellano Douglas and powered by design-minded librarians everywhere. Much of the work librarians do involves creating flyers, displays, handouts, websites and other designs that look good and convey helpful information. Very few librarians have any kind of formal design training and often rely on personal aesthetic preferences along with the opinions and ideas of colleagues. Because of this, Becker and Douglas decided that people who work in libraries really need a space to share their design work and gain inspiration from the work of others. In the spirit of Stephen X. Flynn’s awesome Open Cover Letters project, they created an open online repository of interesting library-related designs. In this program, Becker and Douglas will highlight the website and discuss the processes they go through and the tools they use to create their library designs.

There's no "I" in team but the personal attributes and behaviors that individuals bring to the work place greatly influence the work that does or doesn't get done. Because horses mirror human thoughts, emotions and behaviors, equine-assisted learning activities can be structured to open and facilitate difficult discussions about how team members relate to each other, approach problem solving, and accomplish the work of an organization.

The Houston Area Digital Archives provides open, online access to the rich collections of the Houston Public Library and other community archives by digitizing books, audio and video materials, documents, photographs, manuscripts, maps, memorabilia and more. Along the way, they have also devised new and clever ways to highlight these collections and engage a wide range of users with their content. These projects include curriculum materials, oral history clips, interactive timelines, and a few other surprises. Join Sewell and Castillo as they share and explore these exciting methods that you too can use to highlight your digital collections.

Technology is constantly changing – so much so that it is difficult to keep up.

What did you miss during the past year? Find out as Chris discusses what’s new, what’s different...and what’s surprising!

Prioritizing and processing the cataloging for new e-resources can be difficult to manage because there are no physical items sitting on a shelf demanding your attention. The staff at Texas State University - Alkek Library found that using email to pass purchased material to Acquisitions staff and Cataloging for record processing was inefficient and ineffective. They found a creative solution by using a modified version of workflows in Microsoft SharePoint to queue and prioritize e-resources that which need to be cataloged. This innovative workflow simplified the process of passing MARC records and other information from the Acquisitions unit to the Cataloging unit and provided transparency to the backlog.

In this session the presenter will briefly explain what did not work before providing a step-by-step demonstration of the innovative new workflow. The audience will learn what modifications were made to the out-of-the box SharePoint workflow and will be able to create a custom workflow to fit their needs.

One of George’s colleagues at his very first library job asked him, "How many librarians does it take to change a light bulb?" One of the fundamentals of life is change and, as has often been noted, the only constant is change. This short program will introduce John Kotter's framework for introducing, leading, and embedding change. George promises no miracles, but this step-by-step process can help you navigate successfully in even the most intransigent organizations. Oh, and George will answer that light bulb question in his session!

One of the action items prerequisite to the implementation of RDA was to "demonstrate credible progress towards a replacement for MARC." (RDA Test Report, 2011) The Library of Congress launched its Bibliographic Framework Initiative in May 2011. This session will review LC's "Bibliographic Framework as a Web of Data: Linked Data Model and Supporting Services," known as BibFrame, which was released November 21, 2012. Topics will include evolution of the web, components of the BibFrame model and sample RDF instances of BibFrame components.

Decision making takes ingenuity, imagination and innovation! It is a non-linear process of sufficiently reducing uncertainty and doubt about alternatives to allow a reasonable choice to be made from among them. This session will review tools and techniques to use in making decisions and how to avoid common traps so that you can apply creativity to the decision-making process.

3D printing is a technology that brings three-dimensional computer models to life as a tangible physical object. Recent reductions in the cost of this technology have made it a hot topic for DIYers and the "maker movement." In an academic library, it is apparent that disciplines as wide-ranging as Art & Design, Business, Engineering, and many more can make use of this technology as a tool for creation, prototyping, modeling, and other activities and research limited only by imagination. The library has always been a center for gathering, processing, and transforming information and thus is the natural home for a service that facilitates creation and sharing of information in ways not previously available. Since launching a 3D printing service in September 2012, SIU's Lovejoy Library has seen interest in the technology from students and faculty in several disciplines. Usage statistics and feedback from users have been collected, and web statistics for the service’s web pages indicate even more interest than can be seen in the usage statistics. A survey is being developed to collect additional information from potential users to investigate the discrepancy, and ongoing improvements to the service are planned. This session will describe Lovejoy Library’s implementation of the service and the equipment and software involved.

Are you looking for ways to promote your library, demonstrate your library’s value, and recognize academic achievement? Have you considered creating a research award? This presentation will focus on the establishment of a research prize that was created at MidAmerica Nazarene University. The presenter will discuss initial steps taken in creating a research award, how it has been implemented, and how the prize is awarded. The presentation will include successes and failures experienced during the first year of implementation.

As leaders of their libraries and connectors within their larger organizations and communities, librarians are in a unique position to drive, encourage, and enable change. Whether you are the quintessential quiet type or more gregarious in nature, you can find creative ways to improve your library and community. In this session, Downey will outline ways that you can leverage your position as a librarian and use creative problem solving techniques to be a change agent.