What Will We Keep: Creating the Next Remix of Library Services ~ Schedule

Session Description:
Too often, wellness and care are rooted in unmindful practices that do not truly address issues and challenges faced in our profession. Library services must reevaluate wellness and care for the benefit of library workers and the profession as a whole. Through discussion and exercises, this session will be a safe space to reflect on growth and breaking down barriers to our wellbeing. Bring along a pen and paper or favorite note taking app to answer honest reflection questions on the topic. Participants will leave with new outlooks and ways to approach wellness and care within the profession from a mindful lens.

Session Description:
Join McAllen Public Library as we dive into the world of all things curbside! We will share ideas and discuss how we learned to overcome challenges and start new, creative, and innovative ways to serve your community throughout the pandemic using curbside services.

Session Description:
In recent years, more and more library services are becoming digitized. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Arkansas , this transition has had to go into overdrive. From last March to the present, the Ottenheimer Library has been forced to limit or eliminate some physical services, such as in­ stacks browsing, in-person reference appointments and course reserves. While this time has provided an opportunity to examine what can be pared down, it has also highlighted the necessity of physical services for our patrons with accessibility concerns. This presentation will examine how virtual tools can be used to complement and streamline some physical services, and how they can potentially be used to replace others. It will also address what technological barriers some patrons face, and propose ways to help them overcome those challenges.

Session Description:
This session will detail the transferrable changes that have been implemented by two new leaders in the Texas Woman's University Libraries Access Services department as they strive to maintain departmental morale, continue to provide useful services to patrons, and keep their team safe and healthy while working through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The presenters will explore the challenges faced and the solutions they have created while transitioning from an in-person to an online, and then back to a (mostly) in-person, work environment. Topics will include: using Google Suite and Google Meet to create departmental documents and procedures that are easily accessible and executable by all members of the Access Services department, full-time staff and student assistants alike; re-evaluating the duties, responsibilities, and expectations for a large student staff; reconfiguring workspaces to comply with social distancing regulations; and the creation of virtual service points in an effort to provide services that feel "normal" during our "new normal."

TWU is excited to share and discuss these solutions and hope to encourage other libraries to use any of this information to their own advantage. As we explore how these ideas have contributed to an unexpectedly smooth day-to-day experience during these difficult times we are excited to consider how they may be implemented in the future.

Session Description:
As virtual services and programs are here to stay, this is a historic opportunity to include people with disabilities – many of whom have historically had difficulties using libraries. Discover basic steps to make your virtual programs accessible to the disability communities you serve. Learn to identify and address barriers to virtual services and explore involving the disability community in developing your services. Great libraries are for everyone.

Session Description:
Maintaining student engagement despite constantly shifting services and resources is always challenging, but has proved even more so throughout COVID-19. Additionally, enticing students to visit the library, much less introducing them to the wide array of services we offer, sometimes seems impossible. To compensate for the lack of in-person engagement opportunities we are able to offer, the Collin College Libraries hosted a Virtual Open House and Escape Room via Zoom at the beginning of the Spring 2021 semester. As Collin College continues to navigate the benefits and challenges of offering hybrid courses, the five campus Libraries were able to take advantage of campus-wide familiarity with Zoom to introduce students to the Library's electronic services and resources. After a brief introduction to the Library's virtual space, Collin College librarians hosted escape (breakout) rooms, which were followed by the opportunity for students to meet and visit with campus-specific librarians for a virtual tour and doubled as a venue for remaining questions. This session will focus on the development of the components of the Virtual Open House including, the creation of the escape room using Google Forms, the strategies we used to market the event, the metrics we used to evaluate the success, and what we learned from this experience.

Session Description:
A longtime tradition, book clubs remain a staple in library services. Two libraries will share their experiences with book clubs during the pandemic - Eastern Oklahoma Library District transitioned an existing book club to online and Lindenwood University launched an online book club for alumni, students, faculty and staff. Presenters will share platforms, plans and resources used to make their efforts in both environments a success! Come to this session to learn all this plus how to use book clubs to cultivate connection in your community.

Session Description:
Learn about this library's journey pivoting from in-person to online services. In this session, participants will learn how to create and offer virtual and asynchronous programming to their communities, with a focus on students and educators; how to make virtual programs more personal, with a focus on Zoom best practices; and how to provide technology assistance when you can't see the patron's computer or device. The presenters will share their experiences in these areas of outreach, programming and technology assistance, and attendees will learn the strategies that made their transitions a success!

Session Description:
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit and lock-downs became reality in early 2020, these academic libraries both worked to successfully take their libraries fully remote last spring. This session will share how two different campus libraries from the Texas A&M University System quickly adapted to assist their unique campuses to meet the needs of the new reality of virtual research and learning. The popularity among students, staff, and faculty of many of these service adaptations has led to permanent changes these campuses will keep going forward.

Texas A&M University-Central Texas (A&M-Central Texas) is an upper division university located in Killeen, Texas, serving a largely nontraditional student body. At A&M-Central Texas the average student age is 34, the majority attend part time, and 40 percent are affiliated with the military.

The librarians from A&M-Central Texas will share how they utilized their resources, as well as existing university and community partnerships, to adjust technology, community outreach, delivery of services (particularly reference) to adapt to a remote student body in need of academic resources. This presentation will share how a library can pivot and adapt to change while using their current resources and why they should remain open to learning what works for their library's future.

Texas A&M University-San Antonio (A&M-SA) is a contemporary university reflective of the diverse and heritage-rich community it serves. Founded as the first upper-division institution of higher education in South San Antonio, it currently serves nearly 6,500 students. The student body is 60 percent female, 72 percent Hispanic, and approximately 77 percent of students are the first in their family to attend college.

Attendees will take away concrete examples of changes A&M-SA library staff made in research services, public services, and cataloging. Library staff will examine the pros and cons of the changes made to help other libraries decide if they want to implement these changes at their home institutions. Attendees will learn how to catalog and deliver books to faculty while working remotely, transition traditionally face-to-face research services and come away with virtual programming ideas and grab and go craft activities.