Libraries often must justify collection decisions and find creative ways to remove barriers to access. Attaining a broad understanding of intellectual freedom as a professional value will strengthen librarian’s ability to navigate challenges and implement effective policies.

Blogs and newsletters are still a great way to reach various library user audiences. In this session we will break down the components and best practices of effective library blogs and newsletters. Whether you are looking to refresh or launch a library blog or newsletter, this session will give you the tools. We will look a example library blogs and newsletters as well as free and low cost applications to support these library communication channels.

A well-run library depends on established processes and workflows to get work done. But this can also raise the risk of doing things "because that's how it's always been done." Identify and eliminate redundant and time-consuming tasks, automate repetitive processes, and prioritize essential activities using workflow analyses, process mapping, task prioritization, and automation tools. Form a plan for the continuous evaluation of processes and workflows resulting in improved service quality and enhanced user satisfaction.

Is your library's content timely, accurate, relevant, and consistent? Having a coherent content strategy can help you plan, create, publish, and manage content in an effective manner. This course will help you understand what a content strategy is and how to implement and maintain a strategy that suits your organization.

Libraries are facing unprecedented challenges in attracting, developing, and retaining talented staff. Now more than ever, managers and leaders must create a positive workplace culture, offer a strategic vision, and foster communication to motivate and retain library staff. With helpful guidance and model practices, conquer the managerial challenges that damage staff morale and mitigate their impact.

This introduction to teaching information literacy (IL) defines information literacy as a concept, introduces the ACRL Framework and other IL standards, and reviews teaching methods. Instructional design concepts will help learners improve their instruction.

Are you responsible for acquisitions at your library, but feeling like you don't know where to start? Or just looking to learn more about this area of library work? Acquisitions work, which involves ordering, receiving, and paying for library materials, is a very important factor in getting library patrons access to the resources they need. Topics covered include goals and methods of acquisitions, budget management, and relationship building with vendors and publishers.

This class takes students beyond basic archival processing guidelines to address how to deal with specific types of items found in collections such as newspaper clippings and post-it notes. Attendees will take a more specific look at the description of items and folders. Both Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) will be explored more in-depth to help students create better finding aids.

From academic journals to popular magazines, serials make up a sizable and frequently used portion of libraries' collections. Understand the fundamental principles of serials cataloging, including defining the nature of serials and progress to copy cataloging serials, creating original serial records, and dealing with title changes.

OpenRefine, formerly known as Google Refine, is a powerful open-source tool for working with messy data. As the amount of data grows, so do the errors and inconsistencies, leading to more time required to manually correct these issues. This course will introduce and review OpenRefine, the software which allows users to quickly view, identify inconsistencies in, and enhance a variety of data.