Whether as a refresher or an introduction, this session details the art of the reference interview, including the behaviors of reference service providers, the steps for conducting an effective interview, strategies for when a transaction goes wrong, and tips to assess interactions.

Health literacy is obtaining, processing, and understanding basic health information and services. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy indicates that only 12% of Americans have the necessary health literacy skills to meet their needs, including locating health services, understanding drug labels, and following treatment instructions. This session explores reliable consumer health resources and ways to determine the quality and trustworthiness of online health information.

Libraries support job seekers with job searching, resume building and interview preparation. Examine tools and AI chat prompts to help job seekers find the right role and apply with confidence.

While offering expert guidance and support across complex information landscapes, library staff also navigate their own legal and ethical responsibilities in the provision of reference services. Detailing the most pressing legal and ethical considerations for reference services - digital literacy, equity of access, patron confidentiality, intellectual freedom, and copyright - library staff can balance their professional responsibilities at the reference desk.

While most people are familiar with a dictionary or encyclopedia, knowing when to use the right resource for the right question may still be a mystery – and that doesn’t even cover the more specific uses of handbooks, serials, and databases. With an overview of the most popular reference formats and their uses, this session will help staff connect the right resource to the right questions at the reference desk.

Whether print or digital, users expect a library's reference collection to be ready to address their questions, whether simple or complex. Acquiring and maintaining a reference collection is essential in offering reference services to library users. Learn how to appraise reference resources, develop a sustainable reference collection development policy, and organize and make accessible print and digital resources for users.

Whether subject experts, novice researchers, or curious learners, library users present staff with a range of information needs. With an overview of skills to address face-to-face and virtual interactions, this session addresses today's library reference transactions. By highlighting common barriers to productive reference interactions and practicing techniques to overcome them, staff will have the confidence to engage in the reference interview.

Health literacy is obtaining, processing, and understanding basic health information and services. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy indicates that only 12% of Americans have the necessary health literacy skills to meet their needs, including locating health services, understanding drug labels, and following treatment instructions. Libraries are a natural conduit for working to improve the health literacy of their communities. This session provides examples of ways in which libraries can incorporate health literacy into programs and services.

Have you recently been tasked with providing research data management services to your faculty and students but do not know where to start? Many grant funders and publishers are requiring authors and researchers to document how they will organize, share, and archive the data produced in their research, developing a research data management plan is quickly becoming an important part of the publishing process.

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.