2023 ALD/ACRL-WA and ACRL-OR Joint Fall Conference

Program schedule subject to change. Additional sessions are being finalized; check back soon for more!

In-Person Schedule

Thursday, October 26 | 3:00 pm & 5:00 pm

Lower Columbia College Library Tours
For those arriving the day before the conference, you'll have an opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the Lower Columbia College's Alan Thompson Library! Tours will be offered at 3:30 and 5:00 pm.

Thursday, October 26 | 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Meetups & Dine Arounds | Offsite
Do you want to catch up with alumni from your alma mater? Meet others who share particular interests or job roles? We encourage you to use Discord to join and schedule meetups! On Thursday evening, you'll have the opportunity to join Dine-Around meetups or host your own.

We have reserved a private space in Grant's at the Monticello Hotel for a Dine-Around on Thursday, October 26 at 6:00 pm. This restaurant is a short walk from Lower Columbia College. There is a maximum capacity of 25 guests on a first come, first served basis.

Friday, October 27 | 7:30–8:30 AM

Check In & Breakfast | Rose Center Lobby
Pick up your name badge and enjoy a breakfast buffet in the Rose Center for the Arts lobby before our Opening Keynote Panel.

Friday, October 27 | 8:30–9:30 AM

Opening Keynote Panel | Rose Center Auditorium
Sustainability & Structures: Navigating Burnout in the Workplace Beyond Individual Approaches 

We’ve all heard about burnout among academic library workers—the result of increased workloads, stress, lack of support, and other factors—but the conversation often remains centered around individual responsibility and self-care tips. This panel will bring together library and education workers to discuss the systemic and structural factors that contribute to burnout, as well as the ways library workers, supervisors, and administrators can advocate for more sustainable approaches. What could a sustainable future look like for our organizations and our working lives? How can we create structures that support workers and empower the marginalized among them? You'll hear about the research behind burnout in higher education, personal experiences, and strategic approaches.

Anne Pepitone, University of Washington
Amanda Villagomez, Eastern Oregon University
Max Macias, Portland Community College
Annie Downey, University of Washington Tacoma

Friday, October 27 | 9:45–10:30 AM | Breakout Sessions I

"Show Your Work!" Developing Documentation for Continuity & Efficiency – Pt. 1 | Student Center 
You've probably experienced it—you start a new job and there's no record of how the work is done. It's frustrating, confusing, and leads to mistakes and duplication of effort. Training manuals, process maps, quick reference guides, checklists... Process documentation can take many forms. Any library can benefit from adding to or improving its work documentation. Why? Because documentation encourages knowledge sharing, allows teams to look at work with fresh eyes, mitigates disruption with staff turnover, and improves consistency and accuracy. It can also be an important tool for demonstrating value and building strategic direction.

Carleigh Hill, Services Manager, Washington Community & Technical Colleges Library Consortium

Would a Faculty Librarian by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet? | Health Sciences Building 
In sharing our experience of adjusting to new roles with faculty status, we will introduce existing scholarship and writing on faculty status for librarians, and offer a reexamination of this topic in light of current debates around academic freedom and tenure across higher education in the US. We will also examine aspects of faculty and staff status, and the accompanying promotion standards through a DEI lens. This presentation will introduce newer professionals to the established debates about faculty status, and challenge experienced library professionals to re-visit assumptions about the value of faculty and status in US colleges and universities today. 

Ekaterini Papadopoulou, Health Science Librarian, Seattle University
Jason Hall, Business Librarian, Seattle University

Lightning Talks I | Rose Center Auditorium 
Join us for three lightning-fast presentations on the topics of unions, managing executive dysfunction, and dealing with extra work.

#1 – Using Unions to Combat Vocational & Institutional Awe in Academic Libraries
Within libraries and academia, there are many workers who take immense pride in the work that they do and have a deep passion for their fields. Unfortunately, both these institutions rely on this vocational and institutional awe to justify increased workloads, slashed budgets, and stagnant compensation. This talk will focus on how unions can serve as a vital tool to push back on administrators, center academic library jobs as work, and build solidarity with others on campus. It will discuss both union organizing and union sustainability, drawing on the presenter's own experiences in her faculty union.

Diana Castillo, Business/Social Science Data Librarian, Oregon State University

#2 –To All the Productivity Hacks I've Known: Managing Executive Dysfunction at Work
Any role in libraries is likely to ask a lot of our executive functions, and for those of us who experience executive DYSfunction with any regularity, keeping up with this work can pose an ongoing challenge. This lightning talk is a light-hearted overview of my many attempts to manage my own executive dysfunction using a variety of “productivity hacks.” In my ongoing mission to keep myself engaged in my role as a STEM librarian, I’ve tried bullet journaling, gratitude journaling, kanban boards, complex calendaring systems, and more. So far, none has stuck, and I think I might have figured out why. I will use my own experiences to highlight the problems behind the concept of productivity hacks, and the quiet power in accepting our limitations at work.

Nicole Gustavsen, STEM Specialist Librarian, Gonzaga University

#3 –Filling Your Plate: Building a Framework to Respond to Assigned Ownership of Extra Work
Most library professionals have a full plate, no matter the setting they are working in. We are also frequently tasked with extra projects or duties beyond our immediate scope of work, from teaching privacy workshops to compiling a ChatGPT research guide. Extra work is time-consuming and may be outside our areas of expertise and interest, but is often unavoidable. Let’s discuss how to build a framework for aligning extra work with our interests, strengths, time, and goals. Early-career attendees will gain confidence, and mid-career attendees leave with refreshed positive thinking to negotiate and convey doable expectations for assigned extra work.

Jennifer Bodley, Librarian, Seattle University

 Friday, October 27 | 10:45 - 11:30 AM | Breakout Sessions II

"Show Your Work!" Developing Documentation for Continuity & Efficiency – Pt. 2 | Student Center 
You've probably experienced it—you start a new job and there's no record of how the work is done. It's frustrating, confusing, and leads to mistakes and duplication of effort. Training manuals, process maps, quick reference guides, checklists... Process documentation can take many forms. Any library can benefit from adding to or improving its work documentation. Why? Because documentation encourages knowledge sharing, allows teams to look at work with fresh eyes, mitigates disruption with staff turnover, and improves consistency and accuracy. It can also be an important tool for demonstrating value and building strategic direction.

Carleigh Hill, Services Manager, Washington Community & Technical Colleges Library Consortium

Children Belong: Re-envisioning Academic Library Support for Student-Parents | Health Sciences Building 
Our presentation tells the story of how we reimagined our services, highlighting that the work of academic libraries need not look like it always has. At our organization, we had the opportunity created through staff interest and budget windfalls to reflect on what important community needs were being unmet. Our urban-serving university supports many learners who are caregivers, whose ability to thrive in college is predicated on spaces welcoming children. Recognizing this need for change, our staff devoted time, creativity, and joy to re-envision our library as one where children belong—and their caregivers are supported. This talk highlights our own case-study of being the only West Coast academic library with a caregiver-child study carrel, and posits the question: How does this re-envisioning impact student success and staff well-being?

Megan Elizabeth Gregory, Learning Commons & Access Services Manager, University of Washington Tacoma Library
Johanna Jacobsen Kiciman, Education and Research Help Librarian, University of Washington Tacoma Library

Pralmalytics: How We Created a Functional Workgroup to Support Neurodivergent Work Styles | Rose Center Auditorium 
In January of 2023, three librarians at our university library created an informal functional workgroup with the goal of better managing and distributing our Alma/Primo ILS work and making it more fun with a silly group name and logo. However, this group quickly expanded into a forum for discussing our neurodivergent work preferences and challenges. This presentation details the evolution of this group and how the inadvertent creation of a neurodivergent supportive space resulted in a renewed interest in our work. The renewed interest and satisfaction paved the way for more shared strategic goals, improved documentation and sharing of the value of our work, and enhanced communication and collaboration between back-end and front-end departments and services.

Katie Townsend, Collections Librarian, Eastern Oregon University
Sarah Rowland, Assistant Library Director, Eastern Oregon University
Jeremiah Kellogg, Systems Librarian, Eastern Oregon University Library

Friday, October 27 | 11:45 - 1:00 PM | 1 hour 15 minutes

Lunch | Student Center Cafeteria 

Friday, October 27 | 1:15 - 2:00 PM | Breakout Sessions III

Regional Library Workers & the MLS/MLIS Unconference | Student Center 
Are you satisfied with the current reality of regional library work, or do you find yourself constrained by hierarchies, expectations, and professional requirements? Come to this unconference if you’d like to connect on the topics of…

• practices or programs for making the MLS/MLIS experience more accessible and authentic, particularly for underrepresented and marginalized populations
• parallel pathways to (or alternative credentialing for) librarian positions
• increasing equity between library worker classifications (in terms of compensation, benefits, professional development funding, institutional and disciplinary power, & etc.)

The conveners for this topic will not be presenting expertise. The goals of this unconference include developing connections, formalizing a discussion forum, and brainstorming research questions.

For participants interested in some light pre-work, materials and prompts can be found here.

Je Salvador, Computer Science & Engineering / Research & Instruction Librarian, UW Bothell & Cascadia College Campus Library
Joanne Chern, Research & Instruction Librarian, UW Bothell & Cascadia College Campus Library

Publishing Student Voices: From One Library to Publishing Collective | Health Sciences Building 
This presentation will describe the evolution of a collaborative open pedagogy project representing student writing and art into a regional publishing collective. One librarian started a project in collaboration with English language learner and art faculty to create library books that represent student voices while filling a gap in the collection. The project has become an annual collaboration, valued by faculty and students, and concludes with a library storytelling event. The project has evolved to become a regional publishing collective, including five community college libraries, with the goal of developing a regional collection of books with student voices. Please join us!

Sue Wozniak, Faculty Librarian, Lake Washington Institute of Technology
Chelsea Nesvig, Research & Instruction/Global & Policy Studies Librarian, UW Bothell & Cascadia College

Automating for Success: Making Invisible Work Visible | Rose Center Auditorium 
Knowing your value and optimizing your time can help meet your professional and institutional goals. We describe how an ad-hoc team of people from three different departments, with three different primary goals, were able to successfully complete a project to automate the collection and dissemination of cost-per-use data for continuing resources, saving our colleagues many hours of work, and creating a dashboard that requires little maintenance. In the process we learned a bunch of current technology—Power BI, APIs, and data visualization, to name a few that we can apply to other projects. 

Lydia Harlan, Budget Analyst for Collections and Discovery Services, University of Oregon Libraries
Kristin Buxton, Science Librarian, University of Oregon
Gabriele Hayden, Research Data Management and Reproducibility Librarian, University of Oregon

Friday, October 27 | 2:15 - 3:00 PM | Breakout Sessions IV

Share the Work! Problem-Solving Meet-Up & Unconference – Pt. 1 | Student Center 
This meet-up is designed to be a way for connection-making over supporting common problems that need collective solutions! This casual session will encourage participants to start conversations on real-world problems that need real-world solutions.

Greg Bem, Librarian, Spokane Community College

Lightning Talks II | Rose Center Auditorium 
Join us for three lightning-fast presentations on the topics of student-created LibGuides, a reparations-informed collections model, and the labor of conference planning.

#1 – Student-Created LibGuides as Demonstrations of Learning
Participants will learn about how students in our five-credit Library 201 class, combined with a five-credit English 102 class in a Learning Community, did a quarter-long scaffolded research project where, as a final project, they created Library Guides on their topics. Their Library Guides consisted of a three-page guide on their topics, including a thesis and an abstract—covering their sources, justifying their information choices, and explaining their learning objectives—as well as a reflection on the process and advice for future researchers.

Libby Sullivan, Faculty Librarian, Skagit Valley College
Elena Bianco, Faculty Librarian, Skagit Valley College

#2 – Paying It Back: A Reparations-Informed Collections Purchasing Model
This lightning talk outlines a reparations-informed purchasing model pilot program that intentionally redirects funds from large scale corporate distribution services to small, BIPOC-owned bookstores. The pilot is rooted in the belief that BIPOC communities should fiscally benefit from content about them, that BIPOC bookstore owners are content curators whose expertise is currently underutilized by library collection builders, and that there is a critical need to normalize collection purchasing models which prioritize social justice and equity over automation and efficiency. Pilot project structure, challenges, and successes will be discussed and tips to advocate for model adoption at attendee’s home institutions will be provided.

Amy Tureen, Dean, Academic Success Programs, South Puget Sound Community College

#3 – Behind the Curtain: The Labor of Conference Planning
WLA leaders and staff will share a glimpse into the intricate world of operating a statewide association and planning conferences like this one. From selecting venues to designing engaging programs, managing logistics, and fostering committee collaboration, we will share insights into the labor-intensive yet rewarding journey that has brought us all together for this event.

Can You Run an Academic Library Like a Committee? | Health Sciences Building 
In 2021, our university libraries went from the normal structure of a separate college with a dean, to a school in the College of Professional Programs with a chair/director. The first year was very stressful, so in September 2022, we held an all faculty and staff retreat. The consensus was to try a different approach for internal issues. We formed committees and task forces, including all the faculty and staff, for decision-making. This session will discuss this approach of actively seeking out feedback from all the library workers, while leaving time to have a discussion with the audience on their strategies for engaging all the staff in decision-making.

Ielleen Miller, Humanities Librarian & Chair/Director of the School of Libraries, Eastern Washington University

Friday, October 27 | 3:15 - 4:00 PM | Breakout Sessions V

Share the Work! Problem-Solving Meet-Up & Unconference – Pt. 2 | Student Center 
This meet-up is designed to be a way for connection-making over supporting common problems that need collective solutions! This casual session will encourage participants to start conversations on real-world problems that need real-world solutions.

Greg Bem, Librarian, Spokane Community College

The ABCs of Research: Building Research Teams that Are Accessible, Beneficial & Collaborative | Rose Center Auditorium 
Research can often be considered a burden—an isolating chore viewed as just another requirement on top of the many day-to-day responsibilities of library workers. However, for two early career librarians, research became a formative, joyful, and intellectually stimulating experience when they joined a collaborative research team studying how young adults find and use information. In this presentation, the two librarians, now mid-career, will share how they became involved with this research project, describe how the studies informed their work, provide recommendations for making research more accessible, and explain how to replicate this collaborative environment for various types of projects.

Kirsten Hostetler, Instruction and Outreach Faculty Librarian, Central Oregon Community College
Alaina Bull, Humanities and Student Success Librarian, University of Washington, Tacoma

Small Gestures, High Impact, and the Learning Commons as a Place that Feels like Home | Health Sciences Building 

How can we make our daily interactions with patrons, student workers, and colleagues meaningful? How can we ensure our student workers feel like part of the team? Join us in this interactive session to learn from each other about how even the smallest interactions with students and student workers could positively impact their academic success and give them a sense of purpose and belonging.

Linda García, Circulation Manager, Lower Columbia College
Lindsay Keevy, Library Director/Faculty Librarian, Lower Columbia College

Friday, October 27 | 4:30 - 5:00 PM | Closing Remarks

Closing Remarks & Reflection | Rose Center Auditorium

As we prepare to head back to our libraries, join us for some closing words and an opportunity to reflect on what you've learned over the course of the day.

Virtual, Pre-Recorded Asynchronous Sessions | 45 minutes

Recognizing Invisible Labor: Communicating the Value of Library Faculty Work
Within higher education where teaching loads measure the value of faculty labor, the work of academic librarians is frequently “invisible.” This session will detail how administration and faculty librarians at our university are collaborating to develop workload policies and practices that create clarity and transparency around library faculty work to better advocate for equitable workloads and compensation more in line with other campus faculty. Strategies such as workload redistribution, increased support for teaching and research, transparent evaluation and reward systems, and fostering better work/life balance can mitigate workload issues and demonstrate the value of academic librarians’ labor.

Carrie Forbes, University Librarian, Southern Oregon University
Melissa Anderson, Campus Engagement & Research Services Librarian, Southern Oregon University

Cooking Up a Collective: How to Build a Community of Practice that Focuses on Our Work
If you want to make a workers’ collective (basically a community of practice), you need three ingredients: a domain, a community, and a practice. In this presentation, you will learn about how we started and evolved the UW Libraries Digital Scholarship Collective and how we run and maintain the craft workshops, escape rooms, and community agreements that make it go. You will also learn about how collectives bring horizontal spaces for workers in hierarchical organizations and why such spaces are crucial to focus on, improve, and celebrate the actual work of library workers. 

Erika Bailey, Urban Studies and Digital Scholarship Librarian, University of Washington Tacoma Library
Elliott Stevens, English Studies and Research Commons Librarian, University of Washington Libraries

Zines in Academic Libraries: Workshops, Engagement, Materials & Collecting
Zines have been increasingly popular in academic libraries, and librarians often want to try out offering zine-making workshops as a form of outreach and engagement. In this lightning talk, I’ll explain what a zine is and share a rundown of its history and legacy. Learn how to make a simple zine, what goes into organizing a workshop, what engaging with faculty and students can look like with zines, and things to know if you want to start offering your own zine workshops or start collecting zines.

Shelley Carr, Student Engagement Librarian, Seattle University

Cultivating Belonging: Creating an Inclusive Academic Library Through Student-led Initiatives
With peer-assisted learning flourishing at many academic libraries, student involvement in reference and even instruction is becoming increasingly common. But can students play a similar role in contributing and supporting the library's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that promote diversity and inclusivity, and the engagement in issues of importance to the overall diverse campus community? This session highlights initiatives begun in the year of 2022-23 to showcase both one academic library’s efforts in advancing its DEI commitment and the active involvement of students and student workers in these efforts. The logistics, benefits and challenges for involving students and student workers will be detailed, and tips for establishing similar initiatives at your own institution will be discussed.

Qing Stellwagen, Diversity & Inclusion Studies Librarian; Librarian for Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies, Political Science, and International  Affairs, Eastern Washington University
Ielleen Miller, Humanities Librarian and the Library Faculty Chair/Director of the School of Libraries, Eastern Washington University

Creating a Culture of Librarian Researchers at the University Library
The way library work is structured can be a barrier to library staff interested in participating in research and scholarship activities, especially for those who are required or encouraged as part of retention or promotion requirements. Responsibilities such as subject liaisonship, functional roles, and/or administrative roles—coupled with teaching, reference, outreach, service commitments, and “other duties as assigned”—significantly impact the capacity to participate in research and scholarship. This session will share an effort to build a culture of librarian researchers at one university library through the creation of a research writing group and advocacy for designated “research days.”

Ngoc-Yen Tran, Scholarly Services Librarian, Seattle University

Legal Research Tools for Academic Librarians 
Students and faculty often seek access to legal information regarding interdisciplinary research projects. There are a number of effective tools available that do not require expensive access to Westlaw or Lexis. This presentation will show you how to find, use, and teach others to use these tools.

Rob Mead, State Law Librarian, Washington State Law Library

Department Outreach: Pitfalls, Brick Walls & the Joys of Connection 
Librarian liaisonship is built into the fabric of daily life in many academic libraries, and department subject responsibilities have become a major topic of conversation. Engagement from university partners can vary widely, from excited collaboration to ignored outreach. This session is designed to spark conversation and encourage participants to dive into strategies you can use on your own campuses. We'll discuss experiences of liaisonship from someone new to the role as well as from someone who has worked with a variety of academic departments. Let's talk about the pitfalls, brick walls, and joys of connection as we explore the ever-changing role of the subject liaison librarian.

Dr. Toria Messinger, Communication and Assessment Librarian, Central Washington University
Elizabeth Brown, Instruction Coordinator, Central Washington University
Bridgette Flamenco, Research & Instruction Librarian, Central Washington University

Proving Your Library Value through Developing Credit Information Literacy Curriculum: A Case Study of a Medium-Sized Academic Library
In the current complex information landscape, academic libraries play an increasingly important role in students’ long-term academic success. Librarians at a regional comprehensive university have successfully created their libraries’ first information literacy for-credit courses for high-demand programs. The presenters detail the efforts that went into the implementation of this initiative and the significance of reaffirming the library’s place as a vital partner in student learning, while proving the library value to the wider campus community. The audience will learn practical strategies for implementing credit information literacy courses to enhance library support of student learning across the curriculum.

Liya Deng, Associate Professor, Social Sciences Librarian, Eastern Washington University
Lynnae Daniels, Senior Lecturer, STEM Librarian,  Eastern Washington University

Virtual, Synchronous Sessions

Member Meeting

Monday, November 13, 2:00 - 3:00 pm
This is an opportunity for members of ALD/ACRL-WA to hear updates from the ALD/ACRL-WA Steering Committee about the division and discuss matters relevant to the division members. This session is open to all ALD/ACRL-WA members, regardless of conference attendance. Please find the meeting invitation on the WLA Member's Calendar.

For questions about the conference, please email [email protected].