NASIG 2025

Join the NASIG Board for an overview of the conference and daily announcements.

In this keynote address speaker Amy Tureen imagines what libraries and librarianship could look like if employee wellness was as sacrosanct as other professional values such as access, equity, intellectual freedom, and privacy.

Having visualizations to quickly intake various inter-related data points can help with decision-making and communicating value to stakeholders move more smoothly. While there are several applications that can be used for visualization purposes, not every library has the staff capacity or software resources to develop or license a robust visualization tool. Utilizing a common application such as Microsoft Excel can provide a low barrier entry point and serve as a good foundation to expanding one’s knowledge and comfort in developing formatted tables, charts, and filters using slicers. This session intends to show how to set up a master data table in Excel, create PivotTables and PivotCharts, as well as several slicers to isolate resources by cost, percent changes, usage, fund source, subject area, and LC class to monitor trends over multiple years. Use cases will also be shared on how this dashboard has helped view trends on the increase of open access usage in comparison to controlled usage, communicate cost trends to executive leadership, and provide Acquisitions staff a better view on struggling resources to keep a closer eye on. Additionally, this topic can aid newcomers to learn how to manage and maintain data regarding the library’s continuing resources and databases.

Learning Outcomes
This presentation benefits library staff who need to collect and share resource information in a visualized manner without access to or experience with other tools such as Tableau or PowerBI.

Attendees will be able to organize their database renewal data and create tables and charts using Excel for collection assessment purposes. They will learn how to build formatted tables, PivotTables, PivotCharts, and multiple slicers within Microsoft Excel. Attendees will also receive a step-by-step handout and practice data to readily apply the concepts presented.

The Electronic Serials Cataloging Workshop will introduce attendees to current standards and practices, elements and terminology used in the cataloging of electronic serials. This course is based on Resource Description and Access (RDA) as interpreted by current CONSER policy and practice with special attention paid to the differences in the cataloging of print and electronic serials. Attendees will work through exercises which will include use of current tools and documentation. Attendees should be familiar with the MARC bibliographic standard. Knowledge of print serials cataloging practices is also helpful (but not required).

Libraries have numerous opportunities to promote open access through subvention funds, supporting open collections, and providing access to research produced by their institutions. This workshop will guide participants in evaluating current open access initiatives, creating strategic documentation to enhance collection development for the future, and offering a roadmap for assessment and benchmarking. Librarians from the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries will share their experience in drafting a strategic plan that considers all pathways to open access, including green, hybrid, gold, and platinum options. Participants will gain a clearer understanding of data-driven methods for identifying open access needs within their organizations, how to develop SMART goals that align collection budgets with professional values, and strategies for fostering collective action around open access across their campuses.

This presentation will cover the journey of a novel ERM implementation in FOLIO, an ERM system new to the ILS landscape. Library and vendor partnered to implement EBSCO FOLIO as a free-standing ERM module, utilizing an intentional & principled approach that went beyond just data migration to include both workflow considerations and the library’s unique staffing and collection needs.

Outcomes of the project included developing new migration tools for transferring ERM data, integrating multiple existing data sources, configuring the system to provide efficient methods of tracking renewals and perpetual access, creating foundational collection assessment cycle data, categorizing resources by subject and content type, as well other ERM lifecycle information important to the library.

We will highlight in detail the outcomes of the project, the challenges of implementing a standalone ERM in a time of staffing and future ILS uncertainty, as well as the benefits of implementation using a consultative partnership approach between library and vendor.

Learning Outcomes
Participants will gain an increased understanding of:

1. ERM functionality in FOLIO, an emerging system in the ILS landscape.
2. What factors to consider when choosing a new ERM system.
3. Ways to utilize an ERM to lay the foundation for a collection assessment cycle.
4. When partnership with a vendor can be beneficial to ERM implementation.
5. What sources of data to include in an ERMS migration.

Electronic resource management in knowledgebases regularly encounters challenges of incomplete or incorrect metadata, evaluating packages for activation, and troubleshooting holdings information. Many decisions about e-resource inventory are driven by the need to provide immediate access to our collection, and considerations of metadata quality are usually secondary. The bibliographic rank is a value in Alma which indicates the overall quality of a record through an evaluation of completeness and richness. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of how the bibliographic rank score was collected and assessed to evaluate the quality of the library’s electronic resource records. The scores were assessed by overall category of score values, content format, provider, and subject areas. Our findings from the analysis were used to determine opportunities for adjusting our e-resource workflows, advocating for improved records with content providers, and notifying service providers of errors or required corrections.  

Learning Outcomes

1. Attendees will learn how to collect and analyze the bibliographic rank score in Alma to identify the quality of e-resource records.
2. Attendees will identify common record quality issues according to material type, subject area, and content providers.
3. Attendees will be able to identify different methods for improving e-resource records for their library through advocating with stakeholders and developing workflows.

Increasing budgetary pressures, rapidly evolving new technologies, shifting user behaviour and needs in combination with significant sector and institutional changes required Deakin Library to reconsider our approach to collection assessment and development.

Over the last couple of years, Deakin Library has developed a fundamentally different approach to collection evaluation to ensure that our resources meet the evolving needs of our communities while aligning and advancing with the University’s strategic direction and vision of creating a vibrant, rich and inclusive ideas eco-system and contributing to the creation of a more informed, progressive and socially-just society globally.

We found that with many of the traditional approaches to collection assessment which often rely on quantitative metrics and scorecard approaches, such methods often lack the nuance required to address diverse collection formats and do not adapt well to niche subjects and multi-disciplinary areas or worked only for certain types of collections (i.e. electronic collections but not physical). These concerns were exacerbated due to our previous decision-making over-relying
on measures such as cost-per-use and year-on-year cost increases.

Our new Collection Governance Framework is now providing a values-based approach which was developed in close collaboration across all library teams, ensuring inclusivity, transparency and a feeling of ownership throughout the whole process. It reflects core library values and the values and vision of the University, and is supported by practical principles and a holistic and comprehensive collection evaluation rubric.

The rubric utilises a narrative-based approach that reflects the diversity of perspectives and insights contributed by all areas of Deakin Library, including the Strategic Leadership Team, Collections, Metadata & Discovery, Scholarly Communications and Research Outputs, Scholarly Services, Experience Design, Copyright, and Client Experiences in consultation with key
contacts across the University including Strategic Procurement, Office of General Counsel and others.

To ensure a streamlined and effective process, the Collection Governance Framework is supported by extensive documentation including process maps, work instructions and best practice guidelines. The whole process is facilitated through Jira, an agile project management tool that functions as a single source of truth for not only collection assessment but also approval workflows.

The information gathered through the evaluation process on Jira integrates both quantitative and qualitative insights and is analysed and visualised through a Tableau dashboard, allowing for benchmarking against various measures and identifying collection strengths and gaps.

The implementation of the Collection Governance Framework has been immensely successful and has provided a catalyst to address some of the fundamental questions about the future of scholarly communications, the role of vendors and suppliers regarding advancing our strategic goals and supporting our communities and considering the future shape and purpose of our collections. It has also strengthened our negotiating position with positive outcomes in both
budgetary terms and value alignment.

In our presentation, we will share the journey of developing the Collection Governance Framework, creating a rubric for collection assessment, and our key learnings. We will focus on the practical implementation of the collection evaluation process and application of the outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand how narrative value-based rubrics can be used for collaborative collection assessment and ethical decision-making. 
2. Understand how to elicit input and collaboration from subject matter experts through a centralised platform. 
3. Understand how collection assessment can be seamlessly integrated into collection management workflows, supported by effective automation to reduce manual work. 
4. Understand basic data visualisation concepts to support collection assessment, benchmarking, as well as informing vendor relationships and negotiations.

ISSN was first published as an ISO standard in 1975, making 2025 its 50th birthday. Come help us celebrate the history, drama, and accomplishments of this important standard with some humor and maybe a song or three. Great moments in ISSN history will be dramatized and cameos by such fellow  identifiers as DOI, ISBN, and ISNI will take competitive jabs at ISSN's success. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of the background and significance of the standard and its use today.  

Learning Outcomes

Attendees will come away with a better understanding of the background and significance of the standard and its use today.

In 2023, our Acquisitions department evaluated existing position descriptions for how well they met the current needs and challenges of the department and the broader library landscape. We found that staffing in our serials unit was still skewed toward print management even though over 80% of our subscriptions have moved to an electronic format. Several positions were redesigned to incorporate NASIG Core Competencies, especially related to the print and electronic resource life cycles. By using the core competencies to distribute print and electronic responsibilities among multiple staff members, we balanced the workload and prepared our area to better face future trends. This session will discuss the new position descriptions, the benefits of incorporating built-in cross-training, and how we worked with our campus HR office to build a job-family grid which provides opportunities for staff advancement.

Learning Outcome
Following this session, participants will be able to:

1. Think critically about whether existing organizational structures are meeting current and future needs.
2. Identify core competencies and visualize how to distribute them among additional staff members through training and reskilling.
3. Be prepared to advocate for these changes with their library leadership.

This workshop is for library workers who want to get started on collection assessment, but who may not have the resources to launch large projects or programs. The workshop will guide participants through designing and acting on micro-assessment projects for library collections. A micro-assessment is a small collection assessment project aligned with your resources and your organizational priorities. It is tightly scoped and time-bound, designed to inform a specific collections decision or strategy. A thoughtfully designed micro-assessment can offer both actionable insights into your collections and valuable learning opportunities for library staff interested in collections work.

Through instructor-provided case studies and other exercises, workshop participants will practice (1) identifying narrowly focused, action-oriented collection micro-assessment projects; (2) scoping those micro-projects to align with available staff time and expertise; and (3) using small, manageable amounts of data to speak directly to a decision or action. Along the way, participants will learn practical tips for ensuring micro-assessments can also become the building blocks for a larger collection assessment program. As a final activity, participants will draft a micro-assessment proposal for their own institutions.

"Diversity and Libraries: The Stigma of Mental Illness" describes the stigma of mental illness in libraries, regardless of strong diversity programs. The presenter will discuss the literature and the results of a short survey conducted by the presenter. The results of the survey will be analyzed and recommendations for improvement will be presented.

Learning Outcomes

1. Know about the stigma of mental illness in libraries.
2. Understand what is missing in Diversity Statements that do not take into consideration mental illness.
3. Realize ways Diversity Statements can be changed to take into consideration mental illness.

Acquiring electronic resources for academic libraries has evolved into a complex and multifaceted process. Juggling numerous requests from faculty, negotiating with vendors, managing budgets, and ensuring timely access. This presentation will explore how leveraging Jira, a robust project management software, can help you re-imagine the e-resource acquisition workflow, transforming it from a chaotic process into a streamlined and efficient operation.

Jira, with its customizable workflows, robust tracking capabilities, and seamless communication features, provides a powerful platform for managing the entire lifecycle of e-resource acquisitions including trial workflows.
We will delve into how Jira can be configured to:
Streamline Request Processing
Establish clear and concise workflows for each stage of the acquisition process, from initial request submission to final approval. Automate tasks, such as sending notifications and assigning requests. Utilize custom fields to capture essential information about each request, such as consortia options, trial availability, authentication method, usage statistics availability, VPAT availability and rating, and history of ILL requests.
Enhance Communication and Collaboration
Facilitate seamless communication and collaboration between library staff processing requests. Utilize built-in messaging and notification features to keep everyone informed about the status of requests and resolve issues promptly.
Increase Transparency and Accountability
Provide a clear and transparent view of the acquisition process for all stakeholders. Enhance accountability by tracking progress, identifying bottlenecks, and ensuring timely decision-making.

By implementing Jira, libraries can significantly reduce staff burden, improve efficiency, and enhance the overall user experience. This presentation will provide practical tips and best practices for implementing Jira in an academic library setting, including customization options, and workflow design including trial workflows.

Learning Outcomes

1. Describe how Jira can be used to streamline the e-resource acquisition workflow in an academic library.
2. Identify key features of Jira that are beneficial for managing e-resource requests, such as workflow automation, and communication tools.
3. Explain how Jira can improve communication and collaboration among library staff involved in the e-resource acquisition process.
4. Explain how Jira can enhance transparency and accountability within the e-resource acquisition process.
5. Discuss the potential benefits of implementing Jira, such as increased efficiency and improved decision-making.
   Identify potential obstacles to Jira implementation at their own library.

License agreements influence how libraries, students, researchers, and other users interact with electronic resources. A forthcoming open e-book by five law and licensing experts from institutions across the US – (“E-resource Licensing Explained,” to be published by ARL) – will empower academic librarians and library staff with licensing responsibilities to advocate for license terms that enable computational research. The guidebook includes easily-digestible legal explanations and pragmatic strategies for preserving rights that users already have under US copyright law, particularly in the face of restrictive license terms that would otherwise constrain or eliminate those rights. During this session, the guidebook’s co-authors and reviewers will share their own insights, challenges, and successes in negotiating for license agreements.

Learning Outcomes

Following this session, participants will be able to: recognize the fundamental concepts of licensing e-resources, and identify licensing resources.

During the Fall and Winter quarters of 2024, librarians at UC Santa Cruz were faced with the challenge of tracking perpetual access for titles canceled for an ongoing serial cancellation project due to a budget shortfall. This required consolidating information from various spreadsheets and other sources, some of which were still being updated. This session will review the tracking process that we used, including how we consolidated the perpetual access information, how we verified our access with vendors, how we addressed subscriptions with print + online coverage and share tips for if another library is faced with this type of project.

Learning Outcomes

1. Attendees will learn about tasks to consider for working collaboratively during serial cancellations.
2. Attendees will learn about a process to track perpetual/post cancellation information.

This session will explore what steps stakeholders from libraries, publishers, and infrastructure providers might take together to operationalize open access business processes. Maureen Walsh, Scholarly Strategist, The Ohio State University Libraries, will reflect on her almost two decades of involvement in Ohio State’s open access programs and initiatives and share her perspective on the current pain points of supporting open access publishing agreements. New open access business models have outpaced the development of efficient and effective open access workflows in libraries. Beyond the financial commitment of open access agreements, libraries are absorbing significant staff costs to manage open access workflows. Attendees will bring different perspectives and ideas toward business process solutions for libraries supporting open access publishing agreements.

Learning Outcomes

1. Gain a wider perspective on the challenges of library support for open access
2. Learn about the interdependencies with all of the stakeholders in the open access landscape—libraries and their institutions, researchers, publishers, infrastructure providers, and funders
3. Possible solutions and best practices for managing open access agreements

The common team structure within libraries, especially in technical services, can often lead to silos of processes as well as knowledge about our systems and our collections. With modern library service platforms (LSPs), it is important to recognize the interconnected system of records, specifically acquisitions and cataloging records. If this is neglected, it will negatively impact the data quality and the functionality of the catalog and ultimately, will affect the ability to collect data from LSP in any useful way. This presentation will examine causes of segmented workflows and provide guidance on overcoming silos and developing cross-departmental relationships to improve workflows and productivity. Strategies for collaborative workflows including examples of governance groups, shared documentation, tracking and others will be given.

Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:

1.Identify the causes of departmental silos between acquisitions, cataloging, and other library departments, and understand how this fragmentation affects library organization.
 
2.Develop strategies to overcome departmental silos in library workflows and establish more collaborative processes between technical services teams.
 
3.Learn best practices for fostering cross-departmental relationships, enhancing communication, documentation, and improving overall workflow efficiency in library technical services.

Great Idea Showcase poster presenters will be be available online for a live question and answer session.

Automating Success: Streamlining Workflows with Zapier - Amy Dye-Reeves

Cataloger's Code: Non-Teaching Librarians in SoTL - Alyshia Bagley, Rebecca Hunnicutt, Wilhelmina Randke, Kevin Reagan

Stuck in the Middle with You: Usage Statistics Between System Migrations - Jackie Blanton-Watkins

“For Students, by Students”: A Student-Managed Peer-to-Peer Social Network in an Online MLIS Program - Alyshia Bagley, James Mayes

[Poster Name] - Braith Birchhall, Sidonie Devarenne, Mary Wegmann

Data in Action: Using Wikidata with Catalog Data for Collection Diversity Analysis - Sarah Holsapple

[Poster Name] - Fiora Mecale

Join the NASIG Board for closing remarks on the final day of conference. Learn more about being involved in NASIG. Hear initial details for the 2026 NASIG Annual Conference planned for Madison, Wisconsin.

At a time when academic departments are often pressured to compete for limited funding and status in
both the public and institutional eye, one thing every discipline has in common is metadata. At the same
time, it is through the often underexamined (by non-librarians) information infrastructures within
academia that inequities are perpetuated: troublesome subject headings and taxonomic practices,
exorbitant vendor pricing and dubious data privacy practices, the ongoing insinuation and
commoditization of generative AI, and so on.

Library workers are uniquely positioned to call out the political aspects of information
infrastructures—and many of us try to do so but are limited by time constraints and competing priorities
in information literacy one-shots, for example. Drawing from Nicole Starosielski’s work on
communications and media infrastructures as well as Sofia Leung and Jorge López-McKnight’s Knowledge
Justice and providing examples from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, this talk
would illuminate how collaborations across public services, technical services, and departmental faculty
can promote a deeper understanding of the component pieces of research and scholarship and of how
to combat the biases that structure them.

The presentation will cover various steps in the development of an accessibility review process:

Identifying institutional accessibility guidelines
Assign staff and establish a regular review schedule
Determine the platforms that will be included
Select appropriate methods for scanning and reviewing accessibility
Establish a process for reporting results
Identifying and working with stakeholders for each platform
Sharing reports with relevant parties
Providing options for addressing common accessibility issues
How to Organize or store annual reports effectively

Learning Outcomes

1. Attendees will understand the importance of accessibility.
2. Attendees will recognize the importance of working with institutional accessibility standards.
3. Attendees will identify accessibility checkers available at their own institutions.
4. Attendees will apply the steps to identify resources that may need an accessibility review.
5. Attendees will be able to develop their own accessibility review process.

The increase in acquisitions of electronic resources is placing more demand than ever on technical services workers. The work is becoming more technical, more complex, and is constantly changing. Electronic resources, acquisitions, and cataloging work have all become interconnected as well, leading to additional challenges of change management in the workplace. Technical services workers are experiencing low-morale and burnout. The presentation will discuss challenges leading to burnout for Technical Services workers. Literature regarding burnout and low morale experiences will be presented. There will also be a discussion of potential solutions to burnout, such as slow librarianship and peer mentoring. The creation of a peer mentoring program for NASIG will be discussed at the conclusion of the presentation. Attendees are welcome to share experiences and offer feedback.

Learning Outcomes

1. Attendees will learn about existing literature regarding burnout in libraries and proposed solutions of slow librarianship and peer mentoring. 
2. Attendees will have time to share their own experiences and will be asked to provide feedback regarding a peer mentoring program.
   

As Open Access (OA) is gaining momentum, institutions are engaging in partnerships to help further advancements in open publishing. Publishers are embracing Transformative Agreements, Read and Publish deals, and Subscribe to Open (S2O) models. With this new landscape comes the challenge of quantifying the impact and value on investments for both institutions and publishers alike. Metrics such as COUNTER statistics are a powerful tool for assessing the reach, engagement, and scholarly impact of OA initiatives within collaborative institutional-publisher frameworks.
This session seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of how statistics can be strategically employed to measure and communicate the value of OA in partnerships with both traditional publishers and emerging open models. Hear from stakeholders across the industry (two librarians, one small publisher, and one large publisher) for different perspectives on the proliferation of OA and how statistics can help tell a story.

Learning Outcomes
Attendees will gain a deep understanding of how metrics like COUNTER can be harnessed to measure and communicate the impact and value of OA in institutional collaborations, fostering informed decision-making and strategic planning in the dynamic landscape of scholarly communication.

Starting a new unit or carving out a distinct department within an academic library presents both opportunities and challenges. Drawing on my experiences at Kansas State University and the University of Arkansas, this session examines how to strategically build and evolve teams responsible for managing electronic resources, acquisitions, and licensing. Through real-world examples—such as developing bespoke training documentation, implementing large-scale cross-departmental projects like fund restructuring, and cultivating cohesive, supportive teams while managing scope creep—attendees will see how I have implemented a new vision for electronic resource best practices at two large R1 academic institutions while onboarding as a new tenure-track faculty member.

Participants will learn how to conduct gap analyses, advocate for and adopt project management tools like JIRA and Confluence, and meet their staff at their current skill levels through targeted training materials. The presentation will highlight early successes and tangible outcomes, including streamlined workflows, improved transparency around acquisitions, and demonstrable staff skill growth. Additionally, it will address the interpersonal challenges inherent in organizational change, offering strategies for communicating a shared vision, building trust, and motivating teams through periods of uncertainty.

By emphasizing scalable solutions, this session ensures that libraries of all sizes can apply these approaches. Attendees will leave with a clearer blueprint for reshaping their departments—equipped with actionable frameworks, leadership techniques, and practical tools that can be put into practice immediately. These insights not only align with NASIG Core Competencies and professional standards but also meet the evolving strategic demands of academic libraries in a rapidly changing landscape.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and apply strategies to establish and evolve library units or departments by conducting gap analyses, advocating for growth, and creating adaptable frameworks that set a clear strategic direction and foster organizational cohesion.
2. Develop and implement training programs and advocate for ongoing professional development to address staff skill gaps, enhance team rapport, and align individual competencies with a unified, forward-looking vision—scalable to various library sizes and resource levels.
3. Transition from routine, day-to-day tasks to a more structured and strategic vision of electronic resource stewardship by adopting project-based workflows and tools like JIRA and Confluence. This approach fosters streamlined processes, improved transparency, and an enhanced ability to respond effectively to evolving challenges.

Librarians, especially in technical services and collection development, regularly work with data to perform a variety of analyses. Often, these activities are project based or performed annually, which makes it difficult to repeat previous analyses. Further, data points can change over time due to system migrations and changes to standards, such as moving from COUNTER 4 to COUNTER 5. Overall, this can leave librarians unsatisfied with current data practices even though they are essential in making decisions in collection development and other areas.

Enterprise data strategy provides a framework for thinking about an organization's data and how to make it trustworthy, actionable, and secure. It provides details to concepts such as data governance and security; best practices to technical aspects like data storage, processing, and analysis; and clarification to data team member roles and skills required.
This presentation will introduce these enterprise data concepts, and present examples of how it can be used in an academic library. The case study is our library's project to implement an enterprise data environment using the Microsoft Fabric platform, of which Microsoft Power BI is a component. By linking the broader concepts to a case study, the presentation will show one of many ways to implement an enterprise data environment in an academic library setting, allowing attendees to imagine how they might approach such a solution depending on the tools and professional skills in their library.
While implementing an enterprise data environment requires a significant investment of time and resources, it allows for more trustworthy and secure data that is more engaging to library stakeholders, such as liaisons and administrators, both inside and outside of the library.

Further, by thinking of library data as enterprise data, librarians can ingest data from any library source system (such as a room reservation system, or reference tracking system), allowing for a robust and comprehensive view of the library's collections and services down the road. Finally, librarians in technical services and collection development are uniquely equipped with the technical skills and systems thinking required to undertake and maintain such a project.

Learning Outcomes
Attendees will leave the presentation with familiarity with enterprise data concepts and some ideas of how they can apply those concepts in their library. They will be able to identify their current data practices and tie them to enterprise data tools and concepts.

As the momentum around open access continues (OA), university libraries play an important role in promoting and supporting OA and advancing research that is inclusive and accessible. The Emory Libraries’ Open Access Dashboard (OAB) aims to create a data visualization tool that showcases both the Libraries' financial investment in open access and overall Emory researcher OA activity. In other words, where are researchers publishing OA, what are the funding sources for OA, how much is the university paying for OA, and how are the Emory Libraries facilitating OA publication? This presentation will demonstrate the importance of tracking and showcasing OA investments, enabling institutional libraries to make informed decisions about their OA strategies and promote their commitment to OA. It will serve as a model for other university libraries as they seek to do the same, promoting transparency and collaboration within the OA library community.

In discussing the design and establishment of the dashboard, we will highlight the choices and decisions made surrounding data collection and data elements along with the challenges of melding together multiple sources of data, including bibliometric data, article processing charges data (APCs), and internal and external funding sources. We will further discuss the strengths and limitations of the data and why we chose different data views in Tableau.

Learning Outcomes

1. Attendees will gain insight on how to track and visualize OA publishing at their local institution and how such visualization can enable the library to highlight their contribution and commitment to OA. 
2. Attendees will gain an appreciation for the data challenges that modeling and visualizing OA activities can present to libraries.
3. Attendees will see how the OA dashboard data can be used in decision-making and advocacy for OA article funding investments.

The Snapshot Sessions will consist of five-minute presentations with a focus on an idea, project, workflow, etc.

[Session Title] - Rebecca Bealer

[Session Title] - Jessie Copeland

Empowering E-Resource Decisions: How Our Custom-Built Tool Streamlined Renewal Tracking- Wenli Gao, Kerry Creelman, Keith Komos

E-Resource Incidents Tracking: Seeking Patterns While Demonstrating Workload - Clare Keating

End of an Era: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Demand Driven Acquisitions - Jessica Rigg, James Mayes

This session will explore how team collaboration, cross-functional teamwork, user-centered communication, and creative problem-solving empower libraries to address complex eResource access challenges. Drawing on case studies from a medical library, participants will learn strategies to enhance team expertise, reduce service disruptions, and improve user satisfaction.

Effective collaboration among library staff, IT professionals, and vendors is crucial for resolving access issues efficiently. By fostering open communication and breaking down departmental silos, teams can work together to identify innovative solutions and implement them effectively. Case studies will highlight successful team efforts in overcoming these challenges.

Building a culture of collaboration and open-mindedness enables teams to approach problems from multiple perspectives, leading to more creative and effective solutions. Participants will discover best practices for maintaining clear communication with users during disruptions, emphasizing transparency, proactive engagement, and open dialogue.
The session will also focus on innovative solutions that teams can implement to ensure continuous access while restoring services, such as direct access link options. Additionally, participants will learn how to build comprehensive testing plans that enable teams to quickly diagnose and identify issues, streamlining the troubleshooting process.
Training staff on new technologies and creating adaptable workflows is essential for maintaining a flexible and efficient service delivery model. By embracing a a culture of continuous learning and innovation, teams can adapt to changing technologies and user needs.

Finally, participants will learn actionable solutions for minimizing service disruptions through teamwork, including protocols for rapid response to access issues and tools that facilitate collaboration. Innovative approaches to integrating user feedback into service improvements will also be explored, ensuring that user needs are at the forefront of decision-making.

Learning Outcomes

1. Recognize the central role of teams in managing eResource access challenges.
2. Learn effective strategies for fostering a culture of collaboration within library settings.
3. Gain insights into user-centered communication strategies that maintain trust during disruptions.
4. Explore practical solutions for minimizing service interruptions through teamwork.
5. Understand the importance of training and documentation in adapting workflows for improved efficiency.lture of continuous learning and innovation, teams can adapt to changing technologies and user needs.

This presentation gives an overview of interactions between United States (U.S.) copyright law and artificial intelligence (AI). Current generative AI is different from past big data, in that current AI models train on full text long form written works, while in the past, datasets and structured information had the highest value. Also, in recent years, there has been extensive economic activity around AI, which newly surfaced business oriented issues. As a result, new issues have arisen regarding copyright law and AI.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, the U.S. Copyright Office held listening sessions around specific topics related to generative AI and copyright. The Copyright Office released guidance about digital replicas (ie. deep fakes) with guidance yet to come on additional topics including copyrightability of works incorporating AI-generated material, training AI models on copyrighted works, licensing considerations, and liability issues. This presentation gives a just-the-facts summary of U.S. Copyright Office activities, and of emergent case law from lawsuits related to AI and copyright.

A current parallel regulatory thrust is comprehensive U.S. federal regulation of AI ethics. The National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 provided funding for a 5 year roll out of AI regulation. With AI ethics regulation in rapid development in the U.S., and legally binding outcomes pending in the near future, large corporations building AI tools have a strong incentive to control the conversation and define AI ethics. By emphasizing copyright, corporations might seek to shift emphasis away from other ethical issues, such as the impacts algorithmic decision making has on people’s lives, increased surveillance, and other ethical issues. For example, it may be the case that ethics discussion is steered towards copyright law and “ethical AI” co-opted to refer to training AI models on licensed content. This presentation considers ethics more broadly, and invites participants to consider how increased focus on copyright and ethics might distract from other ethical issues.

Licensing dovetails with copyright, in that contractual obligations or contractual rights can shift what is allowable and can limit fair use or can expand what is allowed. Generative AI is largely controlled by a handful of very large corporations. High quality training data, such as scholarly articles and other high quality material written by people, tends to be controlled by not-quite-as-large corporations. For example, Google’s market cap is 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars, more than 600 times Clarivate’s market cap of 3.6 billion U.S. dollars. In order to maintain control of assets, in light of a potentially lucrative new use, academic database providers might tend to contractually limit established fair uses like text mining. This presentation brushes on text mining as fair use, and on trends in licensing restrictions.

This presentation overviews recent trends in U.S. copyright law and AI, with emphasis on developing federal regulations and guidance, AI ethics, and the legal right of scholars to do text as impacted by changing licensing practices.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify the key initiative at the U.S. Copyright Office to address copyright and artificial intelligence issues, and know where to go to quickly find overview information.
2. Know that comprehensive federal regulation of artificial intelligence ethics is currently underway, and the general timeline.
3. Consider artificial intelligence ethics in terms of fairness, accountability, and transparency, and thoughtfully consider the implications when ethics discussion omits any of those key areas.
4. Understand economic issues related to the resource needs and cost to train a generative AI, how consolidated the generative AI industry is, and how incentives differ for a very large tech company like Google versus even the largest academic publishers.
5. Understand that text mining is an established fair use under U.S. copyright law, and that at the same time a contractual restriction in a license agreement can limit rights.

In the summer of 2021, the University of Arizona Libraries (UAL) implemented Reprint Desk’s Article Galaxy Scholar (AGS), a tool that enables users to order on-demand articles not available through the library’s subscriptions. Typically used as a supplement to interlibrary loan services, AGS was adopted by UAL for a multi-year pilot project to address key questions about the library's collection. The pilot aimed to identify which disciplines would most benefit from faster article access compared to the standard interlibrary loan turnaround time, uncover potential gaps in collection coverage across disciplines, and explore opportunities to improve article request fulfillment times.

Learning Outcomes

1. Gain insights into how AGS serves as a self-service document delivery tool for bridging gaps in journal article access.
2. Understand how AGS-generated data informs decisions regarding resource allocation, journal subscriptions, and disciplinary coverage gaps.
3. Recognize the potential for AGS to map collection gaps and guide future subscription decisions.