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Going to Austin for the Electronic Resources and Libraries conference was a great way to remember what temperatures above 50 feel like. I could go on about the weather but that might imply that I didn’t attend any sessions. Luring me inside were the snacks and drinks strategically placed in front of the session rooms. Well played, planning committee. ER&L reached an all-time high attendance of 1000+. Compared to ALA that number seems small but for this conference, that’s an impressive number. As usual, the conference attracted librarians who showcased their innovative and creative problem-solving skills. Many of the sessions focused on using already owned ebooks to support open education resources initiatives, workflows management (i.e., doing more with less), and assessment of e-resources. I also noticed a number of sessions about authentication and access. These sessions focused on managing EZProxy (the software we use to manage remote access to our e-resources), OpenAthens, and RA21. RA21 is the project I am least familiar with as it’s still being piloted. So, if you ask me about it, there’s a good chance I may act like I didn’t hear you.
One session that was not quite e-resources based was about artist librarians. By day, they work in libraries. By night, they are INCREDIBLY accomplished musicians, writers, and studio artists. Interestingly, the panelists admitted they don’t do a lot of reading in their off-time. For those librarians who are doing other things besides reading when you’re off the clock, you’re in great company and you’re still a good librarian.
A new addition to the conference was the poster session. One of the posters I enjoyed was about testing journal title links and access. The Directory of Open Access Journals is known to have journals with spotty or no access. A librarian at Florida International University created a program that tested access to every title in DOAJ. The program then returned a list of the titles that were accessible and inaccessible. For the inaccessible titles, the program listed the reasons the titles were inaccessible.
In addition to attending the conference, I was also a presenter. My co-presenter and I presented a session called, “Diversity- More than a Policy.” We focused on invisible diversity; identifying the diversities we cannot see and creating an environment in which people feel supported and comfortable divulging the invisible diversities about themselves without feeling stigmatized. Some of the invisible diversities we discussed were mental health and cognitive processing. Audience members were asked to share other invisible diversities. We also discussed what we called, intent versus impact; what you mean versus how others perceive what you mean. The example we used was the self-perception of being a good information professional versus others perceiving you as a know-it-all. We then discussed how this could impact work relationships. This session was meant to be highly interactive and we were pleased that audience members felt comfortable telling their stories without much coaxing. After the presentation, an audience member and publisher approached us about expanding our session into a sponsored “lunch and learn” for next year’s conference. Just when we thought we were done… truthfully, it’s a privilege to have people respond to what you’ve said and think it’s important enough to repeat. Also, what will be served at this lunch?
13 Comments on ‘Alice at ER&L 2018’
Alice, I’m excited to read about your presentation on diversity-something I know is a strong interest for you-and to learn what you presented. Congratulations on expanding your presentation into a lunch and learn next year too-that is wonderful and speaks to the quality of your work. I also enjoyed reading about artist librarians-fascinating!
I love the idea of artist librarians! I’ll bet that was interesting. Thanks for the report and congratulations on your successful presentation.
Great report, Alice! I’m glad your presentation went well also!
Sounds like a great conference! Thank you for this report. Congrats on a successful presentation, and for the invitation to present next year. And, thanks for fighting the good fight and getting people to talk about invisible diversity- I’m sure your audience members will take that information back with them and use it at their institutions!
Alice, this sounds like a wonderful conference! Seems like we have a few of those “artist-librarians” at ZSR! Thanks for sharing the info on your session, “Diversity- More than a Policy.” That is wonderful you are getting the opportunity expand it and get this great content out to another audience!
This sounds like an interesting conference! I would love to hear more about the automation of checking access to journal links…
Thank you for this excellent report!
They knew to lure you into an increased commitment with a meal next year. Sounds like a conference that provided information and support about much more than just electronic resources and libraries!
The DOAJ testing tool sounds super helpful! Might need to pick your brain on that one more…
Glad you enjoyed the conference! I want to hear more about the Diversity presentation.
Glad to hear it was a great ER&L meeting and that your talk was well-received!
Congratulations on your successful presentation! Kudos!
Sounds like you had a great conference! I’m interested in how FIU’s work on the DOAJ problems might help us give better service to WFU’s researchers!