The ALA division, Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, began in 2020 through the combining of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), the Library Information Technology Association (LITA), and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA). This was the third annual conference held this year in Minneapolis, with 470 folks attending, up from 400 the year before. From the opening reception on Thursday evening after a full day of preconference workshops to the conclusion of the session on Saturday afternoon, this conference was packed with excellent programming and presentations from the six sections of Core: Access & Equity, Buildings & Operations, Leadership & Management, Metadata & Collections, Preservation, and Technology. Three ZSR Librarians attended, and here are their key takeaways from the experience!

Steve at ALA CORE

I was a little uneasy when I heard that the Core Forum would be in Minneapolis this year, because I thought there could be a foot of snow (I mean, we’re talking November in Minnesota, after all), but the weather was appropriately fall-like. This was the third Core Forum, and the third one I’ve been to, and the attendance has grown and the quality of the sessions has improved each year, which seem to be good signs for the future of the conference. It was especially surprising that the attendance grew so much this year, because Forum was held on the same dates as the Charleston Conference, and there is some overlap with the audiences.

I attended a number of sessions from the Leadership & Management and Access & Equity tracks, but I’ll report on a couple of sessions from my bread-and-butter area, Metadata & Collections. The most important session for me was “Diverse, Equitable, Inclusive, and Open: Insights From a New Metadata Handbook,” a presentation by Heather Campbell, Christopher Dieckman, and Nausicaa Rose of Iowa State University and Harriet Wintermute, formerly of Iowa State and now at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the authors of The DEI Metadata Handbook: A Guide to Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Description, an open access handbook. The handbook is designed to help librarians with DEI metadata work, which involves enhancing diverse representation in metadata, improving discovery of diverse resources, and mitigating negative effects of outdated or offensive language. Some of the tips they offered included being careful about references to human identity and personal names, suggesting that you can offer supporting information in free text fields (if the authorized version of a married woman’s name is Mrs. Frank Jones, you can add a note that her name was Lucy Jones), and using redaction, annotation, or harmful language statements to deal with problematic language or metadata. Other suggestions included using genre/form terms (there is a whole category called “Prejudicial Works” that includes subterms), and including metadata for the intended audience and/or the creators. I have just scratched the surface of what they discussed and what is covered in the book, and I look forward to digging into the handbook and using it in my day-to-day work. It’s not often that I wind up with actual useful homework from a conference presentation!

Another useful session I attended was “Get Informed About Genre/Form Terms” by Kate James of OCLC. Genre/Form terms are relatively new to the cataloging world, and have not been universally implemented yet. James began by defining her terms. “Genre” is a category of work with similar theme or style, and “Form” is a category of work with similar format or structure.

Example of Genre/Form would be:

Horror (Genre) + Films (Form) = Horror Films (Genre/Form)

Romance (Genre) + Novels (Form) = Romance Novels (Genre/Form)

Genre/Form is what a resource is, while a Subject is what a resource is about

For example: Stephen King’s novel “The Dead Zone” is a horror novel (Genre/Form) that is about coma patients, psychic powers, serial killers and politics (Subjects). Genre/Form terms are recorded in 655 fields in MARC records and are much easier for catalogers to use than previous methods for recording genre and form information in 008, 380 and 5XX fields or in subfield v of subject headings. They are also easier for computers to understand because they are a more reliable form of coding. I’m looking forward to using these terms more in my cataloging work.

I have a very productive time at the Core Forum and would highly recommend it. I also got to reconnect with old friends (including Erik Mitchell!), made some new friends, and got to hang out with Carolyn and Hu, which is always a treat.

Carolyn at ALA CORE

This was my second time attending Core Forum and my first time visiting its host city Minneapolis. I was very excited about the conference, but similar to Steve, I was unsure of how cold it was actually going to be. All in all, I had an enjoyable conference, attending informative and thought provoking sessions on metadata and other library related topics, reconnecting with former colleague Erik Mitchell (with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working together at 2 university libraries), meeting and conversing with other attendees, and palling around with Steve and Hu.

Most of the sessions I attended were part of the Metadata & Collections track and below are my brief summaries from ones I found most memorable.

• A Year of Change: Revitalizing an Outdated Collection
  • The Head of Collections at the Richmond Public Library discussed how she and her staff utilized intention based weeding and selection to update and overhaul the library’s system-wide fiction and nonfiction collections as well as increase its digital collections’ offerings and usage. The presenter remarked that cataloging records for their digital collections did not need to be uploaded to the catalog because patrons use an app to discover titles of interest. While leading and managing a large-scale project such as this, one of the things the presenter had to learn was that her pace was not everyone’s pace.
• Mapping Your Skill Sets: Understanding and Using the Core Competencies for Cataloging & Metadata Professionals
  • Karen Snow, Professor in the School of Information Studies at Dominican University, and Bobby Bothmann, Catalog & Metadata Librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato, presented on various ways one can use the Core Competencies for Cataloging and Metadata Professional Librarians (revised 12/13/2023) “for professional growth, mentoring, employee evaluation, and curriculum assessment (Core Forum 2024 session description).” Following their presentation, the pair led attendees in filling out a template to self-evaluate their skills based on the Core Competencies. While I didn’t get a chance to complete mine, I found this exercise to be extremely valuable and enlightening. In December my plan is to further explore this document and finish filling in my template. I believe it will prove most helpful when writing my annual self-evaluation letter.

Additionally, I too attended the session about the DEI Metadata Handbook as reported by Steve, and the following ones Hu covered in his section: “More Than Hope” and “Calling It Quits: How to Evaluate Library Services and Decide What to Quit.” On Saturday, I viewed several interesting poster presentations. With all the talk about AI these days in the library world, one in particular caught my eye: “A Solution Looking for a Problem? Evaluating the Applicability of Artificial Intelligence in Cataloging

Hu at ALA CORE

I made it to Minneapolis on Thursday just in time to attend the Welcome Reception and see Erik Mitchell, who some of you may remember from his time at ZSR. Seeing an old friend and spending time with Steve and Carolyn was great after a long day of travel!

I started the day on Friday with the opening keynote titled “More Than Hope.” Here, Saray Garnett-Hochuli, Deputy City Operations Officer for Minneapolis, discussed her pivotal role in advancing key city functions related to equity, housing, public health, safety standards, homelessness response, and operational efficiencies. Her frank approach and candor were refreshing, and her leadership skills and commitment to her work were evident in her presentation.

Below are links to and summaries of some of my favorite sessions from Core Forum 2024

• Calling It Quits: How to Evaluate Library Services and Decide What to Quit
  • This presentation resonated with me because outreach librarians often struggle with the never-ending desire to do more! This presentation did a wonderful job describing how to evaluate and decide to keep or sunset services; something outreach librarians often need to do with programming!
• Cutting Through the Noise: Elevating your Library and Engaging Users through Strategic Promotion
  • I was gratified that my key takeaway from this presentation was something I was already aware of and happy to have confirmed by experts in the PR and marketing field! LESS IS MORE! From fliers to programming, strategy, and targeted marketing are far more effective than a shotgun approach!
• Keys to the Library: Extending Library Hours with Self-Service Technology
  • While this was a public library presentation, it was interesting to hear they do many of the same things ZSR does to offer extended-hours access. The biggest takeaway was that this was a by-request service that required users to go through an orientation to be allowed additional access. It was an interesting model I had never considered.

The reception at MSRDesign on Friday night was a highlight of the conference for me. In addition to seeing the amazing space, we talked to two of the folks working on the Davidson Library Transformation. We saw 3D-printed models of the renovation and displays of the renderings and samples of materials to be used. It was an incredible experience! I hope to attend the CORE Forum again and highly recommend this conference! It truly has something for everyone!