Professional Development

Conference reports and more from ZSR Librarians

Library Assessment Conference

The first week of December found me down in Houston for the Library Assessment Conference. Held biennially, this was my first time attending LAC – along with many, many others – and my first time in Houston. As I was attending on behalf of the Assessment Committee, I went to sessions that covered the breadth... more

2018 NCLA Leadership Institute in Black Mountain

Earlier this month I attended the NCLA Leadership Institute in Black Mountain, NC, from November 7-10. I applied to participate, and was selected by the planning committee back in May. The four-day program included a total of 24 library professionals from across the state who were chosen for the 2018 cohort. The 2018 cohort primarily... more

Carol at the 2018 Charleston Library Conference

Derrik Hiatt says hi. I participated in “Popular Reading Collections in Academic Libraries – A Panel Discussion on Goals, Parameters, and Campus Reactions” with colleagues from NCSU and UNC-CH. My prep for this talk prompted me to learn some fascinating facts about the Browsing Collection. According to an article from the digitized OGB archives (thanks... more

Carrie at the American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Earlier this month I attended the American Studies Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. The ASA brings together scholars, teachers, and activists whose study of American culture is global, interdisciplinary, and social justice oriented. I enjoy being a member of the ASA, as it’s the perfect organization to support my research interests in American literature... more

Thomas @ LITA Forum 2018. Oh, It Was Plenty Warm Inside.

Minneapolis in November. There is a quiet monochromatic loveliness to a prairie city under one of the season’s first snowfalls. Photo taken from indoors because it was 14 freakin’ degrees. This is a difficult report to write in several ways. First, this may have been the last LITA Forum, or at least the last one... more

DLF Forum 2018 in Las Vegas

From October 15-17, the Digital Library Federation held its annual forum: DLF Forum 2018. This was my second time attending the event, which is regarded as the premier meeting place for digital library, archives, and museum practitioners. Although advertised as being held in Las Vegas, this year’s forum actually took place at the M Resort... more

Guild of Book Workers Standards of Excellence- Minneapolis

Each year, the Guild of Book Workers has a conference called Standards of Excellence in a different host city. The conference is referred to simply as “Standards” and was held in Minneapolis this year amid cool fall weather. One of the distinctive features of Standards is there are four speakers over two days who demonstrate... more

Kathy S. at GICIL and EntreLib 2018

In the past month, I’ve had the opportunity to attend two conferences – one in Savannah and one a little closer to home. Over September 27-29, I attended the Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy, which was held at the Coastal Georgia Center in Savannah. I was originally supposed to attend this conference last year,... more

Hu at EntreLib 2018

On Friday, Oct 12th, I had the good fortune to attend and present at “The 2018 Conference for Entrepreneurial Librarians” at Wake Downtown! In spite of the widespread power outages from Hurricane Michael, most of the presenters and attendees made it to this awesome conference! The keynote speaker, Patrick Sweeney, Political Director for EveryLibrary (@everylibrary) spoke... more

Heather at iPRES2018

Rainy, chilly Boston hosted the 15th iPRES conference this year at Harvard Medical School’s Benton Convention Center. Over 400 digital archives and preservation professionals and researchers attended the gathering, setting a record. Although I have kept iPRES conference proceedings and papers on my radar every year, this was my first in-person attendance since it landed... more