Professional Development

Conference reports and more from ZSR Librarians

Tim at ASERL in ATL

The Spring meeting of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) was held at the Georgia Tech Conference Center April 25-26. After six years on the ASERL Board of Directors, I rotated off the Board after serving terms as member-at-large, secretary/treasurer, and president. Evidently I am the only member ever to hold all three elected... more

Colleen at the Health Leadership Forum

On Friday, April 14, Salem Academy and College hosted the 2nd Annual Health Leadership Forum in their historic Hanes Auditorium. Dr. Summer McGee, president of the college, kicked off the morning by declaring Salem as not only a liberal arts college, but also one with a particular focus on health leadership. Having transformed courses and... more

Mary Beth, Roz, Molly, Amanda, Colleen, and Hu at ACRL 2023

The Association of College and Research Libraries biennial conference was held in Pittsburgh from March 15-18, and six librarians from ZSR attended. The core purpose of ACRL is to lead academic and research librarians and libraries in advancing learning and transforming scholarship. The theme of the conference was “Forging the Future.” There were 2100 attendees... more

Colleen at the NLM Virtual Symposium on Health Misinformation

The National Library of Medicine held its annual Virtual Symposium on Health Misinformation from April 4 – 6. As the conference title implies, presenters consistently shared and demonstrated the history, nature, and components of mis- and disinformation (coined “mis/dis” throughout the conference) as well as instruction methods to support patrons in de- and prebunking health... more

Thomas at the AWS Carolinas Library Summit

Thomas at the AWS Carolinas Library Summit On March 23, 2023, I attended a meeting held at the Atkins Library, UNCC, hosted by Amazon Web Services. AWS has been making a conscious push into higher ed in the last few years, and they wanted to showcase a couple of library-oriented projects in the region and... more

ZSR at the Universities Studying Slavery Conference, Chapel Hill

Last week, five of us attended “At This Place: History: Race and a Way Forward, Universities Studying Slavery Spring Conference” at UNC Chapel Hill. See the blog posts below. Tanya Zanish-Belcher: I always learn something new whenever I attend the Universities Studying Slavery conference and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the continual... more

Colleen & Heather at the Empirical Librarians Conference – “It Rocked”

The 2023 Empirical Librarians Conference (EmpLibs) took place on March 9 & 10 at Virginia Commonwealth University Monroe Park Campus in Richmond, VA. With the last conference in 2021, organizers and participants were eager to reconnect with each other and share “research supported and done by librarians…” which happens to be the conference motto. This... more

Morgan & Summer at SOUCABL

Over Spring Break, Summer and I attended the annual Southern Conference of Academic Business Librarians (SOUCABL) at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA. This is, as the name suggests, a very “boutique” conference – with a narrow focus and familiar faces regularly attending. It’s also (in)famous within the Business Librarian community for being the... more

Carol at ER&L and Charleston

Last week I attended the virtual version of the ER&L Conference. There was a mix of live and pre-recorded sessions (and eventually recordings of the live sessions). Since I dedicated all of Spring Break week to it, I’ve already seen everything interesting. By contrast I attended the much larger Charleston Conference in-person in November, which... more

Leslie at MLA 2023

Another joint meeting of the Music Library Association and the Theatre Library Association this year, with a program rich in interdisciplinary and DEI topics. In a session titled “Beyond the Land Acknowledgement,” we learned about the contributions Native Americans have made to the literatures libraries collect. Graduates of the notorious boarding schools pursued professional careers... more