2018 CALA Midwest Chapter Annual Program
Innovation, Leadership, and Assessment in the 21st Century
Date: Friday, May 11, 2018 9:00 am – 4:30 pm CST
Physical Location: Room 1-470, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago, 801 S. Morgan, Chicago, IL 60607
Virtual Location: https://iu.zoom.us/j/285517494
Conference Agenda
9:00 – 9:30 am
Conference registration
9:30 – 9:45 am
Opening Statements, Honoring Lisa Zhao, and Self-introductions
Yan He, President of the CALA Midwest Chapter, Indiana University Kokomo
Mary Case, University Librarian and Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
9:45 – 10:05 am
Paper Presentation: Making Sense of eBook Access and Use Limits across Multiple Collections
Robin Hofstetter, Metadata & Electronic Resource Librarian/ Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has a collection of over seven hundred thousand eBooks across numerous platforms, available to download in multiple methods, and with a variety of purchase options. This presentation explains how UIC makes sense of the language surrounding access and use limits and how librarians can make informed purchase decisions. I created an introductory workshop for departmental liaisons focusing on eBook access and use limit language. After the workshops, I created a LibGuide outlining the type of platforms and the features of each along with other appropriate information such as collection size. I will introduce the audience to both, as well as explain the next steps to the continual process of eBook collection building and maintenance that will be helpful to any institution trying to provide the best possible eBook services for their community.
10:05 – 10:50 am
Panel discussion: Leadership and You! [Presentation Slides]
Vincci Kwong, Head of Library Web Services, Indiana University of South Bend
Fu Zhuo, Teaching and Learning Librarian, University of Missouri – Kansas City
Lian Ruan, Head Librarian, Illinois Fire Service Institute
Qi Chen, Library Director, Calumet College of St. Joseph
Regardless of what stage of career a librarian is in, it is not too early to think about leadership! Speakers from this panel will discuss a variety of topics related to leadership, from personal characteristics, job responsibilities, professional development to challenges one may face in a leadership role! If you are interested in leadership and got some questions, bring them on! The panel speakers would love to share their journey and experience as a leader.
10:50 – 11:00am
Break
11:00 – 11:20 am
Paper Presentation: Refined Description vs. Better User Access Experience – Metadata Creation of Digital Image Collections [Presentation slides]
Mingyan Li, Metadata Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago
Tracy Seneca, Head of Digital Program and Services, University of Illinois at Chicago
One of the most work-intensive tasks for digital image collections is creating the image metadata. At UIC, this work was traditionally done by the archivists. We’ve recently expanded that workflow to engage catalogers in our Technical Services Department.
This session will showcase the new metadata workflow of one of our digital image collections, the Richard J Daley Era Photographs Collection, and discuss the changes in perspective and practice as catalogers shifted from books to images.
Unlike MARC catalog users, digital image collection users rarely look for a specific photo. They are more likely to have an interest in the overall subject matter of the collection, as opposed to a research need for one image only. Compared to a book, an image has relatively less information. When users find a photo of interest, they continue to explore among other images that meet their criteria. So our overall goal is to lead users to a large, relevant set of search results that reveal the content of the collection, rather than to describe each image as accurately as possible as in book cataloging. Our metadata should be able to generate a browsable list of subjects to support the goal. The list should be brief enough for quick understanding.
The scale of image collections also required a change in perspective. With 13,000 images expected for this collection, catalogers had to adjust both their pace and focus on details. We expect this new collaboration to allow us to ramp up our overall scale of digitization.
11:20 – 11:40 am
Paper Presentation: Introduce Agile and DevOps to Library Practices
Hong Ma, Head of Library Systems, Loyola University Chicago
The Agile and DevOps are terms emerging for the software development and delivery processes in the software industry. But the elements of Agile and DevOps and principles have been adopted for operational development in various organizations. Agile methods promote incremental changes and emphasize the collaboration, communications, teamwork, efficiency to meet customer satisfaction. Libraries started using Agile methods for project management, web site redesign processes etc. Similarly, the DevOps was springing from applying Agile and Lean approaches, with emphasis on a clipped compound of ‘development’ and ‘operations’. In the context of that library operations evolve and demand more collaborative ways to getting work done, the methods of Agile and DevOps are transferable to libraries projects. This presentation will examine how the concepts, principles and techniques of Agile and DevOps can be adopted for library practices. A case study of applying some elements in management of the library services platform will be shared. Hope it will also foster discussions on how we may do more with DevOps even in the non-technology areas such as organizational development.
11:40 – 11:50 am
Morning Presentation Discussion
11:50 – 12:00 pm
Group Photo
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Lunch Break [poster session: 1:00 – 1:30 pm]
Artificial Neural Network to Improve Library Services
Minghao Jiang, Software Development Librarian, Wayne State University
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a biologically inspired Machine Learning model that simulates how cells are connected in human brains to make a complicated decision. In topology terms, it can be represented by an acyclical network with explicit an input layer and an output layer which, respectively, doesn’t have to be organized in a structured manner. In mathematics, it manifests itself with an iterative application of perceptron function. The model can be used in a variety of ways, classification (the most common one), clustering, and language translation (usually achieved by networks of a specialized kind), just to name a few.
Wayne State University explored the possibilities of using ANN to predict how likely a user was searching for one type of information. The poster will cover basics of ANN, on which the exploratory work was based, and the presenter will also share how to perform error back-propagation, which is not straightforwardly covered in most related literature.
Champaign Chinese Christian Church Library Project
Kezhen Zhang, Technical Services Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Champaign Chinese Christian Church (CCC) registered as a non-profit organization in 1991. It settled down at this time at Temple Baptist Church (1100 Broadmoor Dr., Champaign, IL) in 2000. It has been developed from a student church to a community church, serving Chinese Christian residents and visitors in Champaign.
In the building, CCCC possesses a 165.88-feet-square library space to stack books, manuscripts, textbooks, and audiovisual materials, for public reference. Collections are mainly in either Chinese or English language, with small quantities of materials in other languages. These materials include various topics about Christianity; they were donated to the Church, by individuals or by families.
When I started to take over the library service in this church, books were roughly sorted by their subjects with labels of DDC numbers as their call numbers. These processed items arrived at the library in the early times of the church. Librarians at that time (years around 2004) had done excellent work, but after they left, no one took care of the library. Newly donated items were totally unprocessed.
Based on the library manual, made in 2004 by prior librarians, this project will incorporate its original Statement of Purpose. In addition, methods of administration and operation should have some changes to fit today’s librarianship trends.
In this poster presentation, I would like to share my purposes, methods, workflow, and the challenges I have met in this project with librarians of CALA.
Learning in Costa Rican Libraries – A Pilot iSchool Library Camp
Shuhan Yang, Graduate Student, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This poster is based on the presenter’s course-related field trip to Costa Rica during the 2018 spring break. This trip is part of the first iSchool study abroad program that was made possible through two-year collaborative efforts among several units. During the field trip, a pilot library camp was operated to offer participants extensive cross-cultural activities in San Jose and Southern Costa Rica.
The presenter will provide feedback on the overall library camp program from an attendee’s perspective and share some insights as a potential information professional with a global citizenship. Reflections included in the poster consist of “LIS Implications”, “Community Observation”, and “Cultural Highlights.” Although the library camp is not as prevailing as IT/tech camps, it is hoped that this poster can bring in more conversation on this type of library camp and help develop future library camp programs.
Dynamics for development of China’s Village Library Project 2007-2015: A Study Based on Activity Theory
Wenbo Zhou, Visiting PHD Student, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
In 2007, the State Administration of Press and Publication of China initiated and led the Village Library Project（农家书屋）to meet the cultural needs of Chinese farmers.
This project aimed to establish a small library in each administrative village through government support and fundraising. Farmers were supposed to operate these libraries.
By original plan, 640,000 administrative villages had to have libraries by 2015, but the Village Library Project reached its goal in 2012, three years earlier of schedule. The project has cost 180 billion Yuan and distributed 14.8 billion printed materials and 1.2 billion audio-video items to the newly established village libraries. It has involved the coordinated efforts of the State Administration of Press and Publication, the Ministry of Culture, the library profession, different kinds of grassroots organizations and the rural communities. However, there are some operational problems, such as low utilization and poor management, emerged. These problems need to be addressed.
Activity theory, an integrated theory that covers all elements (subject, object, tools, rule, community, and the division of labor) in human’s activity, was applied to analyze the implementation process of the Village Library Project. It reveals and clarifies the mechanism of participants (including motivation, relationship, and more), explores the developmental dynamics of China’s Village Library Project, and offers a deep understanding of the status quo and development trend of this project.
1:30 PM – 1:40 pm
Break
1:40 – 2:00 pm
Online Presentation: The Phoenix Task Force: Prioritizing Resources in a Time of Scarcity [Presentation slides]
Amber Loos, Assessment and User Experience Librarian, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Jian Anna Xiong, Government Documents Librarian, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Mary Taylor, Natural Sciences Librarian, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Faculty librarians at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) assembled a task force and conducted a study to inform library budget decisions in a time of limited funding. The main charge guiding the task force was to define the library’s objectives in terms of its mission to the university. Much of the task force’s work sought to determine how faculty librarians could best position the library for when the current budget situation turned around.
The task force undertook two main projects. First, they conducted an environmental scan among SIU’s identified peer institutions to identify services other libraries offered which SIU didn’t. Second, the task force put together a survey of campus faculty and graduate students to assess which library services, both current and potential, were valued on campus. Survey results from the approximately 200 faculty and 400 graduate student responses will be presented. Initial findings were that there is little awareness of many library services and suggestions were provided on which services the library could market more aggressively. Additionally, potential library services were ranked according to stakeholder interest (i.e., Scholarly publication center, Grant writing support services, Data management services, Data visualization and analysis, and Makerspaces).
2:00 – 2:20 pm
Paper Presentation: Lessons Learned from a Two-year Experience in Information Literacy Assessment For General Education Courses [Presentation slides]
Yan He, Information Literacy Librarian, Indiana University Kokomo
From fall 2015 to spring 2017, librarians at the IU Kokomo Library collaborated with program directors in speech communication and writing programs to assess information literacy in the general education curriculum in preparation for an upcoming accreditation visit. The presentation will describe the innovative information literacy inventory employed over four semesters, share successes and challenges related to planning and implementing a large-scale pre-/post-survey, analyze survey data to measure the student information literacy skills. The presentation will also highlight the lessons learned from the experience.
2:20 – 2:30 pm
Break
2:30 – 2:50 pm
Paper Presentation: Blockchain Technology and LIS Services [Presentation slides]
Yijun Gao, LIS Assistant Professor, Dominican University
Blockchain technology uses a distributed database (multiple devices not connected to a common processor) that organizes data into records (blocks) that have cryptographic validation and are timestamped and linked to previous records so that they can only be changed by those who own the encryption keys to write to the files.
Blockchain is an extremely hot topic among the business communities at present. Many of them believe Blockchain have numerous revolutionary impacts on “everything”. However, the most popular Apps based on the Blockchain are still the Bitcoin and similar crypto-currencies.
Blockchain claims to help us cut transaction and record keeping costs, improve accuracy, and reduce the risk of losing information to disaster or sabotage – but a Blockchain solution would require not only loading new records into the network, but also digitizing and uploading the coordinating historical records.
This presentation will discuss the unique features and latest developments/applications of the Blockchain technologies. We will also explore concerns regarding this new technology, i.e. whether or not the library and information services should embrace it.
2:50 – 3:10 pm
Paper Presentation: Rules of Engagement: Seven Things to Remember When Engaging Student Populations
Jennifer M. Jackson, Instructor & Undergraduate Engagement Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago
The presenter will discuss seven key issues librarians and library professionals should mindful of when developing student programming and interacting with student populations. This presentation will provide a basic framework for those who are interested in student engagement and outreach, but not quite sure of what is needed to establish successful efforts.
3:10 – 3:30 pm
Paper Presentation: Promoting Open Educational Resources: Incentives and Strategies [Presentation slides]
Fu Zhuo, Teaching & Learning Librarian, University of Missouri – Kansas City
Open educational resources (OER) have become more and more popular among academic institutions and libraries across America. They are usually referred to as freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, as well as other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. There are many benefits for using OER, such as they reduce the cost of textbooks for college students when tuition is constantly on the rise.
However, OER also encounters some doubts and barriers by faculty and administrators. This presentation will analyze some critiques of the OER movement and offer suggestions in promoting such resources. A brief history of this movement and current possible usages will be shared. Issues such as material license and faculty concerns will be discussed.
3:30 – 3:40 pm
Afternoon Presentation Discussion
3:40 – 4:00 pm
Conference Wrap-up
Yan He, President of the CALA Midwest Chapter, Indiana University Kokomo
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Library Tour