I am happy to announce the agenda for the 2021 SLA Midwest Symposium. This event takes place on Friday, June 4, 2021, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Central Time.
Registration for this event is open! I've attached a PDF version of the schedule to this post. You can also view the schedule below.
Thank you and I hope to see you on June 4!-- Ed 2021 SLA Midwest SymposiumFriday, June 4, 20219:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.All times CentralAgendaWelcome & Community Updates9:00 – 9:15 a.m.Hear about updates from each of the following hosting communities:
- SLA Indiana
- SLA Iowa
- SLA Michigan
- SLA Illinois
Opening Keynote SessionTara Murray Grove, SLA President9:15 – 9:30 a.m.SLA President Tara Murray Grove will present news and updates from the SLA Board of Directors. Tara will also talk about the new strategic plan, the learning hub, and the upcoming virtual conference.Education Session 1Comprehensive Database Reevaluation: Starting from Scratch - Impossible Task or Unique OpportunityNathan Aaron Rosen, Herrick Feinstein9:30-10:00 a.m.Save your firm money and gain a better collection of databases. Learn about an exceptional way to substantially change the variety and depth of database alternatives you have. Historically, librarians review and adjust contracts as each database expires. Sometimes it is possible to determine the entire universe of database contracts at one time. This case study examines the nine month process from initial seed germination to fruition, highlighting the methods and procedures used to assist the librarian, step by step, on the road to revise nearly the entire library budget. Key activities include timeline development, focus/trial group membership selection, training session organization, evaluation form design, collection of patron preferences, and new contract negotiation with vendors and stakeholders.Education Session 2Author Matching at Mathematical ReviewsElizabeth Downie, Mathematical Reviews, American Mathematical Society10:00 – 10:30 a.m.At Mathematical Reviews, we pride ourselves on the work we do with matching author profiles. Through a combination of in-house systems and author disambiguation experts, we work hard to ensure each paper is attributed to the correct author profile. We do this using criteria such as institution matches, coauthor matches, email address matches, and more. Each day we process around 500 authors, matching them to existing profiles or creating new profiles. For this presentation, I will describe how this process works and the work that goes into it. I will especially be focusing on the human element in how this work is done.Morning Break 110:30 – 10:45 a.m.Lightning Talks10:45 – 11:45 a.m.How to Create a PodcastLorene Kennard, University of St. Francis10:45 - 10:55 a.m.Building a Data CultureGrant Halter, RAILS10:55 - 11:05 a.m.Cut the CRAAPMarydee Ojala, Online Searcher11:05 - 11:15 a.m.Title TBA Speaker TBA11:15 - 11:25 a.m.Accessibility in Research CollectionsAriel Robinson, Chicago History Museum11:25 - 11:35 a.m.Mathematical Reviews Citation DatabaseEliot Johnson, Mathematical Reviews, American Mathematical Society 11:35 - 11:45 a.m.Morning Break 211:45 – 12:00 p.m.Education Session 3Ope, Just Gonna Become an Embedded LibrarianAlex Hauser, Michigan State University12:00 – 12:30 p.m.Academic librarians often wear a variety of hats, collections, instruction, and outreach librarian are just some of them. We constantly strive for increased engagement with both students and faculty in our liaison areas with embedded librarianship held up as the ultimate goal. An academic librarian for human resources and labor relations was called upon to join the instruction team for a group of independent study students in that department in a new experiential learning style program. Students would work with an outside "client" to conduct company and industry research and get a taste of the real world work they might be tasked with completing. Program coordinators understood the importance and tricky nature of this type of research so brought in the HRLR Librarian to facilitate research check-ins every other week of the semester. This was the first ever opportunity for repeated instruction sessions with students for the librarian and allowed the librarian to introduce various appropriate resources and serve as a research guide, answering questions that arose while students conducted their own research. This also meant that the librarian needed to think programmatically about the tasks the students were asked to complete as well as develop instruction plans, expectations for students, and rapport with the students, things that are not needed in as much detail for one-shot sessions. This session will discuss some of the high and low points of this type of work, provide tips for connecting with students, and discuss how to make this type of small group work inclusive and engaging for participants.Closing General SessionMiguel Figueroa, Amigos Library Services12:30 – 12:45 p.m.Miguel Figueroa, President and Chief Executive Officer, Amigos Library Services will deliver the closing session on how special libraries can use trendspotting to plan new initiatives and services that will assist their users.All-Attendee Networking & Discussion12:45 – 1:00 p.m.All attendees are invited to discuss the future of special library services. The platform will remain open for those who want to stick around and network.Registration via Eventbrite. ------------------------------
Edward Dunne
Executive Editor, Mathematical Reviews
American Mathematical Society
egd@ams.org401.343.0233
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