Monday June 12

10:00 am - CSL(squared) - Community Service Learning at the Library 

Ngina wa Kaai,  Mishma Mukith, Sadia Ibrahim (NorQuest College)

Community service learning (CSL) connects theoretical applications of knowledge to real life contexts. Unlike standard volunteer work, CSL combines curricular content with service and both the students/class and the partner organization benefit from the experience.

This year, the NorQuest College Library has partnered with our Work-Integrated Learning-Career Education Centre (WILCEC) unit to provide a number of classes with CSL opportunities.

The presentation will include an overview of what CSL is, how it can benefit student learning, reflections on the projects created this academic year, and how you can bring CSL projects to your space. The presentation will also include anecdotes and experiential knowledge from one of our community partners, the 1000 Women Child Care Centre located in NorQuest College.

11:00 am - New Library Services Platform (LSP) Update 

Ivan Chan and Weiwei Shi (University of Alberta)

The process for moving to a new Library Services Platform is beginning. This session will provide an update for where we are now, the process going forward and the implications for NEOS libraries..

1:00 pm - Creating an information literacy curriculum map

Leah Townsend (NorQuest College)

Instructional librarians have many details to consider when it comes to what and how they teach. Institutional priorities, the ACRL Framework, strategic plans, educational design, and discipline-specific instruction requests - how can we put all of this together to create a unified, intentional curriculum? Join this session to learn about the NorQuest College Library’s recent experience with the curriculum mapping process and our preliminary results. See examples for visualizing the relationships between competing priorities, and suggestions for drafting information literacy program outcomes and mapping to lesson objectives. Attendees will leave this session with an understanding of the process of mapping their own institution’s information literacy curriculum, and suggestions and materials to assist in the mapping process.

Virtual reference services, including email, chat, and embedded forms, are an integral channel for communication with library users at the University of Alberta Library (UAL). In 2021, the Virtual Reference Working Group (VRWG) was formed to map current virtual reference services provided across various service points and platforms and to propose a more cohesive model that would take advantage of available technologies. After conducting internal consultation, a literature review, and an environmental scan, VRWG recommended that UAL subscribe to LibAnswers as an integrated virtual reference platform. This approach would minimize the number of points of email contact that library users need to navigate, establish a single platform for frontline staff to use for addressing users’ queries, ensure a more seamless referral process to other library staff across various departments, and facilitate the creation of a knowledge base with answers to frequently asked questions. UAL launched its LibAnswers virtual reference service in February 2023 and continues to adapt and improve workflow, with the goal of providing high-quality, responsive, and cohesive virtual reference services for library users. We will describe VRWG’s processes and findings and how we are now using LibAnswers for email and chat support and referral. We will share lessons learned and leave attendees with a set of questions to consider when evaluating virtual services at their libraries.

Caitlin Ratcliffe (Red Deer Polytechnic), Eva Revitt (MacEwan University)

Convenient, accessible, and powerful artificial intelligence has captured the world’s attention, generating fears ranging from the profoundly disturbing (potential human extinction) to the relatively banal (cheating on term papers). Considering such a spectrum, what could AI mean for libraries and our work? Join our librarian panelists who will educate about the present and speculate about the future of AI.  

The Keyano College Library was an early adopter of the new EBSCO Discovery Service interface. The driving force behind our transition was the improved user experience which we hoped would better meet our users’ needs. This presentation will cover the highs and lows of our transition process, including our one-year timeline to implementation, opportunities and challenges of the new system based on user feedback, and considerations for other NEOS libraries when exploring their own migration to a new user interface.

11:15 am Lightning Talk

Wilmer Tenerife (Burman University) 

One exciting feature of the new Burman library has been our makerspace. We have sought to approach the use of the space in collaboration with interested students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders and have seen some very positive results. This session will be an overview of the development of and activities to date in our makerspace and will hopefully portray the importance of active and interested campus involvement in the ongoing activities. The future looks bright as we move forward in partnership with the rest of campus.