Diversity Committee News

ALAO Diversity Committee is excited to launch an inaugural DEI speaker series following the ALAO preconference this fall.  At the preconference tenants of Appreciative Inquiry and Design Justice will be put into practice in order to co-design and reimagine DEI advancement in academic libraries. Attendees will then have the opportunity to join speaker tracks in order to put new frames into practice.

To that end, the committee is seeking applications for speakers to develop or utilize existing content for two 1-hour sessions on DEI including but not limited to: anti-racism, cultural humility, indigenous approaches to DEI, social justice, decolonization, global DEI practices in the academic library. Suggested general topics could include but do not need to be limited to the following: 

• Leadership
• Instruction (library, community, and K-12)
• Student engagement (e.g. student workers, student research)
• Resource description access: cataloging, metadata, etc.
• Collection development and management
• Community engagement, programming, and outreach
• Digital humanities and data
• LIS committee and service work
• Research services
• New areas of librarianship

Tentative dates for the sessions will be according to session leaders’ schedules sometime between December 2023-April 2024. Speaker stipends available.

All interested session leaders are asked to submit a short proposal (maximum 500 words) covering a brief outline and learning outcomes to be met, by July 30 to diversity@ALAOweb.org. Selected participants will be notified by August 2023.

–Gwen Short, Diversity Committee Chair, The Ohio State University Wooster Campus

Assessment Interest Group (AIG) News

Please join Case Western Reserve University’s Stephanie Church, Acquisitions Librarian, and Jena Payne, Financial Planning and Analysis Manager for a two-hour workshop on the data visualization tool Tableau on June 23, 2023 from 9am-12pm.  This hands-on workshop will focus on using library data to create visualizations in Tableau and discuss the discoveries and decisions made from leveraging this tool.  In the first hour of the workshop, Stephanie and Jena will guide you through step-by-step instructions on how to make a bar chart, line graph, and a detailed title list.  In the second hour, they will combine all three visualizations to create a dynamic Tableau dashboard. This is a free event.

Please register for this event via Zoom.

–Melissa Bauer, Assessment Interest Group Co-Chair, Kent State University, Stark Campus
–Carissa Thatcher, Assessment Interest Group Co-Chair, University of Cincinnati

Instruction Interest Group (IIG) News

In collaboration with DLIG and STEMIG, IIG recently hosted two well attended webinars in ChatGPT this summer: Fostering AI Literacy: Considering the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in ChatGPT and ChatGPT In Context: Applying the ACRL Framework to AI by Emily Zerrenner and Allison Papini, respectively. And Friend or Foe? Taming the AI Beast with the ACRL Framework. We always welcome ideas for sessions from our members! Please reach out if you have ideas about webinars you would like to see or lead. 

We always welcome new members to our group. If you have questions about IIG, webinar topic proposals, or you are interested in joining our workshop planning committee, please contact iig-chairs@alaoweb.org. 

–Stefanie Hilles, Instruction IG Co-Chair, Miami University
–Jaclyn Spraetz, Instruction IG Co-Chair, Miami University

Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig) News

The Special Collections and Archives Interest Group (SCAig) Annual Workshop took place virtually on May 23, 2023. Kieran Robertson (Independent Historian; Data and Development Associate at Equality Ohio) presented “Queer in the Archives,” and Eira Tansey (Memory Rising, Cincinnati) presented “Ohio Archives and Climate Change.” We had 51 registrants and had a very productive and meaningful discussion on counter-archives and climate change and archives. These topics were selected by SCAig membership in a survey conducted earlier in 2023. The co-chairs are grateful to the speakers for outstanding presentations, to all attendees, and to former SCAig co-chair Henry Handley (University of Dayton) and Elizabeth Williams-Clymer (Kenyon College) for serving on the planning committee and moderating the SCAig slides and the Q&A portion of the workshop. Since the workshop, we are very pleased to have had six new members join SCAig! 

–Josh Zeller, SCAig Co-Chair, Mount St. Joseph University
–Miriam Intrator, SCAig Co-Chair, Ohio University

Sustainability Interest Group (SUSig) News

SUSIG hosted an Earth Day event on Thursday, April 27 at 11 a.m. Elyse Adrian, a Bowling Green State University undergraduate student, gave a presentation about EcoBricks, building blocks made from plastic bottles packed with used plastics, for 18 attendees. If you missed this event, you can catch Elyse’s TedX BGSU talk (Elyse’s introduction begins at 21:30). 

SUSIG is also seeking a new co-chair for a two-year term beginning at the ALAO Board Retreat in July. The new co-chair will work with current co-chair, Megan Jaskowiak, to plan sustainability-themed events, with a focus on actionable steps for libraries and archives. At the upcoming ALAO conference we plan on having our second in-person swap. However, most of our programming is virtual like the ecobricking event in April. Creative programming and community-building ideas are welcome. This is your opportunity to make your mark on the sustainability interest group!

Please contact current co-chairs Megan Jaskowiak (jaskowma@miamioh.edu ) and Maureen Barry (mebarry@bgsu.edu)

–Maureen Barry, SUSig Co-Chair, Bowling Green State University
–Megan Jaskowiak, SUSig Co-Chair, Miami University