9:00 to 10:00 – Registration
Check-in and social time. Coffee and continental breakfast foods will be available.
10:00 to 10:10 – Welcome
Presenters: Isaac Gilman and Tamara Marnell
10:10 to 11:10 – Keynote
Moving beyond Pondering: Relationality and Indigenous Librarianship
Presenter: Sandy Littletree
In this keynote, Dr. Sandy Littletree invites librarians to reconsider what it means to practice librarianship through the lens of relationality. Drawing on more than a decade of teaching and research in Indigenous information science, she reflects honestly on where the profession has made progress—and where tensions, gaps, and hard questions remain.
Grounded in Indigenous systems of knowledge, Dr. Littletree challenges libraries to move beyond intention toward meaningful change. She asks what it would look like for libraries to be places not only about Indigenous communities, but accountable to them. With clarity and vision, she imagines a future of Indigenous librarianship where Indigenous knowledge is not marginalized or translated to fit existing systems, but supported, protected, and allowed to thrive.
Bio:
Sandy Littletree (Navajo/Eastern Shoshone) is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington and a leading researcher in the field of Indigenous information science. Her research examines Indigenous librarianship and the intersections of tribal sovereignty, technology, policy, knowledge, and information in Native North America.
Grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and guided by relationality, Dr. Littletree’s scholarship advances ethical frameworks for libraries and information systems that are accountable to Indigenous communities. Her current research projects focus on Indigenous data sovereignty, community archives in public libraries, and library services to tribal communities across Washington State.
An enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation, she is originally from the Four Corners region of New Mexico.
11:10 to 11:30 – Break
11:30 to 12:15 – Session 1
Developing Research-Based Programming for Everyday Negotiation Skills Development for Non-Traditional Learners
Presenters: Beth Filar Williams; Laura Rees; Meghna Sanjara Rao
Most of us do not have the opportunity to learn the critical everyday skill of negotiation, a key to community building – for connecting, communicating, collaborating, and effectively resolving conflicts when they arise. Typically fewer than 1% of university students have the opportunity to develop this skill. This presentation is sharing initial results and ongoing work from an interdisciplinary team working to establish a self-sustaining initiative, The Hub for Everyday Negotiation, to have an international reputation for research and training excellence, providing resources, accessible training, and research scholarship opportunities surrounding negotiation topics. More specifically, The Hub will offer science-based education, training, and resources for deserving populations that currently have little to no access to high-quality negotiation and conflict management preparation while fostering the development and publication of novel conceptual and empirical research. In this session, we will introduce our long-term vision, share initial findings and outreach efforts, and preview future steps. Dr. Laura Rees, negotiation expert will give a short introduction to the field of negotiation research and practice, including key terms, tactics, and tips for negotiation in daily life. Then the full team will share our preliminary research and future ideas, along with the challenges of working across disciplines and institutions as well as what role libraries in particular can have in this kind of work.
Re-Thinking the Library’s Role in Discovery and Access in a New Era of Search
Presenters: Uta Hussong-Christian, Hannah Rempel, Hui Zhang, Ian Scofield
As librarians with decades of experience, we are well aware that there are many discovery tools available for finding academic sources. However, it can sometimes be simplest to make decisions about the content we select and the discovery and access platforms we promote based on our own searching preferences or outdated memories of user behavior. Sticking with past assumptions becomes increasingly problematic due to the rapid proliferation of AI tools being used for discovery and access, which are reaping the benefits of increased availability of open-access content. The result of so much free and easy access to high-quality sources may be that many students and faculty may never interact with their campus library. To better understand our users’ realistic source discovery and access workflows, we invited participants to record search logs and videos of their searches, and we engaged in informal interviews focused on current AI searching behaviors. In this presentation, attendees will gain an understanding of the discovery and access barriers users encounter based on real user search dilemmas; they will identify potential discovery and access focus areas for their library to hone in on based on the local examples we provide; and they will engage in discussion about tough decisions libraries need to make about supporting legacy discovery and access platforms in a new era of search needs and possibilities. Our findings and discussion will be of interest to a broad range of Online Northwest attendees, recognizing that calls for discovery and access technical changes intersect with cultural shifts in searching behaviors and norms.
Affordable Learning, Shared Findings: A Collaborative Survey of Oregon Institutions
Presenters: Stephanie Buck, Julia Stone, Holly Gabriel
Four Oregon institutions (University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Southern Oregon University, Portland State University) worked together to redesign the Affordable Textbook survey originally conducted by Florida Virtual Campus in 2016. Many people have heard of the “Florida survey” and its shocking results that 60% of students reported not purchasing their textbooks because of costs. Since then, the survey has been updated and improved upon and conducted at many institutions over the years and each time, we learn more about how our students are impacted by the cost of course materials, what strategies they use, and what is important to them. The four institutions collaborated to review and update the survey to better reflect the Oregon student population and needs of our individual institutions. In this presentation, we will discuss not only the results of the survey, but also how and why we made changes to the questions, and how we plan to disseminate the results and use this information to leverage support for more OER activities. We will share what we learned about Oregon students and the high cost of course materials, as well as some of the benefits and challenges in running this type of survey. Participants will receive access to the survey questions and IRB application, which have an open license for adoption and remixing.
What has teaching critical generative AI literacy actually looked like?
Presenter: Janet Calderon
It’s been a few years now that generative AI has hit the scene and there have been a number of resources shared that look at ways to include AI literacy into the library’s suite of instruction. But, what has teaching and engaging with critical AI literacy from a library perspective actually looked like in practice?
This session will mostly be a conversation circle where we come together to share our experiences and ideas. We will however begin with a short introduction via the host sharing out their college library’s critical information literacy approach to teaching and engaging with generative AI as well as an overview on the new approach they are working that stems from Chicana/Latina feminist pedagogies.
12:15 to 12:30 – Break
12:30 to 1:30 – Lunch
1:30 to 2:15 – Session 2
Blueprinting Services to Foster Shared Understanding
Presenters: Beth Filar Williams, Ian Scofield
Service blueprints focus on a user’s steps of their journey for a need/a service, by adding in the service provider and behind the scenes steps. A service blueprint is a foundational document that outlines the underlying dependencies and requirements for a service – current or future state. This single document is a very powerful tool in service design because it outlines both the onstage, or what is visible to the patron, and the offstage, what happens behind the scenes to perform or deliver a service. This session will provide an overview of blueprinting as part of service design that any library can apply. The presenters will share examples of blueprinting in their library, including how and why someone might consider applying this method to review their library’s user services. During this session, attendees will have ample time to workshop a blueprint with predefined scenarios, and share out about the process and ask questions. This session is specifically about reviewing or unpacking the “unwritten” aspects of our work – why (& how!) we do what we do – but also can help with navigating change visually through blueprinting service processes.
Breaking Down Silos: Connecting Faculty, Students, Communities, and Libraries
Presenters: Kim Olson-Charles, Lori Wamsley
Do the technical, public, and instructional service staff at your library work together to improve library services? Are you sharing information about user needs, working together to make collections more relevant, and aligning goals to ensure smooth and efficient user experiences? This session will explore how forming collaborative partnerships within your library helps bridge the gap between the behind-the-scenes work of acquisitions, cataloging, and electronic resources and the front-line interactions that happen at public service points and during instructional sessions.
Creating a geospatial guide to the Northwest Collection at Western Washington University
Presenters: Sid Devarenne, Neah Ingram-Monteiro, Natalie Furness
WWU’s Northwest Collection, a circulating collection focused on the Pacific Northwest, has the potential to be a valuable resource for place-based learning and research. However, it is currently underutilized by students and instructors. We are exploring the relationship between usage of this collection and the discovery methods available to our users. We created an alternative discovery interface that foregrounds geography to test whether a geospatial interface could better meet place-based information needs. This presentation will describe the creation of a prototype geospatial guide to the Northwest Collection, including extracting geographic terms from MARC records and geocoding each title in the collection, and designing and building an ArcGIS dashboard for the user interface.
Learning Outcomes:
- Attendees will learn how to extract geographic terms from MARC records in Alma and use those terms to create geocoded bibliographic datasets.
- Attendees will see a demonstration of an ArcGIS dashboard built using geocoded bibliographic data.
- Attendees will understand why a geospatial guide supports information needs of students and other researchers seeking information about places in the Northwest
Message Makeover: Transforming Patron Notices
Presenters: Diane Sotak, Stephanie Michel
Academic libraries often focus on patron outreach through brochures, social media, and email newsletters, but what about the automated emails patrons receive? This presentation will share how our team transformed routine notices from Alma, LibCal, and ILLiad into clear, consistent, and user-friendly communications. This project required library-wide collaboration and gave us a valuable opportunity to break out of our silos and work toward a unified patron experience. Participants will learn practical strategies for revising system-generated messages to share essential information as well as creating touchpoints that convey care and attention, reinforcing that every interaction matters. Walk away with actionable ideas and examples you can implement immediately to make every email count.
2:15 to 2:35 – Break
2:35 to 3:05 – Session 3
The Quinault Library Project: Community Powered Cataloging in Practice
Presenter: Ash King
The Quinault Nation’s library began with a gifted collection, an IMLS grant, and a decision to use the Brian Deer Cataloging System (BDCS) as a framework, developing a cataloging system unique to Quinault worldviews and language choices. This session will provide an overview of BDCS, a discussion of the process of crafting a unique cataloging system and organizational structure through collection assessment and community discussions, and a look at the final product of this project.
Pull Up a Chair: A Speaker Series Finds a New Home in the Library
Presenter: Rochelle Smith
The University of Idaho Library, on a shoestring budget and with no dedicated auditorium, carved out space and invested in new technology to host a longstanding campus interdisciplinary colloquium series in dire need of a new home. In the process, we forged stronger connections to faculty, students, and the community beyond the university’s borders. This is a replicable model and is proving wildly successful for all concerned; it may even inspire conference attendees to start speaker series of their own.
Learning outcomes: Rethink existing library spaces in order to accommodate programming that welcomes the entire community Develop new opportunities to partner with teaching faculty, graduate students and other scholars in order to build lasting relationships Center the library as a nexus of interdisciplinary exchange on campus
Relevance: As a land grant university library in a large state with a widely dispersed population, making the talks available for asynchronous remote attendees is a priority for the library as the colloquium series settles into its new home. There have been many requests for this, and we have created recordings for a few of the talks. Incorporating this as a feature of the entire program is a logistical challenge that we are working on.
Cultivating Connections and Collaborations for Rural and Remote Student Success
Presenter: Audra Green
Since 2019 Boise State University launched various strategies for rural and remote student success which led to a new librarian role focused on community engagement and partnerships. This session discusses the Community Impact Programs and Strategic Enrollment and Retention Plan initiatives and the library’s role in implementation, assessment, and sense of belonging. We will discuss insights on how to leverage data to make student centered decisions, highlight barriers in working with remote and rural students, and ideas on how to cultivate cross-campus partnerships. As a group we will have the chance to share strategies on cultivating connections between public libraries, community colleges and four year institutions with a goal of identifying avenues of opportunity as well as barriers that we may be responsible for.
Graduate Students to the Rescue: Expanding Research Help Through Peer-to-Peer Connections
Presenter: Chelsea Riddle
Redefining collaboration and reimagining connections are how we build stronger student community in the academic library. At Central Washington University, our Peer Research Consultant (PRC) program puts these ideas into action by training graduate students to be accessible, peer-to-peer research partners for undergraduates, effectively expanding research services for the student community during nontraditional hours. This session shares how we proactively managed change within the program, detailing how we implemented key components like a Canvas training course and structured mentorship to successfully reframe communications around research help. Attendees will leave with practical, actionable strategies for building peer-led service models, including concrete examples of the personnel, planning, and communications frameworks needed to successfully launch or scale a similar program. This session offers valuable insight for libraries exploring innovative, community-based service models.
3:05 to 3:25 – Break
3:25 to 3:55 – Session 4
Collaborating with Community: the Vietnamese Portland: Memory, History, Community project
Presenter: Zoe Maughan
This presentation will showcase the work of the Vietnamese Portland: Memory, History, Community project, based out of Watzek Library Special Collections and Archives at Lewis & Clark College. The project aims to contribute to a more thorough, representative history of the city of Portland by collaborating with the Vietnamese community to preserve oral histories, documents, and photographs that capture the significant contributions of the community to our city.
In line with Re: Community – Reimagining Connections, Reframing Communications, and Redefining Collaboration, the Vietnamese Portland project emphasizes advocacy for community-driven collaborative archiving. While the project is housed in a traditional archival setting, the project team works to embody community archives values as much as possible. By working closely with community members and organizations, the project aims to take a collaborative approach to documenting history, amplifying the voices of communities often marginalized in traditional archival spaces.
The presentation will highlight key initiatives within the project, including building community relationships, the collection of oral histories and other documents, and the creation of outreach programs including a traveling exhibit and a teacher advisory board. Additionally, the presentation will discuss how the project considers Reimagining Connections, Reframing Communications, and Redefining Collaboration, showing how traditional archives can take on community archives values to contribute to more representative histories. The Vietnamese Portland: Memory, History, Community project is an example of the importance of preserving diverse narratives in traditional archives and can serve as a model for future community-focused archival projects.
You Can Start a Community of Practice for Almost Anything! How Pacific University Library Faculty Unexpectedly Created an Important Community of Practice on AI Literacy
Presenter: Stephanie Brown
Communities of practices (CoPs) can foster collaboration and growth in a low-stakes, equitable environment. They can be formatted and shaped in numerous ways to bring people with a common interest together to discuss and take action on an issue. In this session, I will discuss how Pacific library faculty used an informal community of practice to solicit ideas and feedback from our library and campus colleagues for an “AI Literacy Toolkit,” and what we learned from the experience. I will also highlight the flexibility and fluidity of CoPs in order to demonstrate to the audience that they can be formed to address a question or need in many diverse scenarios. By creating a community of practice for our library colleagues to provide feedback on AI literacy instruction, we provided integral time to share concerns, fears, and enthusiasm for AI tools, and their impact on libraries and learning in general. This went beyond our original intention and had important impacts on our collaboration and communication moving forward.
Senior University: Engaging Individuals Ages 55+ in Your Community in Lifelong Learning Opportunities
Presenter: Gretchen Rings
Through the Senior University program, IU Northwest (IUN) has offered programming to older adults for over two decades. Since 2012, IUN has successfully continued the program’s mission of engaging individuals ages 55+ in lifelong learning opportunities. Our vision is for Senior University to be a recognized model of lifelong learning that inspires, empowers, and enriches seniors. We team up with Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) from AARP, and its flagship program Senior Planet, to bring our 55+ community of older adults free educational sessions on health and wellness, technology, and much more! As a librarian and trainer, I’ll provide participants an overview of this program and how it can be implemented at their college or university to reimagine, reframe, and redefine connections, communications, and collaboration.
Student Perceptions of Research and Writing: Charting a Fresh Outlook on Library-Writing Center Collaboration
Presenters: Celia Hagey & Emma Perry
Libraries and writing centers have long been considered natural collaboration partners due to a recognized overlap between the disciplines of research and writing. However, little research has been done to understand student perceptions of the recursive and interrelated processes of researching and writing. In this proposed session, a reference librarian and a writing center director share early results from an ongoing, IRB-approved research study which aims to address this gap in literature. Our research is inspired by the desire to collaborate more intentionally across departments. Initial findings may indicate not only how students perceive the cognitive tasks undergirding academic research and writing, but also how these perceptions influence their academic support needs. Findings may also inform the development of new strategies for supporting student success. In alignment with this year’s conference themes of Community and Redefining Collaboration, attendees will learn why and how student perceptions of research and writing tasks can inform intentional, effective partnerships between university libraries and writing centers.