2022 Conference

KEYNOTE – Trevor Dawes, Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums and May Morris University Librarian at University of Delaware

Keynote Speaker – 10am-11am

photo credit: Julie McGee

Keynote address: Rethinking EDI Initiatives in Libraries

Keynote Description: Libraries have long valued equity, diversity, and inclusion as important to our success, especially as the demographics of the country, and our institutions are changing. Our various efforts at recruitment have arguably been successful, but we still have work to do in terms of retaining a diverse workforce and creating truly inclusive spaces. Dawes will share information about the demographics of the profession and propose ways to have an impact on organizational culture.

Trevor A. Dawes is the vice provost for libraries and museums and May Morris Librarian at the University of Delaware. In this role, Dawes has overall responsibility for the operations of the university Libraries, Museums, and University Press. He was previously an associate university librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, responsible for many of the public services operations at the library there. Dawes also served as the Circulation Services Director at the Princeton University Library, and prior to that held several positions at the Columbia University Libraries in NYC. He has worked with staff in developing and providing training for electronic reserve services; has written on various library services topics, and has either planned or presented at various local, national and international conferences on a variety of topics. Dawes earned his Master of Library Science from Rutgers University, and has two additional Master’s Degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University. He is an active member of the American Library Association, is a past president of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and sits on the board of several library and library-related organizations.

POSTER SESSIONS

P01. LibraryLinkNJ Programs & Services for Academic Libraries
Darby Malvey, LibraryLinkNJ
Ralph Bingham, LibraryLinkNJ

In this poster session, visitors will learn about the programs and services that LibraryLinkNJ has to offer to academic library staff. User feedback will be solicited.

P02. [Withdrawn] Metadata Remediation for Inclusive Language in Library Records: Alma/Primo Normalization Rules to Address Systemic Biases in Discovery

P03. Fist Bump With A Real Life Librarian
James Cox, Hudson County Community College

As students recover from the isolation and trauma associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic a friendly face and human connection are a welcome reprieve. Hudson County Community College started hosting “Shake Hands With A Real Life Librarian” prior to the onset of the Pandemic. Reintroducing it only seems natural, indeed necessary, now that students are making their way back into the world.

P04.  NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ Committee Information
Gary Marks, William Paterson University

This poster provides conference attendees with information about NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ committees and membership. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about joining the section/chapter and the various roles and committees which are available.

P05. TML through the Looking Glass: Rethinking Services and Refocusing Initiatives through the Lens of Library Publications
Sara Lauren Purifoy, Centenary University
Wendi Blewett, Centenary University

Taylor Memorial Library (TML) produces two publications to promote Library resources and services and to share the news and information about library happenings. The Unshelved Newsletter was launched in Spring 2020, while the Resource Memo was developed during the institution’s recovery period in mid-2021. This poster highlights the analysis of these two COVID-era publications, demonstrating the library’s ability to refocus priorities during challenging times. These publications encapsulate the library’s ongoing commitment to rethink how services are promoted to keep the connection between the library and the campus community strong while recovering from disruptive events as we emerge from the pandemic.

P06. Collecting Stories of Our “Lost Year”
Jessica Hamilton, Rowan College of South Jersey

To encourage reflection and healing for students and employees of Rowan College of South Jersey as we returned to our first in-person classes since March 2020, a team of inspired co-workers from around campus developed a storytelling project. “Stories of Our ‘Lost Year’: Reflecting on the Pandemic and Social Challenges” was born. This poster presentation will recount how the project developed, changed, grew, and concluded.

P07. Chat Reference: How to Create Your Own RefTracker and Share Screenshots During Chat Transactions
Madel Tisi, Ramapo College

Potter librarians at Ramapo College created their own “RefTracker” using Google Forms to keep tabs of their reference statistics. With the increase in their chat statistics during the pandemic, one of their best practices was to take and send quick screenshots during chat interactions as their work-around since their chat software does not have screen-sharing capabilities. This poster presentation will provide instructions for creating your own “RefTracker” for an easy and cheap way to track statistics, as well as provide instructions and shortcuts for taking quick screenshots for sending to your patrons during chat transactions.

P08. I Don’t Have the Time or Really Understand What This Is! Examining our Faculty’s Motivation to Use (or not) the Montclair State University’s Institutional Repository
Darren Sweeper, Montclair State University
Karen Ramsden, Montclair State University

This poster aims to examine how we can encourage faculty to deposit their scholarly works into our institutional repository (IR). After devoting considerable energy on the development, implementation, and populating of content, the time had come to refocus our efforts to address the lack of faculty participation. Our research compelled us to rethink how we engage with faculty to identify barriers that may limit their participation and awareness of the IR. In this study we conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty to explore how to best address the issues that define their engagement, and use of the institutional repository.

P09. Ready, Set, Connect: Bringing Community Spirit Back Through Interactive Spaces, eDisplays, and Newsletters
Christine Stevenson, Georgian Court University
Caitlin Connelly, Georgian Court University

The pandemic forced us to rethink how we engage with students as our library services shifted to an entirely digital environment. Upon returning to the library, we had to consider how to make the best use of both the digital and traditional spaces. Through the development of several interactive spaces we have seen an immediate positive impact on our campus community. The addition of QR codes has transformed physical book displays to allow patrons to go beyond their normal browsing experience, and our weekly newsletter continues to promote these efforts in addition to reaching a wider audience that might not think to visit the library.

P10. We Deliver for You: Delivering Library Material during the Pandemic
Amanda Cowell, The College of New Jersey
Bethany Sewell, The College of New Jersey

In the summer of 2020, in order to ensure continued support of our patron’s research, Gitenstein Library began a curbside delivery service of physical materials. Books and media were pulled from the stacks and delivered to patrons’ cars as scheduled. In the Fall of 2020, in order to provide continued safe services for both our patrons and staff, walk-up delivery services were added as well. These new services were built by rethinking and expanding our existing hold services that began in 2015. In the fall of 2021, we refocused and grew this service by piloting a faculty office delivery service.

P11. Accolades for Academics
Adriana Mamay, Middlesex College

Recognize your peers and honor them with the awards they deserve! This poster highlights four New Jersey Library Association awards that academic librarians are exclusively eligible for and describes how college and university librarians can nominate themselves and their colleagues. The winners of the Distinguished Service Award, Research Award, Technical Services Award, and Technology Innovation Award will be honored at the NJLA Conference in Atlantic City, which attracts 700 librarians annually. New Jersey’s academic librarians are extremely accomplished. Let’s ensure that our accolades are recognized and appreciated by the wider NJ library community.

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Breakout Sessions I – 11:10am – 12pm

B01. Sneak Peek of VALE-NJ OER Certificate Program
The VALE OER Ambassadors will present a sneak peek of the training opportunity under development for NJ librarians and library staff. The VALE-NJ OER Certificate Program is designed to expand your knowledge and skills related to open educational resource adoption, creation, and initiatives. The training program will launch in late spring, 2022, and this is your opportunity to learn more about what will be offered. Training content will appeal to OER novices and also to those who have experience or prior training with OER. Come learn how the program and the resulting collaborative projects will benefit NJ academic libraries.
Presenters:
Megan Dempsey, Raritan Valley Community College
Muhammad Hassan, Kean University
Lily Todorinova, Rutgers University

B02. Bringing the Federal Work Study Students Home: Rutgers University Libraries Student Worker Program Goes Virtual
Libraries are often said to be a place where the classroom leaves off, and never more has this been truer than when the Rutgers University Libraries-New Brunswick (RUL-NB) agreed to employ 250 virtual student workers during Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. This program was facilitated when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, while most Rutgers employees were working from home, and when students were living all over the world. This presentation will discuss the program and how it came to fruition, look at three individual supervisory experiences, and discuss the importance of this program including impact and missed opportunities.
Presenters:
Megan Lotts, Rutgers University
Rose Barbalace, Rutgers University
Tara Maharjan, Rutgers University

B03. Be a Slack-er: Using Slack to Network & Connect
Communication platforms have risen in popularity as business teams conduct more work online. To facilitate networking and conversation among conference attendees, a Slack workspace has been set up for the 2022 New Jersey Academic Libraries Conference. This session will provide an introduction to Slack, including a live tutorial, so that you can connect to other attendees today and stay in touch after the event is over. Suggestions on how to use communication platforms for your own staff will also be covered.
Presenters:
Rebecca Roe, Felician University

B04. Lightning Talks A&B

• B04.A. Rethinking Traditional Library Bulletin Boards and Creating Virtual Bulletin Boards
  The Curriculum Materials Center at the David and Lorraine Cheng Library had to rethink the way that it provided resources to its communities on-campus and off-campus. This was accomplished through the creation of virtual bulletin boards using the Smore newsletter platform. These virtual bulletin boards followed monthly themes and were shared through university social media accounts. In addition, these virtual bulletin boards were shared via email through Smore to College of Education faculty, Professors-in-Residence, and Pre-K-12 educators throughout William Paterson University’s Pre-K-12 schools network. Educators incorporated some of the resources that were shared into their professional practice.
  Presenter: Neil Grimes, William Paterson University
• B04.B. Responding to Emerging Information Literacy Needs in the Time of COVID-19: Two Information Guides Implemented at Rowan University Libraries
  In this lightning talk, faculty librarians will describe the development of two online guides that were created in response to the emerging information literacy needs of various stakeholders at Rowan University: a COVID-19 and misinformation guide for the Rowan community and the general public and a COVID-19 research-focused guide for healthcare practitioners. These COVID-19 guides extend on the presenters’ experiences with teaching online source evaluation and with supporting frontline healthcare workers’ information needs.
  Presenters:
  Benjamin Saracco, Rowan University
  Andrea Baer, Rowan University
  Daniel Kipnis, Rowan University

Lunch Break – Themed Lunches / Organizational Updates – 12pm-12:50pm

Breakout Sessions II – 1pm – 1:50pm

B05. Rethinking Teaching Collections Using the Smithsonian Learning Lab
Academic librarians at William Paterson University and Rutgers University collaborated in two separate teams in building collections centered on diversity and equity themes using the Smithsonian Learning Lab. Overall, the Smithsonian Learning Lab allowed us to rethink how resources are presented and these resource collections made learning come alive for K-12 students. The final collections engaged students in four schools in Paterson Public Schools in unique arts integration lessons and activities. This project was sponsored by the Arts Integration and Cultural Competency Professional Support for New Jersey Educators grant from the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access.
Presenters:
Neil Grimes, William Paterson University
Kayo Denda, Rutgers University

B06. Rethinking The Library’s Role in Open Access Management: Issues and Challenges
Today more libraries are trying to unbundle their big deal using Unsub that uses levels of open access (OA) as a major component of decision making to cancel titles, yet finding OA content in the library is surprisingly hard. Accessing OA content alongside licensed content via discovery provides many benefits to users. The session will provide a brief overview of Unsub and how librarians really need to understand the OA landscape, develop OA policy, provide selection criteria and recognize what publishers and discovery vendors do with the open access content. The best practices for integrating OA content into library collection development strategies will be discussed.
Presenter: Jia Mi, The College of New Jersey

B07. Library Technology and Innovation: Successes, Failures, and Everything in Between
Since March 2020, academic libraries have experienced great change. As we adapted, academic librarians engaged in innovative experimentation of new technologies; in order to provide the same quality services in new ways. Some experimentation led to improvements that continue to exist, while others provided only temporary solutions. Some experiments, despite the best intentions, did not work out as originally hoped. This tech innovation roundtable will provide a platform for academic librarians to share their tech successes, failures, and everything in between, so that we can learn from each other as we rethink, refocus, and recover.
Presenters:
Amanda Cowell, The College of New Jersey
Janelle Bitter, Raritan Valley Community College
Matthew Brown, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Maria Deptula, Berkeley College
Linda Salvesen, William Paterson University
Jing Yang, Hudson County Community College

B08. Lightning Talks C&D

• B08.C. Rethinking Digital Initiatives
  Thirty years ago digital initiatives emerged as a practice associated with digital libraries. Although the digital library concept has evolved considerably, digital initiatives are still largely associated with digitization projects and institutional repositories. EBooks, scanned texts, and archival surrogates are increasingly found alongside electronic theses, digital assets, and research data. These developments highlight the growing need for academic library participation in a broad range of technologies, covering everything from online education to electronic publishing. This session will rethink the role of library digital initiatives and refocus the practice within the context of technology project management.
  Presenter: David J. Williams, William Paterson University
• B08.D. The Palace Project
  In this breakout session, attendees will learn about The Palace Project, a new, not-for-profit digital platform with unique benefits for libraries, including the ability to present digital content from any vendor to patrons in one app; a content marketplace that offers unique and flexible licensing models; and a collection of more than 20,000 free open access titles. This presentation will include a demonstration of the Palace app and content marketplace and case studies of how New Jersey libraries are successfully using Palace to reach new patrons digitally.
  Presenters:
  Michele Kimpton, The Palace Project
  James English, The Palace Project
  Micah May, Digital Public Library of America

B09. Refocusing Library and Learning Commons Resources and Services in Pursuit of R2 Carnegie Research Classification
As students and faculty returned to campus, the Nancy Thompson Learning Commons at Kean University launched a full-scale implementation of its game plan for supporting the University’s R2 Carnegie research classification goals. This mission fostered rethinking of service modalities and refocusing on the needs of faculty and students as they work on research, scholarship, and creative activities in an evolving, R2-centric environment. This session will feature strategies implemented by units focusing on Collections, Learning Support, OER and Special Projects, Operations, and Research Support as they collaborate with other units and programs on innovative and engaging ways to support our researchers.
Presenters:
Linda Cifelli, Kean University,
Muhammad Hassan, Kean University
Agie Markiewicz-Hocking, PhD, Kean University  
Elia Serifovic, Kean University  
Chrisler Pitts, Kean University  
Craig Anderson, Kean University

B10. Rethinking Marketing and Outreach to Re-engage Our Communities
Academic libraries are adapting services to meet the requirements of multiple modalities, and their marketing and outreach efforts are following suit. This panel of academic librarians from different institutions will share recent marketing and outreach initiatives to re-engage our users as we emerge from the pandemic. Panelists will discuss design, implementation, and impact on their communities. Panelists will lead a discussion with session attendees on how outreach can re-engage and re-energize our users and the tools and resources which make it possible.
Presenters:
Joan Dalrymple, Bergen Community College (moderator)
Nicole Potdevin, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Lisa Bogart, Hudson County Community College
Gary Marks, William Paterson University
Kate McGivern, Bergen Community College

B11. Controlled Digital Lending Using OneDrive
Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) allows the library to circulate the exact number of copies of a specific title that it owns, putting controls in place to prevent users from redistributing or copying the digitized version. One significant advantage of CDL is addressing the “Twentieth Century Problem” of older books still under copyright but unlikely ever to be offered digitally by commercial services. This was a necessary method to utilize during the past year. Moving forward, CDL can be used to meet the information needs of faculty, staff and students for academic collaboration and learning.
Presenter: Satasha Williams, William Paterson University

B12. Lightning Talks E&F

• B12.E. Using Drill Down within Alma Analytics Reports
  The presentation covers the creation of drill down queries with our annual and monthly reports. This function of drilling down into a report allows our librarians and staff to query what the items are behind the numbers, and allows them to find and correct problems with our data and services in Alma.
  Presenter: Linda Salvesen, William Paterson University
• B12.F. A Data-Driven Approach to Refocusing Collection Management
  With funds at a premium, and students learning in multiple modalities, assessing a library collection is an important part of providing excellent services. This presentation will outline steps taken to assess the physical and digital monographic holdings at Raritan Valley Community College’s Evelyn S. Field Library, provide a summary of findings, and offer conclusions. Data was gathered from WMS Collection Evaluation reports and further refined in Excel. Comparing holdings in different subject areas by circulation history and date of publication, RVCC librarians were able to refocus their thinking to determine areas that needed weeding, development, promotion, or funding changes.
  Presenter: Janelle Bitter, Raritan Valley Community College

B13. NJLA/CUS-ACRL/NJ Outreach Partnership with NJASL
In the fall of 2021 the NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ Marketing & Outreach Committee forged a partnership with the New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) to provide College Readiness information sessions to NJ high school students. The partnership led to multiple academic librarian panels coordinated with NJ school media specialists to familiarize high school students with the academic library experience. Attendees at this session will receive an overview of the initiative, hear from the organizers and participants, and learn about the programs outcomes and future plans.
Presenters:
Gary Marks, William Paterson University
Neil Grimes, William Paterson University
Bonnie Lafazan, Berkeley College
Catherine Baird, Montclair State University
Ewa Dziedzic-Elliot, Lawrence Township High School

B14. The Open Textbook Collaborative Statewide Project: Progress and Possibilities
The Open Textbook Collaborative (OTC), a New Jersey Higher Education OER Project funded by the US Department of Education FIPSE program, has just started its second year. We are in the process of piloting our first of many OER Resources that will focus on addressing gaps in the “Open Textbook Marketplace” and more specifically in STEM-intensive Vocational and Career Education programs. In this session, we will discuss our progress towards a new model for career-oriented Open Textbook publishing based on a library-led collaboration between individual faculty members, educational institutions, professional associations, and industry partners. We will inform the VALE community about the projects already underway, highlight our successes, and also describe the challenges we have faced along the way. We will also dive into OpenNJ and our Open Publishing Tool before opening up the floor to questions and offering you opportunities to join us in contributing to the OTC in any number of ways.
Presenters:
Marilyn Ochoa, Middlesex College
Steven Chudnick, Middlesex College
Joshua Gaul, NJEdge
Robert Hiliker, Rowan University
Mark Sullivan, SobekCM

B15. Redesign Now: Rethinking Library Website Design in Springshare
Is your library considering a re-design of your website during the pandemic? Are you using LibGuides CMS as your web platform? This session begins with a brief introduction to the rationale of the re-design project of Bjork Library’s website (We are using SpringShare’s LibGuides CMS) at Stockton University with a focus on the lessons learned in all the development phases, as well as some pitfalls to be prevented, and a few suggested tips for future development or re-design projects.
Presenters:
Jeff Ge, Stockton University
Eric Jeitner, Stockton University

B16. Teaching Through COVID: Lessons Learned and Where We Go From Here
The sudden shift to virtual course delivery in the Spring of 2020 had a major impact on the way we teach in the library. Beyond the need to engage heavily with asynchronous and synchronous digital learning and collaboration tools, the pandemic highlighted gaps in our library instruction program and the way we teach information literacy that were present not only during, but before the shutdown. It is important to take the lessons we learned about our students and ourselves while teaching during a pandemic and use them to help inform our practices as we transition towards a “new normal.” This session will highlight how, as we slowly recover from the pandemic, it is necessary that we rethink our models of instruction and refocus on how to best engage students with information literacy through a presentation and discussion of the literature on this topic. Additionally, the presenter will address their own teaching experiences, particularly how they made use of asynchronous learning tools (assignment-specific LibGuides and a “Library Primer” pre-work assignment) to extend the one-shot instruction session as well as new ways of increasing student engagement (drawing activities and digital collaborative learning tools).
Presenter: Justin Savage, Montclair University

2022 NJ Academic Libraries Conference Planning Committee

Alyssa Valenti, Raritan Valley Community College (Co-Chair)
Hilary Westgate, Ramapo College (Co-Chair)

Theresa Agostinelli, LibraryLinkNJ
Catherine Baird, Montclair State University
Janelle Bitter, Raritan Valley Community College
Cara Berg, William Paterson University
Lisa Bogart, Hudson County Community College
Annie Chatterjee, Essex County College
Katie Cohen, Ramapo College
Caitlin Connelly, Georgian Court University
Heather Dalal, Rider University
Maria Deptula, Berkeley College
Neil Grimes, William Paterson University
Jessica Hamilton, Rowan College of South Jersey
Imani Hardaway, William Paterson University
Sabrina Johnson-Taylor, Passaic County Community College
Samantha Kannegiser, Rutgers University
Rachel King, Rowan University
Saskia Kusnecov, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Bonnie Lafazan, Berkeley College
Melissa Lena, VALE Program Manager
Lori Lenox, Camden County College
Martha Loesch, Seton Hall University
Joe Louderback, DeVry University
Adriana Mamay, Middlesex College
Elisabeth Oliu, Middlesex College
Heather Perez, Stockton University
Nicole Potdevin, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Rebecca Roe, Felician University
Raymond Schwartz, William Paterson University
Liz Siecke, Ramapo College
Stephanie Sussmeier, Rider University
Satasha Williams, William Paterson University
Samantha Wittenberg, Ramapo College