SUNYLA Stony Brook and ALA Chicago

I just returned from two fantastic back-to-back conferences! Stony Brook hosted the annual SUNYLA conference and it was wonderful to have all our colleagues visit our new spaces. I participated in a panel with seven other SUNY campus librarians talking about our recent renovations. I also presented a poster session with Claudia McGivney around our work with SUNY Korea and led a tour of the new library spaces.

SUNYLA is one of my favorite conferences because all of the SUNY schools have such similar communities and issues. It was especially exciting to be able to discuss renovations with other SUNY librarians. I spent the week in between conferences visiting family in Minnesota. The weather was glorious and it was great to see my family and meet my brand new nephew. Look at this sweet little buddy:

After that I went to Chicago for ALA Annual and had a total blast. I was born in Chicago and have visited family there many times, but have never been able to experience it as a tourist. I had a great time exploring the restaurants and walking by the river and lake with friends and colleagues. One of the highlights of the conference was an intimate presentation of Research Collaboration and Publishing in the Global Community. Stony Brook’s Dean of Libraries, Constantia Constantinou, was one of the presenters and it was such a fascinating group of globe-trotting librarians:

I also attended a super relevant panel, Collecting Library Data: Policies and Data Management Procedures for Improvement. The panel explored changing values in libraries around collecting and using user data. Abigail Goben, Assistant Professor and Information Services Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago, moderated the panel. Jenica Rogers, Director of Libraries at SUNY Potsdam, talked about the administrative perspective on library data. She conducted a survey of library staff, students, and University Administration to see what types of data they wanted to see and their comfort with the methods that might be used to collect that data. The survey revealed that most students and administrators were comfortable with the library using the types of data they already submit to other companies and software, like being monitored and analyzed as part of big data, but not with human monitoring or personally identifiable data. Sara Mannheimer, Data Management Librarian at Montana State University, explored different ethics frameworks to find a good fit for contemporary library data collection. Kristin Briney, Data Services Librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, talked about data security and the decisions libraries have to make around generating and keeping patron data.

On Sunday I attended the LITA Top Tech Trends Panel, which was great as always! In the afternoon, I presented my poster on Applying a Product Cycle to Library Technology Adoption and Development. Here’s a picture complete with creepy exhibit hall lighting:

It’s been a wonderful couple of weeks packed with great networking, learning, relaxing, and tons of eating! I’m ready to get back to work and a normal schedule!