2022 Conference Agenda & Presentations

2022 video archive now available!

Our YouTube archive of presentations from the 2022 conference is now publically available. Hop on over there and enjoy all the content-y goodness!

All sessions are scheduled in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00).

Want to chat about the sessions and/or help us build buzz? The conference hashtag is #NCSerials22.

Speaker biographies available on the 2022 Conference Speakers page.


8:45am - 9:00am: Opening Remarks

Tessa Minchew, Co-Chair, 2022 North Carolina Serials Conference Planning Committee [slides.Google]

Jon Gant, Dean and Professor, NC Central University School of Library and Information Sciences


9:00am - 10:00am: Keynote

Exploring Morale in Library Workplaces: From Culture to Countermeasures - Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, Researcher, Facilitator, Leader, and Coach

Kendrick will share selected data from her numerous studies and data collection projects on morale in library workplaces, and offer opportunities to have intentional discussions about associated frameworks, organizational impacts, and established and emerging countermeasures for library workers and leaders.


10:10am - 11:00am: Concurrent Session One

1A. Lightning Round

  1. Managing Streaming Video License Renewals - Kathie Mason, Eastern Michigan University [slides.pdf]
  2. Managing license renewals is a challenging process: do we acquire another short-term license? A longer term or perpetual license? Should we automatically renew a license or complete a review before proceeding? What criteria should we use to review a streaming video? To ensure continued access to content while also managing a limited budget, EMU Halle Library created a review process that includes internal criteria and outreach to faculty. This process has reduced the number of unnecessary renewals and helped to ensure required content is available, while also improving communication between the library and faculty and increasing awareness of the cost of streaming video access. This lighting talk will briefly describe our process for involving faculty in the review process, detail the criteria we use to recommend renewal or cancellation, and share the outcome of our efforts in 2021.

  3. Metadata Development for eBook Assets in LibGuides - Katherine Greene, Dahlgren Memorial Library, Georgetown University Medical Center [slides.pdf]
  4. Dahlgren Memorial Library subscribes to Springshare’s LibGuides. LibGuides is a content management system allowing for the creation of different types of assets such as links, widgets, “Book from Catalog”, RSS feeds and more. Since the library started subscribing, it has accumulated around 8,000 assets. This presentation will discuss how a health sciences library managed an unruly amount of LibGuide assets through the creation of authoritative “Book from Catalog” assets. It will go into detail about the challenges faced and the success so far.

  5. OpenUNC: Collaborating To Increase the Visibility of Open Scholarship From the UNC System - Anna Craft, UNC Greensboro University Libraries [slides.pdf]
  6. Launched in 2020, OpenUNC (https://openunc.org/) strives to increase the visibility of open access research and open educational resources that are being created across the UNC System. The site offers opportunities to share open content, as well as to highlight news and success stories from participating schools. If you work with or you’re interested in open access efforts from UNC System institutions, then you’re invited to get involved. This presentation will briefly share about the goals and plans for OpenUNC, and will discuss ways that System institutions (and others!) can benefit from the content that is shared there.

  7. E-Resources Staff Training in Alma—a Unified Strategy - Li Ma, University of South Carolina [slides.pdf]
  8. This presentation discusses staff training challenges related to electronic resources management following a recent migration to Alma at the University of South Carolina. The presenter will focus on strategies and best practices in training electronic resources staff to be adept at an entirely new workflow in a unified library system. Furthermore, the presenter will share thoughts on possible future training enhancements for electronic resources management.

1B. Concurrent Session

Introducing Open Rules for Cataloging: The Freely Available Cataloging Code Alternative to RDA - Denise Soufi, UNC-Chapel Hill & Faye R. Leibowitz, Retired [slides.pdf]

The Open Rules for Cataloging (ORC) project was initiated in 2019 by Amber Billey of Bard College to create open access cataloging rules for the cataloging community. ORC is needed because even metadata experts find RDA difficult to comprehend, plus it requires a subscription to access and is priced outside the reach of many practitioners and institutions. The library community needs an openly available practical alternative, with concrete guidelines and models for describing library resources so that catalogers can efficiently accomplish their work. This presentation will describe the mission and current accomplishments of ORC. We will first explain the cataloging principles of the project. Then we will outline the work of the ORC Core Committee: developing an element set, comparing rules from a variety of cataloging codes, and setting up an appropriate platform for publishing the final project. We hope to inspire the cataloging community with the power of open access!


11:15am - 12:15pm: Sponsor Lightning Sessions

Sponsor Lightning Session A

  1. Cambridge University Press [slides.pptx]
  2. De Gruyter [slides.pptx]
  3. Duke University Press [slides.pptx]
  4. EBSCO [slides.pptx]
  5. Elsevier [slides.pptx]
  6. Emerald Publishing [slides.pptx]
  7. Gale | Cengage [slides.pptx]
  8. GeoScienceWorld [slides.pptx]
  9. IET [slides.pptx]

Sponsor Lightning Session B

  1. IOP Publishing
  2. ProQuest [slides.pptx]
  3. Research Solutions/Reprints Desk
  4. SAGE Publications [slides.pptx]
  5. SimplyAnalytics [slides.pdf]
  6. Springshare [slides.pptx]
  7. Wiley [slides.pptx]
  8. Wolters Kluwer
  9. WT Cox

12:15pm - 12:50pm: A North Carolina-Themed Lunch Break

Since we can't welcome you in person, please join us for a video journey through North Carolina's natural wonders! Sit back, relax, and enjoy your lunch with our curated tour from the coast to the mountains. Stops include state and national parks, national seashore, and visits with many species of North Carolina's native wildlife.


1:00pm -1:50pm: Concurrent Session Two

2A. Lightning Round

  1. Inclassificáveis - a Digital Exhibition of Brazilian Artists Books, Zines, Comics and Cordéis from the UNC Chapel Hill Libraries' Collections - Paula Damasceno, UNC Chapel Hill [slides.pdf]
  2. The information practices of artists and art students have not been specifically served by digital exhibitions of UNC Chapel Hill Libraries’ collections. Inclassificáveis aims to fill that gap by providing online access to Brazilian artist books, comics, zines, and cordéis displayed, recognized and made discoverable through a taxonomy that serves the above-cited population, and by promoting intersectionality between academic fields, cultures, and stories. In addition, Inclassificáveis is a culturally aware platform in which the inclusion of the Portuguese language aims to provide broader access to speakers of a language other than English and the native language of the culture displayed in this exhibition. Ultimately, this project became an intersection of conscious archival description, culturally aware organizational systems, and user-specific information practices.

  3. Know Means Know: Defining Consent for Digitizing Sexually-Explicit Materials - Sophie Hollis, UNC Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) [slides.pdf]
  4. As many archives increase digital access to their holdings, there is a need for a clear policy on how institutions can ethically include sexually explicit materials in digital collections. These materials are vital to building inclusive collections, but they also deserve special consideration in balancing access with privacy. Such materials, particularly those with reference to sexual or gender-based violence, deserve a specific ethical framework because of their unique ability to cause continued harm to both subjects and users. This presentation would draw on existing literature, as well as my experience with digitization practices, to propose guidelines around this issue. The goals would be a) to open a discussion about librarians’ professional responsibilities to records' subjects, users, and the larger community and b) to help professionals gain confidence in digitizing sexual content.

  5. Supporting New Programs During the Pandemic - Gary M. Childs, West Chester University [slides.pdf]
  6. Two academic programs had been approved for creation at a four-year public university. Shortly after embarking on a collection and resource review process, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Due to the pandemic, many libraries and academic departments were asked to reduce their overall expenditures. New methods had to be utilized to enhance funding-focused conversations. The use of benchmarking was implemented to identify discipline-specific sources and influence budgetary approval. The benchmarking materials that were generated facilitated communication within the library, the emerging academic programs, and university-level administration. The use of these reports resulted in remarkably positive results in this specific case and ultimately led to the acquisition of a large portion of the requested resources. This approach may prove to be useful for increasing understanding across university units and assist with obtaining additional funding.

  7. Learn From Others: A Look at Collections Policies From ARL Member Institutions - Wenli Gao, University of Houston & Kerry Creelman, University of Houston [slides.pdf]
  8. University of Houston Libraries established a new organizational structure in October 2021 and created the new Collections Strategies & Services department. This unit began addressing a need to develop collections related policies and guidelines for the Libraries. In order to learn from other libraries and help create collections policies, an investigation about Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions’ collections policies was conducted. This presentation will talk about the methodology used to collect these policies, different types of policies and guidelines found on ARL member institutions’ websites, and indications and suggestions for future policy development. A list of policies will also be shared so that libraries interested in developing specific policies could learn from existing resources and customize to institution needs.

2B. Concurrent Session

Remote Work in Technical Services: What Have We Learned? Where Are We Going? - Anna Craft UNC Greensboro University Libraries [slides.pdf]

Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way your technical services unit thinks about remote work? If so, you’re not alone! While the specific tasks accomplished in technical services units can vary across institutions, “technical services” has traditionally been thought of as a physical location (or locations) within a library, in addition to being a category of work. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many libraries to shift staff and services to remote or virtual settings, and these changes may have implications beyond work within the pandemic. This session will offer perspectives on remote work in library technical services as documented in the library literature, including pre-pandemic challenges identified and lessons learned that can help personnel navigate some of the issues that libraries have been confronted with in recent times. This session will encourage discussion and sharing from the audience through polls and other active learning techniques.


2:00pm -2:50pm: Concurrent Session Three

3A. Combined Session

  1. Collection & Vendor Relationships: Diversity Evaluation & Communication - Elizabeth Speer, University of North Texas Health Science Center [slides.pdf]
  2. Recent events and our effort to embody UNT Health Science Center’s code of culture have necessitated the evaluation of policies and collections in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In our evaluation of resources, we found that few electronic resources provided medical quality images on multiple skin tones. The inclusion of culturally inclusive images, especially those dermatologic in nature, is imperative for the future education of doctors who will treat patients of diverse backgrounds. Recognizing bias and a lack of relevant materials in our collection, UNTHSC drafted documentation which we shared with our vendors explaining our decision to immediately use DEI as a purchasing impact factor. This session will discuss the process, conversations, and results of our communication with vendors on our collection and relationships.

  3. Efforts in Centralizing a Scattered Network: Reflections on the Black Teacher Archive - Micha Broadnax, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  4. The Black Teacher Archive (BTA) is a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation project to develop an online portal for centralizing and preserving the legacy of African American teachers before 1970. The goal of BTA is to make accessible the national and state publications of Black teachers’ professional organizations, historically referred to as “Colored Teacher Associations.” With the contributions of nearly 50 repositories across the nation, the project has sought to centralize about 2,500 issues amounting to about 30 journal titles. This panel will share reflections on the efforts of coordinating and executing this project - namely locating journal titles, approaches to digitization, and creating descriptions at title and item level. As a non-custodial digital archive project, involving vast collaboration, the panel will feature insight from the perspective of project manager, cataloger, metadata specialist, and discovery librarian.

3B. Concurrent Session

Library Open Access Funding on the Ground: Workflows for a Successful OA Transition - Curtis Brundy, Iowa State University & Matthew W. Goddard, Iowa State University [slides.pdf]

A growing number of libraries are pursuing the strategic reallocation of collection funds to support open access publishing. Iowa State University, a signatory of the Open Access 2020 Initiative, is active in advancing open access, with open access agreements with fifteen different publishers. Implementing these agreements in a scalable way requires new processes, new tools and new ways of thinking about concepts like usage and value. This session will focus on some practical questions arising from this shift, in order to discuss the internal practices and workflows that can help ensure the success of these efforts.


3:00pm -3:50pm: Concurrent Session Four

4A. Lightning Round

  1. Electronic Resource Usage During the Pandemic: A Snapshot Using OpenAthens - Megan Inman, Laupus Health Sciences Library, East Carolina University & Rebecca Tatterson, East Carolina University [slides.pdf]
  2. In March of 2020, East Carolina University transitioned to remote work and online instruction to reduce operations on campus and help address the spread of COVID-19. To respond to this shift in workflow, ECU Libraries published a FAQ (Frequently asked questions) page and provided resources for faculty, staff and students as they navigated access to library resources from remote locations. We expected to see use of our electronic resources affected and potentially a spike in authentications as a result of the transition to online instruction and work from arrangements. This session will present a case study on the use of library resources from September 2019 to August 2021 at East Carolina University Libraries. Top platforms will be discussed and trends analyzed using the OpenAthens statistics platform. Findings will be presented on patterns present in the data.

  3. Streamlining User Experiences with ScienceDirect Prepaid Articles - Beverly Geckle, Middle Tennessee State University & Denise FitzGerald Quintel, Middle Tennessee State University
  4. This presentation will discuss how one library worked to streamline and simplify the user experience for student and faculty researchers using prepaid tokens in ScienceDirect. With a goal to provide additional content while managing our costs and workload, our library enabled transactional access for non-subscribed content in ScienceDirect. Elsevier’s prepaid article “tokens” provided a way to stay within reasonable costs without adding to rising subscription expenditures. Using a combination of Springshare applications to mediate requests, we successfully maintained access to needed research materials while managing our costs and our time. This presentation will briefly describe the implementation process for discovery using our link resolver, how we gained insights into our user’s research needs, and all the pain points along the way.

  5. Thoughts for the Knowledge Base - Tina Herman Buck, University of Central Florida [slides.pdf]
  6. Library knowledge bases have improved generation by generation, product by product, over the last couple decades (at least.) The presenter thinks there are a few more significant fields and limiters that would really improve life for librarians trying to identify the correct packages and titles. Let's get picky with some data points and get the KB in the best shape ever.

  7. Lessons Learned from Re-Evaluating Big Deals with Unsub - Scott Chamberlain, OurResearch [slides.pdf]
  8. The value of big deals is increasingly unclear. I’ll briefly discuss important factors in evaluating big deals, including open access, interlibrary loan, post-termination access, and a-la-carte costs. Next, I’ll introduce Unsub, a tool for re-evaluating big deals created by the non-profit OurResearch. I’ll discuss lessons learned from two years of helping libraries re-evaluate big deals, including lessons from institutions that have decided to keep their big deals as well as those that have canceled.

  9. OA As the Napster of Scholarly Communications: One Publisher’s Perspective - Rob Ross, NC LIVE [slides.pptx]
  10. This brief talk will compare the impact of Napster to the music industry in the early 2000s to the impact of OA movements (both legal and illegal) to the scholarly communications industry through the lens of a nonprofit scientific publisher that wants to do the right thing.

4B. Combined Session

  1. Visualizing COUNTER Metrics with SUSHI: Exploring Alma Analytics for E-Resource Evaluation - Erika Boardman, J. Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte [slides.pdf] & [handout.pdf]
  2. Electronic resources are more frequently acquired for library collections, and the need to obtain and analyze e-resource usage data for collection decisions is a key component to the day-to-day work for e-resource librarians. The ability to effectively and efficiently obtain usage data for e-resources has changed and evolved, particularly since the creation of the COUNTER code of practice and the SUSHI protocol. The library services platform, Ex Libris' Alma, provides librarians with a way to gather and analyze COUNTER usage data through Alma Analytics— but is it really as easy as it sounds? This presentation will demonstrate how the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte explored the capabilities of using Alma Analytics for visualizing and analyzing COUNTER usage data.

  3. OpenAthens Implementation: A Two-Phased Move at Our Library - Hong Li, University of Tennessee at Martin, Timothy W. Goodrich, EBSCO & Christopher Holly, EBSCO [slides.pdf]
  4. The Paul Meek Library at the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) migrated to the FOLIO platform in July 2021. Consequently, the library decided to make the transition from EZproxy as our primary off campus authentication system to OpenAthens. In this presentation, we will share our two-phased implementation process and discuss how we collaborated closely with EBSCO to go through the whole process. The lessons and tips we learned during the implementation will be addressed as well.


4:00pm -4:30pm: LIS Student Resume & Career Clinic (Pre-Registration Required)

All available slots for the 2022 LIS Student Resume & Career Clinic are filled. Thanks so much for the enthusiasm!