Professional Development Opportunities
Acquisitions/Collections
Fundamentals of Acquisitions 2022 - Session 1.0 (ALA Core)
This six-week online course is a basic primer for library acquisitions concepts common to all library material formats. It covers: goals and methods of acquiring monographs and serials in all formats; theoretical foundations and workflows of basic acquisitions functions; financial management of library collections budgets; and relationships among acquisitions librarians, library booksellers, subscription agents, and publishers. This course provides a broad overview of the operations involved in acquiring materials after the selection decision is made. In FOA, we distinguish between collection development, which involves the selection of materials for the library; and acquisitions, which orders, receives, and pays for those materials. In many libraries, selecting and acquiring materials may be done in the same department—in the smallest libraries perhaps even by the same person. In larger libraries, selection may be done by a collection development department and/or designated subject specialists, while a separate department acquires the selected materials. In essence, acquisitions is the business operation, bringing materials into the library and licensing access to library collections and resources.
January 31 – March 11, 2022
$196.71 (Core member)/$224.10 (ALA member)/$249 (Non-member)
Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management 2022 - Session 1.0 (ALA Core)
This four-week online course addresses the basic components of collection development and management (CDM) in libraries. Complete definition of collection development and collection management: collections policies and budgets as part of library planning; collection development (selecting for and building collections); collection management (evaluating and making decisions about existing collections, including decisions about withdrawal, transfer, preservation); collection analysis—why and how to do it; outreach, liaison, and marketing; and trends and some suggestions about the future for collection development and management.
February 7 – March 4, 2022
$165.11 (Core member)/$188.10 (ALA member)/$209 (Non-member)
Introduction to Collection Analysis (Library Juice Academy)
Data plays a role in almost all collection development decisions. From choosing what subscriptions to renew to negotiating pricing for packages to making decisions about what formats to collect, data can help make a decision or an argument. As collection development has become increasingly informed by data, a subset of the collection development role has emerged called collection analysis, sometimes also referred to as collection evaluation or assessment. This course will introduce some of the common types of data that are used in collection decisions, such as COUNTER reports and circulation statistics, while also noting limitations and controversies around these reports. Students will practice identifying which kinds of data would be useful for a particular analysis as well as teasing out the shortcomings of the data. Students will learn and practice techniques for combining data from multiple sources into a master Excel spreadsheet. The course requires some reading and discussion but emphasizes hands-on practice in selecting appropriate data for an analysis and working in Excel to compile the data. It will be helpful if students have used Excel before, but it is not necessary to have experience with formulas.
February 7 – March 6, 2022
$200
Academic Library Budgets 101 (Library Juice Academy)
This introductory course provides background information on the vocabulary of budgets, identifies sources of data to create a strong proposal for ongoing and new expenses, and reviews some techniques for documenting budget activities for operational and planning purposes. Librarians and others taking the course will become familiar with standard elements of an operational budget and learn ways to expand critical data into planning tools.
February 7 – March 6, 2022
$200
Fundamentals of Collection Assessment 2022 - Session 1.0 (ALA Core)
This six-week online course introduces the fundamental aspects of collection assessment in libraries. The course is designed for those who are responsible for or interested in collection assessment in all types and sizes of libraries. The course will introduce key concepts in collection assessment including: the definition of collection assessment; techniques and tools; assessment of print and electronic collections; and project design and management.
February 7 – March 18, 2022
$196.71 (Core member)/$224.10 (ALA member)/$249 (Non-member)
Cataloging/Metadata
Know & Go: Introduction to Metadata Analysis (Amigos Library Services)
Metadata analysis, or using data manipulation tools to analyze metadata, is a growing need in libraries. From migration to a new ILS to retrospective clean-up projects, metadata analysis can be useful in a variety of situations. Attend this session to learn about scenarios in which metadata analysis can be useful, as well as techniques and tools for performing this analysis.
February 7, 2022 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm CST
Free (Amigos member)/$35 (Non-member)
Changing Standards, Local Choices: Navigating the Current Cataloging Landscape (Amigos Library Services)
With the implementation of the new RDA Toolkit, and progress toward the implementation of
BIBFRAME being made, the world of cataloging standards is in a state of flux. While many of the changes will be guided by what's happening at the national, or even global, level, they will also rely on a certain amount of local standard creation. Application profiles, local cataloging workflows, and other methods of customization will be very important in helping catalogers implement the changes in a way that works for them, their libraries, and their patrons.
February 10, 2022, 10 am – 4 pm CST
Free (Amigos member)/$149 (Non-member)/$45 (Student)
Introduction to Serials Cataloging (Amigos Library Services)
From academic journals to popular magazines, serials make up a large portion of libraries' collections. This course will cover the basic principles of serials cataloging, to help you get those issues cataloged and available to your patrons. Topics covered include defining the nature of serials, how to copy catalog serials, how to create original serial records, and dealing with title changes.
February 22 & 24, 2022 1 pm - 3 pm CST
$140-$165 (Amigos member)/$195-$220 (Non-member)
Know & Go: RDA 3R Update (Amigos Library Services)
In 2019, the RDA 3R Project was complete, and at the end of 2020, the new version of the RDA Toolkit became official. We've heard about the changes and we knew it was coming but now it’s time to get some answers to common questions we’re all thinking – such as: What does this mean for catalogers? What comes next? Attend this session to find out the current lay of the land when it comes to RDA and to get a sense of the roadmap for the future.
March 7, 2022 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm CST
Free (Amigos member)/$35 (Non-member)
Metadata and Description for Digital Special Collections (Library Juice Academy)
Methods and standards for metadata and description for unique digital collections are varied and present digital curators, catalogers and metadata librarians with a wide array of options, which can at times seem daunting. This course is designed to give the student an overview of current standards, schemas and applications of metadata models designed for the description and organization of digital collections, whether they be materials in an institutional repository or digital special collections. This course can be taken as one of six courses needed to earn our Certificate in Digital Curation, but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well. This course can be taken as one of eight courses needed to earn our Certificate in Cataloging and Technical Services, but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
April 4 – May 1, 2022
$200
Digital Collections
Appraisal and Collection Development for Digital Special Collections (Library Juice Academy)
This course covers principles of appraisal and collection development for creating unique digital collections that form part of an institutional repository or digital special collections. Using archi
val theory and principles of digital curation, the student will gain the understanding necessary to select digital materials that are in line with institutional and community collecting guidelines and missions. This course can be taken as one of six courses needed to earn our Certificate in Digital Curation, but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
February 7 – March 6, 2022
$200
Creating Online Exhibits with Omeka (Library Juice Academy)
Omeka is an open source web-publishing platform used by many libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural organizations for creating online exhibits of materials from their collections. This course provides the opportunity to explore the exhibit-building process and gain hands-on experience in creating a professional-level exhibit on a topic of your choice.
March 7 – April 3, 2022
$200
Digitization, Discovery, and Use (NISO)
Stakeholders across the information community have poured significant resources into the creation of digitized collections, with varying degrees of success. Since the final resources do get used by both students as well as researchers, what steps are needed to improve and support swift discovery of these resources at the point of need? Are they properly accessible? What technologies were used in creating the digital forms, and how well are they working? Where do “digitize-and-return” projects fit into all this? The speakers at this virtual conference will share case studies from a variety of institutions and organizations.
March 23, 2022, 12 pm – 4 pm EDT
$190 (NISO voting and LSA members; NASIG members)/$255 (Non-member)/$85 (Student)
UX & Digital Collections (Library Juice Academy)
This course will instruct students on quality UX and UI practices in their creation and web presentation of digital collections. Crafting thoughtful UX procedures, students will have the opportunity to evaluate their own UX needs in this course, while learning how to operationalize reverse category tests and focus groups that give them much needed user data on their digital products. After covering user needs and expectations, the course will then include a section on digital collections and exhibits planning, including the creation of UI wireframes and mockups for web developers to utilize.
April 4 – May 1, 2022
$200
Fundamentals of Digital Curation in Libraries, Archives and Museums (Library Juice Academy)
This course is designed to give the student an overview of the fundamentals of digital curation theory and best practices in libraries, archives and museums. On completion of the course, the student will have a working knowledge of theory, best practices for establishing and maintaining digital curation programs and initiatives, and feedback on work on digital curation projects in the students’ own workplace or area of interest and study. This course can be taken as one of six courses needed to earn our Certificate in Digital Curation, but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
April 4 – May 1, 2022
$200
Electronic Resource Management
Fundamentals of Electronic Resources Acquisitions 2022 - Session 1.0 (ALA Core)
This four-week online course provides an overview of acquiring, providing access to, administering, supporting, and monitoring access to electronic resources. The course offers a basic background in electronic resource acquisitions including: product trials; licensing; purchasing methods; and pricing models. An overview of the sometimes complex relationships between vendors, publishers, platform providers, and libraries is also provided.
January 31 – February 25, 2022
$165.11 (Core member)/$188.10 (ALA member)/$209 (Non-member)
Camp ER&L Virtual Conference (Electronic Resources and Libraries)
Over the years we’ve been told that coming to ER&L is like going to summer camp for librarians. We come together, stay close by, and meet new people over meals. We learn a lot during the day and go out or play games together at night. We hold a common identity and experience then leave with shared memories, new skills, and maybe a t-shirt. We are working to find ways to capture that camp-like feel in a virtual way. Since that’s the spirit we are trying to capture this year, we’ve rallied around a fun camp-focused theme. Camp ER&L 2022 is the 17th meeting of the Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference.
March 14-17, 2022
$299 (Group discount)/$359
Leadership/Management
Agile in the Library: Principles and Tools for Managing Teams and Strengthening Change (Library Juice Academy)
Agile, a framework for project management, has been described as “easy to use, difficult to master.” This course is offered as an introduction or refresher for library teams interested in improving their work processes and communication. We will begin by exploring the history and foundational
principles that inspired Agile, and then move beyond these core ideas to learn and apply the tools that support teamwork and continuous process improvement, including scrum, kanban, stand-ups,
and retrospectives. We will explore the roles that support Agile and scrum, and look at some of the common pitfalls that teams experience as they experiment with these methodologies. This course is especially unique for its focus on Agile in library environments, guest speakers and examples as to how Agile has been used to improve day-to-day operations, guide projects, and successfully navigate change and uncertainty.
February 7 – March 6, 2022
$200
What it Takes to Become an Informal Leader: Opportunities, Challenges, and Benefits (ALA ACRL)
Managers—or those in other official positions of power—are not the only ones who can, or should, lead; and management and leadership are not one and the same. Once we separate leadership from the trappings of official status, we open up a whole new realm of possibility—an area of work
where librarians at any stage or in any role can garner valuable skills and experience, raise their
professional profiles, and figure out what is next for them in their career. This is informal leadership. To lead informally can mean many things, it is often temporary or ad hoc, it usually means additional work, it almost never results in more money or prestige, and it typically arises from a desire to get something done, or to produce positive change.
This webcast will define and discuss the elusive nature of informal leadership by focusing on three main concepts: vision, courage, and ability (Baker, 1995) as building blocks for a solid and stable professional platform. Attendees, through guided activities, will be able to identify their own leadership traits, to assist them in seeking out appropriate informal leadership opportunities in a variety of contexts. They will strategize ways to successfully integrate informal leadership responsibilities into their existing roles and explore ways to garner the support of colleagues as they take
the lead on new projects and initiatives. Finally, there will be discussion and guidance on ways to overcome challenges and tear down traditional barriers and constructs, and champion the benefits that informal leadership experiences can have on one’s career. (Baker, Shirley K. “Leading from Below: Or, Risking Getting Fired.” Library Administration & Management 9, no. 4 (1995): 238-240.)
February 10, 2022, 1 pm – 2 pm CST
$50 (ACRL member)/$71.10 (ALA member)/$79 (Non-member)
Fostering a Sustainable Culture of Assessment (ALA Core)
Establishing a culture of assessment means embedding an assessment component into every library operation. This process is crucial for providing responsive, high-quality library services. This presentation will share our journey crafting and deploying an assessment framework across library initiatives during the global pandemic. We will highlight a few examples to show how the process helped us create adapted services and make timely adjustments on to decisions throughout
the pandemic period. We will address how we responded to resistance, generated buy-in, and empowered library staff to act using the framework to establish a sustainable culture of assessment.
February 22, 2022, 1 pm – 2 pm CST
$57.67 (Core member)/ $71.10 (ALA member)/$79 (Non-member)/ Free (Student)
Recruiting and Retaining Librarians from Underrepresented Minoritized Groups (Library Juice Academy)
This course will address recruitment strategies that will improve your chance of attracting a diverse pool of applicants and minimize the influence of unintended biases in the selection process. Of course, hiring is just the first step to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We will also address factors that influence the long term retention of librarians from underrepresented minority groups.
March 7 – April 3, 2022
$200
Library Management: Workplace Communication (Amigos Library Services)
Effective communication is what sets great leaders above the rest. As a manager, you need to adapt your style to get the most out of different people while assertively providing direction through ef fective feedback. This course will help managers and supervisors to communicate effectively to the diverse range of personalities in a workplace.
March 8, 2022 2 pm - 4 pm CST
$70-$95 (Amigos member)/$130-$155 (Non-member)
Technology/Coding
The User Experience: Just Fix It (NISO)
The user experience can be viewed through a variety of lenses. Navigation may or may not be intuitive. Buttons labels can be confusing. Processes seem tedious or cumbersome. How can we ensure that users can find the functionality or content they expect? That some useful resource hasn’t inadvertently been hidden? Are there small tweaks that could make a world of difference? Are they easy to make or will they require a significant overhaul of the user interface? We’ll hear from a group of industry professionals, with experience of enhancing the user experience in various ways while keeping an eye on technical debt, costs, and time.
January 26, 2022, 12 pm – 4 pm EST
$190 (NISO voting and LSA members; NASIG members)/$255 (Non-Members)/$85 (Students)
Improving Web Site Accessibility (ALA Core)
This webinar will discuss a project to assess the accessibility of St. John’s University Library’s website using software called Siteimprove and suggest various means by which libraries can identify and fix accessibility problems within their websites. By the end of this webinar, participants will gain an understanding of: why web accessibility is important; some common accessibility problems with library websites; methods for identifying and fixing accessibility problems on library websites; how St. John’s University Libraries used Siteimprove to increase web accessibility; and some of the other services, such as WAVE (a free evaluation tool), which can be used to identify web accessibility problems.
February 8, 2022, 2 pm - 3 pm EST
$43 (Core member)/$59 (Non-member)/$129 (Group)
Introduction to Data Visualization (Library Juice Academy)
As information specialists, we deal with data on a regular basis. Data Visualization helps us explore our data and communicate it effectively with our audience. In this four-week course, we will cover fundamental principles of data visualization. We will learn how to create interactive and static visuals using free open tools, such as OpenRefine for data cleaning and Tableau Public for data vi
sualization. By the end of the course, students will be able to: Choose the best visualization format for their data ; Think like designers; Create appealing graphs; and tell a story with data.
March 7 – April 3, 2022
$200
Web Accessibility: Techniques for Design and Testing (Library Juice Academy)
Whether you are designing a new web application or making revisions to an existing site, accessibility is a key part of the process. Given that approximately 1 in 5 people in the U.S. and a total of 1 billion people worldwide have a disability, ensuring that your online presence is usable for those with disabilities and those using assistive devices allows you to expand your audience while ensuring compliance with legal requirements and best practices. In this course, you will learn how to integrate accessibility into your planning, design, and testing processes.
March 7 – April 3, 2022
$200
Python for Librarians (Library Juice Academy)
We often are told ‘learn to code’ but not given a clear purpose or direction to realize this goal. This is especially true for workers in the Library field. This course will attempt to address this challenge by providing a great introduction to data science aimed at all learners. Participants will be introduced to the Python programming language and how it can be used to analyze data. This includes organizing and writing code in Jupyter Notebooks, manipulating data with the Pandas, visualizing data with the Matplotlib, and making predictions with data using the scikit-learn library. No previous programming experience is required or expected. Exercises will be drawn from topics that resonate with the daily work of Librarians and those in related fields. For example, participants will learn how to analyze a quantity of Sci Hub usage data, and will examine DOI data harvested from the Crossref API. No software installation will be required to participate in this class; all programming work will be done using the online Google Colab environment.
April 4 – May 1, 2022
$200
Miscellaneous
Skills Development for 21st Century Knowledge Workers (NISO)
Beyond the basic office skills in using word processing software or spreadsheets, what skills are most in demand in today’s knowledge organizations? Is the rising population of knowledge workers properly equipped with the data management skills needed for working with sophisticated tools such as Salesforce? What is needed to properly equip a 21st century information workforce? How do you identify the skills of each team member and support their future development? This roundtable will gather decision-makers from across the information community to talk about the practicalities, challenges, and opportunities for today’s employers and employees.
February 9, 2022, 11 am – 12:30 pm EDT
Free (NISO member)/$135 (Non-member)/$49 (Student)
Copyright and Open Licensing Issues (Library Juice Academy)
the course, you will have a better understanding of how copyright law applies in multiple library settings and scenarios and be able to handle copyright questions from your community with more confidence and ease. Note: this course primarily focuses on United States copyright law.
March 7 – April 3, 2022
$200
Getting to Know Your Users through Interviews and Focus Groups (Library Juice Academy)
How do we know what our library users are thinking? Listen to their stories! The purpose of interviewing is to discover the in-depth experiences and perceptions of others—just what we need to know about our ever-changing clients. This course provides participants with the basics in good interviewing techniques and tips, including interview structure, length, and interviewer demeanor. Participants will learn how to ask the right questions and follow up smoothly to gather more detail. Participants will learn how to interpret and report respondents’ stories reliably and accurately, and to recognize and correct interviewer bias. The course will provide readings, exercises, discussion, and online resources.
March 7 – April 3, 2022
$200
Introduction to Resource Sharing and Interlibrary Loan Services (Library Juice Academy)
In this four week course, participants will learn the fundamental policies and practices of resource sharing, including copyright, systems, and workflows. At the same time, they will engage with the values that support and inspire resource sharing practices, such as access to information and user privacy. This course is appropriate for librarians and other staff who are new to working with resource sharing, and it is designed to help participants gain a deeper understanding of practices at their own institutions.
April 4 – May 1, 2022
$200
Grants: Support for Writing & Application (NISO)
Valuable library staff time and resources are poured into the grant-application process, which is an increasingly critical element of their researchers’ work. This roundtable discussion will bring together information professionals to talk about the challenges they face, the tools and resources that are available, and the trends they see in this context.
April 13, 2022, 11 am – 12:30 pm EDT
Free (NISO member)/$135 (Non-member)/$49 (Student)
Continuous Access
WebJunction (OCLC)
WebJunction Course Catalog is a collection of library-specific courses and webinar recordings are available for free to all library workers and volunteers. Through the generous support of OCLC and many state library agencies across the US, WebJunction provides timely and relevant learning content for you to access anytime, from anywhere.