Professional Development Opportunities
Cataloging/Metadata
Beyond the Basics: Cataloging DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and Streaming Videos (Library Juice Academy)
This course is designed to help those with basic cataloging experience become comfortable cataloging more challenging formats. Participants will learn how to catalog motion pictures on DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and streaming formats in RDA and MARC through lots of hands-on practice including learning to identify the preferred sources of information to use when determining titles and statements of responsibility, how to handle multiple production companies, distributors, and dates frequently found on these resources, how to determine authorized and variant access points, and how to create accurate physical descriptions that reflect new fields added under RDA.Participants will also learn the primary differences between RDA and AACR2 for audiovisual resources so that they can effectively copy catalog and enrich existing records.
Course Objectives:
- Understand how cataloging audiovisual resources differ from cataloging other formats.
- Learn how to use and format all necessary fixed and variable fields to create full MARC records for DVDs, Blu-ray, and Streaming video resources.
- Understand the challenges in classifying audiovisual resources and the most common ways to address these challenges
- Be familiar with frequently applied Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT) for audiovisual resources.
February 3 – March 2
$250
Library of Congress Subject Headings & Genres (Library Juice Academy)
This course focuses on Library of Congress Subject Headings and Genres, namely understanding the nature and types of subject headings and LC genre terms, learning when to use subject headings and genre terms, and identifying the challenges of working with a controlled vocabulary with a long and complicated history. This class will focus on practical application of subject headings and genres with discussion of usage across metadata and cataloging and exploration of reparative language and its impact on subject headings and genres work. Students will be immersed in subject headings and genres, gaining a solid foundation using these vocabularies across a variety of disciplines, including cataloging and metadata work in archives, digital humanities projects, and more. By the end of the course students will:
- Understand the terminology associated with Library of Congress subject headings and Genre terms and be able to identify types of headings.
- Be able to interpret a subject authority record to facilitate decision making in subject analysis and understand the basic principles for governing subject headings usage.
- Develop skills to construct appropriate Library of Congress Subject Headings and Genres.
- Explore the history and development of Library of Congress Subject Headings and Genres and how development and changes to subject headings and genres impact cataloging and metadata work including work towards reducing harmful language in data.
February 3 – March 2
$250
Real World Objects: Linked Data in Library Metadata & Cataloging (Library Juice Academy)
This course focuses on learning how to enrich and expand library metadata and cataloging data, adding data from established authoritative sources and at-large, general web resources, following guidelines of the Programme for Cooperative Cataloging. This class will cover basic principles of RWOs (Real World Objects) and linked data through the lens of MARC and Dublin Core records. Students will become familiar with the fundamental principles of RWOs and linked data, understanding the types and formatting of data that have been identified as applicable to library data. Additionally, students will gain insights into the future of cataloging and metadata
work – the intersection of library data with the larger web, interoperability, and cataloging/metadata work as preparation for the future.
By the end of the course students will:
- Develop a firm understanding of the basic principles of Real World Objects (RWOs), as established by PCC.
- Understand the challenges and opportunities of expanding library metadata beyond traditional authoritative resources.
- Be able to properly format a RWO as linked data in both MARC and Dublin Core data.
- Understand the goals of RWOs and linked data in the larger landscape of library metadata, cataloging, and web work.
February 3 – March 2
$250
Authority Control (Library Juice Academy)
Authority control is a process that ensures all access points in a record are consistent across a library’s database, but it is a process that many librarians find mysterious. In this course we will demystify authority control and explore the value it adds to library catalogs through a comprehensive overview of authority control work. In this four-week course, participants will:
- Learn what authority control is, why it is important, and how it works.
- Understand different types of authority records and practice using them to provide consistency in library databases.
- Discuss the pros, cons, and options for automated authority control processing.
- Learn about cooperative authority control projects and how to get involved.
- Discuss how to evaluate what kinds of authority work is appropriate for different libraries’ needs.
April 7 - May 4
$250
Introduction to RDF (Library Juice Academy)
This course will focus on the basic concepts of the RDF framework, including URIs, Subjects, Predicates, and Objects, and how to use vocabularies as RDF Properties. We will work with an XML representation (serialization) of RDF and other representations as well (e.g. Turtle, N-Triples), and create some simple RDF resource descriptions (triples) to demonstrate how these descriptions can be used to link/share information about resources.
This course will also introduce the following concepts: graph data and its relationship to RDF, fundamental concepts of Property Graphs and Knowledge Graphs, semantic vocabularies, ontologies, and knowledge organization systems.
April 7 - May 4
$250
Using OpenRefine for Library Metadata (Library Juice Academy)
OpenRefine is a free open-source tool that makes editing messy metadata easier through clustering, faceting, advanced find and replace scripting, and linked data reconciliation in a spreadsheet-like environment. In addition to cleaning up metadata, OpenRefine’s linked data and URL building tools can extend metadata through databases and API calls.
This course will introduce OpenRefine from a beginning level with installation, introduce how to effectively use standard features, and go on to introduce more advanced features such as reconciliation against Library of Congress Subject Headings linked data and creating an API call.
Note: Students may want to use the following book as background material for the course. It is widely available in libraries: Ruben Verborgh and Max De Wilde, Using OpenRefine (Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2013) http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/889271264
April 7 - May 4
$250
Leadership/Management
Leadership Communication (Library Juice Academy)
Leadership communication is a difficult and complex art form to master. This course will give you the tools you need in order to successfully navigate communication at all different levels from interpersonal to groups, as well as help frame difficult conversations. In addition, you will explore how to manage effective teams and highlight processes for decision-making and discussion that foster a shared perspective and promote a space where good questions can be asked, intentions are clear, and assumptions are tested.
As part of this course, participants will:
- Develop an internal communication strategy
- Practice facilitating difficult conversations and managing personnel
- Explore models for decision-making
- Create a blueprint for running effective meetings and assembling strong teams
February 3 – March 2
$250
Technology/Coding
Introduction to XML (Library Juice Academy)
This course will provide an introduction to XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and also introduce some basic tools for working with XML documents. The main goals of this course are for students to get comfortable with XML as structured data format, learn the basic rules and tools for working with XML, and learn about several XML standards used in the library, digital humanities, and publishing communities. Topics will include: understanding basic XML document structures and content models, XPath, XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Schemas. The course will also provide an introduction to several more advanced topics, as time allows, including XML namespaces and Library of Congress XML markup standards that are relevant to electronic text resources and metadata management including Dublin Core, MARC-XML, and MODS.
Course outcomes will include:
- How to create and manipulate XML documents
- Understanding how DTDs and Schemas define XML document structures and languages
- Understanding how to use XML electronic text markup languages and XML metadata markup schemas
- Understanding how XML markup schemas and standards are currently being used in the library community
February 3 – March 2
$250
Transforming and Querying XML with XSLT and XQuery (Library Juice Academy)
This course will provide an introduction to the XSL Transformation language (XSLT) and the XML Query language (XQuery) including hands-on basic coding in both XSLT and XQuery. The goal of this course is to introduce students to some basic XML tools for manipulating XML documents and data.
Topics will include:
- learning XSL language fundamentals and how to write basic XSL transformations
- learning XQuery fundamentals and how to write basic XQueries
- understanding the differences between XSL and XQuery
- how to write code to transform XML documents into other formats (for example, (X)HTML5, RSS, etc.)
Students should have a basic knowledge of XML and XPath before starting the course.
March 3 – March 30
$250
Computers in Libraries 2025 (Information Today, Inc.)
Libraries Adapting to Change is the theme of the conference to be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA. Hear from forward-thinking libraries, creative FabLabs, and centers of information excellence; network and learn from leaders in the field. The conference offers a multifaceted program designed to meet the needs of librarians, community and information managers, systems professionals, eResource managers, researchers, webmasters and web managers, archivists, content and museum curators, digital strategists, XR leaders, and information specialists. The focus of the conference is on emerging and leading-edge technology that allows us to engage with, learn from, and bring strategic value to our user communities. Using the latest information, practices, and technology to help you make informed choices, this event looks at how to experiment and excel, escalate, and delight both the human and digital experiences in your community—whether it is an academic, corporate, nonprofit, public, or school library community.
March 25 – 27
$299 (Single Day Pass, by 2/21) / $549 (Full 3-Day Conference Pass, by 2/21)
Git and GitHub for Libraries (Library Juice Academy)
This course introduces the basic concepts and skills for using Git and GitHub, a popular version control system and platform, in a library setting. Git and GitHub are often used to manage open source software, library technology, and academic research projects. Individuals and teams use Git to record changes within a project’s source code and GitHub to share and publish their work online. Library staff are using these technologies to support work in a variety of contexts, including metadata, data analysis, digital humanities, open educational resources, archives, and open science. While this course focuses on the fundamentals of Git and GitHub, students will pick up some basic command-line and plain-text editing skills along the way.
Throughout the course, students will:
- Examine use cases for Git and GitHub as tools for library technology projects
- Use Git from the command-line to manage versions of a digital project
- Collaborate with peers on Git repositories hosted on the GitHub platform
- Consider how libraries can support the use of Git and GitHub for research and education
- Test advanced GitHub features for project management, automation, and web publishing
April 7 – May 4
$250
Miscellaneous
Writing for Publication in Scholarly or Trade Outlets (Library Juice Academy)
This course is designed for librarians who want or need to get started publishing in scholarly or trade publications but aren’t sure where to even start. Whether you are new to the field or just moved into a new position in a library that requires publication for promotion and/or tenure, it can be intimidating and overwhelming to find a topic you feel qualified to publish on, figure out where to submit it, and draft that first proposal.
This course will provide guidance and space to workshop your ideas on:
- Selecting a topic and figuring out where to even get started
- Exploring different approaches to scholarly writing
- Finding calls for proposals and drafting a proposal
- Strategies for success in writing the actual draft and dealing with feedback
This course will be at an introductory level, but there will be some flexibility built in to include those who are really just trying to find a topic to start to explore as well as those who already have a defined research question in mind but are psyching themselves out of getting started. We will focus on strategies for working through these stages of writing for scholarly and trade journals. Participants will have an opportunity to get peer and instructor feedback on topics and on a small writing sample. However, there will be no expectation that you complete a full chapter or article draft during this 4-week course!
February 3 – March 2
$250
4-Part Webinar Series: Build Your Personal Website with Quarto (ALA e-Learning)
Are you interested in sharing your work, such as scholarship, creative work, and other projects, and increasing your online visibility? Creating a personal website allows you to highlight yourself and your work, develop an online presence that connects people to you and your work, and share your thoughts in a blog or other pages. Having a personal website is a great way for consultants or speakers to market their services and develop a portfolio of past work; for researchers and scholars to share their publications, including archiving for green open access; for public intellectuals to write blog posts and direct readers to their other writings; and for creatives to highlight their work in various formats and media. This four-part webinar series will provide a basic foundation to get a personal website started and develop the skills to continue building and maintaining your site. We’ll rely on Quarto and GitHub Pages: Quarto makes publishing websites simple while providing a lot of customizability for users interested in going deeper, and GitHub Pages allows users to publish their websites for free.
February 12 – March 12
$215 (ALA member) / $239 (non-member)
Introduction to Book Indexing (Library Juice Academy)
The purpose of the course is to prepare you for a career as an indexer—whether you wish to be one full-time or as a supplement to your library career.
This six-week course will introduce you to the fundamentals of back-of-book indexing. While there are many types of indexing beyond back-of-book (database, web, and embedded, to name a few), the decision to focus on the most common form allows us to go in-depth on just what indexing is. The result is that upon completing this course, you will know enough about indexing to begin working as a freelance indexer, whether your interests are in textbooks, scholarly publications, trade publications, cookbooks, or memoirs.
The course is structured around the four pillars of indexing: (1) the purpose and function of an index, (2) the structure of an index, (3) the mechanics of indexing, and (4) the identity of the indexer. Each week, students will learn about topics relating to one or more of these pillars, such as the metatopic, publisher guidelines, term selection, glosses, and indexing software. The first three weeks of the course are the most content heavy, allowing students to focus in the final weeks on the major assignment for the course. Assignments will consist of weekly discussion posts, a short midterm exam, and four indexing exercises. The assignments are designed to teach you essential indexing skills, introduce you to different genres for indexing, and give you a portfolio of work as you begin your indexing career. In addition, optional video-chat office hours will be available weekly.
Students should expect to spend an average of 3.4 to 4 hours per week on the course. The only required text not provided by the course is the indexing chapter from the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. In addition, students are expected to use professional indexing software. The major ones are Cindex, Sky Index, and Macrex. Cindex and Macrex are both free to download and use and Sky provides a free demo. In-class support will be provided for Cindex.
April 7 – May 4
$250