ACLCP Brings the Electricity of Lightning Talks to its Fall Conference and 50th Anniversary Celebration!

ACLCP Fall 2015 Conference organizers decided to change things up by using a lightning talks format for its 50th Anniversary and Member Showcase, featuring Access, Collaboration, Learning, Community, and Preservation held on Friday, October 23, 2105 at the Red Lion Hotel in Harrisburg.

Following the introductory remarks by current Executive Committee Chair Robin Wagner, and announcements made by Beth Evitts, Vice-Chair/Chair Elect, the energy flowed with ten 10-minute presentations given by librarians from nine member institutions: Bucknell, Elizabethtown, Juniata, HACC, the PA College of Technology, Lebanon Valley, Gettysburg, Albright, and Dickinson. A recurring theme that “struck” me during the talks was our libraries’ embrace and use of popular culture as a way to leverage, enhance, and generate enthusiam for our services. This motif complemented the larger conference theme of “Access, Collaboration, Learning, Community, and Preservation” nicely. Here’s a quick run-down of the morning:

• Stick it to the Wall: ACRL Framework Poster Collaboration by Nancy Frazier, Jill Hallam-Miller, and Benjamin Hoover of Bucknell University. Summarized how three Bucknell librarians with different areas of expertise worked together to develop student-centered versions of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework’s threshold concepts in question format and then created posters that could be shared with other institutions under a Creative Commons License and further customized.
• 1, 2, 3 Count with Me: Using iPads and LibAnalytics to Collect Space Data by Sylvia Morra and Sarah Penniman from Elizabethtown College. Explained ongoing project that involves having student workers use iPads and LibAnalytics to track usage of 29 different spaces within the library with the goal of gaining insight into how to re-purpose their instruction classroom, the McCormick Research Lab.
• Using iAuthor to Write an eBook by Corrine Syster, Jennifer Hummel, and Elise Jackson from Harrisburg Area Community College. Described an Apple grant-funded effort to develop an interactive iBook titled Libraries & Research: Getting Started (which introduces students to academic libraries and research, with an international audience in mind) and shared numerous lessons they learned during the process.
• Batgirl Unbound, or How a College Library Started a Comic Con by Tracey Amey from the PA College of Technology. Explained the origin of the Wildcat Comic Con, a more academic, learning-focused Comic Con, which was launched in 2012 and continues to expand, and recommended how to host one at your library.
• Geek and Greet at Bishop Library by Sara Green and Maureen Bentz of Lebanon Valley College. Reviewed their spin-off event “Geek and Greet” (based on “Geek the Library”) as a way of bringing in new library users and promoting lifelong learning. During the event, each library staff member (and even some non-library staff) got to “geek” a subject with a display, talks, special activities, etc.
• What’s New in Preservation at Musselman Library by Carolyn Sautter and Mary Wootton of Gettysburg College. Presented on involving their Special Collections student workers in both preservation of physical materials as well as editing MARC records, for a binding description project dealing with books having specialized bindings.
• Bigfoot in the Library: Engaging Elementary School Students in an Academic Library by Heidi Ziemer from Albright College. Described Albright Library’s adaptation of an event/activity written about by Knott & Stabo (2013) in which elementary school students were brought into a college library to investigate and evaluate information on Bigfoot and how this was an effective and appreciated community-building activity between Albright College and Reading Public Schools.
• Marketing Solutions for E-Content shared by Samantha Bise, Jessica Howard, Samantha McCulloch, and Maureen O’Brien Dermott from Dickinson College. Detailed their plan of identifying specific e-resources to promote as well as their marketing campaign which involved branded digital signs strategically placed in the library plus other strategies for building awareness and use.
• LGBTQ & You: Connecting Collections with the Campus Community by Mallory Jallas and Amy Ward of Gettysburg College. Described effort to build stronger relationship with the Allies Club on campus that came about as a result of ideas generated by a graduating student worker to promote and build the library’s LGBTQ collection; the project coming to fruition as a result of the engagement of multiple librarians, the Library Director, the Dean, other offices on campus, etc.

The morning went by in a “flash” and conference participants headed to lunch, where member libraries introduced their first-time ACLCP attendees and announced staff changes. Special Interest Group meetings followed, their agendas determined by their respective chairs. I attended the Reference & Instruction SIG meeting, which did not have a preset agenda, so the conversation flowed around what different campuses were doing in information literacy instruction, assessment, chat reference services, and more.

At the close of the SIG meetings, conference attendees funneled back to the main meeting room where a three-tiered, elaborately decorated 50th Anniversary Cake was being cut and distributed. It was a sweet and dramatic end to a worthwhile day of sharing and connecting. (And the hyper-pigmented, electric blue icing on some of the cake slices resulted in a few unexpectedly humorous farewells for the day.)