Space Camp ER&L Day 3 Report

Wednesday, wrap-up day. My first ER&L was as I expected – fun, informative, and loaded with food, all in a great venue. I have a couple of colleagues who are longtime attendees, and they promised all this. Even as someone who basically only uses e-resources on the front end, I found relevant content every day. Bonnie, Sandy, Danielle, and the whole ER&L team delivered. I also want to compliment the AT&T Conference Center (and hotel). Breakfast was great every day. The amount and variety of snacks and beverages each day were really phenomenal. I’ve been to plenty of other library conferences, which won’t be named here, but none come close to ER&L as a whole package.

Although Wednesday was only a ½ day of sessions, there was no shortage of content. I started with the 9:00 AM session “From Confusion to Inclusion: Communicating Complex Topics to Library Stakeholders,” presented by Pauline Cline of FLVC. In my role as the coordinator of staff training and development for a public library system, I actually do this! Pauline creates a lot of written documentation but mine is more often verbal, person-to-person communication. Her description of her process reminded me a lot of things I’ve learned about curriculum design and what I continue to do when planning training. An unexpected but completely apt connection. Here’s my 5-step translated version:

1. Determine what you need your audience to understand or learn and work backwards
2. Break it into manageable chunks and scaffold it (start foundational and build with supports); you can even include super-technical information for those few who want or need it.
3. Provide content in various formats for universal accessibility
4. Run it and evaluate
5. Revise and repeat as needed.

Next, I facilitated a Community Connection Roundtable on a topic chosen by conference attendees – collection assessment. In the past, when facilitating roundtable discussions, I’ve been the one to propose the topic and present a few starter questions. This was my first time jumping in with neither. But it worked out just fine. The folks who came to chat had quite disparate situations despite the connection of e-resources so I think everyone learned a little from each other. I certainly learned plenty.

Checking out of the hotel and a small snafu made me late to the closing keynote panel with folks from EveryLibrary, Ithaka S&R, and the new Dean of Libraries at FIU. The title of the panel was “Unpacking Emerging Threats to the Culture of Learning and Academic Libraries.” Living in Texas, this topic is an everyday thought for many in libraries and schools of all kinds. I enjoy these discussions with people working in the field and on the front line dealing with these threats to the culture of learning that is libraries. However, I’ve started wondering whether such a discussion is necessary in a venue like a library conference. In the end, I suppose it is, even if it serves only as solidarity and reminds us that we do have support out there. At the same time, I wonder where this conversation could better serve its ends, libraries/librarians, and the greater public. I don’t know the answer, but I do think that advocacy organizations like EveryLibrary and the other folks on the panel are working on it.

Prepared by: 

Stephanie Weiss
Staff Development & Training Coordinator
Fort Bend County Libraries