ER&L Workshops
ER&L offers a selection of professional development workshops virtually and in-person workshops for the ER&L community that is e-resources librarians, e-resources paraprofessionals, technical services staff, and other library staff.
Where does ER&L get workshop topics?
Well, from you! This list of workshops should look like the tactical and practical topics you need because our courses come from ER&L community requests, your feedback at the ER&L conference, and through community surveys.
Deep-dive into new content with Subject Matter Experts
ER&L workshops are multi-lesson courses designed to take the attendee deep into the subject matter with a knowledgeable, experienced instructor(s). These courses are created based on community input and align with our tracks.
Interested in being an instructor?
Submit to our ongoing Call for Virtual Workshops.
Workshops @ ER&L Fest 2026
ER&L workshops are intensive courses are designed to take the attendee deep into the subject matter with knowledgeable, experienced instructors. These courses are created based on community input and align with our conference tracks.
Additional tickets are required for workshops ($195/ticket). Seats are limited for each course; register early to guarantee your spot.
IN-PERSON | Sunday, March 1, 1:00-5:00 pm
Beyond Cost-Per-Use: Advanced Excel Dashboards for Strategic E-Resource Assessment
Go beyond the basics of cost-per-use. This hands-on workshop teaches advanced Excel techniques for building interactive dashboards that integrate multiple metrics and tell a compelling story about collection impact. Participants will leave with practical skills to transform complex data into clear, decision-ready visualizations.
Instructor: Holly Miller, University of Southern Mississippi
Track: Collection Development & Assessment
IN-PERSON | Sunday, March 1, 1:00-5:00 pm
Who Knows What You Know? Practical Succession Planning for E-resource Librarians
An interactive workshop focused on succession planning! Attendees will turn theory into practical action by exploring effective strategies and creating personalized succession plans. With lectures, collaborative activities, and hands-on planning, you’ll leave equipped with invaluable tools to support your organization’s future continuity. Empower yourself and secure continuity.
Instructor: Danielle Ostendorf, Colorado School of Mines
Track: Organizational Strategies & Promotion
IN-PERSON | Wednesday, March 4, 1:00-5:00 pm
Cleaning and Transforming Electronic Resources Data: An Introduction to OpenRefine
Learn to clean, transform, and enhance messy e-resources data using OpenRefine, a powerful open-source tool. This hands-on workshop using Library Carpentries curriculum introduces data wrangling techniques including clustering, faceting, and reconciliation. Participants will work with real-world e-resources data and learn reproducible workflows applicable to metadata cleanup, usage statistics, and more.
Instructors: Esther Jackson, Columbia University Libraries, and Sonali Sugrim, Columbia University Libraries
Track: Collection Development & Assessment
IN-PERSON | Wednesday, March 4, 1:00-5:00 pm
Responsible AI in Research Libraries: Building Frameworks for Trust, Transparency, and Stewardship
Generative AI is transforming research and scholarly communication, bringing both promise and complexity. This interactive workshop explores how libraries can adopt AI responsibly, balancing innovation with ethics and transparency. Participants will examine real-world scenarios, discuss governance frameworks, and co-create draft principles to guide responsible AI practices aligned with openness, pluralism, and academic freedom.
Instructor: Kate Byrne, Digital Science
Track: Organizational Strategies & Promotion
VIRTUAL | Starts Wednesday, March 4, 12:30 pm
New for 2026! An asynchronous course has been added to the available programming for online conference attendees. The following course will host a kickoff during the conference with live office hours after the conference.
Authentication and Authorization Fundamentals: Identity Management, Authentication Systems, Browser Technicalities, and Troubleshooting
Go beyond the basics of cost-per-use. This hands-on workshop teaches advanced Excel techniques for building interactive dashboards that integrate multiple metrics and tell a compelling story about collection impact. Participants will leave with practical skills to transform complex data into clear, decision-ready visualizations.
Instructor: Zhaneille Green, Duke University
Track: E-Resources Management & Licensing
ER&L Virtual Workshops
Are you looking for content beyond the ER&L conference? Virtual workshops offer live and asynchronous opportunities to dive deep into resource topics with subject matter experts.
Do you have an idea for a future course? Submit to our ongoing Call for Virtual Workshops.
Additional 2025 Virtual Workshops will be announced Summer 2025.
What attendees have said about previous ER&L virtual workshops:
The instructors were engaging, open to questions, and careful about participants’ time. Every minute of the course was used wisely.
The material presented was perfect for the time allotted, and the breakout session was phenomenal.
I really appreciated that this was asynchronous, as I had to go back and watch the videos and do the exercises several times to really get it.
Clear, calm, focused presenter, definitely has the authority of experience, but still approachable.
PAST IN-PERSON & VIRTUAL COURSES
2025
- Creating Data-Driven Dashboards: Excel & Power BI
- Divining with Data: How to Answer Questions for ERM (and Life!) with Data
- Don’t Sign Before Reading! Licensing Fundamentals
- Practical Copyright for the Modern Information Professional
- Preparing to negotiate the deal: analyzing licenses, evaluating terms of the deal, and developing strategies
2024
- Authentication and Authorization Fundamentals: Identity Management, Authentication Systems, Browser Technicalities, and Troubleshooting
- COUNTER-intuitive: up close and personal with usage metrics
- Optimizing E-Resource Management with Process Improvement, Project Management, and Problem Solving Techniques (Fall)
- Optimizing E-Resource Management with Process Improvement, Project Management, and Problem Solving Techniques (Spring)
- Teaching Staff to Troubleshoot e-Resources: Practical processes to develop troubleshooting training
- Utilizing Workflow Analysis to Build a Culture of Continuous Process Improvement
- UX Odyssey: Reaching Stellar Insights with User Research Data
- Visualizing Collections Data with PowerBI: A Workshop for Creating Custom Collection Analysis Reports
- Visualizing Library Data Usage with Tableau Public
2023
- Electronic Serials Cataloging
- Is this thing on? Learning the Basics of Establishing e-Resource Access
- Preparing, Negotiating, & Implementing Transformative Agreements
- Privacy and Learning Analytics: A Data Ethics Workshop for Library Professionals
- Teaching Staff to Troubleshoot eResources
- Visualizing Library Data Usage with Tableau Public
2022
- Creating Documentation and Training for Easy e-Resource Management
- Excel for Libraries: Manipulate and analyze data to answer questions and present data in a meaningful way
- Negotiate like an MBA: How to conduct principled negotiations for library resources
- Optimizing E-Resource Management with Process Improvement, Project Management, and Problem Solving Techniques
- Teaching Staff to Troubleshoot e-Resources: Practical processes to develop troubleshooting training
- Utilizing Workflow Analysis to Build a Culture of Continuous Process Improvement
2021
- Fundamentals of Text Mining: Curating, Preparing, Analyzing, and Visualing Textual Data
- Is this thing on? Learning the basics of establishing E-resource access
- Learn to Text Data Mine with Jupyter Notebooks on Google Colab
- Optimizing E-Resource Management with Process Improvement, Project Management, and Problem Solving Techniques