Amigos Member Conference 2023: Libraries Plan to Succeed - Speakers

Karim Boughida portrait

Keynote Speaker: Karim Boughida - Stony Brook University - belkacemkarim.boughida@stonybrook.edu
Session Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am CDT

Session Title: Opening Keynote - Post-AI/ChatGPT: The Rise of the Machines in Libraries!

Speaker Bio: Karim Boughida was appointed dean of Stony Brook University Libraries effective September 15, 2022.

Boughida is an internationally regarded leader in data and library/information science. He is a frequently invited speaker for national and international conferences and seminars, and serves on several boards. This includes the board of directors for the Boston Library Consortium; the board of NISO (National Information Standards Organization), for which he was elected vice chair; and editorial boards for the International Journal on Digital Libraries and the Journal of the Special Libraries Association Arabian – Gulf Chapter.

Boughida's most recent role was dean of University Libraries at the University of Rhode Island since 2015. He led several campus-wide initiatives and strategic partnerships, including a makerspace, the first Artificial Intelligence lab in the world in a library, an XR (extended reality) lab, a launch lab for innovation and entrepreneurship, the acquisition and development of Dataspark as a data analytics unit, and the coordination and establishment of data science teaching and research programs. He also expanded engagement with regional and national organizations, including the Boston Library Consortium, HathiTrust, OCLC Research Library Partnership and the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation. Previous roles include associate university librarian for digital initiatives and technical services at George Washington University, and senior information systems architect at Getty Research Institute Library.

Boughida holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Montreal, and a bachelor's degree in library science from the University of Constantine in Algeria. He is fluent in English, Arabic and French.

Speaker: Katrine Sundsbø - DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) - katrine@doaj.org
Speaker: John Dove - DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) - dove@doaj.org

Session Time: 12:45 pm - 1:30 pm CDT

Session Title: DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): More Than Just an Index

Session Description: What is the DOAJ, and what happens when a journal applies to be indexed? DOAJ has been an important part of open infrastructure for 20 years, and has adapted to changes in the publishing landscape based on the needs from our community. 2023 has been declared as the Year of Open Science - what does this mean for open infrastructures like DOAJ? This session will answer all the questions you have about DOAJ and how you can engage with and support our services.

Speaker Bio: Katrine (Kat) has recently joined DOAJ as the new Community Manager. Previously, she worked in an academic library in the UK, and has more than five years experience working with scholarly communications, bibliometrics, copyright and gamification.

Speaker Bio: John has had a career in executive management, and is now an independent consultant and open access advocate who works with organisations seeking to accelerate their transition to open access. He advises both for-profits and non-profits, and has a particular interest in identifying the steps necessary to flip an entire discipline’s scholarly record to open access. His ambassador activities focus on increasing the support to DOAJ from the community. He served for six years on NISO's Information Discovery and Interchange Topic Committee, and has written for Learned Publishing, Against the Grain, and Scholarly Kitchen. John serves on the Board of Trustees of his local public library in Revere, Massachusetts. He has a B.A. in Mathematics from Oberlin College.

Sarah Burkhead Whittle portrait

Speaker: Sarah Burkhead Whittle - Northeastern State University - burkhead@nsuok.edu

Session Time: 12:45 pm - 1:30 pm CDT

Session Title: Town & Gown Engagement: The NSU Libraries' Plan to Develop the Green Country Children's Book Festival

Session Description: The inspiration, planning, and successful execution of NSU hosting the inaugural Green Country Children's Book Festival in October 2022 lead to an expansion of liaison duties for the Librarian for the College of Education. By reaching into the community, she brought over 700 elementary students and 50 teachers from 13 rural schools throughout Northeast Oklahoma to the NSU campus for this literary event. Learn about the planning process, communications strategies, logistics and fundraising that go into carrying out a book festival.

Speaker Bio: Sarah Burkhead Whittle is a Research & Instruction Librarian at the John Vaughan Library at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. She is the Librarian for the College of Education and has also recently stepped into the new role of Director for the Green Country Children's Book Festival. In her free time, she is an avid reader, knitter, and pianist and enjoys spending time with her husband and giant orange rescue kitty George (as in Weasley). Follow her on social media @bookishsarah.

Speaker: Lisa M Loranc - Brazoria County Library System - lloranc@bcls.lib.tx.us

Session Time: 12:45 pm - 1:30 pm CDT

Session Title: A Roadmap to Your Library's Future

Session Description: Most libraries have a 3 to 5 year plan, but many initiatives cannot be completed in that time frame. Programs like building projects or a departmental redesign require longer lead time and may extend beyond the current administration. A Strategic Plan can build institutional memory, provide a roadmap for future growth and keep long-range needs in the current conversation.

Speaker Bio: With more than 30 years’ experience in all aspect of library service from cataloging and collection services to programming and branch management, Lisa Loranc is now the director of the Brazoria County Library System serving a diverse and growing community of almost 400,000 people along the Texas Gulf Coast. An active member of the Texas Library Association, Ms. Loranc has acted as chair of District 8, the Supervisors, Managers and Administrators round table and the Public Library Division. She is also a member of the Legislative Committee.

Todd Carpenter portrait

Speaker: Todd Carpenter - National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - tcarpenter@niso.org
Speaker: Mary Beth Barilla - National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - mbarilla@niso.org
Speaker: Harriett Green - Washington University in Saint Louis - harriett.green@wustl.edu

Session Time: 1:45 pm - 2:30 pm CDT

Session Title: Succeeding with NISO

Session Description: Through a new consortia agreement, all members of Amigos Library Services are now Library Standards Alliance members of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). Join this informal session to learn more about what NISO does, how standards benefit the information community, and how you can take full advantage of LSA member benefits, including monthly free or discounted educational programs and opportunities to get involved on our standards committees. We’ll also hear from an Amigos member librarian about her experiences participating in NISO programs and activities.

Speaker Bio: Todd Carpenter currently serves as Executive Director of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), a non-profit association that develops and maintains standards for the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information. In this role, he works with organizations across the publishing, library and software provider communities, building coalitions to improve efficiency in systems to deliver content to users. Prior to joining NISO, Todd was Director of Business Development at BioOne. He also held management positions at The Johns Hopkins University Press, the Energy Intelligence Group, and the Haworth Press. He has served on the Boards of several industry and community organizations, including FORCE11, the Baltimore County Public Library, the Book Industry Study Group and the Society for Scholarly Publishing. He contributes regularly as a Chef on the Scholarly Kitchen and is author of dozens of papers on library and publishing systems. Todd is a graduate of Syracuse University and holds a masters degree in business from the Johns Hopkins University.

Mary Beth Barilla portraitSpeaker Bio: Mary Beth Barilla is NISO's Director of Business Development and Communications, where she manages member communications and ensures NISO's sustainability through growth in membership, sponsorship, events, and other funding sources. Prior to joining NISO, Mary Beth worked at the Society for Scholarly Publishing as Program Director, where she led volunteers to develop educational programming for the scholarly communications community. She has also worked at RedLink, Inc. as the Publisher Relations Director and in sales and marketing roles at both commercial and university presses.

Speaker Bio: Harriett E. Green serves as the associate university librarian for the Digital Scholarship and Technology Services Division. She provides leadership for the division, including technology infrastructure planning and innovative programming in support of technology-dependent inquiry, productivity, scholarly communications, and digital library development.

Harriett Green portraitGreen was previously the Head of Scholarly Communication and Publishing, Scholarly Communication and Publishing Librarian, and associate professor at the University Library and in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard College, a master’s degree in the humanities from the University of Chicago, and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Green has also held leadership positions in the Association for College and Research Libraries and the Modern Language Association, and her research has been supported by grants awarded from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, XSEDE, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tracey Mendoza portrait

Speaker: Tracey Mendoza - University of the Incarnate Word - temendo@uiwtx.edu
Speaker: Kathy Bottaro - University of the Incarnate Word - bottaro@uiwtx.edu

Session Time: 1:45 pm - 2:30 pm CDT

Session Title: Into the Artificial Intelligence Fray

Session Description: Like all of higher education, the University of the Incarnate Word is responding to AI-generated content and work platforms with questions about what these applications may mean for teaching, learning, and scholarship. Kathy Bottaro, UIW Assistant Provost of Teaching, Learning, and Technology, and Tracey Mendoza, Dean of Libraries, host a conversation about UIW's response to GPT and AI platforms from the perspective of impact on student learning, pedagogy, and course design, as well as research and intellectual property.

Speaker Bio: Tracey E. Mendoza has spent her adult life in higher education and in libraries. Her parents were educators who made learning, reading, and libraries central to daily life. This foundational experience influenced Tracey's chosen career and life path, preparing her for a role in supporting the constitutional rights of an individual to access information through teaching, learning, and reading and to actively advocate for libraries to build collections and programs in support of their communities. Tracey currently serves as the Dean of Libraries at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio and has been a practitioner librarian for over 30 years at large, regional research universities to single institution community colleges. She has served on several national and regional library boards and associations, including currently serving on the Amigos Board of Trustees. As libraries are in a constant state of change (or a moveable feast), evaluating how trends in education and technology impact the teaching, learning, and research mission, Tracey focuses much of her energy on partnering with colleagues in building awareness and understanding around emerging technologies like ChatGPT and all that will come next.

Speaker Bio: Kathy Bottaro is currently the Assistant Provost for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at the University of the Incarnate Word, and formerly the Director of Technology, Sioux City Community School District, Sioux City, IA, from 2015-2018.

Susan Kent portrait

Speaker: Susan Kent - SR Kent LLC - s.kent@mac.com
Speaker: Jill Eyres - Group 4 Architecture, Research + Planning, Inc. - jeyres@g4arch.com

Session Time: 1:45 pm - 2:30 pm CDT

Session Title: You Are Who You Serve: Library Strategic Planning and Community Engagement

Session Description: Successful library strategic planning is guided by the principle of "you are who you serve – and hope to serve in the future." To create better outcomes for all, it is essential to commit to an inclusive approach to engaging academic, public, and school communities effectively. This session will describe strategies for outreach to under-represented populations and non-users as well as for engaging stakeholders, partners, and current users. Library service for diverse and growing communities requires a commitment to reinvention and risk-taking. Strategic planning for libraries has thus evolved beyond the "road map for the future" model and toward a Global Positioning System (GPS) model that enables libraries to pivot their focus and adapt their objectives as the world changes around them. Flexibility in strategic planning is essential to allow libraries to respond quickly to new challenges and opportunities. By embracing the GPS model, libraries can create pathways for transformation and innovation that better serve the needs of their patrons.

Jill Eyres portraitSpeaker Bios: Jill Eyres (Group 4 / Library Forward) and Susan Kent (SR Kent LLC) develop forward-looking, flexible, and engaging strategic and facilities plans for libraries nationwide such as Austin Public Library, Dallas Public Library, Cincinnati-Hamilton County Public Library, Los Angeles County Public Library, Houston Public Library, San Diego Public Library, Sacramento Public Library, Pitkin County (Aspen Public Library), and many others.

Jasmine Pogue portrait

Speaker: Jasmine Pogue - SkillType - jasmine@skilltype.com
Speaker: Jackie Lorrainne - Washington University in St. Louis - jlorrainne@wustl.edu
Speaker: Kristen Barnes - Texas Christian University - kristen.sharp@tcu.edu

Session Time: 2:45 pm - 3:30 pm CDT

Session Title: Unlocking the Power of Libraries: Transforming Staff Development at Amigos Member Libraries with Skilltype

Session Description: In this session, you'll discover how Skilltype, the leading talent management platform, is revolutionizing staff development in libraries across the country. You will also get an inside look at our innovative platform and how it can help your library stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing industry. You'll also hear from two Amigos member libraries using Skilltype to upskill their staff and enhance their services. Through their experiences, you'll learn about their challenges, how Skilltype is helping them overcome them, and the results they are achieving. Whether new to Skilltype or a current user, this session will inspire you to take your library's staff development to the next level. Join us to unlock the power of your library!

portrait: Jackie LorrainneSpeaker Bio: Jackie Lorrainne is the associate university librarian for Planning, Operations, and Administrative Services at Washington University in St. Louis. She is primarily responsible for strategies advancing the Libraries' capability and performance in the areas of financial and administrative operations. Jackie provides vision and leadership to several departments including business services, library space and building operations, assessment and analytics, communications and special events, and human resources for the University Libraries. She also serves as the liaison for several committees, including the Library Management Council and the Organizational Learning Committee. Jackie sits on the University Librarians Council where she works with other senior leaders to ensure excellence in all Libraries' operations and services.

Outside of the Libraries, Jackie has been involved in numerous leadership and development roles. She served as the inaugural chair of the Danforth Staff Council Human Resources Committee where she led the development of the DSC Orientation Workshop and several collaborations and initiatives with central HR staff. Jackie also served as the inaugural president of the WUSTL Speaks Toastmasters Club for the Danforth Campus. She is a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Forum for Faculty and Staff (DIFFS), the Danforth Management Team, and the University Management Team. Jackie is currently an art and sciences progress counselor and an affiliate of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity at Washington University in St. Louis.

Jackie was named Woman of the Year by the American Business Women's Association and received the Achievement Against the Odds award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. She is a member of The Black Caucus of the American Library Association, The National Black MBA Association, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the Missouri Association for Blacks in Higher Education.

Jackie has a doctorate degree in higher education leadership from Maryville University. She earned her master's degree in business administration from Olin Business School's Executive MBA program and her bachelor of science degree from Southeast Missouri State University.

David Daghita portrait

Speaker: David Daghita - McKinney Public Library System - ddaghita@mckinneytexas.org

Session Time: 2:45 pm - 3:30 pm CDT

Session Title: Make like a Robot and Get with the AI Program

Session Description: We had an original idea of how to solve the problem of repeatedly moving carts filled with books that which patrons browsed but did not checkout. Collecting these book carts, pushing them to our AMH sorting machine, and returning them to their proper position back on the floor consumed time for staff. Our question was simple, "How do we automated this?" Our answer was an Orionstar robot. This session will explain the decision-making process to choose the robots and how they were implemented to help both staff and patrons in the library.

Speaker Bio: David is the Systems Librarian Supervisor for McKinney Public Library System. He has Administrator knowledge with Koha, Polaris, and Sirsi-Dynix Integrated Library Systems. He is an avid cyclist.

Jami Yazdani portrait

Speaker: Jami Yazdani - Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation - jami@yazdaniconsulting.com

Session Time: 2:45 pm - 3:30 pm CDT

Session Title: Turning your Strategic Plan into an Action Plan

Session Description: Turn your library's strategic plan into an action plan that guides, inspires, and empowers. In this webinar, attendees will learn realistic approaches to sustain a dynamic planning process. Learn strategies to create shorter-term objectives, continue to engage your stakeholders and staff, and create a culture of shared accountability through transparency and progress sharing. Go from strategic plan to action plan and successfully implement your library's strategic goals!

Speaker Bio: Jami is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with more than 16 years of experience managing a portfolio of innovative projects and planning initiatives. Over a diverse career spanning roles in business, libraries, and public higher education, including over a decade in leadership (Director) and management positions, she effectively led teams, championed change, and empowered staff. Jami has also actively served on the boards of several nonprofits and professional associations, working in leadership (Chair and Vice-Chair), marketing, programming, and mentoring functions.