Join us at the Dixie Convention Center in St. George, Utah for the 2025 Utah Library Association Annual Conference!Registration is now open, with early bird pricing ending March 31. Soon after registering, you will receive a Sched invite to this event so you can plan your conference schedule. See you in St. George!
Log in to bookmark your favorites and sync them to your phone or calendar.
Looking for some great reads for your Book Group or personal reading? This presentation will be a great opportunity to get the scoop on some wonderful reads. Don't worry there will be time to present some of your own favorite reads and get ideas for building a strong book group at your library.
I grew up in Northeastern Utah. My earliest memories of books and libraries include checking out books from the bookmobile and school library. I attended Southern Utah University and later completed a masters degree in library science from the University of North Texas. It... Read More →
Wednesday May 14, 2025 11:10am - 11:30am MDT
Entrada A
As a self-professed “librarian gamer,” I've come across a number of "library-related" board games & video games, and I’d like to share them with all of you! Each game mentioned in this session will have a specific focus on libraries and/or library work as a central theme of gameplay. Each game asks its players to utilize different skills & tackle scenarios that real librarians might encounter, & thus could be useful for developing programs or collections (especially anything intended to highlight a library's usefulness to patrons, or various aspects of librarianship to prospective library students).
To address issues with consistency, searchability, and collection management, a team at Eccles Health Sciences Library (EHSL) conducted a comprehensive assessment of the metadata in the Neuro-Ophthalmology Virtual Education Library (NOVEL) collection. We identified inconsistencies in field usage, naming conventions, and degrees of detail across sub-collections. This project aimed to streamline metadata practices, ensuring consistency, relevance, and adherence to library standards.
After a Library-wide realignment in 2023, USU Libraries created a new program, Archival Outreach & Instruction, to better emphasize outreach efforts for the Special Collections & Archives Department. This session will highlight the innovative ways this program has engaged with library, campus, and community partners, building systematic assessment tools, and securing administrative support to better highlight the unique collections and services the library provides.
Apart from having an unlimited budget, the ultimate library dream is to develop a future-proof, data-driven collection development strategy that is nimble and responsive to evolving technologies, user demand, and market trends. Easy, right? While this session does not have the secret holy grail strategy, it does provide A strategy . . . an A to Z strategy, to be precise.
This presentation details the first comprehensive collection analysis of a medical library serving three campuses in the Intermountain West. The analysis focused on item record quality, metadata effectiveness, table of contents availability, and collection overlap/deficiencies. By examining electronic book records and comparing holdings across campuses, the study identified areas for improvement in resource discoverability and collection development. The presentation will share key findings, best practices, and lessons learned, empowering other libraries to conduct similar analyses and enhance their collections.
In the wake of rapid advancements in the general publics’ awareness and use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the UVU Fulton Library has taken proactive steps to harness these tools for the benefit of its student community. This presentation will explore how the library responded positively to the rise of AI by educating our librarians and then developing and implementing a series of engaging workshops designed to educate and empower students to use AI tools ethically and effectively in the process of academic research. These workshops not only demystify AI tools but also provide practical skills that students can apply in their academic and professional lives. The UVU Fulton Library’s initiative to integrate AI education into its services has not only equipped students with valuable skills but also fostered a culture of innovation and curiosity. By sharing our story, we hope to inspire other institutions to embrace AI positively and create similar opportunities for their communities.
The BYU Library became aware of the history department’s need for internship opportunities that were on campus, paid, and relevant to historical research and potential employment opportunities. This session will outline how our library team developed internships to meet the needs of the history and family history majors, integrating into their larger, coordinated internship program. Students can select up to three modules to work on during their internship, giving them experience with multiple types of history related work done in libraries. We identified existing projects in our department to meet both the needs and interests of students in the history major and the ongoing work in our department. We hope that long-term investment in this internship program will pay off as these students move on to careers in the library field and possibly return to our institution or those in our community to work in the library field.
Katie Yeo is the 19th and 20th Century Americana Catalog Librarian at the Brigham Young University Library in Utah. She is also a former solo librarian at the Utah State Hospital Library. She is passionate about topics such as metadata accessibility and inclusive cataloging.
Wednesday May 14, 2025 3:50pm - 4:10pm MDT
Sunbrook A
Since the arrival of the railroad in 1869, Ogden has been a place of diversity with people from different ethnicity, race, and religion coming to work and live within the city. For too long, the history of the area has neglected to acknowledge the impact of the various cultures and communities. The goal of “Ogden at its Core” was to change this scenario. This project began working with members of the various communities to gather, document, and preserve the history of the communities. We did not try to control or manage the narratives but provided them with avenues to preserve and share their histories.
How do we move beyond the performative and truly engage with the communities whose land we occupy? Reparative work goes beyond a basic show of support for underrepresented communities and intentionally collecting authentic voices. Building trust between libraries and communities starts with reciprocity, the act of giving back, sharing, being accountable, and developing consistent cultural connections. Beginning with a growth mindset, respecting the diversity found in humanity, and practicing humility are essential starting points to building trust and respect. Being proactive in building connections, working with a cultural liaison, centering marginalized voices, and creatively using new technology are methods to build relationships based on mutual respect. With trust comes expanded access for all users and creates a more inclusive library.
Two years after the Eccles Health Sciences Library's 50th anniversary in 2021, the library began a journey of transformation with a seismic retrofit project. This project provided an opportunity to preserve history in another unique way—a time capsule, to be placed in the new building core constructed for restrooms, elevators, and earthquake safety. This presentation will detail the process undertaken by a team of four librarians and five staff members to curate and create the time capsule without overburdening anyone’s schedule.
Scrapbooks from the 1960s Alpenbock Climbing Club were donated to the Library in 2006, but were only made publicly available in 2023. This presentation describes the challenges of a multi-author unpublished donation and my multi-step de-risking process so the library could publish the scrapbooks in the Digital Library. The digitized scrapbooks immediately received recognition. Scrapbook images were featured on the front-page of the Salt Lake Tribune and several other news stories highlighting the historical significance of these inspirational stories. This case study's process provides a framework for other complicated donations, especially for those working within a community.
They're free, but often not as easy to find. This introduction to federal government documents is designed for public librarians to quickly come up to speed finding and using the most important government websites and datasets.
The Presidential Papers, a group of collections spanning Utah State University’s (USU) 17 presidents, is frequently used for instruction, exhibits, and personal research as a major resource for USU history. As part of a large-scale remediation initiative within University Archives, the Presidential Papers project significantly improved access, discoverability, and use of high research value collections that document critical parts of university history. Through the examination of appropriate levels of description, implementing intellectual order, and developing workflows, this session explores how secondary processing is used to modernize and improve high-impact collections.
This session is anticipated to be an updated version of my presentation at the ULA 2024 Fall Forum discussing what constitutes unauthorized practice of law, how to navigate the Utah State Court website and resources, and provide links and information on how to find legal reference information.
I’ve been a cataloger for 3 years, but I worked in reference & circulation for 6 years before that. While my cataloging work is often "out of the way" from the rest of the library, I've found ways to use my circulation/reference experience to benefit my current job, such as helping co-workers who reach out to me with questions regarding access to ebooks & other electronic materials.
Libraries are all at different stages of their foray into the preservation of digital material. Some trying to manage with minimal resources and staff, while others are finding an overwhelming task of sorting through the digital deluge. Finding learning resources and help can be difficult. Here are some of the resources and communities I have found most helpful in my work in Digital Preservation.
Libraries offer a range of programs and spaces that can be noisy, but many patrons come seeking a quite environment. We investigated the impact of noise on student stress in the library using wearable biomarker devices. We measured participants’ heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature, and blood pressure while studying in loud and quiet areas. We also surveyed participants about their overall stress, well-being, and reasons for visiting the library. Our research can be used to inform future programing and space allocations in libraries.
