Leading Together, Growing Together

Session Schedule

Click on each session for individual descriptions.

Session Descriptions

Inclusive Library Leadership: Empathy, Care, and Compassion as Leadership Strengths

[To be livestreamed]

In this interactive session for current and aspiring leaders and managers, you’ll learn how you can center empathy, care, and compassion in your formal and informal leadership roles. Annie Bélanger, a passionate and experienced disability and inclusivity advocate, will introduce you to inclusive library leadership, its definitions, and the traits and practices of inclusive leaders. You’ll begin to develop your own inclusive leadership approach and implement inclusive and equity-minded practices in your work. You’ll leave with tools and resources you can use to continue your growth as an inclusive leader.

Annie Bélanger, MLIS is the Dean of University Libraries, Grand Valley State University. She is the lead for ACRL’s Inclusive Library Leadership subcommittee and the Board President for Disability Advocates of Kent County. Her research focuses on human-centered, inclusive leadership and skills development for library workforces. Being an accessibility and inclusion advocate and her experiences in academic, corporate, public libraries, and government settings define her career. Annie is Québéçoise and disabled.

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Building Culture and Community in a Hybrid Workforce: A World Café Conversation

Remote and hybrid work arrangements have become commonplace in libraries, hospitals, and health systems. With this dramatic shift toward new modes of work has come opportunities to reshape workplace culture and challenges for building and maintaining community in a hybrid workforce.

Do you want to discuss strategies your organization has implemented to build culture and community and learn about approaches your colleagues are taking? Participants in this highly interactive World Café conversation will connect with peers to discuss how they and their organizations have approached remote and hybrid work experiences, with a strong emphasis on building culture and community. If you’d like to share practices from your organization and benefit from the insights and innovations of your colleagues, this session is for you!

Mark Berendsen, MLIS, is Deputy Director of Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. In this role, he is responsible for personnel management of library faculty and staff. At MLA|SLA ‘23, Mark co-hosted a World Café session where participants explored ideas and gained a deeper understanding of leadership roles and opportunities for libraries in innovative domains, including AI, virtual reality, data management, data visualization, and global health & health equity.

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Leading and Serving in an Unscripted World: Leadership, Librarianship, and Improv

Can the methods used by improv professionals in comedy and theater be applied to the day-to-day work of librarians and leaders? They can! Improv teaches cooperation, listening, brainstorming, communication, and other skills that are hugely beneficial in the library environment.

Doing improv can change how you feel about yourself, prepare you for new work roles, help you navigate difficult conversations and respond to new situations, and it can spark insights and creativity in your work as librarians and leaders.

Patrick Short, a highly experienced improv facilitator, will guide you in practicing improv techniques in a safe/no-pressure to perform atmosphere.

The improv session in the 2023 session was a joyful and fun hit. Don’t miss what will undoubtedly be the most fun and transformative session of the conference!

Patrick Short, MFA, has been leading Applied Improvisation workshops for organizations since Apple requested a workshop in team building in 1989. He’s worked for over 800 organizations, including Intel, Nike, Government Agencies, NGOs, Not-for-Profits, and Educational Institutions. Since the onset of the pandemic, Patrick has taught clients in 42 countries via Zoom. He’s a certified professional in Applied Improvisation by the Applied Improvisation Network and a Certified Provider, Executive Level, by CSz Worldwide. Patrick co-wrote Jill & Patrick’s Small Book of Improv for Business and Yes, And Your Customer Service. In his spare time, he runs CSz Portland, an improv theater best known for ComedySportz, competitive improvisational comedy. In his actual spare time, he plays keyboards, writes songs, eats right, and always flosses.

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Inside and Out: Supporting and Empowering Your Staff by Promoting Their Achievements

[To be livestreamed]

If you are a library leader or manager at any level, you know the value of a committed and enthusiastic staff. In this session, Meghan Kowalski, an experienced team manager and presenter on library management, will help you discover your staff members’ strengths and identify ways to promote their work and help them overcome self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and other hurdles to realizing their potential and bringing attention to their achievements. She will also help you see how promoting staff as individuals with unique skills benefits both your library as a whole and individual staff members. You’ll learn primarily through a workshop in which you assess how you support and empower your staff and develop actionable steps to promote your staff members’ achievements, skills, and projects inside and outside of libraries.

Meghan Kowalski, MSLS, is the Outreach and Reference Librarian at the University of the District of Columbia. She regularly presents and publishes on topics related to library leadership, marketing, and instruction. She authors the newsletters Content Prompt and The Weekly Wrap.

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