8:30-9:00am Check-in; Morning Coffee/Tea and Refreshments
9:00-9:15 am – Opening Remarks & HELIN Board Report . HELIN Board of Directors Chair – Welcome, HELIN Board Report and affinity group summaries.
9:25-10:45 am – Keynote: The Higher Ed Library in the AI Age. Kim Nayyer: Edward Cornell Law Librarian, Associate Dean for Library Services, and Professor of the Practice, Cornell Law School. While the landscape of AI has shifted dramatically in recent months, AI expansion has been subtly infusing our day-to-day lives in ways that don’t readily register without our conscious reflection. This talk will review where we’ve arrived in recent years and explore where we may be headed. AI may enhance library user experiences by aiding services like research help and reader recommendations, or it may assist library workers with functions like catalog automation, and augmented collection and account management. At the same time, we can predict the growth of misinformation, corporatization, and potential risks to user privacy and data security. high-powered, fast-working, and persuasive generative AI outputs also raise the specter of challenges to employability and human responsibility.
This talk aims to explore opportunities for activating AI’s potential in higher ed libraries, while strengthening the value of still unreplicable human creativity, knowledge curation, and information literacy education. Let’s discover how to acknowledge, even embrace, the benefits of AI while upholding libraries’ vital role as guardians of and guides to reliable information and knowledge.
11-11:40 am: SESSION I
- Check in with OCLC- Marian Carney, Strategic Account Director, US Library Services for the Americas. Join this informative discussion with our OCLC representative Marion Carney who will share what’s new and answer your questions about OCLC products and services.
- Information Literacy in the Age of AI (Roundtable)- Allison Papini, Asst Dir/Manager of Research & Instruction Services, Douglas and Judith Krupp Library, Bryant University. We’ve all had conversations with colleagues, faculty, and students about AI and the future of scholarship. Let’s come together to explore the intersections of AI and scholarship through an information literacy lens. By using the framework to guide our discussion, we’ll remove some of the uncertainty around AI and come away with new approaches to these conversations.
- Anti-Zoom Room. What’s on your mind? This designated room is a space for people to gather and have conversations one-on-one or in a small group. Some prompts will be posted but conversations are driven by those present and in the moment. Ideas and thoughts can be written on easel boards which will be shared with relevant HELIN affinity groups. Bello 101/Data Visualization Lab
11:45- 12:45 pm – Lunch
12:50- 1:30 pm – SESSION II
- How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Chatbot – Keri Green, M.A.T., MBA, Dir., Instructional Design & Technology, Johnson & Wales University; Erin Kalish, M.A. (she/her), Instructional Designer, Instructional Design & Technology, JWU; Heather Myers, M.S.Ed., Sr Instructional Designer, Instructional Design & Technology, JWU. At the end of 2022, AI chatbots like ChatGPT exploded into the education landscape with the ability to turn out a college essay in seconds. Chatbots are disrupting the higher education landscape and making it easier for students to phone in their work — or are they? Early conversations have focused on the plagiarism problems created by this new technology, but chatbots don’t necessarily have to be bad. In this session, we explore the potential of chatbots to engage student writing in new ways, ways to rethink assignments to limit chatbot usage, and even how chatbots can help your own writing.
- Am I the Only Person Who Thinks About This? Or, Trowel and Error: A Discussion of Ebook Weeding (Roundtable) – Julie Kliever, Head of Collections Services, Phillips Memorial Library, Providence College. Unlike with print books, ebook weeding requires both selection criteria for removing obsolete titles AND a process to remove them from the catalog and the vendor platform. Some vendors, such as Proquest, allow customers to hide ebooks, but does this apply to purchased titles or just potential DDA titles? Do vendors offer an easy way to remove patron access to purchased ebooks? As ebooks approach their third decade, there’s a lot of junk out there. How do YOU handle it? Join the discussion.
- Bryant Data Visualization Lab Tour . Put on your goggles and see the magic! Numbers will flow in a Pythagorean flow that will have you humming to the music of the spheres. The Data Visualization Lab is a space for faculty, staff, and students to expand learning beyond the classroom. Bello 101/Data Visualization Lab.
1:45-2:30 pm – SESSION III
- Discovery Layers Haunt My Dreams: WMS Discovery- Peter Rogers, Head of Research and Education, Providence College. One, a discussion of the various discovery layer options available to libraries and why they are all very flawed tools. Two, why, even though they are all terribly flawed, we should offer a discovery layer,/single-search box option to our patrons. Three, using a “least worst” approach to create a single-search box tool for a library.
- AI-powered Research Tools and Applications: Research, Initial Drafts, Brainstorming, Quick Analysis- Edward Iglesias, Systems & Technology Librarian, Salve Regina University; Dawn Emsellem, Library Director, Salve Regina University. Join Dawn and Edward on a tour of new and developing research tools powered by artificial intelligence. First the presenters will get everyone on the same page as we discuss large language models (LLMs), neural networks, machine learning, algorithms and other concepts essential to understanding how these tools work. Then we’ll demo some fun new research tools and applications. Finally, we’ll explore considerations such as cost, reliability, and ethics; and concerns such as AI hallucination, poor sources, and lack of citation.
- Anti-Zoom Room. What’s on your mind? This designated room is a space for people to gather and have conversations one-on-one or in a small group. Some prompts will be posted but conversations are driven by those present and in the moment. Ideas and thoughts can be written on easel boards which will be shared with relevant HELIN affinity groups. Bello 101/Data Visualization Lab
2:45-3:00 pm – Raffle Drawing & Closing Remarks
