ARLD Day 2025

MLA Zoom Link

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the level of stress on academic library workers already struggling with budget cuts, increased work requirements and responsibilities, and overall campus stresses. Now federal funding reductions, "death by a thousand cuts,” and continued attacks on higher education challenge us in our communities.

In 2021, we analyzed survey data from 679 U.S. library workers, and in January 2025, we interviewed 29 respondents to learn more about their motivations for choosing to work in an academic library, and their experiences with expectations of emotional regulation. Critically examining workplace norms and expectations of service may be perceived as displaying a “negative attitude"" by others, turning attention on the individual rather than systems and structures. We were interested in how expressing any extreme emotions, but particularly those that are frequently perceived to be negative, impacted people in their work environment.

In this presentation, we will share initial data from the interviews in relation to the themes that developed in our survey, challenging us to consider what keeps us engaged in academic library settings. We examine how these experiences and expectations play out in personal narratives in the current post-pandemic and changing environment in the United States. We invite questions and a discussion of how these themes present themselves in our own libraries.

​MLA Zoom Link​​​

The Arts, Humanities, and Areas Studies Department of the University of Minnesota Libraries consists of eight liaison/subject librarians covering a myriad of disciplines in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. While our liaison responsibilities and academic backgrounds vary, collectively, we identify information gaps in our collections and strive to acquire materials by and about underrepresented groups and cultures. Similarly, some of us engage with marginalized communities through library programming and events. Panel members will discuss four questions: 1) how they inform themselves about underrepresented groups in their disciplines or geographic regions; 2) how they identify gaps within the collections and prioritize next steps; 3) how they source materials covering underrepresented groups via international vendors, book fairs, and other means; and 4) how they create programs and events geared toward supporting underrepresented groups. The panel will provide audience members with resources and recommendations for diversifying their own collections and library programming.

​MLA Zoom Link​​​

Like many universities, Northwestern Health Sciences University has had to confront the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play in the future of our university and the professions for which we prepare our students. A task force was convened to identify faculty and student knowledge gaps, clarify policies, and plan educational opportunities.

This session will discuss the role two campus librarians played on this task force. The work was built around guidance and resources, including surveys of faculty and students, crafting a syllabus statement, providing AI training to faculty,  and developing a tutorial we hope to embed in new student orientation.  We will also discuss our hopes for AI support at NWHSU in the future.

​MLA Zoom Link​​​

Since the mid-twentieth century, the United States has recognized a right to anonymity implicit in the First Amendment to the Constitution.  This presentation will look at the legal development of this right, from pamphleteering in the early twentieth century to contemporary online privacy; the limits of its interpretation and the consequential need for a broader understanding in the digital age; and the role libraries play in protecting anonymous speech as both a liberty against forced disclosure and a necessary condition for privacy.