Librarians often wear many hats, and for some, cataloging may be an expectation they were not expecting. What do these librarians need to know, in order to best catalog for their institution? In this session, attendees will learn the basics regarding cataloging, RDA, and MARC formats. They will gain a basic understanding of the history and importance of the technical skill of cataloging and its importance on discoverability not only for patrons but their fellow librarians. It will demystify the language behind cataloging, to ensure that no matter one’s previous roles, they are able to accurately tackle cataloging. They will learn what MARC fields are non-negotiable, which we can ignore, where to find resources, and ultimately how to create the best MARC records for their library and patrons.
Artificial intelligence is already changing how libraries do their work—from everyday assessment to large-scale digitization and access projects. In this joint session, we’ll start with practical ways generative AI can strengthen library assessment. You’ll see examples of how AI tools can help generate assessment questions and ideas, speed up analysis, and produce clear, professional narratives and reports—while also addressing what AI can and can’t do.
Next, we’ll shift to a real-world case study: the BYU Law Library’s effort to transcribe the 1925 U.S. Code. We’ll walk through why the project matters, how the team approached accuracy at scale, what changed along the way, and how human transcription quality paired with AI-assisted cleanup made the goal achievable.
We’ll conclude together with shared takeaways on the limits of AI, the continuing importance of human judgment, and practical guidance for adopting AI in library workflows with confidence and care.
In this presentation you’ll learn about the tools, strategies, and decision-making currently being used in migrating 20 years of metadata and digitized special collections from BYU’s CONTENTdm system to a new, highly customizable OrangeDAM platform. This migration involves transforming and standardizing our often inconsistently entered metadata from years’ past to align with a newly developed digital collections MAP based on Dublin Core fields and RDA guidelines, with corresponding fields in MARC and ArchivesSpace included. This work is also being done in collaboration with our BYU sister schools, BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii, which also host digitized materials in the BYU Library’s digital asset management systems. This presentation will cover the practical challenges of metadata cleanup, transformation, and migration, and MAP creation, offering insights into our process, tools used, and lessons learned so far to improve findability and usability across our digital collections.
No time for planning programs? Come learn about some programs that require little or no set-up or planning and can be run by almost anyone. Also includes supplies to always have on-hand in storage and what programs can be created with these supplies.
Come hear the results of a recent statewide survey conducted by researchers from the U of U and SUU about Utahn's attitudes towards reading and learn more about how librarians can address challenges adult readers in their community might face.
Karen Bowling (gen X) and Aubrey Durrant (gen Z) from the Smithfield Public Library will walk you through our history of social media at the library. From our initial struggles to our current successes, showing you how we leveled up our online presence and how it’s helped our library reach out to our community and beyond. We’ll offer practical design knowledge and strategic examples that can help you build on the social media you’re already doing. And we’ll give you ways to keep it cheap or free! Part I: Humble Beginnings - Resources for Getting Started Facebook and Instagram: using these platforms for success. Meta Business Suite: a visual tour for new users to organize their content. Canva: graphic design made simple. Part II: Level Up Your Look Slideshow/Tutorial: Graphic design basics for librarians. Solidifying your brand: making your library unique, recognizable, and appealing. Part III: Build a Community Follow, like, collaborate, tag, repost, comment. Show the behind-the-scenes of YOUR work - relate with your audience. Video/content examples from libraries we love. Part IV: Social Media Safety. Creating a social media policy to protect the library. Password safety. Watching for suspicious activity. Keeping posts and interactions relevant to your goals.
The Smithfield Public Library has been partnering with our city Arts Council since April 2024, when six (or seven) strangers met in a small conference room at City Hall. Our partnership has now resulted in two seasons of a summer concert series and an immersive Christmas Storybook Festival, as well as several other fun events, a bunch of new friendships, and a ton of high fives!
Learn how a handful of willing residents have built a thriving network of community volunteers who are interested in improving the quality of life in their city, with their once-neglected public library at the center. We’ll discuss how to organize public events on a shoestring budget using free online tools and how to cultivate new relationships with a wide range of arts communities. Our successes (and failures) will inspire you to walk out of the library and tap into the energy and expertise of your town as you create fun and exciting cultural events for your community.
Hello! I'm a director of a small-town library in Cache Valley, and I work with a staff of ten amazing people! Four of us are at ULA this year! In a previous life, I worked for the Utah State Library as a bookmobile librarian for 16 years. I loved it very much but I love being a director... Read More →
Wednesday May 20, 2026 1:15pm - 2:05pm MDT Soldier Creek
Utah State University (USU) Libraries has recently created a Metadata Application Profile (MAP) to successfully map and crosswalk metadata fields in DigitalCommons to DublinCore and DataCite. We created this MAP to help authors and librarians better understand our records in DigitalCommons; this MAP ensures consistency and readability with other Institutional Repositories. In this presentation, we will cover our process for creating a MAP, the relevant context for creating a MAP, and how we plan to implement this MAP to remediate metadata and increase accessibility of our materials.
The Marriott Library (University of Utah) has three media production studios as part of their ProtoSpace emerging technologies and digital scholarship hub. This presentation is part of an article under submission entitled User scheduled media production studios in academic libraries: A case study. This is a follow up article to my publication: Podcasting services in academic libraries: A case study. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2021.1897722.
The Marriott Library has two Podcast Booths and a Simple Video Studio. Students, faculty, and staff can reserve these spaces for audio and video production. This presentation will discuss use statistics, the types of projects scheduled, and charts on how often and when each studio is in use.
While the purpose of each studio is media production, the data results show a variety of non-media projects taking place supporting coursework, teaching, outreach, research, and personal projects.
In addition to the use data, this talk will discuss suggestions for physical studio creation and affordable equipment lists. The purpose is to generate podcasts and film videos in any library type maker space location/environment.
Quality metadata is vital to the patron experience, but metadata creation is only one part of the metadata lifecyle. Patrons may not know what metadata maintenance, enhancement, and remediation are, but they do notice when they need to be done. In this panel, five librarians from BYU’s Cataloging and Metadata department will discuss the steps they have taken to upgrade the patron experience at their library through improved metadata. This panel will describe how to evaluate metadata, create and prioritize projects, involve student workers, and collaborate with other library departments to improve the patron's experience finding and using library materials
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.
