ACRL Conference, day 4 - Toxicity

Panel Session: Gender, Generation and Toxicity: The Implications for Academic Libraries of Gender and Generational Attitudes Toward Competition and Workplace Behavior

Terrence Bennett, The College of New Jersey
Mollie Freier, Northern Michigan University
Ann Campion Riley, University of Missouri

2 years ago, at last ACRL there was a presentation on workplace toxicity; this is an update.

Toxicity defined:

• More than just people and management situations
• First used in 1980s in business literature (Peter Frost)
• An ongoing work situation that is painful, personally difficult and uncomfortable through a special combination of factors
• Hostile, unreasonable or emotionally distressing behavior with many causes, including institutional issues outside the library.

Hypothesis: A serious problem in the library; worse in some functional areas

Findings:
Administration is the worst place for toxic behavior (over 3,000 results to 2007 survey)
> 30% thought problems to be serious and enough to leave the job.

Some comments on the survey:
Gender aspect was huge,

• "the majority of women...results in picky, nasty behavior."
• "Women with power issues"
• "This is what happens when a lot of women work together"
• "Women should unite instead of taking every chance to take each other down"

Research re-framed to look at gender and inter-generational issues.
What impact does the economic downturn have on workplace toxicity?
Are women disproportionately affected by budget woes?

Work leaner and smarter = belittle me harder. Old responses don't work in the new environment.

Budget impact on toxicity:
hiring freeze and greater workload
competition
flexibility

What (women) managers are saying:

• We're training new librarians on dealing with budget cuts
• I know I have to lay-off people, but I can't tell them
• It's a chance to clear out the deadwood
• Everyone's gone berserk; we have to calm down.

Can we continue doing more with less? When do we stop? As we continue with this trend, people will become toxic.

64% or librarians in ARL libraries are women (ARL)
82% of librarians are women (BLS)

literature (interesting titles):

• Cat-fight
• Tripping the Prom Queen
• The Queen Bee Syndrome (article)
• I can't believe she did that: why women betray other women at work
• Mars/Venus
• Stress reactions are different for women (Taylor, 2000)
• Communication styles are different (Gualdagno and Cialdini, 2002)
• Statistical differences are actually small (Hyde and Plant, 1995)
• Differences in motor skills, masturbation and attitudes to casual sex (Hyde, 2005)
• some difference in physical aggression (Hyde, 2005)
• Difficult conversations
  

Historically, women have not been socialized to compete effectively; it violates the sense of sisterhood.
But:

• there is no monolithic woman
• easy to become alienated in a sexist culture
• easily stereotyped
• competition often becomes personal.
• What has Title IX done to help women compete effectively

Worst sources of toxicity (from survey):

• baby boomers
• older librarians concerned younger librarians will take their position before they can retire
• young, new coordinator who is a drama queen
• generational differences and territorial vs collegial behavior

Baby boomers (1946-64): trustworthy, loyal, helpful friendly, courteous and kind, clean and reverent, thrifty and brave
Generation X (1965-80): independent, techno-literate, mistrustful of bureaucracies; may be perceived as slackers

Some truths to the stereotypes.

Avoiding toxicity
some people are "jerks" (a gender neutral term)

• recognize familiar patterns
• identify chronic, temporary or inevitable toxic situations
• overcome stereotypes and patterned responses
• understand your role as a colleague or manager

ACRL Conference, day 4 - Toxicity

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Mapping Your Path

Panel Session: Mapping Your Path to the Mountaintop
Steven Bell
John Shank
Brian Matthews
Lauren Pressley

What is your career path? What is your mountaintop? Not everyone wants to be an ARL library director, so you have to think about what you want to do.
This session originated in an earlier blog post by Steven Bell entitled, "Are you where you want to be professionally?"

Career planning should be strategic and thoughtful.

- Reading things such as inside higher education and chronicle of higher education is key.
- Publication is also good; whether on a blog or other social media. It can get you noticed.

What catch-phrase summarizes your path?

• Steve: hills and valleys: it is a long road that takes many turns. Don't focus attention on someone that is getting a lot of attention; focus on yourself. Keep persisting.
  
• John: tenure with a twist: focus on things about which you are passionate, and match those with your personal strengths. traditional institution in a non-traditional position (instructional design librarian).
  
• Brian: Emeril Lagasse of librarianship: goal to be transformative or purposeful. a lot of people didn't watch cooking shows until Emeril. How can I change the library profession
• Lauren: Start early and keep it in high gear: had a rough first job search, and didn't want to have another one.

From the audience:

• If at first you don't succeed, smash your head into the wall again and again
• I'm scared out of my mind right now (first person going up for tenure in over 20 years)
• Fake it 'til you make it (you have to try everything until it comes to you)
• Don't be afraid to fail, instead, embrace opportunity.
  
• You never know what's coming around the corner (take the blinders off)
• Find the gap and then fill it (interested in international librarianship)
• Play your career like you'd play at poker
• Opportunistic humanist (wanted humanities-related jobs, but remained open to go where the jobs are)
  
• Give back!
  

What sacrifices are you willing to make?
Publications are key, but shouldn't be about tenure.

What role has publishing and presenting played in your lives?

• Lauren: blogging as publishing has been key. You must pay attention to what's going on in the field at large. and this has forced me to learn more about and become an expert in some areas - leading to presentations and now a first book
• John: Publishing (traditional) is needed for tenure process. Hadn't published in previous positions. sharing your knowledge, expertise and experience with others. Blogs, as an example, is a publishing medium. Not yet recognized for tenure, but who knows.
  
• Brian: did a scholarly article, but it was "dry and boring." But wasn't that replicating what was previously published? Write for the widest audience possible. (John: when you're writing an article, think about the outcome; this will determine the venue).
  

From the audience:

• do you need to publish in scholarly publications, even if you're tenure track? Service to the profession could also be important.
  
• Presenting is just as important - local, regional and national conferences can also be a means to share information. Submit proposals. Also a good way to meet people.
  
• Publish and present whether or not it is required. Can make you a better candidate for jobs and gives you practice.
• You need not present on "traditional" library topics. Publish about things related and relevant (like Wikipedia)
• Presentations can help you get jobs. Don't limit yourself to "library" topics.
  

Look for the things that make you uneasy.
Learn about new technologies.

What's your perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship in developing your career strategy?

• Brian: GA Tech provided opportunities. Stepped away from the library profession and joined a local marketing group. Learn from the corporate/business colleagues
• John: Creating new and innovative positions. Collaborations between library and IT or library and other departments. You'll get a different perspective form those who aren't librarians. How can these ideas be integrated into library work?
  
• Lauren: innovation is about risk. Stakes are relatively low, but payoff can be huge.

From the audience:

• if you wan to be innovative, work at a small college or community college or work as a solo librarian.
• Learn things that you don't know; you may be required to teach them later
• take on new, non-traditional responsibilities (teach outside of the library profession, in your subject area).
  

What's the next step in your career?

• Lauren: Continue looking for ways to contribute, help institution, develop skills. Look for more opportunities
• Brian: The move into administration. How can I remain "edgy" and political?
  
• John: Starting a doctoral program. Capitalize on the partnerships with faculty and others on campus and applying those to the library to help raise awareness.
  
• Steven: not sure. enjoys working with others who are new to the profession and enjoys sharing insight and information.
  

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Mapping Your Path

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Library Workforce

Contributed Paper session: Where have all the librarians gone? The academic library workforce of today and tomorrow.
Barbara Moran, UNC Chapel-Hill
Paul Solomon, University of South Carolina

What can workforce studies tell us?
why choose a career
why do you stay or leave
career patterns
what leads to career growth and satisfaction
how long to retire

But, as a whole, we have not tracked our profession. We aren't therefore prepared for the nest generation of librarians. No succession planning.

Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science (WILIS 1) : study of career patterns of NC LIS graduates from 1964 - 2004 (WILIS 2 will help LIS programs track their graduates).

6 LIS programs in the area from a diverse standpoint.
Full survey to over 7500 (35% response rate; 31% of which are now working in academic libraries). Brief summary reports are available on the WILIS website.

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Library Workforce

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Student Workers

Contributed Paper: Understanding the Integrative Role of an Academic Library for Undergraduate Library Student Workers
Wil Weston, San Diego State University

Persistence
Retention
Attrition
see NCES definitions

This is a persistence study (the student perspective).

Literature on Persistence, Success, On-Campus Employment and Achievement.

There are both academic and social uses of the library.

Vincent Tinto (1993) model of persistence used; it is general and broad.

Conceptualization of the Library
- Perceptions of Co-workers
- Job Satisfaction
- Familiarity with the library

What are benefits of library employment?
What are social expectations of library?
What are academic expectations of the library?

The library can be a force in helping students persist through their academic career.
Much of the experience is social.

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Student Workers

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Thriving in Economic Downturn

Panel Session: Thriving in an economic downturn

All but 5 states are facing dire economic conditions.

In previous times of crisis, libraries have been collaborative and cooperative.

Steve Hiller – Eye to the future: data driven decision-making and planning in uncertain times

Measuring performance in an exercise in measuring hte pase. It is hte use of that data to plan an improved future that is all important - Peter Brophy

Strategic planning can help frame the future.

Get data from the users' perspective

organizational accountability

• What data do we need?
  
• what is the library's contribution to learning and reaearch
• what is the value of online resources
• user needs
• organizational performance metrics

Why we don't use data:

• don't have the right data
• don't understand the data
• aren't asked for the data
• don't know how to present the data
• difficulty using the data for positive change

Presenting Data:

• What is the message. fewer targeted messages have more impact
  
• Who is the audience
• How do we present: keep it simple
  

Budget reduction planning should look to the future. Look at documented faculty and student priorities.

gather user data to see what is most important for them

See Transformational Times [pdf file] from ARL, February 2009.

Camila Alire – Communicating through times of crisis

In Chinese, "crisis" characters include "danger" and "opportunity." There is always an opportunity our of a crisis.

In October 2008, 54% of staff (business/corporate) had received no communication from senior administrators about the economic situation at their companies, and 76% said they wanted to hear more.

Three important words:

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. You can't communicate enough.

One has to be very cognizant of the rumor mill.

Much of the communication is top-down. Often times university counsel or insurance companies or other sources telling administrators what they can and can't say. So even though administrators may want to be transparent, there can be some limits. Though limited, there still has to be some communication. Have regular meetings and other forms of communication (open forum). Integrity must prevail.

"Under-promise and over-deliver"

Set realistic goals and time-frames.

Avoid promises.

Tom Leonard – Collaborative decision arrangements available to us

Seven ways forward

• find collaborations that are sound and perhaps forgotten (go through old files; many in paper documents)
• look for short-term gains with partners. (ARL library leaders fellows program, eg.)
• think about skills that are hard to find in your organization. Can you "train-up" people in a consortium to work together? eg. project manager.
  
• look for barriers that may fall when leadership changes (eg Harvard's new leader gogt faculty on board with open access)
• choice of sustainable model or leaving money on the table, choose the former;
  
• sometimes we can fail in fruitful ways; what can we learn from failures?
  
• take full credit for previous investments that are now paying dividends (digitization as example)
  

Data

Communicate

Collaborate

With these three words, we can thrive in an economic downturn!

ACRL Conference, day 3 - Thriving in Economic Downturn

ACRL Conference, day 2 - Keynote Address

Keynote address: Sherman Alexie

Random quotes:

Librarians unleashed - single folks should hang out at the Sheraton this weekend; there's a librarian conference in town.

New "Native American" poem: Ode to My Sharona

Museum of tolerance. Isn't that aiming low?
"I tolerate you;" this is like marriage.
If these people know each other, then they'll love each other - at least tolerate each other.

I don't believe in magic, but I do believe in interpreting coincidences the way you want to.

What's the difference between laughter and hate?

We need to read beyond our ethnic identities.

I'm an ironic indigenous immigrant.

ACRL Conference, day 2 - Keynote Address

ACRL Conference, day 2 - Is the MLS Relevant?

Panel Session - Resolved: The Master's Degree in Library Science is Not Relevant to the Future of the Academic Library.
Liz Bishoff (BCR)
Arnold Hirshon (NELINET)
James Neal (Columbia University), moderator

Trend in some libraries to hire individuals with varied academic background
Is this trend undermining the MLS?

For the affirmative (the MLS is not relevant): Arnold Hirshon
Three reasons:

• Devoid of content unique to librarianship.
  The things that are unique to the profession are no longer being taught and are not required. Even when required they are chaotic
  
• Lack criteria to admit good students
  LIS programs lack skills to measure future success in school and on the job.
  Skills that should be required: risk taking, questioning, openness, creative agile, energetic, ability to synthesize; possess confidence; leaders.
  Learning agility is needed.
  Graduates who ask, "why" a requirement for a job is needed, it is clear they don't have the skill.
  
• Schools provide graduate level vocational training.
  LIS programs don't teach things like principles of effective management or statistics.
  

The system is our acceptance of mediocrity. We need not accept it anymore. There are many others who can bring a diverse background and experience to our workplace.
New model: Syracuse's i-school program on cyber-infrastructure. This is a good start.

For the negative (the MLS IS relevant): Liz Bishoff
No two academic libraries are the same; each library must operate in context. preparing the next generation through education.

• Focus on education, rather than training; develop team-building and problem-solving skills
• Research is the foundation of the academic library. LIS programs develop research skills - personal and those to pass on to users
• Advance the digital library. LIS program lays the foundation for continuous learning for the future.
  

Comments from audience:

• There is no MLS standard and until that happens, the question is moot. The Standards for Accreditation do not address uniformity among programs.
• We need the MLS, but we need to overhaul the curriculum
  

Hirshon:
You can't teach research; you have to do it. LIS students who learn research learn library research, but not research for their patrons. Those who earn other advanced degrees learn how to research in their fields in ways LIS students don't.

We need to educate students for the real world. Internships and apprentices are key.

There should be normative tracks. People should lean skills to make them successful in their chosen area, but also have the flexibility to transfer the skills to other areas.

Neal:
Who gets evaluated, the person or the school?
Is librarian a default profession?
Can we have a standard of practice, or are there many successful paths?
Are LIS programs out of touch?
Can information science, informatics and other programs be successfully integrated?
Will the absence of the MLS lead to "non-professionals?"

Questions and Comments from the audience:
What is your definition of a librarian? enables people's creativity and success.

ACRL Conference, day 2 - Is the MLS Relevant?

ACRL Conference, day 2 - From Novice to Expert

Panel Session: From Novice to Expert: Collaboration for Succession Planning.
Denise Anthony (University of Denver)
Sylvia Hall-Ellis (University of Denver)
Megan Perez (University of Arkansas), moderator

Anthony:

A few sources to read:
Dreyfus, Hubert
What Computers still can't do

McCorduck, Pamela
Machines who think

Zuboff, Shoshana
In the age of the smart machine

How do we acquire skills? Dreyfus proposes a model for skill acquisition that can be used to develop our next generation of library leaders.
Based on Cartesian duality.

Knowledge is situational. We are constantly learning in our environment and we are learning from our environment.

Information Processing Approach to Skill Acquisition:

The Novice:
Rigid adherance to rules
Assess content rationally

Advanced beginner:
Analytical and Rational

Competent:
Becomes more emotionally involved as well as detached. But still analytical and rational.

Proficient:
Sees situations holistically; intuitive behavior; perceives deviations from the norm.
Content is assessed holistically and decision making is intuitive.

Expert:
No longer relies on the rules; has an intuitive grasp of situations.
Content is assessed holistically, but decision making is intuitive (arational). Once you reach this point, you can't go back to a lower level.

Patricia Benner has used this model extensively.

Dreyfus model is a perspective. Experiental-based knowledge.
The Good Work Project looking at ethics and excellence in work. Values are transferred when someone is working next to their mentor. (Making the case against online teaching)

Hall-Ellis:
From Research to Practice

With retirement looming, Hall-Ellis wanted to look at who will be the next group of librarians. Interest primarily in cataloging staff, but applicability is global.
Has been collecting position descriptions for 10 years and looking at correlation of knowledge and technical skills.

Neuendorf's content analysis
Glaser's emergent theory design
Dreyfuss model of skill acquisition
Benner's clinical nursing model
Jim Davis adult teaching and training model (forthcoming book from Greenwood)

Position descriptions (now over 6,500) is a good way to see what skills need to be taught in library schools.

LIS programs focus on learning outcomes and a competency based education.
Work is far more complex than the theories taught in school; we try to teach students how to think critically. Theory AND experience are needed.

Dreyfus model has 5 levels. There might be a sixth - the Master.

LIS programs move students from Novice to Advanced Beginner. Can we go further with all the other requirements that exist in the programs?

Employers are responsible fro maintaining learning environment for all staff - moving from Advanced Beginner to Competent.

Dreyfus is applicable to libraries as learning organizations. (mentoring, coaching, professional development, career ladders, preparation for advancement, maximizing human capital)

Managers and supervirs should determine skill levels in staff and identify gaps and provide opportunities for growth. Can identify emerging stars
Training is not routine nor repetitive.

Perez:
Benner and Dreyfuss are both very prevalent in nursing programs.
So how do we groom our current managers and supervisors to be the next leaders?

Q&A:
Librarians aren't paying attention to succession planning.
Only 12 full-time cataloging professors in the US currently, for eg. No sense of who the replacements will be.
Expets are often not aware of their actions while working; it is intuitive.

ACRL Conference, day 2 - From Novice to Expert

ACRL Conference, day 2 - Campus Disconnect

A contributed paper session: Campus Disconnect
Cara Bradley, University of Regina

Michael Scott (The Office) on Wikipedia.

Study of
109 Executive Staff
212 Administrative
456 Clerical
140 ineligible (library staff, on leave, etc)

35% response rate

Survey focused on:
Information needs
Library Knowledge and Use
Demographics

97% of staff said they need information, but most (95%) aren't going to the library to get it.

Accuracy, Currency, Convenience are the things needed most by staff.
High number (14%) wrote in that they didn't think about the library for research needs.

Awareness and interest (of library services) does not translate into usage.

Develop a liaison role with staff departments - not just academic departments.

Campus staff need us for:

• better decision making
• time savings
• stress reduction

How should we develop a service model?
Need marketing for the library
Must assess services!

How should we name our spaces in the library? We have student/information commons and faculty commons, but no staff commons? How can we make staff feel more welcome to use the library?

ACRL Conference, day 2 - Campus Disconnect

ACRL Conference, day 2, Beyond Literacy

A contributed paper by Michael Ridley, University of Guelph.
Beyond Literacy: Are Reading and Writing Doomed?

The very essence of what we do as librarians is toast!
Yes! Reading and writing ARE doomed.

Speculative. Literacy will be replaced in the way it replaced the oral culture. We are prisoners of literacy because we grew up in this culture.

Post-literacy is not a decline from literacy; it will be desirable and advantageous.

Why post literacy:

• Literacy is difficult to acquire and use effectively; it is also elitist.
• Human problems are increasingly complex.
• Humans are natural tool builders; we'll look for that next tool to give additional capability
• Neurological frontiers are very promising; interesting ideas to be developed about communication
• Machine intelligence is inevitable and desirable.

some books:

• The singularity is near
• the world on paper
• ABC: the Alphabetization of hte Popular mind
• Orality and literacy

Orality vs Literacy
magical vs rational

Steve Mann - Cyborg: world is completely mediated through the computer

Characteristics of post literacy:

• persistence
• active
• precision
• expressive
• community
• identity

ADVANTAGEOUS

Candidates for post literacy:

• Bio-computing / neural prosthetics (how can we read our thoughts)
• Unused capacity of the brain (telepathy: techlepathy (telepathy through technology, no need to use written language; spoken language is completely different matter)
• Hive mind / collective unconscious (borg: but must give up individuality)
• Drugs / cosmetic neurology (we encode knowledge physiologically; can we replicate these with drugs and nano-technology? take a pill to learn French?)
• Genetic memory (instinct)
• Post humans (will we live long enough to see this? )

Neurally interfaced computer technology complementing natural telepathy supported by genetic memory.

Literacy is over. A profound new capability and capacity is coming with a very difficult transition (similar to transition from oral culture to literate culture).

Post literacy could be a product.
Danger: mind spam; neural hacking.
Can one jump form illiterate to post literate?

ACRL Conference, day 2, Beyond Literacy

ACRL Conferene, day 2: Library Trends

Day two of the conference is starting with a session that a lot of people appear to be interested in: Brother Can You Spare a Dime (about academic library trends).
The approach of the session is different than originally planned because of the current economic environment. The ACRL 2009 Strategic Thinking Guide will soon be available on the ACRL website.

Three drivers that will be addressed by the panelists:

• Economy and Higher Education
• Changing Student demographics (information use)
• Advances and changes in information technology

Panelists:
Charles Lowry (ARL)
Deb Gilchrist (Pierce College)
Annie Paprocky (UIUC)
Jose Marie Griffith (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Lowry (library association perspective):
Who can predict the future? See Jim Cramer rant (see Jon Stewart's piece)
ACRL scans based on three drivers (above); we must use more than one source.
ACRL Themes: Scholarly Communication; Public Policy; Libraries' role in teaching and learning.

Scholarly Communication (link to ARL site) trends:

• budget reductions will impact library collecting
• new model publications moving into the mainstream
• faculty are not just consumers, libraries will need to build greater relationships
• control is needed, but provides conflict
• library services are changing; research cultures changing and therefore has new demands on libraries
  
• cyber-infrastructure changing: publication and presentation in the digital environment and the need to use and re0use data.

Policy Trends (link to ARL website)

• economy and national security
• revision of policies established by Bush Administration
• technology policy: changes that will address health, energy, support accountability and reduce the cost of government.
  
• technology will enhance search and access - science and technology issues. change in public access policies.
  
• copyright and intellectual property
• cyber-infrastructure developments
• balancing all competing interests
• ensure environment that is conducive to academy to preserve intellectual and cultural content and allow new content to emerge
• focus on accountablity.
  

NIH-like policies will more than likely be extended to other areas. H.R. 801 is key.
FERPA; FISO; PATRIOT ACT, and other laws should be carefully watched.

Research, Teaching & Learning trends (link to ARL website):

Encourage all to speak with colleagues about the documents. Start the conversations on your campuses.

Gilchrist (Community College perspective):
Change Magazine (June/July 2003)
What should we look forward to? How do we balance that with where we are now?
Muddling through or transforming. We should transform.

Students are often more fragile and have different demographics, generally. Adult population need more than high school diploma to get ahead. Community College serves as a bridge between public library and academic library.
Hire to the mission, not the job description
What is our role in student success?
Partner with faculty
Work on research endeavors that helps understand student success.
Assessment is our friend; how are we meeting institutional goals?
One year of college and a certificate is the tipping point (making students move up to a sustainable living)
Market our work and services
Does more engagement with the librarian lead to better grades?
We should be educational leaders; learn about educational trends


Paprocky (reference and instruction perspective):
The Federal Government is leading the way...blockbuster ideas...sweeping changes...bold steps....
Is this also an opportunity for libraries to push for bold and blockbuster ideas? YES!
Necessity is the mother of invention
Open Access to Scholarly Content.


Griffith (library educator perspective):

Projection: 46% of the about 30,000 academic librarians will be replaced in the next ten years; another 3 percent new jobs will be created. This would take the total output of academic librarians from MLIS programs in the next three years.

Hiring of (all) graduates this year will be down 22% (need source)

Library jobs continued to increase during the last three recessions. Will this be the same?
Future of librarians in the workforce study will end in June. General and issue reports will be available this summer.

How should we restructure our work? How can we eliminate redundancies, for eg.?

LC future of bibiographic control (On the record). What is the future of the local catalog?

cyber-infrastructure has 4 layers:

• network
• computation (manipulation of content)
• content (content is a part of the infrastructure)
• tools and services

There will be funds to develop c-i. bandwidth is also key; need to have access to more and more localities. Still ahve some "last-mile" issues. How can libraries and academic institutions help?

Work collaboratively with IT organizations on cyber-efforts.

Unfortunately, no time for questions.

ACRL Conferene, day 2: Library Trends

ACRL National Conference, Day 1

A few notes from the ACRL National Conference
March 11 - 15, 2009. Seattle, WA.

This is ACRL's first "Green Conference"
Welcome from Betsy Wilson, Conference chair:
Each conference attendee received a shower timer. This is a 4-minute timer that will help save 90,000 gallons of water for the city of Seattle if we all take 4-minute showers during our three-day stay here. Conference bags and mugs are also "green."

Comments by ACRL Executive Director, Mary Ellen Davis:
Thanked everyone for coming to Seattle - especially in these times - a testament to the importance of the conference.
2,841 attendees from all states and 25 foreign countries; the most international conference ever.
1,150 are attending the conference for the first time.
110 scholarship recipients
332 virtual conference participants
3,069 (+100 virtual) for Baltimore conference.
Beth Lindsay was the first conference registrant; will receive a complimentary year of ACRL membership.

ACRL President, Erika Linke
Presidential theme: the purposeful advocate. Stephanie Vance (advocacy trainer) will be speaker at the ACRL President's program at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.
Presentation of the ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year award (sponsored by YBP Library Services): Gloriana St. Clair (Carnegie Mellon University).

Keynote Address, Rushworth Kidder (Institute for Global Ethics. books: Shared Values for a Troubled World, Moral Courage + others)
Five shared values for a civilized society: Honesty, Fairness, Responsibility, Respect, Compassion.

Ethics, Privacy, and other ALA Codes are important for us.
We are no longer in a financial recession; we are in an ethics recession.
We need to build a culture of integrity.
Ethics training does not provide the right tools.

ow do you resolve right vs right dilemmas? Can't make it a right vs wrong, need to be right vs higher right.

Four categories of dilemma:

• truth vs loyalty
• individual vs community
• short term vs long-term
• justice vs mercy

There is usually a moral case for either side being "right."

Some tools:
Understand the shared values.
Have moral courage: willing endurance of physical danger for a great sense of principle.
how do we build organizations that exude integrity? We must build a culture of ethics./integrity.
Ethics is not only about the individual.
Ethics: obedience to the unenforceable. Obedience to the enforceable is the law.
The law now tries to fill the ethics void (eg. fine for littering from your car in CA)

Technology leverages ethics. a single decision can wreak global havoc almost instantly. We have a positive obligation to be ethical futurists.

ACRL National Conference, Day 1