Presenter: Michele Barker

Practicum Location: Steenbock Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

One of the projects I worked on at Steenbock Library was comparing e-usage statistics from databases found on selected research guides from Steenbock’s website. Only 4 years were available from vendors Ebsco, ProQuest, and Thomas Reuters Web of Science. The categories of statistics were not consistent throughout the 4 years recorded. The solution is collaboration between vendors and librarians to maintain e-usage standards to allow consistent evaluation of database usage.

Presenter: Ethan Raysby

Practicum Location: Steenbock Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

During my time in Steenbock Library with the University Records Officer I created guidance to help staff manage shared drives on campus. Through research to create this guidance, I have addressed the question, what is the best way to manage shared drives? In the end, I conclude that there is not one best way to manage a shared drive, but instead overarching goals/checkpoints that give guidance on how to proceed.

Presenter: Ling-Yi Wu

Practicum Location: School of Library & Information Studies Library (SLIS Library), University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

During my practicum at the School of Library & Information Studies Library (SLIS Library) at University of Wisconsin-Madison, I cataloged historical annual reports and newsletters from public libraries. This presentation deals with some common issues of cataloging serial publications and their solutions. Three issues are discussed: lack of descriptive information, variant titles, and public display of cataloging records. It is suggested that catalogers provide additional information and consider users’ needs when cataloging serials.

Presenter: David Katz

Practicum Location: Andersen Horticultural Library, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen, MN

Dozens of botanical and horticultural libraries can be found at universities, arboretums, and agro-science research labs across the country. Most hold extensive illustration-heavy print resource collections. Making would-be patrons aware of these invaluable resources is a goal and a struggle. Andersen Horticultural Library is utilizing volunteer help to digitize popular artifacts and to populate a new library social media presence with standout examples. Practicum experience and a literature review indicate that this is a strong two-pronged approach.

Presenter: Amy Conley

Practicum Location: Touro University California Library, Vallejo, CA

This summer I worked on a media weeding project at Touro University California Library in Vallejo, CA. For this poster, I focused my discussion on VHS tapes. My research question was how/if weeding media is any different than weeding print materials. I concluded that the same weeding criteria apply to media; but media, unlike print, has the additional complication of being unusable in the future depending on hardware and software.

Presenter: Erin F.H. Hughes

Practicum Location: Wisconsin Historical Society, Library-Archives Division, Madison, WI

Archival institutions are working to make collections more accessible to users through internet search engines. Metadata application is critical for resource discovery. While working on the Wisconsin Historical Society menu collection, I researched techniques used by archival institutions for metadata application that will improve collection searchability. Through my research I concluded that two components of archival cataloging are important for describing collections and leading patrons to them: entries for subject headings and descriptive notes.

Presenter: Megan Edgecombe

Practicum Location: Mount Horeb Area Historical Society, Mt Horeb, WI

During my practicum, I worked in the archive of the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society. MHAHS aims to preserve the local history of Southwestern Dane County’s Driftless Area. One of the projects I completed involved cataloging archival photographs. Most of the archive’s photographs have no dates and a limited description on the back. I researched how to date historic photographs in order to make them easier to search within PastPerfect. After collecting an extensive list of resources to aid the dating process, I created a cataloging document that walks volunteers through the process of describing photographs and offers tips on how to identify when photographs were taken.

Presenter: Courtney Becks

Practicum Location: Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, IL

My poster discusses Theaster Gates, his work, the Rebuild Foundation, and Stony Island Arts Bank. As Gates’s art work and a very new highly hybridized space, the question of engaging the audience in Greater Grand Crossing (where the arts bank is located). A strategy of embracing vulnerability is posited.

Presenter: Peng-Yuan (Emily) Huang

Practicum Location: The Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center, Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, IN

The Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center of Purdue University Libraries primarily focused on traditional cataloging before they started working on digitization projects a few years ago. Since digitization projects are new to them, the cooperation between metadata group and digitization group is still in progress. Many problems were discovered: how to standardize digitization and metadata entry process? How to unify metadata standards? How to bring different groups together and organize both digitization and metadata production work? Therefore, the purpose of the project was to standardize and document work processes, and provide a platform to organize metadata and digitization work.

Presenter: Katie Dennis

Practicum Location: Wisconsin Historical Museum, Madison, WI

This summer at the Wisconsin Historical Museum in Madison, Wisconsin, two interns and myself were asked to create an exhibit on Native Americans in the Fur Trade. How could we create an exhibit that meets current standards for representing Native American cultures with a collection that reflects problematic past practices? We found the solution to this dilemma in the consultation and use of primary sources from Native American tribes and museum professionals themselves.

Presenter: Molly Stella Goltry

Practicum Location: Madison Public Library Central branch, Madison, WI

During the time I spent for my practicum at the Madison Public Library Central branch, I focused on a passive adult Readers Advisory project. It led me to wonder why not all public libraries offered robust RA services. By examining RA’s history, I sought to understand the role of the modern librarian in an adult services and RA capacity. I propose that successful Readers Advisory depends on the librarian’s willingness to follow current trends and take pains to never denigrate a patron’s personal reading preference.

Presenter: Kayla Linke

Practicum Location: Madison Public Library, Madison, WI

With technology granting easier access to authors for publishing their books and more becoming printed, libraries including the Madison Public Library have had to adapt to more nontraditionally published books coming across their paths. This describes the problems they pose and the actions catalogers take.

Presenter: Elizabeth Glaser

Practicum Location: South Central Library System, Madison, WI

Libraries have a commitment to provide easy access to information for their users. Authority control is one tool libraries use to help users find what they need. Name authority control allows correct association of works with their authors when those authors share the same name and also allows libraries to collocate the works by an individual even if those works were created under different names. This project cross-checked select name authority records for accuracy and potential merging with previously existing files.

Presenter: Madeline Tyner

Practicum Location: Verona Public Library, Verona, WI

The LGBTQ community includes individuals with a great diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities, which makes it difficult to develop children’s and middle grade book collections that represent the full LGBTQ spectrum. To fill existing gaps, librarians should analyze their LGBTQ collections; examine award lists, blogs, and academic books for suggestions; and think broadly in order to find books that will meet the needs of LGBTQ children and middle grade students.

Presenter: Abby Wanserski

Practicum Location: Verona Public Library, Verona, WI

My paper and poster focuses on the Verona Local History Collection and reference work at Verona Public Library, where I did my practicum. I ask the question, “How can we make local history collections more accessible to the public, as well as to library staff?” and discuss challenges of keeping a local history collection, methods, and the advantages of doing so. Ultimately, the best way to start this process is by creating a good foundation upon which to build upon.

Presenter: Claire Parrish

Practicum Location: Stoughton Public Library, Stoughton, WI

This summer one of my main projects was weeding the Stoughton teen fiction collection. I was interested in learning more about the importance and process of weeding a collection, specifically a teen collection, and based my literature review on that. I concluded that weeding teen fiction is necessary for making the collection more appealing, but mainly is so important because of space limitations in most teen sections.

Presenter: Katrina Linde-Moriarty

Practicum Location: DeForest Area Public Library, DeForest, WI

DeForest Area Public Library wanted to dedicate half of their lobby entryway towards highly interactive passive programming targeted towards older children and adults. In this presentation, I walk through the steps I took to create a collection of unique user guides for the librarian to use for this area.

Presenter: Kara Eichers

Practicum Location: Racine Public Library, Racine, WI

The Racine Public Library, in Racine Wisconsin, proposed implementing a technology help desk. While never implemented, it prompted a discussion of the current reference services and an analysis of the technological needs of the community. My role changed from creating a resource guide for the technology help desk to writing technology tutorials for tasks specific to the library computers.

Presenter: Peter Bruins

Practicum Location: Albertson Memorial Library, Albany, WI

Working at the Albertson Memorial Library in Albany, WI this summer I learned how to effectively promote and evaluate a summer reading program. The experience contained many surprising lessons but the importance of self-evaluation to the help the library better serve its community was the most important lesson I learned. Through my research into other public libraries summer reading program promotion and evaluation practices I learned that Albertson Memorial like many public library stresses evaluation in order to find out how their summer reading program is doing and what impact it has on the community.

Presenter: Naomi Peuse

Practicum Location: Portage County Public Library, Stevens Point, WI

Storytimes are an integral part of Summer Reading Program activity at the Portage County Public Library in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This paper seeks to answer: What combined elements make for an effective storytime? Early literacy, or pre-reading skills, focuses on five main areas: 1) print motivation; 2) phonological awareness; 3) vocabulary; 4) narrative skills and; 5) print awareness. Careful program development makes storytime a powerful medium for supporting caregivers in early literacy development.

Presenter: Teresa Rieckmann

Practicum Location: Menasha Public Library, Menasha, WI

The Children’s Department at the Menasha Public Library was looking to incorporative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into their library. I decided to research how other public libraries have incorporated STEM. I discovered that the two main ways are through STEM programs and kits. Using that information, I came up with a plan for Menasha Public Library’s STEM kits on several topics, which included books, DVDs, equipment and activities.

Presenter: Brooke Roothaan

Practicum Location: Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL

My practicum site was at the main Evanston Public Library site in Evanston, Illinois in downtown Evanston. I staffed the concierge desk and got a feel for the questions that people coming to the library have. Also, I came up with a two year programming series on mental health. The question for me, was are what the gaps in service in terms of mental health for Evanstonians. Listening to people, I found was the key.

Presenter: Rebecca J. Farmer

Practicum Location: Taylor Community Library, Taylor, MI

The Taylor Community Library, located in Taylor, Michigan, serves a community of approximately 61,000 residents, and this count is rapidly increasing. In order to keep pace with the city’s growth, the library has received permission to add 9 staff members to its roster. This will necessitate a great deal of training for these employees, in addition to the cross-training of current employees. To that end, the Director and Assistant Director have decided that the time has come to develop a procedure manual as a tool to assist in this task.

Presenter: Brenda Shelton

Practicum Location: Tigard Public Library, Tigard, OR

At the Tigard Public Library in Oregon, book lists help teens shape their identities. In a field striving for diversity, how can librarians that carry privilege authentically curate booklists outside of their knowledge and identity base? In order to make the most authentic booklists, librarians must look to individuals from the groups they wish to serve when selecting the “best” for their lists, while also pushing for diversity in the profession itself.

Presenter: Allison Langhan

Practicum Location: UW-Madison Research Data Services, Madison, WI

This poster addresses the question of why research data management (RDM) matters and how one biological sciences laboratory group can improve their practices. The project was through UW-Madison’s Research Data Services and explored the group’s current practices in the context of policies and best practices in the field. The project resulted in a set of standard operating procedures for the group to implement and a training presentation to introduce the group to good RDM practices.

Presenter: Joseph S. Salsman

Practicum Location: Oakhill Correctional Institution, Oregon, WI

This presentation describes my work to answer the following question: Should the law library at Oakhill Correctional Institution switch from LexisNexis to Westlaw to better meet inmates’ legal information needs?  Oakhill is a minimum minimum security men’s prison in Oregon, Wisconsin with a primarily older, non-digital native population. The library currently provides access to legal information such as case law, statutes, and the Wisconsin Administrative Code through LexisNexis. I evaluated both databases through extensive trial searches and observation and concluded that the most important characteristics were amount of information and ease of searching. Westlaw contains a considerably smaller body of caselaw than LexisNexis despite its superior search interface. Thus, I recommend that OCI maintain its LexisNexis subscription unless Westlaw’s case law expands to include the circuit courts.

Presenter: Erin Rose

Practicum Location: Circus World. Baraboo, WI

Circus World’s Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center in Baraboo, Wisconsin holds an extensive collection of circus ephemera. Much of the collection is uncatalogued and unidentified through data loss through the years and minimal staff. This project revolved around inventorying, cataloguing, digitizing, and uploading the original artwork utilized in the process of producing lithographic circus posters to Circus World’s website, and describing them in a manner that benefits a variety of researchers.

Presenter: Molly Rach

Practicum Location: Dialog Studies, Minneapolis, MN

How does content strategy improve and help businesses effectively communicate their services on the web? By constructing a small business research spreadsheet identifying basic content components and performing discovery analysis research, I was able to understand how content strategists work with their clients to achieve effective content on the web.