Author Archives: sandyhirsh

Learn about Virtual Reality at the Library 2.0 Virtual Conference on March 29, 2022

I am very excited to announce the 2022 line up of free global virtual conferences offered through the Library 2.0 virtual conference series! The three conferences this year focus on Virtual Reality; Urban Librarianship; and Privacy.

The first conference of the year, Virtual Reality and Learning: Leading the Way, will take place next week on March 29th 2022 from 12pm-3pm US-Pacific time.

This mini-conference is part of the Library 2.0 Worldwide Virtual Conference series, which was started in 2011, to build community among information professionals, provide a forum for discussion about important topics, and learn from each other across the world.

Virtual reality is a growing technology trend for libraries, and it’s a technology that is used to support learning and interaction in a wide range of environments. Sara Jones and Tammy Westergard both have extensive experience with deploying virtual reality in libraries, which was valuable as they helped us organize this mini-conference.  We look forward to hearing from them about their VR experience, as well as engaging with many others to discuss this important topic.

The conference kicks off with a one hour opening keynote panel discussion. We’ll hear from the following people:

  • Sara Jones, State Librarian, Washington State Library
  • Tammy Westergard, Senior Workforce Development Leader, Project Coordinator – U.S. Department of Education
  • Greg Lucas, California State Librarian
  • Milton Chen, Independent Speaker, Author, Board Member
  • Catherine Devine, Director, Business Strategy – Libraries and Museums, Microsoft Worldwide Education
  • Karsten Heise, Director of Strategic Programs, Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED)
  • Dana Ryan, PhD, Special Assistant to the President, Truckee Meadows Community College

During the next 90 minutes, you will have the chance to attend three 30-minute sessions – choosing from 18 presentations. Sample presentation titles include:

  • The Virtual Library: Making Interactive Online Tours with 360° Images, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality Technologies
  • An Overview and Understanding of the Metaverse
  • Libraries as the Center of Virtual Reality Collaboration

The conference ends with a 30-minute closing keynote session.

Registration is free; sessions will be recorded and made available after the event.

Thank you to founding partner The School of Information at San José State University for making the Library 2.0 conference series available, and to our partner organizations The Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) and Califa Group for their support of this mini-conference.

Mark your calendars for upcoming Library 2.0 virtual mini-conferences in 2022; both will be held from 12-3pm Pacific time and will be free and held online.

  • July 14, 2022 – Urban Librarianship: Innovative Ideas, Active Leadership, and Best Practices.
  • October 13, 2022 – Privacy

I hope you will join us on March 29th, 2022 to learn about virtual reality!

Attend Bilingual Virtual Conference focused on Civic Engagement March 25-26, 2021

I am very excited to announce a free bilingual Spanish/English conference – Seguimos Creando Enlaces 2021: Civic Engagement in Action – which will be taking place online over two days from March 25th-March 26th 2021 from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm US-Pacific Time each day.

This mini-conference is part of the Library 2.0 Worldwide Virtual Conference series, which was started in 2011 and was founded based on many of the principles of civic engagement. Civic engagement is all about making a difference in the civic life of our communities and about promoting the quality of life in a community. Civic engagement activities range from voting to volunteering as well as other activities that benefit society. Libraries are an essential part of helping communities thrive and libraries have a key role to play in engaging with individuals and groups to help them participate actively in civic activities.

This mini-conference differs from the typical Library 2.0 Worldwide Virtual Conference in several ways.

  • It is the first completely bilingual Library 2.0 conference ever offered since the conference series was founded. All sessions will be offered in both Spanish and English.
  • The sessions are spread over two days instead of just one day; this is to accommodate the additional time it takes to translate content.
  • This conference was a true collaboration of multiple organizations all working closely together to ensure that great content would be included and available in both English and Spanish. Library 2.0 Worldwide Conference Series is partnering with the Seguimos Creando Enlaces (Creating Connections) bilingual conference to bring it online; the conference is presented by the San José State University School of Information, Library 2.0 Worldwide Virtual Conference Series, Southern California Library Cooperative in partnership with the SERRA Library Cooperative, and the California State Library.

Registration is free, and attendees will have the option to view live presentations in English and Spanish. Sessions will be recorded and made available after the event.

Seguimos Creando Enlaces 2021: Civic Engagement in Action

  • Who Should Attend: Librarians, library staff members and library school students from around the globe
  • When: March 25 and 26, 2021
  • Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time each day (UTC-7)
  • Where: Online via Zoom
  • Cost: FREE!
  • Presentations and Speakers: Conference Schedule
  • REGISTER NOW! (English form)
  • REGISTER NOW! (Spanish form)

I hope you will be able to join the conference to learn about different perspectives related to civic engagement, meet colleagues from the US, Mexico and across the globe, and engage in interactive discussions through the virtual conference.

“Soft Skills are Heart Skills”- Part 2: More Take Aways from the Library 2.0 Conference: Wholehearted Libraries

On March 10, 2020, I attended the virtual conference Library 2.020: Wholehearted Libraries: Soft Skills for 21st Century Information Professionals. I previously described my take aways from the opening keynote session of the conference. This blog post addresses some of my takeaways from other sessions I attended at the conference.

The recordings for the keynote and regular sessions are all posted on the main event page for Library 2.0: https://www.library20.com/wholehearted. Please note that you need to be a member of Library 2.0 (free) to view them. If you aren’t a member, just click “Join” on the top right of the homepage. You can then view all of the presentation recordings for free.

Here are my takeaways…

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Library Leaders Are Failing Librarianship: Soft Skills Needed for Human Library Leadership
Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University Libraries

I attended an excellent session by Steven Bell focused on “Library Leaders Are Failing Librarianship: Soft Skills Needed for Human Library Leadership.” He identified common library leadership concerns including that staff are disengaged, staff have low morale, and staff lack confidence and trust in their leaders. For more on Low Morale Among Academic Librarians, see the research conducted by Kaetrena Davis Kendrick. He also mentioned a related article he wrote: How about a little kindness for library leaders? Leading from the Library.

Bell recommended that library leaders focus on three areas of human leadership. Human leadership means:

  • creating a culture of change readiness,
  • adopting new power (open, participatory, peer-driven) vs. old power (exercise new power), and
  • establishing a self-aware empathic approach which means understanding workplace issues from the perspective of workers.

Bell identified 5 soft skills for human leaders:

  • Engage in focused listening, e.g., talk less and listen more.
  • Give meaningful feedback, e.g., give positive and negative feedback and engage in two-way feedback.
  • Help others grow, e.g., nurture others and support their growth.
  • Be flexible.
  • Practice balanced leadership.

For next steps in human leadership, Bell recommended the following:

  • Commit to being a human leader
  • Commit to being a learning leader
  • Commit to being a reflective leader
  • Start with a small change, e.g., focus on more listening and less talking.

For additional reading, see Daring Leadership: What Library Leaders Can Learn from Brene Brown and SmartBrief Leadership.

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Wholehearted Hypergrowth: Scaling Up in Silicon Valley
Elizabeth Borghi, Knowledge Program Manager, Knowledge Bee Knowledge Management Consulting

Before making the transition into knowledge manager roles in the Silicon Valley, Elizabeth Borghi started her career in public and academic libraries. Through her work in the Silicon Valley, Borghi learned the critical importance of soft skills and how, in fact, soft skills are key to team success.

She shared her experience of working at a rapidly growing startup company which had to scale its global employee hiring very quickly. She was asked to develop a 2-week-long training program for all new employees and to on board these new employees quickly.

Through this experience, Borghi identified the following as key elements of wholehearted workplaces:

  • Empathy – for our customers and for one another; this should be part of everything we do.
  • Curiosity and growth – through a supportive learning environment, which can provide job shadowing, mentorship, lending library, and exposure to new opportunities.
  • Radical trust – support employees when mistakes happen; encourage failing forward. Make sure that employees know that you are there to help them succeed, and that you show up to work giving 100% to the job. It is also important that we give one another feedback.

Summing up her talk, she quoted Rumi:

“Wherever you stand be the soul of that place.” Rumi

***

Closing Keynote
Michael Stephens, Associate Professor in the School of Information at San Jose State University
@mstephens7
Stacie Ledden, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Anythink Libraries @ilovemyanythink

Dr. Michael Stephens kicked off the closing keynote by asking Library 2.0 conference attendees to reflect on 3 AHAs that amazed you, 2 concepts you want to focus on, and 1 idea to apply immediately. A couple of AHAs participants shared were that we have to serve ourselves, libraries are central to meeting basic needs, a strong library = a strong community, and kindness is important. A couple of concepts participants wanted to focus on included self-care and developing more empathy. One idea that a participant wanted to apply immediately was being more kind to myself.

Dr. Michael Stephens then interviewed Stacie Ledden about Anythink Libraries and her views about wholehearted libraries.

  • Q: What does it mean to you to be a wholehearted library?
    A: It means putting people at the center and helping people fall in love with libraries. Anythink is a values-based organization focused on: Compassion, Eagerness, Passion, Everyone is creative, and Optimistic attitude.
  • Q: What skills do you look for in Anythinkers?
    A: As a competency-based organization, Anythink hires and reviews people based on their 13 core competencies, which includes I am customer focused; I am flexible and embrace change; I am a problem solver; I am emotionally mature; among other competencies. Anythink Libraries believe that they can teach their staff skills but they need to hire for the soft skills and attitudes (in other words, the innate sense of a person) that they are looking for.
  • Q: What can we do to increase empathy in staff?
    A: She recommended looking outside ourselves and our industry for inspiration and looking in the community.
  • Q: What do you do if you feel some of your staff may not have that level of empathy that is needed? Can we teach it?  What happens to people who aren’t where they should be?
    A: She suggested that solid mentorship can help.
  • Q: What story do you want to tell as Anythink Libraries?
    A: She likes to think of Anythink Libraries as “Town Square” – the library is the place where people come together and can have dialogues for civic engagement.

Dr. Michael Stephens then concluded the conference with a brief conference wrap up. He reviewed some of the themes that emerged from the conference, including the importance of the following: love and taking care of people, “hygge” or sense of community, kindness, compassionate service, and compassionate leadership.

“We are the heart of our communities, and that only works because of what the people who work in libraries give of themselves. The best make that emotional investment because they believe in the institution and the communities they serve.” Dr. Michael Stephens

In sum, the heart of library means that:

  • We listen to our users
  • We teach in every sense of the word
  • We build community
  • We let everyone in.

“Libraries encourage the heart, which means we should…lead from the heart, learn from the heart, and play from the heart.” Dr. Michael Stephens

***

If you enjoyed this Library 2.0 conference, you might also be interested in speaking at and/or attending other upcoming Library 2.020 virtual conferences (all 12-3pm Pacific Time):

  • Small, Rural and Independent Libraries Wednesday, June 17, 2020. This conference is being organized in partnership with Jim Lynch from TechSoup for Libraries, Kate Laughlin from the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, and the School of Information at San José State University.
  • Sustainability in Libraries Wednesday, October 14, 2020. This conference is being organized in partnership with Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, executive director, Mid-Hudson Library System (New York), and the School of Information at San José State University.

For answers to frequently asked questions about the Library 2.0 conference, go to: https://www.library20.com/page/miniconferencefaq.

“Soft Skills are Heart Skills”: Take Aways from the Opening Keynote at the Library 2.0 Conference: Wholehearted Libraries

On March 10, 2020, I attended the virtual conference Library 2.020: Wholehearted Libraries: Soft Skills for 21st Century Information Professionals. With its focus on the human side of 21st-Century information work, I found this conference a welcome and uplifting diversion from the non-stop COVID-19 global pandemic news. This blog post addresses some of my key takeaways from the opening keynote session from the conference.

More than 4500 people participated in this conference from around the world – Egypt, Lithuania, Ecuador, New Zealand, Poland, Malaysia, Chile, Puerto Rico, Norway, Italy, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, among other countries, as well as all over the United States from Alaska to Pennsylvania. 

The recordings for the keynote and regular sessions are all posted on the main event page for Library 2.0: https://www.library20.com/wholehearted. Please note that you need to be a member of Library 2.0 (free) to view them. If you aren’t a member, just click “Join” on the top right of the homepage. You can then view all of the presentation recordings for free.

The conference kicked off with a thought-provoking opening keynote panel featuring four distinguished speakers:

  • Michael Stephens, Associate Professor in the School of Information at San José State University @mstephens7
  • Loida Garcia-Febo, International Library Consultant @loidagarciafebo
  • Christian Lauersen, Director of Libraries and Citizens services, Roskilde Municipality, Denmark @clauersen
  • Rivkah Sass, Library Director, Sacramento Public Library @Rivkah

Dr. Michael Stephens, participating from Michigan, USA, started the panel off by addressing the ways that information professionals take care of the people who come into libraries, use the power of stories to help us learn about each other and how we view the world, create a space for all by focusing on people and not books, and make connections and open doors for learners.He also discussed some of the key soft skills that information professionals need for wholehearted libraries:, namely: Curiosity, Creativity, Confidence, Empathy, Character, Compassion, Mercy, and Understanding.

“We are the heart of our communities, and that only works because of what the people who work in libraries give of themselves. The best make that emotional investment because they believe in the institution and the communities they serve.” Dr. Michael Stephens

Christian Lauersen, participating from Copenhagen, Denmark, started his talk by stating that “Libraries are a people business.” He discussed Maslow Hierarchy of Needs and how humans are driven and motivated by “love and belonging.”He said it is important to ask the right question:

“To which challenges in your community are the library the answer?” Christian Lauersen

Some of the challenges communities today are facing include inequality, loneliness, polarization, and social inclusion. For more of his thoughts on the topic of inclusion and libraries, see his blog post “Do you want to dance? Inclusion and belonging in libraries and beyond.” Similar to other panelists, he emphasized that the key to libraries as forces of social good is the library staff. 

Loida Garcia-Febo, participating from New York, USA, talked about the importance of “Serving with Love” by embedding equity, inclusion and diversity (EDI). She also highlighted the need to create community spaces that build respect, to be intentional in our thinking and intentions for change, and to counter negative forces. When she served as the American Library Association (ALA) President, one of things she focused on was the need for diverse and equitable services in our libraries and the importance of advocating for all people, especially for vulnerable groups. She created a video series around EDI that explored the way that EDI factors into daily life, what challenges librarians face, and how libraries can promote EDI in their communities. She discussed how library programs and services should be related to and reflect human rights – through empathy, humanism, compassion, reflective action, among other skills.

“Libraries are community as well as knowledge hubs, and should promote and harness civic activism.” Loida Garcia-Febo

Rivkah Sass, participating from a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan where she was volunteering, shared some of the impressive work that the Sacramento Public Library has engaged in that resulted in this library winning the inaugural Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize. She said that in order to build community, you have to start with your staff. Her tips for being a wholehearted library were to:

be all “in”; listen to the community (for example, using something like The Harwood Institute Community Conversation Starter); listen to staff; try things, fail, try more things; identify what can you really impact; find something else if you aren’t happy; and be a glow worm. Rivkah Sass

I am not certain what “be a glow worm” means because unfortunately Rivkah lost internet connection at this time, but it comes from a Winston Churchill quote “We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” There was some speculation in the participant discussion about the meaning of this, with one person guessing that being a glow worm is to show your light to other customers and be awesome. I think that sounds pretty good!

One of the discussion questions at the end of the keynote session asked: What does outreach and user engagement with libraries look like to you in 2020? What soft skills are required for this new normal? This question generated a range of responses from both the keynote presenters and the participants about the soft skills that are critical for outreach and user engagement. These included compassion, knowledge of your community, emotional and social intelligence, empathy, kindness, curiosity, cultural awareness, listening with your heart not just your ears, and understanding diversity and meeting diversity needs.

In sum, I found this opening session to be an inspiring and engaging way to get the conference started.  By focusing on the human spirit, the session reminds us why working in the field of library and information science is so rewarding. The main message – “soft skills are heart skills” – also reminds us about the ways that information professionals around the world bring their heart into the work every day and, by doing so, continue to have a huge impact on the communities that they serve.

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If you enjoyed this Library 2.0 conference, you might also be interested in speaking at and/or attending other upcoming Library 2.020 virtual conferences (all 12-3pm Pacific Time):

  • Small, Rural and Independent Libraries Wednesday, June 17, 2020. This conference is being organized in partnership with Jim Lynch from TechSoup for Libraries, Kate Laughlin from the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, and the School of Information at San José State University.
  • Sustainability in Libraries Wednesday, October 14, 2020. This conference is being organized in partnership with Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, executive director, Mid-Hudson Library System (New York), and the School of Information at San José State University.

For answers to frequently asked questions about the Library 2.0 conference, go to: https://www.library20.com/page/miniconferencefaq.

Learn About Soft Skills for 21st Century Information Professionals at the next Library 2.020 Virtual Conference

The next Library 2.0 virtual conference – Library 2.020: Wholehearted Libraries: Soft Skills for 21st Century Information Professionals – will take place on Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 from 12:00 – 3:00 pm US-Pacific Standard Time (click for your own time zone). This conference will be held online and is also recorded. It is free to everyone to attend!

REGISTER HERE to attend live and/or to receive the recording links afterward. Please also join this Library 2.0 network to be kept updated on this and future events.

This mini-conference will explore the human side of 21st-Century information work. As Dr. Michael Stephens, Associate Professor at the School of Information at San José State University and co-organizer of this event explains, “soft skills are heart skills.” Specifically, the conference aims to:

  • Define what soft skills are,
  • Understand how and when to use various soft skills,
  • Identify types of training that can improve soft skills, and
  • Explore how to share emotionally engaging stories.

The conference will kick off with an opening keynote panel featuring a range of experts from around the world who will tackle important questions about soft skills. The keynote panelists are:

  • Michael Stephens, Associate Professor in the School of Information at San José State University @mstephens7
  • Loida Garcia-Febo, International Library Consultant @loidagarciafebo
  • Christian Lauersen, Director of Libraries and Citizens services, Roskilde Municipality, Denmark @clauersen
  • Rivkah Sass, Library Director, Sacramento Public Library @Rivkah

The closing keynote will be given by Stacie Ledden who is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Anythink Libraries. @ilovemyanythink

In addition to these keynote sessions, there are several concurrent, crowd-sourced sessions. Some of these sessions include:

For more information about the Library 2.020: Wholehearted Libraries: Soft Skills for 21st Century Information Professionals, go to: https://www.library20.com/wholehearted.

You may also be interested in speaking at and/or attending other upcoming Library 2.020 virtual conferences (all 12-3pm Pacific Time):

  • Innovation in Small, Rural and Independent Libraries Wednesday, June 17, 2020. This conference is being organized in partnership with Jim Lynch from TechSoup for Libraries, Kate Laughlin from the Association for Rural & Small Libraries, and the School of Information at San José State University.
  • Sustainability in Libraries Wednesday, October 14, 2020. This conference is being organized in partnership with Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, executive director, Mid-Hudson Library System (New York), and the School of Information at San José State University.

For answers to frequently asked questions about the Library 2.0 conference, go to: https://www.library20.com/page/miniconferencefaq.

Key Takeaways from Library 2.019: Shaping the Future of Libraries with Instructional Design

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, library professionals are increasingly engaging in instructional design. The Library 2.0 virtual conference – Library 2.019: Shaping the Future of Libraries with Instructional Design –explored this topic on March 13, 2019, attracting close to 6000 registrants from around the world. The virtual conference consisted of an opening keynote, 16 concurrent crowd-sourced presentations, and a closing keynote. It explored how librarians are engaging in instructional design practices and how advances in technology are changing how instruction in libraries is being delivered.

Opening Keynote Panel

The conference kicked off with an opening keynote panel featuring three instructional design experts Dana Bryant (Emory University), Michael Flieri (Purdue University), and Lindsay O’Neill (California State University, Fullerton). The session was moderated by Steven Bell (Temple University) and John Shank (Penn State University). In advance of the conference, conference attendees helped pick which questions the keynote panel would address.

The keynote panelists were asked to give a one sentence definition of instructional design, identify what their “go to” educational technology is, provide suggestions for librarians who want to build instructional design skills, discuss how best to keep instructional design skills up to date, discuss how to plan for “one shot instruction,” provide their thoughts about how instructional designers can shape the future of libraries, and provide their perspective on how librarians who are not formally trained in instructional design can implement instructional design principles in their work.

In response to the question about giving a one sentence definition of instructional design, the speaker responses ranged from defining instructional design as an approach for creating learning environments that is conducive to student learning and student success to instructional design as solving an instructional problem with the tools and resources you have on hand.

Collection of Resources Mentioned by the Speakers

When answering the question about what “go to” educational technology is, many great resources were suggested by the keynote panel – and, through the chat, suggested by the participants as well. Peggy George, one of the participants, created a Wakelet collection of the resources that were mentioned during the keynote: http://wke.lt/w/s/zwHDc

How to Develop Instructional Design Skills

Lindsay O’Neill, who has a Master’s degree in Instructional Design, felt that this was a very good way to develop in depth skills and knowledge around instructional design. The speakers recommended several ways to keep instructional design skills up to date, particularly by attending conferences and getting involved in different instructional design communities. Their suggestions included Educause/ELI, Online Learning Consortium (OLC), eLearning Guild, Professional & Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD), and International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL).

For More Conference Highlights

There were many other useful tips that the speakers mentioned. For more highlights from the Library 2.019: Shaping the Future of Libraries with Instructional Design conference, I recommend reading this blog post: https://ischool.sjsu.edu/istudent-blog/highlights-library-20-instructional-design-conference

Conference Recordings are Free

I also recommend listening to the video recordings to learn more from the opening keynote session, as well as the other contributed sessions and the closing keynote. All of the conference recordings are free to watch, but you do have to sign up (for free) to the Library 2.0 network in order to access them.

Upcoming Library 2.019 Conferences

I hope you will participate in these upcoming free Library 2.019 virtual conferences (all 12-3pm Pacific Time) — one of these will focus on Open Data on June 5th and another will focus on Emerging Technology on October 30th.

Instructional Design is the next topic of the Library 2.019 Virtual Conference on March 13, 2019

Beginning in 2011, the Library 2.0 conference series was created as a free online conference for information professionals around the world. Three virtual mini-conferences are now offered each year; each mini-conference focused on a different topic. All conference presentations are recorded and freely available in the archive. Each conference typically attracts more than 5,000 registrants, with people from many different countries participating. It is an easy way to keep up with your continuing professional development and to engage with and learn from other information professionals from around the world.

Next week, the next Library 2.0 virtual conference — Library 2.019: Shaping the Future of Libraries with Instructional Design — will take place. Instructional design is an activity that library professionals are increasingly called upon to do. This conference explores how librarians are engaging in instructional design practices and how advances in technology are changing how instruction in libraries is being delivered. All library professionals, employers, LIS students, and educators who are interested in instructional design are invited to participate in this three-hour web conference.

The conference is free and will be held online on March 13th from 12-3pm Pacific Time.  You can register at https://libraryinstructionaldesign.eventbrite.com/

The conference will kick off with an opening keynote panel featuring instructional design experts. The keynote panelists will tackle many important questions about instructional design. The keynote panelists are:

  • Dana Bryant – Lead Instructional Technologist for Academic Technology Services, Woodruff Library, at Emory University
  • Michael Flieri – Assistant Professor of Library Science, Purdue University
  • Lindsay O’Neill – Faculty, California State University, Fullerton’s Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology Program

In addition to this keynote panel, there are several concurrent, crowd-sourced sessions.  Some of these sessions include:

  • “Collaborating in the Cold: Connecting Learners Across a Canadian Province”
  • “Gamifying Instruction: Breakouts and Badges!”
  • “An Accidental Instructional Design Librarian”
  • “Designing, Delivering, and Evaluating and Interactive Online Learning Experience”

For more information about the Library 2.019: Shaping the Future of Libraries with Instructional Design conference, go to: https://www.library20.com/instructionaldesign

You may also be interested in speaking at and/or attending other upcoming Library 2.019 virtual conferences (all 12-3pm Pacific Time):

  • Library 2.019: Open Data – June 5th
  • Library 2.010: Emerging Technology – October 30th