NASIG 2026

This session explores a systematic gap analysis of library resources supporting 15 academic programs across six colleges. By reviewing over 150 databases and hundreds of core journals, we identified strengths and deficiencies to inform a strategic, data-driven collection development plan.

A discussion of the University of North Texas Libraries review of various workflows and processes related to Electronic Resources and changes implemented to make them more efficient.

Illinois State University’s Milner Library has twelve transformative agreements, and as of December 2025 has supported the publication of 200 open access articles, benefiting 426 authors including ISU faculty and students, as well as collaborators from outside institutions. This session will report on findings from surveys and interviews conducted with ISU authors who have made use of these agreements as the corresponding author. We will provide insight into authors’ awareness of library OA agreements, authors’ experience navigating various publishers’ OA platforms and processes, how OA agreements impact author venue selection, author order, and selection of corresponding authors, and whether authors perceive OA agreements to be an endorsement of a publisher. We will also explore how our agreements benefit researchers at other institutions, since 120 co-authors to date have been from outside the university and inter-institutional research groups may select venues and designate the corresponding author to make use of one institution’s agreements. Based on these findings, we will share implications for collection strategy, author communication, and agreement management, tying into the NASIG Core Competencies for Scholarly Communication Librarians. While this session will be most applicable to librarians working in scholarly communication and/or collection strategy, all librarians who interact with institutional authors or are interested in transformative agreements may find these insights useful.

Developing a new workflow for print and electronic serial cancellations and conversions using a cross-unit collaborative approach.

This presentation will examine the ins and outs of how English Wikipedia evaluates and uses sources, academic and otherwise, from the theoretical principles enshrined in its policies and guidelines, to the collaborative, often-messy process of applying these principles to concrete examples of sources and article content. In addition to presenting an introduction to these behind-the-scenes aspects of Wikipedia, implications for library services, scholarly publications, and emerging technologies will be discussed.

Changes and innovations in libraries are almost ubiquitous. What happens when you have a say in specific changes and innovations? In the presentation “You, Me, and Productivity,” Jackie Blanton-Watkins of Kennesaw State University will discuss leveling up into an Assistant Director position and rethinking productivity to make sure the team is doing work with impact, both across the library and across campus. Blanton-Watkins recognizes that she is an individual contributor, a project manager, and team leader, and figuring out how to manage all this work dropped her down a rabbithole about Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). PKM has helped cut through the noise, prioritize and manage the information you keep to release the cognitive load and be truly productive and accomplish awesome things.

In “Keep it 100 at the SEA: Navigating the Choppy Waters of Departmental Change,” Michelle Colquitt of Clemson University will outline the rebuilding efforts for both the Metadata Services and Acquisitions Departments after a period of extreme attrition due to retirements and other personnel departures. Colquitt will relate changes and rebuilding of both departments through a critical lens assessing change management in accordance with both the Core Competencies for Electronic Resources Librarians and Print Serials Management, specifically in the domains of Effective Communication and Supervision and Management. Topics discussed in this portion of the session will include: change management, succession planning, process and procedure documentation, peer support and mentoring, and team building exercises.

Student workers are an invaluable resource for libraries in all areas of service. They often provide support for circulation, public, and reference services, and given the opportunity, they can also provide essential support for technical services. The University of San Diego Copley Library has a rich history of employing undergraduate student workers as part of the library’s Federal Work/Study (FWS) Program. The Technical Services department, in particular, employs the second largest group of student workers at Copley Library. Technical Services student workers were originally hired to support the library’s print collection by processing and shelving print materials, assisting with authority control, repairing books, and other light tasks as needed. However, as print acquisitions declined, so did the number of required student tasks and student worker positions in Technical Services. Today, Copley Library’s Technical Services employs four student workers, and our department struggles with assigning regular and appropriate tasks for the students. Following several discussions about continuing to hire FWS students in Technical Services, our department decided to take a new approach to our student workers. Over the course of a year, we began to actively integrate our student workers into e-resources projects by creating and adapting assignments based on their skills and interests. Our student workers have helped lay the groundwork for a number of project areas in Technical Services, including accessibility, AI awareness, instruction outreach, and ILS migration clean-up. This presentation will discuss managing student workers in Technical Services and adapting student work for e-resource workflows and highlight several projects that benefited from student involvement, including:

an accessibility audit of library databases,
identification of AI features in library databases,
student feedback on catalog tutorials,
post-Alma ILS migration clean-up, and
new social media outreach efforts.

Libraries have long grappled with the complexities of legacy metadata, particularly in serials and government documents, where inconsistent practices, evolving cataloging standards, and repeated system migrations create persistent data quality problems. Tasks once viewed as too time-consuming or difficult to tackle at scale are becoming increasingly manageable with the rise of practical, library-focused applications of artificial intelligence. This session presents two case studies from the University of Toronto Libraries that demonstrate how AI can transform long-standing metadata challenges into transparent, replicable, and sustainable workflows. The first case study highlights an initiative that uses ChatGPT and Alma Cloud Apps to generate and standardize serials item-level metadata. Through AI-driven methods, the project automates the retrospective itemization of holdings, creating more accurate and consistent records. It also demonstrates how generative AI can support both the creation of item-level metadata and the regeneration of serial summary holdings. The second case study illustrates how AI-generated Python scripts can remediate government document metadata at scale by clustering similar bibliographic records and programmatically selecting higher-quality OCLC replacements to enhance discovery and overall record quality. Together, these projects show how generative AI, guided by librarian oversight and supported by robust APIs, can amplify human expertise and make long-standing legacy data challenges newly solvable.