NASIG 2026

This presentation discusses and shares the results of a research project following the cancellation of the library’s largest journal subscription package. The topic of this presentation is collection analysis, assessment, and development, and also addresses NASIG’s Core Competencies for Electronic Resource Librarians in the area of Research & Assessment (3), specifically numbers 3.2, 3.5, and 3.7. This presentation will cover the collection and analysis of standardized e-resource usage data through different software options and tools such as Microsoft Excel. It will address how to use specific data measures to predict usage and expenditure trends after the cancellation or unbundling of a large subscription package. The presentation additionally covers the topic of user information seeking behavior in how our researchers interact library resources in general, based on these data findings and interviews from a separate but related research endeavor.

Slow Librarianship made its debut in 2017 in an In the Library with the Lead Pipe article written by Julia Glassman, but the concept had been around before that with the Slow Food movement that took off in the late 1980s. The idea of Slow, as it applies to our lifestyles, resists the fast-paced culture that modern-day living and technology demand of us and instead encourages us to focus on mindfulness, connection, and quality in a far more sustainable manner.
Combined with limited budget and staffing shortages, the fast-paced culture and exponential growth in technology, libraries and librarians are forced to do more with less. These realities leave us keeping up with large to-do lists, an increased number of meetings, fewer opportunities for authentic connections among colleagues (a challenge we are still facing since the pandemic), more opportunities for errors to arise, and burnout. These challenges are likely to continue along with the fast-paced culture and growth in technology, but it is not sustainable. Emphasizing a slow librarianship approach may be the ultimate tool that saves us all. The approach isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and it will evolve as life naturally does.
“Slow Down for What?” will begin with an overview of the fast-paced culture and the negative impacts it has on our work before providing a more comprehensive overview of slow librarianship and how it counters the fast-paced culture without compromising efficiency and deadlines. From there, “Slow Down for What?” will cover tangible opportunities on how librarians can incorporate slow librarianship into their daily lives to keep up with responsibilities, connect with colleagues, and serve our users in ways that will honor ourselves and allow us to continue our work at a sustainable level. Examples of the tangibles will include, but are not limited to, task management tools, strategies to reign in expectations and set boundaries, and ideas on how to build stronger working relationships. From there, a reflective activity will take place where attendees will take a few minutes to independently respond to prompts such as “What’s one aspect of my role that already incorporates a slow librarianship approach?” and “What’s one area of my role that could benefit from a slow librarianship approach?” While attendees reflect, they will also be invited to share their own tips and tricks on incorporating slow librarianship into their lives, as well as general questions they may have related to the presentation.
Any attendees who are even the slightest bit curious about slow librarianship are invited to attend this session, where they will learn about the origin of slow librarianship, the negative impacts of a fast-paced culture, and how they can incorporate slow librarianship approaches into their lives to resist the fast-paced culture. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice slow librarianship through an independent reflection exercise to demonstrate how easily a slow librarianship approach can be incorporated into our daily lives.

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.

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.

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.

This presentation will cover the fast-paced requirement to reduce the collections budget by approximately five percent within three months. This session will cover information about a Renewal Decision Matrix created in collaboration with the Associate Dean for Collections & Discovery and Acquisitions Department staff. This will also cover efforts to conduct quick assessments during the hectic Fall 2025 semester. This session will also include information about collaborating with subject matter experts (i.e., liaison librarians) to determine the best titles to cancel quickly. While this session will primarily focus on cancellations of both print and electronic standalone serials, assessment measures for database subscriptions will also be discussed. This session will also include information about future trends in academic libraries. This session will conclude with a respectful discussion of the academic library landscape, including an exploration of potential areas for research collaboration.

his presentation introduces an experimental project that explores the use of artificial intelligence to support the creation of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) for library materials. As the library cataloging work faces the challenge of limited staff and original cataloging remains a time-consuming and advanced cataloging skills required process, libraries are increasingly interested in understanding whether AI tools can meaningfully assist subject analysis while maintaining the professional standards required for high-quality metadata. Our project investigates this matter by designing and testing an AI model trained on real cataloging records from UW–Madison Libraries and Miami University Libraries, focusing on East Asian language materials. This presentation reports methodology, workflow design, pilot results, challenges in data permissions, and possible implications for scalable AI-suggested cataloging.

This presentation will explore how transitioning to OpenAthens transformed our access model. We’ll demonstrate how the switch improved the user experience by enabling seamless, point-of-need authentication, strengthened privacy and security ,and ultimately reduced staff time spent on access-related support by nearly 75%.