NASIG 2026

Mandy Hurt, Serials Description Librarian and Coordinator, Duke University Libraries, will address cataloging comics.
Heidy Berthoud, who is the Assistant Section Head of the Policy, Training, and Cooperative Programs Division of the Library of Congress, will discuss ethical issues around cataloging and proposing subject and genre headings for zines.

Do you ever try to use a file and find that it’s too big for Excel to handle? Do you need to edit many records at once or combine data from two different tables? OpenRefine — “a powerful free, open source tool for working with messy data” — can make these tasks simpler and faster. In a library setting, your data might come from catalog records, a KBART file, or usage reports. Your goal could be to check for inconsistencies in the catalog that should be corrected, compare e-resource collections, or evaluate usage of existing subscriptions. This interactive workshop will introduce you to the main features of the OpenRefine software, and together we will run through several projects using example files based on real-life projects. We’ll download the software together during the session, so please bring a laptop (Windows, Mac, or Linux) and come ready to participate.

Talk with vendors and poster presenters while you enjoy some Babcock ice cream, produced by UW-Madison's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences!

“Information and Intersectionality in the Digital Millennium” (Vaden, 2024) explored the importance of virtual and non-traditional information sharing mediums to create better information access outcomes for people experiencing multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. Non-mainstream media platforms and formats like Tumblr and zines, are a valuable potential contribution to the discourse on coloniality, decoloniality, and how resistant knowledges manifest according to the needs of the people who create them.

But wait, where do serials fit into the digital millennium? What does adaptability look like in this new era of unchecked technological advancement and increasingly convoluted information dispersal? How can we breathe new life and understanding into our own information cycles, when nothing right now is how it’s ever been? In this vision session, Mondo takes the audience to a deeper level, sparking new connections to transform the methodologies and stories of the past, in order to address the questions of the future. He aims for you to leave inspired and motivated to face whatever is next, and looks forward to seeing you in Madison, WI. 

Read the paper before the session! https://doi.org/10.1177/01678329241300576