Southern Library Support Staff Conference 2026

Are your library supporters adequate advocates? We know that people love your library and use your library, but how do you get them to be vocal about their support? Join us as we teach you how to level up your library supporters into advocacy. You'll leave with ideas for increasing their visibility and ideas for increasing your brand recognition.

When students need a highlighter at 3 a.m. or a flash drive between classes, traditional service hours often fall short. This session shares the real-world implementation of an office supply vending machine at an academic library--an initiative led by frontline Public Services staff who know student needs firsthand. While the project took place in an academic setting, the approach and lessons are widely applicable to multiple library types. This presentation highlights how this initiative supports academic success, student affordability, equity, and accessibility. In our talk, we emphasize how staff at all levels can contribute to strategic initiatives.

Attendees will walk through the full project lifecycle: identifying the gap through usage patterns and student feedback, working within budget constraints, navigating procurement, and managing vendor and campus relationships. The session will detail how the team selected and customized the machine (from stocking items to integrating with campus payment systems), handled logistics, and launched the service.

Participants will also hear tips on campus collaboration, marketing strategies that actually work, and what was learned after launch. Whether an organization is looking for a new student service, is thinking about affordability and access, or just loves a good implementation roadmap, this session will leave attendees with concrete steps to adapt this idea to their own library.

Do you seem to receive the same questions over and over? Are you looking to reach patrons outside traditional library hours? A custom chatbot might be a great way to easily and accurately answer your users' questions any time of the day or week! This workshop will equip you with the knowledge to build a rule-based chatbot within Springshare's LibAnswers system from the ground up without prior knowledge of coding. Rule-based bots ensure answers are reliable and correct every single time, and LibAnswers integration allows for easy follow-up via tickets or live chat assistance so your patrons still get access to expert librarians. Participants should come with an idea of questions or topic areas they would like to apply a chatbot to, and a laptop with access to an existing Springshare account is recommended but not required.