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.

Libraries are uniquely positioned as community-centered institutions, yet the emotional labor required of library staff is often underrecognized and underdeveloped. This session explores how cultivating emotional intelligence (EI) among library employees can strengthen internal workplace culture while deepening meaningful connections with patrons and community partners.Drawing on practical examples from library settings, the presentation highlights how emotionally intelligent practices—such as empathetic communication, emotional self-awareness, and trauma-informed service—support collaboration, reduce workplace conflict, and promote staff well-being. Participants will examine how these same skills extend outward, shaping more inclusive, welcoming patron interactions and strengthening the library’s role as a trusted community hub.Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for embedding emotional intelligence into staff training, leadership practices, and daily service interactions. By intentionally leveraging emotional intelligence, libraries can foster resilient teams, build authentic relationships, and create spaces where both employees and community members feel seen, supported, and connected.

In an age when the very foundation of library service undergoes swift and unrelenting change, a solemn obligation to bind patrons to knowledge through profound and inventive means stands even more imperative.  This session presents a practical, relationship-centered approach to strengthening library engagement while responding to rapid changes reshaping library services at a R1/Top 100 research institution to support faculty and students in their research endeavors. This is done through the forging of powerful and creative library instruction and leveraging multiple software platforms with the end goal of creating that genuine human connection.  


Rather than relying solely on traditional one-shot library instruction sessions, the presenters will focus on sustained engagement: showing up in student spaces, attending organization meetings, collaborating on events, and using those relationships to design more relevant and effective instruction experiences and memorable moments for the patron. Along with the direct human engagement, the presenters will focus on technology’s measured yet informative role to extending the library’s outreach beyond the classroom. The use of LibGuides to create impactful subject guides with curated information and library resources, leveraging software platforms like LibCal through Springshare to create a in real-time-research consultation booking platform, where students and faculty can book specific time slots with a librarian, and redesigning the library’s web presence so information is easily accessible in the chaotic world wide web.  


Together, these approaches highlight relationship-building, student-centered teaching, and purposeful use of technology—elements that, when combined, spark innovation and deepen human connection. The session will feature real-world examples and candid reflections on both successes and challenges. Attendees will leave with adaptable ideas they can bring back to their own libraries to foster student success through personal engagement and effective use of technology. 

Join me for a fun, relaxing session as I share with you some of the books I have read this year, loved, disliked, thought-provoking.  And then ask that everyone participate in sharing something they have read this year, with the hopes that everyone has a few adds to their TBR list. 

How can we expand access in our collections to patrons who need our materials but are unable to get that access? Whether that lack of access is through lack of adequate copies or simply lack of knowledge that the materials exist. By using WKU Libraries BIOL 131 A&P Bones Study Sessions program as an example, we will explain how to best assess your collection and see if there is need that is not being met and how to create a program to address that.

Library users and their expectations for services and collections are evolving, resulting in libraries being proactively responsive to providing services. In the 2020 Spring Semester, the University of Houston Music Library, along with the rest of the world, transitioned to a fully online remote environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This transition required creative solutions to maintain mission-critical library services in a digital environment. This pivot was transformative to the workplace and to the life of the patron and included: digitization on demand, curbside pickup, virtual reference and library drop boxes. 
In 2025, a music faculty member requested the assistance of a library staff to support the advanced research needs of visually impaired students in the music library, at the University of Houston. Collaboration with University of Houston’s Justin Dart, Jr. Student Accessibility Center. [1] and UH Libraries administration, led to the access and circulation of a Da Vinci Pro Device. [2] 
In this presentation, Eric Larsen and Michelle M. Joseph, support staff at the University of Houston Music Library, will share their personal narratives of crucial decision-making in times of high-change and high-stakes. Eric and Michelle will further engage participants, through a guided reflection, on their transformative practices using the formative assessment tool, Plickers.[3] 
 
 
 
[1] See https://www.uh.edu/accessibility/index.php
[2] Da Vinci Pro device “a high-performance desktop video magnifier for individuals with low vision.”
[3] Plickers “collect real-time formative data, that gives participants feedback which determining learning pathways.”

In the demanding environment of Access Services, we can often “lose the forest for the trees” by letting daily operational demands overshadow core principles that ensure departmental success. This session explores a strategic approach to leadership that fosters a productive and healthy work environment by mentoring and supporting library staff to model departmental expectations and core principles for student employees at an academic library. This methodology emphasizes the importance of adapting leadership styles to the unique needs of individual team members while maintaining a consistent standard of accountability at all levels. 


Using three real-world examples, this presentation will illustrate how a healthy work environment is maintained through intentional collaboration, self-reflection, and compassionate conflict resolution. The presentation will also examine how the performance, morale, and retention of student employees serves as a direct reflection of the culture and collaborative spirit established by library leadership and staff. 

The presentation will be divided into three parts: an introduction, a description of the three real-world examples from the speaker's library and how they serve a thriving work environment, and a guided self-reflection for attendees to apply some of the methods discussed to meet needs and challenges at their home institutions.