AGENDA (subject to change)

Thurs. March 19, 2015

• 8:30 - breakfast
• 9:15 – NELLCO Membership Meeting – (report on NELLCO, PALMPrint, strategic planning, establish groundwork for rest of conference)
• 10:15 - break
• 10:45 - Sarah Ryan, Empirical Research Librarian – Yale Law Library - Enhancing the Institutional Information Cycle: Better Library Administration through Better Study Design, Data Gathering, Analysis, and Presentation.

Abstract: Law libraries are increasingly incorporating data and statistics into their acquisitions, budgeting, and strategic planning processes. Local library analytics and survey results from local, consortium, and national sources should tell a story about what a library is doing, where it is heading, and how it stacks up against other libraries. But is that what’s really happening? Oftentimes, national surveys fail to measure what matters, and local data gathering efforts yield only snapshot information. Most of us agree that there’s room for improvement. This session will provide a crash course in applied empirical research, and will demonstrate that donning a ‘researcher hat’ can help library administrators better determine what data to collect, how to use it, and how to collectively fill gaps in regional and national statistics via collaboration with NELLCO colleagues. Topics covered will include: research goal-setting, hypothesis development, research question writing, significance and impact statement development, survey research methods, research writing, and more.

• 12:00 - lunch
• 1:00 - Reference Interest Group meeting – Lee Sims (Rutgers) - Chair

Advance Reading: Weighing the Pig, by Mary Rumsey (AALL Spectrum, Nov. 2000)

What are the right metrics of reference? What should we be collecting individually? Collectively? We'll explore the use of various tools to collect reference statistics, including Gimlet and Qualtrics. Anyone using Desk Tracker? Come and tell us about it. We'll also look at possible uses of Heat Map as a tool to aid in gathering reference data.

• 3:00 - break Chair
• 3:30 - ILL Interest Group meeting – Assessing and Using OCLC Interlibrary Loan Statistics -  Jessica Panella (University of Connecticut) and Merle Slyhoff (University of Pennsylvania) - Co-Chairs 

Tony Melvyn, Product Manager, OCLC Delivery Services, will be discussing assessing OCLC ILL statistics and how to leverage them to benefit both resource sharing activities and other library operations. Members will have an opportunity to ask Tony questions about statistics as well as other OCLC ILL issues. An interest group meeting will follow the presentation.

• 4:30 - adjourn

Thurs. evening at the Parker House:

• 6:00-8:00 – reception (dinner on own/birds-of-a-feather)

Fri. March 20, 2015 

• 8:30 - breakfast
• 9:15 - Acquisitions and Collection Development Interest Group meeting - Crunching the Numbers: Using Acquisitions and Collection Development Stats to Your Advantage – Karen Green (New England Law|Boston) and Gilda Chiu (Brooklyn Law School) – Co-Chairs   

  • What attendees should expect:

    • Discussion of what statistics members collect and what type of stats (if any) they would find useful to know about other NELLCO member libraries.
    • Discussion of methods of statistical collection used in member libraries - Tim Devin (Electronic Resources, Serials and Collection Management Librarian, New England Law|Boston)
    • How and what kinds of acquisitions and collection development data to use during contract negotiations.
    • Interest group business discussions:       
      • Update on DDA programs
      • Increasing Interest Group Activity and Possible Future Projects
      • Vendor issues and concern
• 11:15 - break
• 11:45 – Statistics across the consortium - benchmarking
• 12:45 - lunch
• 1:45 - IT Interest Group meeting – Larry Flynn (Suffolk) - Chair
• 2:45 – Next steps
• 4:00 - Adjourn 

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Accommodations
Rooms have been reserved for conference attendees at the Omni Parker House, a beautiful and historic hotel within one block of the Social Law Library.  Reservations can be made by calling 1-800-THE-OMNI1-800-THE-OMNI, and referring to the NELLCO Conference Group Rate.

NELLCO Conference Group Rate - $189.00/night

While Boston is a wonderful conference venue, it will be more expensive than Albany! In an effort to keep travel costs down NELLCO will be working with our partners to subsidize the regular $209.00/night room rate. Conference attendees will enjoy spectacular accommodations at affordable 'big city' prices.

Reservations must be made at the hotel by Feb. 16, 2015 in order to be assured of the group room rate.

Register Now!