2024 GALILEO Annual Conference

Libraries are learning organizations. It’s been said that the best way to learn something is to teach it to others. Reflect on the motivations and values that shape your thoughts and feelings about the many different types of media you use every day: books, movies, video games, TV shows, music, social media, and more. Consider how analyzing and creating content has reflected and shaped your own identity as a family member, friend, learner, and library professional. Get inspired by practical examples of how school, public, and academic librarians from across the US have using digital and media literacy learning experiences to activate student creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking. Digital and media literacy helps to make learning (and teaching) a joyful experience as students build their identities as members of a knowledge community whose authentic voices support and serve the common good.

Lucy Harrison gives the GALILEO update, focusing on our strategic plan, new changes and how we're meeting lifelong learning needs.

In addition, the winner of the 2024 GALILEO Ambassador Award will be recognized. 

For years, library staff have wanted more flexibility to customize their institution's GALILEO portal page. As part of the GALILEO redesign, we are committed to continuously adding and improving features the library may control. Join Mike White, GALILEO Support Services, for an overview of how GALILEO Admin can be used to customize the bento box search, add featured resources to the "In the Spotlight" area of your portal page, add institution specific links and information about your library, and other recent enhancements.

Historical genealogical, cultural, and archival collections collected by public libraries present a unique opportunity to engage users in literacy activities. These activities include understanding historical bias, artefactual literacy, and media literacy. This presentation will discuss how these collections can be used for literacy programming, the public interest in historical collections, and the materials available in public libraries.

Join the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy to learn about dynamic resources and best practices for supporting digital literacy with adult learners. Participants will learn about Promoting Digital Literacy for Adult Learners: A Resource Guide and the training materials that support its use in adult literacy sites, community organizations, libraries, and within corporate volunteer programs. The session will provide recommendations for training others on how to use the guide, such as making the most of key features and facilitation tips and applying a whole learner framework. In addition, use cases will be discussed – including a collaboration with Cobb County Public Libraries.  (Cobb County Librarians Patricia Ball & Nichole Knox will give their experience of working with adult learners and receiving both ALA Digital Literacy Grants and training from the Barbara Bush Foundation to better reach Adult Learners.) Main speak will be Pam Cote from the Barbara Bush Foundation.

Join Sherrie Orzechowski, VP of Academic Sales at Nexis Solutions, a LexisNexis company, for an enlightening presentation titled "Enabling Literacy & Research Innovation Through Digital Content." Together, we will review the critical challenges facing literacy in our digital era and highlight the pivotal role libraries play as incubators of cross-disciplinary knowledge. Sherrie will present the limitations imposed by specialized databases on innovation and advocate for the adoption of expansive research tools and resources. This session will aim to demonstrate how broadening your library's access to a diverse range of content can reignite creativity and critical thinking, ensuring libraries remain at the heart of educational and research innovation. This will be an essential exploration for those looking to reshape their approach to literacy, learning, and the endless pursuit of new ideas.

Following up on last year's Hosting a Homeschool Happening session, we have continued to redesign our outreach efforts towards homeschooling parents, students, and instructors across to connect authentically with this traditionally difficult to reach community. In January 2024, librarians from the Digital Library of Georgia in connection with members of the Firefly Homeschool Community, delivered an in person workshop to a small middle and high school co-op research and writing class.

This session was an improvement on 2023's hybrid event by meeting the students where they are with resources targeting their specific class assignments and individual paper topics. Additionally, this set of students presented research displays in March of their papers to the larger community at a co-op regional STEM+R Fair. A second wave of meaningful connections was possible as a part of this larger resource fair. Again, meeting the community where they are (at a specific date and time of an event with a captive audience) reiterated the workshop from earlier this Spring. A resource tabling setup at this fair provided information to students presenting, their parents and other families attending the event to share about the state's free resources, distribute educational posters, bookmarks and handouts, and to make certain this group is aware of the variety of databases (including DLG, DPLA, GALILEO, and National History Day resources for K-12).

Takeaways will include lessons learned about how to build successful outreach and promotion mechanisms and to review and reassess our support of the homeschooling community. We will share the data of number of students, parents and families that benefitted from 2024 outreach efforts versus 2023's data and demonstrate the growth of support and our own understanding of how to better engineer events to reach this group. We will close again with an open discussion that invites the audience to share their own success stories about how they have developed engaging and rigorous educational programming for Georgia homeschoolers.

Description TBD

Libraries, whether virtual or bricks and mortar, are essential sources of knowledge, information, and more for their patrons. However, approximately 43 million U.S. adults are not able to take advantage of the resources that libraries provide because their literacy, numeracy, and digital skills do not permit them to do so. This interactive presentation will outline the skills that adults need for full participation in home life, workplace, and community, and will describe the complementary roles that libraries and adult education programs play in providing them. Throughout the session, participants will have opportunities to apply the information in their own contexts. The session will end with discussion of ways that library staff and adult education program staff can partner in advocacy for services designed for adults with foundational skill needs.

Julie Walker will give an update on Georgia Public Library Services. 

Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG) has been providing grants to University System of Georgia grantees in order to transform courses and save students money on textbook costs since 2014. During this time, grantees and ALG Champions have been doing research on bigger questions in open education about perceptions, usage, and learning outcomes. Jeff Gallant and Nakita Afaha will take attendees on a journey through ALG, open education, and research taking place right here in Georgia about using open educational resources (OER), along with ALG’s next big step in supporting researchacross the USG.

Description TBD

"Birds Aren't Real" is a college student's joke that became a college movement. It is an example of how students can enact real change. This session is on explaining the movement and offering ways in which students and adults can fight disinformation with a focus on historical absurdities.

Members of the GALILEO Ambassadors committee discuss the importance of lifelong learning and advocating for the use of GALILEO in their libraries and schools. In this panel, the librarians--from public, academic and school libraries -- will chat about wins and challenges when incorporating GALILEO and suggest ideas for getting buy-in. 

Today’s libraries are expected to provide new services to new communities at a far higher rate than a decade ago, oftentimes without the corresponding budget or headcount increases to support them. This requires organizations and their managers to get strategic on how to find the right skills at the right time. In 2018, software company Skilltype began helping libraries use data to identify their skill gaps in real-time, create personalized training plans for employees, and share expertise across a consortium. Join founder and CEO Tony Zanders along with John Barnett, Dean of the Library at University of South Carolina Upstate, to learn how libraries around the world are taking a data-driven approach to responding to the emerging needs of their patron community.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2023), 44% of workers’ core skills are expected to change in the next five years. It’s hard to imagine two disciplines that change more quickly than Technology and Business—the two core disciplines at the heart of O’Reilly. Find out how O’Reilly’s dynamic learning ecosystem supports users with multi-modal content for beginners, intermediates, and advanced learners alike. Whether learners are digging deep into a technology topic, just aiming to be conversant in it, or looking for a resource for personal and professional development, O’Reilly is there to support them. Join this session to learn how O’Reilly can help students, faculty, and staff as they continue to learn in the ever-changing and fast-paced worlds of business and technology. From Python fundamentals to mastering pivot tables in Excel, to preparing for certification tests, O’Reilly has the needs of a wide range of users well covered. Learn about O’Reilly’s Courses, Expert Playlists, and new Shortcuts, and stay informed about critical topics such as Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT and large language models.

Join GALILEO staff for a Q&A and feedback session on the platform