SUNYLA MidWinter 2026 Online Conference
SUNYLA Midwinter Online Conference: Brave New World: New environments, New Challenges, and New Opportunities in Technical Services
Friday, February 6, 2026 (10:00 am – 3:30 pm EST)
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Conference Description:
Technical Services in libraries has always faced a changing landscape, from classification schemes to MARC formats and the once “new worlds” of computing and automation. This moment feels momentous, from the much-heralded yet still formless “transformation” AI will bring, to new challenges and tools in the realm of accessibility. What feels like a precipice could be the starting point for new successes and new adventures – are we equipped with the tools and expertise we will need?
If you are interested in new ways to deal with the ever-changing environments, challenges, and opportunities in technical services, this conference is for you!
Come join your library colleagues at the SUNYLA Midwinter Online Conference on Friday, February 6, 2026, 10:00am – 3:30pm (EST).
Technology requirements for attendance: Computer, internet connection, microphone/speakers (headset recommended) or telephone. Zoom Webinar will be used for this conference and is free for use by attendees.
SUNYLA’s Midwinter Virtual Conference Committee:
Kate Brent, SUNY Cobleskill
Jill Locascio, SUNY College of Optometry
Carrie Marten, SUNY Purchase
Jessica McGivney, SUNY Farmingdale
Fred Stoss, SUNY Buffalo
Schedule
10:00am – 10:05am
Morning Introductory Remarks
10:05am – 10:35am
Session 1: Project Planning for the NDE by Patrick Cassidy (Union College)
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With the Next Discovery Experience coming for Primo, we wanted to use this as an opportunity to do a full review and rework of both our upcoming front-facing interface, as well as break down what tools and features available in Primo would be most beneficial to our end users. Learning from previous integration projects, Union College is working to utilize faculty and student feedback and input to not just switch over to the NDE, but to create a better platform altogether.
10:35am – 11:05am
Session 2: Running a documentation review and migration project by Bridgett Bonar (Dartmouth College)
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When the libraries’ work becomes more complex and automated, documentation becomes increasingly vital for understanding, completing, and troubleshooting workflows and processes. From the setup documentation and FTP server passwords (for when Alma decides that it should just remove that info from a perfectly working import profile) to steps to infrequent processes, having documentation that is accessible and findable yet controllable is necessary to smooth functioning.
In 2025, Dartmouth’s Acquisition department migrated our workflow documentation from Google Drive to Confluence as part of a library-wide effort. I took this opportunity to review and reorganize our extensive catalog of documentation. This presentation will discuss the project planning and management, automating inventory steps, (manual) review of documents and creation of information architectures, as well as accessibility.
11:05am – 11:15am
10-minute Break
11:15am – 11:45am
Session 3: The Scanner Saga: Creating a Technology Workflow from Square One by Casey Spark (SUNY Brockport)
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In August of 2023 I became a Systems Librarian for SUNY Brockport. They had recently come into possession of a museum quality scanner…And no one knew how it worked. Come hear the epic story of interdepartmental cooperation as our heroes do battle against one temperamental piece of technology! Learn best practices for what to do when you don’t know what to do!
11:45am – 12:15pm
Session 4: All Access: University of South Carolina Libraries’ Path to Digital Accessibility by Amie Freeman and Christee Pascale (University of South Carolina Columbia)
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In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a final ruling under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act establishing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for digital accessibility. The ruling requires state and local government entities serving more than 50,000 people to make their web content and mobile applications fully accessible by April 2026.
For large research institutions, this mandate presents an enormous challenge: how do you ensure accessibility across hundreds of licensed databases, thousands of e-journals, multiple digital repositories, and countless web pages?
In this session, librarians from the University of South Carolina will share their roadmap for meeting the new ADA digital accessibility requirements. We’ll discuss practical steps at every stage, from updating license language and vendor negotiations to remediating PDFs and assessing library-created web content. Participants will leave with strategies to develop and implement their own accessibility compliance plans, no matter the size or complexity of their institution.
12:15pm – 1:15pm
Lunch Break
1:15pm – 1:20pm
Midday Introductory Remarks
1:20pm – 1:50pm
Session 5: Exploring AI Tools in Technical Services: Trial and Error, and More Errors by Yoko Ferguson (University of the District of Columbia)
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Due to ongoing budget cuts and hiring freezes, technical services departments have been facing challenges with staffing shortages and increasing workloads. With some hope and a healthy skepticism, a metadata librarian at a small urban university library explored the possibility of using AI tools for converting tangible data to digital for batch processing in ExLibris’s Alma, as well as assigning the Library of Congress Subject Headings for theses and dissertations in hard sciences and engineering topics. The presenter will share her conversations and interactions with major generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, as well as the findings, challenges, and workarounds. Although the results were not as impressive as she wished, there is potential in the practical application of AI tools in technical services, as its capacity and functionality continue to improve.
1:50pm – 2:20pm
Session 6: Testing AI Boundaries: Extracting Metadata from Historical Materials with Emerging Tools by Aaron Pahl (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
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As libraries explore the potential of AI to enhance technical services, real-world experimentation often results in both success and failure. This presentation highlights a project using AI tools to extract structured metadata, such as tables of contents, names, and dates from digitized historical materials. Eary tests using AI tools resulted in some success, but not to a level that encouraged widespread adoption. Testing expanded to include the new AI Metadata Assistant in Alma/Primo which demonstrated surprising effectiveness, offering cleaner data extraction and improved metadata structuring. This session will discuss the comparative performance of different AI approaches, challenges in processing older and OCR-imperfect materials, and lessons learned about integrating AI-assisted metadata workflows into library systems. Attendees will gain insight into how to critically evaluate AI tools for technical services and when to leverage native discovery platform capabilities to meet evolving metadata needs.
2:20pm – 2:30pm
10-minute Break
2:30pm – 3:00pm
Session 7: Data-Driven Space Planning: Using Python to Analyze Collection Growth Through LC Classification by Corinne Chatnik and Mukundan Thanigaivelan (Union College)
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As library collections evolve, understanding spatial growth patterns becomes critical for effective space management and collection development. We will demonstrate how our library leveraged Python programming to analyze Library of Congress subclassification data, comparing acquisitions against weeded materials to predict physical space needs and identify collection imbalances.
The workflow begins with data exports from Alma, our library management system, capturing both acquisitions and weeding records with their associated LC classifications. We then, using python and its libraries, normalize classification strings, aggregate additions and withdrawals by subclass, and calculate growth metrics. The resulting data provides our collection development librarian and stacks manager with clear, actionable intelligence.
This project exemplifies creative technological solutions to future library challenges by transforming existing bibliographic monograph data into a predictive tool. Rather than requiring expensive software or complex infrastructure, our approach uses accessible open-source tools to solve a universal library problem: making the most of limited physical space in an era of continued collection growth and evolution.
3:00pm – 3:30pm
Session 8: Building your digital weeding toolkit: technical services workflow strategies for deselection by Lily Susman, Allison Ransom, Lisa Finder, and Jennifer Newman (Hunter College Libraries)
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This presentation will demonstrate how technical services librarians at a mid-sized, public college library with limited resources leveraged the technology available to them to facilitate a collection-wide weeding project. Utilizing tools at hand such as ExLibris Alma, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Teams, they established a procedure for collecting data for withdrawn books as well as used note fields within item records to customize reports. As part of a larger committee, they also used Springshare’s LibApps, Zoom, and free versions of software such as Canva and Tableau Public to scaffold all aspects of the weeding procedure, create educational materials, and visualize data. These tools supported the weeding project’s scalability, enabling it to extend past its initial implementation and become standardized practice within the collection development workflow. The presentation will also cover experimentation with freely available generative AI platforms to create customized tools to streamline data entry in the withdrawal workflow. The audience will learn practical and creative applications for widely available technologies, explore transformations in digital infrastructure for short-term and long-term deselection, and gain effective strategies for gathering, organizing, storing, and sharing weeding data.