Thank you to all who were able to attend this year's IPAL Information Literacy Interest Group meeting! We so appreciated being able to connect with so many new faces, and touch base with friends we’ve known for years! We had 21 people attend the IL Interest Group session held May 24, 2023 in Dubuque, IA at Loras College.
We broke our time into a few segments:
- We started with a little orientation to the session and our activities and outlined our expectations for everyone to get the most from our time together. We also took a brief moment to breathe deeply together (shout out to so many of the free videos from Headspace that are available on YouTube – you’ll find the one we used embedded in our slides below). Those who participated in person also had access to some fidget toys, coloring books, and candy to help de-stress or focus throughout the session.
- Then we transitioned into Table Topics - We've brought together the notes from each group and posted them in the embedded Google Doc below. The topics were:
- Self-care and recharging
- Building community in trying times
- Tech tools to make your life easier
- Chat GPT & AI
- Instruction ideas
- As facilitators, it is always hard to stop when we’re hearing all of the fantastic conversations happening in the Table Topics time—But we did, switching gears to allow time for the Solution or Sympathy activity where participants wrote down instruction/library-related questions or concerns; shared the questions anonymously to see if the group has experienced something similar; and offered up possible solutions, or sympathized to let the person who submitted the question know that at least they're not alone.
- We wrapped up our time together by celebrating the big and little things in the Wins: Now and Later segment. We asked for your successes, to share something you're proud of--whether it was a major project or a singular moment. We enjoyed celebrating our colleagues’ accomplishments!
