Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Session 5: Mini Sessions
1:50-2:20 PM
Session 5: Mini Sessions
1:50-2:20 PM
Conference Room 1
Mini Memory Café
Presenters: Aubrey Hines, Guilford Smith Memorial Library; Chris Johnson, Waterford Public Library; Laurie Bell, Pomfret Public Library; Mara Whitman, Bloomfield Public Library
Join the fun at the ‘Mini Memory Café’ workshop and experience activities and resources that foster a sense of community and connection for people living with dementia and their care partners. There may be singing and bubbles...
Sponsor: CLA Member
Objectives & Takeaways:
The objective is to provide participants with an immersive experience of how a Memory Café operates, its purpose, and the role it plays in supporting individuals living with dementia and their care partners.
By experiencing the resources and activities, participants will gain the confidence needed to initiate and facilitate their own inclusive, supportive and engaging Memory Café.
Conference Room 2
CLA JEDI Section Meeting
Presenter: Mary N.S. Richardson, Simsbury Public Library
Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion section of CLA promotes inclusive and diverse perspectives, practices, and policies within our library community. JEDIs organize efforts to embrace equity and diversity with meetings, support, educational workshops, collaborations, resource sharing, and sponsorship of programs. Please join us for a fun and casual general meeting to connect with colleagues and discuss future planning. New members welcome!
Sponsor: CLA Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Section
Objectives & Takeaways:
Leave with specific actions you can take to support JEDI initiatives
Conference Room 3
Library Services for an Emerging Hispanic-Serviving Institution
Presenter: Karla Jones, Southern Connecticut State University
This talk will focus on determining the best way for a library to support Hispanic/Latino students in an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution. While the Latino K-12 population is the fastest growing group in Connecticut, there is a substantial college degree completion gap. Supporting these students can create a more inclusive library culture and help increase their college completion rate.
Sponsor: CLA Member
Objectives & Takeaways:
Our university is changing from an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution to a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution. Twenty-five percent of our enrolled full-time students are Latinos. Instead of the typical library support for minoritized students of once-a-year display for Hispanic Heritage Month, some collection policy updates, and a few translated webpages, our library is trying to create an inclusive culture for Latinos. Our state’s higher education landscape is evolving, and the Latino population is the fastest growing group.
Hispanic-Serving Institutions typically enroll first generation college students, low-wealth students, Pell grant recipients, English as second language speakers, bilingual or multilingual speakers, BIPOC, immigrant, undocumented or non-traditional students. Our library currently provides some support for low-wealth students with a laptop lending program, a first-year orientation session on information literacy, and charge no fines. Buley library has even purchased this year’s required undergraduate textbooks and placed them on reserve.
These efforts are just a start, however, as these students still require more support to increase retention and decrease their ongoing degree completion gap. This Quick Talk/Mini Session would be a great way to discuss additional ways to support and provide outreach for these students. It would also be a wonderful networking opportunity to learn about other academic librarians’ recommendations for effective support.
Conference Room 5
Beyond the Game: Transforming Recreation into Workforce Skills
Presenters: Manuel Iglesias Fernandez (he/they), MLIS, Head of Children and Teen Services, East Hartford Public Library; Michael Elder, M.A. Ed., Hartford Public Library
This session dives into an innovative mentorship program that uses video games to engage teenage students in an after-school setting, where they receive vital academic and career guidance. With support from dedicated educators, librarians and specialists, students build real-world skills—from resume writing to digital literacy—in a dynamic, youth-centered environment focused on their success.
Sponsor: CLA Member
Objectives & Takeaways:
Attendees will discover a fresh approach to workforce development by using recreational draws like video games, art, and manga to engage youth in library after-school programs.
Instead of promoting traditional job skills classes, this model meets students where they are, allowing them to take ownership of their learning and skill-building in a low-pressure, supportive environment.
Key takeaways include strategies for building engagement through recreation, creating flexible, student-paced learning pathways, and offering guidance that adapts to each student's needs.
This session is ideal for educators and program designers seeking innovative ways to empower youth in a safe, inviting space during critical after-school hours.
Conference Room 7
Digitizing the Norwich Bulletin: A Case Study in Digital Preservation
Presenter: Cassie Epes, Otis Library
Otis Library partnered with Internet Archive to digitize 248 microfilm reels of the Norwich Bulletin (1773-1922). This collection is freely accessible to the public, expanding access to a valuable historical resource. In this presentation, we reflect on our digitization journey, highlighting key decisions, challenges, and outcomes. Join us for insights and best newspaper digitization practices.
Sponsor: CLA Member
Objectives & Takeaways:
Print media materials are rich sources of information with strong evidentiary value.
Researchers of all disciplines turn to historic newspapers and periodicals to piece together both personal and collective pasts, from topics of interest ranging from politicsand social justice to popular trends in fashion, music, and film.
In recent years, prominent agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Libraryof Congress, along with a widespread network of local libraries, archives, and historical societies have come together to preserve and provide equitable access to the unique histories contained within both national and local newspapers.
In alignment with recent trends in public and academic librarianship, Otis Library recently undertook a transformative digitization project to preserve and provide open access to 150 years of microfilmed issues of the Norwich Bulletin. For many years, this project seemed beyond our library's reach, but as we took our first tentative steps, we discovered it was more achievable than we had imagined. In this session, we will provide a detailed overview of our two-year journey - from researching potential hosting platforms and how to estimate images per reel to shipping the microfilm and marketing the completed digital collection.
By sharing our experiences, lessons learned, and practical tips, we aim to demystify the digitization process and empower other public libraries with newspaper holdings to embark on their own preservation projects.
