By Heather F. Ball, Beth Black, and Raymond Pun

2018 was an interesting year that saw big shifts in librarians’ responsibilities with interesting developments in open access, makerspaces, and virtual and augmented reality services. The rise of blockchain and artificial intelligence are also being heavily discussed across the field now—but what will 2019 bring? Three academic librarians offered up the following conversation to explore potential FYE and academic librarianship trends for 2019 and beyond.

Looking to up your library's social media game? One of the best ways to engage followers to is to provide a consistent stream of fun/useful content. Understanding that libraries don't always have the time to generate all of the content they'd like, we're here to help! 

The new year is here and that means ALA Midwinter is almost upon us. This year it’s in Seattle, WA, from January 25-28.

End-of year-roundups are popping up all over right now. Our advice is to skip the 100^th “best gifts” list that landed in your mailbox--instead enjoy NiemanLab’s latest set of predictions for the year ahead in journalism. The annual feature interviews numerous people in the world of journalism, technology, and publishing about what they think the new year will bring. This time round, news accuracy, ways of ensuring it, and predications about how the public will react to disinformation in 2019 are frequently raised topics.

This blog series provides easy, free access to open web resources and content that support affordable learning opportunities. A wide variety of resources published by government entities, think tanks, and more are curated to demonstrate what may be relatively unknown or ‘buried’ in the internet. Resources reflect issues happening today for the use of librarians, students, and all audiences.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit KTH Royal Institute of Technology, a university located in Stockholm, Sweden. In this trip, I created a gamified IL workshop based on escape rooms. About 20 academic librarians came from all over Sweden to participate in this activity and discuss ways to expand the concept into their own practices. Here I’ll explain some tips and tricks for you to consider when creating escape rooms in your own instruction.

Maybe you’ve considered journey mapping of patron experiences as a way to improve your library’s services. Or you might be conducting other user research as part of your work or for a library school assignment. Either way, patron privacy should be a first concern. Two new resources will be of assistance as you consider how to protect patron data and other sensitive information that you gather.

By Anna Yang and Raymond Pun

Today, health sciences education programs are growing rapidly across the United States. As a result, there are more opportunities to work as a health sciences librarian teaching and supporting information literacy in disciplines like nutrition, physical therapy, nursing, public health, and pharmacy. In this interview, librarian Anna Yang shares her experiences supporting information literacy in this expanding field.

This semester, have you collaborated with a teaching faculty or a student affairs colleague in designing an assignment, curriculum, or program for student learning and engagement that utilizes library resources or services including instruction? In this post, we’ll highlight this High-Impact Practice (HIP) and review 3 open access resources for you to explore when designing collaborative activities for the spring semester!

Sayings about standing on the shoulders of giants and not reinventing the wheel ring as true in librarianship as they do in other endeavors. You don’t have to go it alone, a happy thought when the library is packed with students cramming for finals and the holidays aren’t far off. Credo’s got your back: we are announcing one refreshed resource and a new item you can immediately put to use to improve and/or expand your IL efforts.