Though the annual Forum is considered DLF’s signature event, throughout the year a committed community gravitates to us from within and beyond DLF’s institutional membership working across boundaries of many kinds and making the Digital Library Federation a force for good. Our working groups provide opportunities for digital library practitioners to collaborate and get stuff done by using DLF as a framework for action. As robust communities of practice, DLF groups embody our mission by strengthening connections among digital library practitioners engaged in work around policy advocacy, professional standards, ethics, issues of representation and diversity, labor, equity and inclusion, and other matters of concern to digital library practitioners and the people and publics we serve.
Participation in DLF’s working groups is open to all who are interested, regardless of affiliation with a DLF member institution. During the afternoons on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning during the Forum week, attendees are cordially invited to join our working group meetups to find out what makes the #DLFvillage such an engaging, passionate, and supportive community.
Working Group Session A
November 1, 3:30pm ET
Assessment Interest Group
Led by Jennifer Bradshaw, Kate Flynn, Joy Perrin, Suzanne Preate, Hannah Scates Kettler, Hannah Tarver, Santi Thompson, Rachel White, and Shannon Willis
Join participants in the DLF Assessment Interest Group (AIG) for AIG 101. This session will give anyone new to the AIG an overview of the five AIG working groups: Cost Assessment, Cultural Assessment, Metadata Assessment, Content Reuse, and User Experience. Participants will learn about some of the exciting projects happening in each group, including: The Cost Assessment working group’s ongoing analysis of their Still Image Digitization Cost survey as well as their newly created project subgroups, which are focused on exploring issues of insourcing vs. outsourcing, determining scans per linear feet, creating a registry for vendors, documenting best practices, and improvements and alternatives to the cost calculator. The Cultural Assessment working group’s focus on conducting literature reviews and developing questions that communities can use when selecting materials for curation and digitization and when creating and reviewing metadata. The Metadata Assessment working group’s refresh of their website and documentation, environmental scan and MAP clearinghouse; categorization and description of metadata tools for metadata professionals, and further analysis of metadata quality benchmarks survey data released in 2020. The Reuse working group’s development of the IMLS-funded Digital Content Reuse Assessment Framework Toolkit The User Experience working group’s UX work in libraries during the pandemic, report on the maturity models document created, and their survey addressing how the pandemic affected UX work in libraries. Participants will also have the opportunity to be part of the conversation to generate ideas for resource development and future collaborations across all active groups. All are welcome to participate and get involved in the work for the year ahead.
Born-Digital Access Working Group
Led by Danielle Butler and Abbie Norris
The Born-Digital Access Working Group (BDAWG) produces research on and advances the practice of providing access to born-digital collections. Throughout the year, BDAWG members participate in subcommittees that focus on particular aspects of born-digital access. In this session, join members of these subcommittees for lightning talks on how they collaborate, research, and produce findings on topics ranging from finding aids with descriptions of born-digital materials to remote transfers and site visits. The working group’s co-chairs, Danielle Butler and Abbie Norris, will also give a short introduction on the Born-Digital Access Working Group and how you can get involved.
DLF Committee for Equity and Inclusion
Led by by Neel Agrawal, Jasmine Clark, Debbie Krahmer, and Lisa Schiff
The DLF Committee for Equity and Inclusion (CEI) aims to build and support more inclusive, diverse, and equitable practices for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) organizations. The CEI meets year-round, with its work divided between providing support for DLF Events and serving as a community of practice. We aim to create a space where community members can share expertise, develop frameworks for inclusive practices, and produce knowledge and documentation to be made openly available. The CEI is composed of both standing sub-groups and short-term project groups. Standing sub-groups focus on broader diversity issues within GLAM. Project groups respond to the immediate needs of the forum or to meet more exigent, terminal requests from the community (webinars, toolkits, or other resources). The current sub-groups consist of: the Advocacy, Recruitment, & Leadership Programming Subgroup; the GLAM DEI Subgroup, and the Inclusivity at the Forum Subgroup. There is also a dedicated project group dedicated to producing documentation and updating our wiki. During this session, attendees will be provided with an overview of the work done by the CEI and its sub-groups and project groups, its mission, and its plans for the next year. There will be time reserved for Q&A, feedback from the community, and general dialog around diversity concerns within GLAM.
Digital Library Pedagogy Group
Led by Alex Wermer-Colan and Heidi Winkler
The DLF Digital Library Pedagogy Working Group, affectionately known as #DLFteach, is a grassroots community of practice formed following the 2015 DLF Forum. We empower digital library practitioners to see themselves as teachers and equip teaching librarians to engage learners in how digital library technologies shape our knowledge infrastructure. Our group is open to anyone interested in learning about or collaborating on digital library pedagogy. In 2019, we published the #DLFteach Toolkit, an openly available, peer-reviewed collection of lesson plans and concrete instructional strategies focused on digital library instruction. During the 2021 DLF Forum, we are excited to introduce you to #DLFteach Toolkit Volume 2: Lesson Plans on Immersive Pedagogy, which focuses on lesson plans to facilitate disciplinary and interdisciplinary work engaged with 3D technology. Please plan to visit our other session, Immersive Pedagogy: Distant Learning in Virtual Reality with Mozilla Hubs, to learn more about the exciting work our authors have done [link to session]. During our live group session at this year’s Forum, we invite conference attendees to join us for a casual, “office hours” style chat about what #DLFteach has been up to, our plans for 2022, and ways for you to get involved. We would love to hear from you about what digital pedagogy tools you’ve been experimenting with and what you would want to learn more about. If you are unable to join our working group session but want to share what you’ve been working on, please fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/QvhPck5NMhXBAvdQ9. We also host regular twitter chats on topics around digital library pedagogy under the hashtag #DLFteach.
Working Group Session B
November 2, 3:30pm ET
Working Group on Labor in Digital Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Led by Stephanie Bennett, Leanne Finnigan, Ellen LeClere, Sandy Rodriguez, and Ruth Tillman
The Working Group on Labor in Digital Libraries, Archives, and Museums aims to collectively address unethical labor conditions in libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs) by building tools, conducting research, and cultivating connections. During this working session, Labor’s facilitators will present updates from the group’s spring and summer meetings, working subgroups will report out on their work and where they need input and assistance, and attendees will share information and needs to help move us all forward together. Anyone interested in labor is welcome to attend, ask questions, and share perspectives and experiences. We are seeking to create a participatory and action-oriented session, so please bring your ideas, experiences, and concerns.
Metadata Support Group
Led by Julie Hardesty, Anna Neatrour, and Liz Woolcott
The Metadata Support Group is excited to be part of the 2021 DLF Forum. We would like to share an open invitation for anyone who works with metadata to join our community. The Metadata Support Group was founded in 2016 on Slack in order to provide colleagues from the GLAM (Galleries, Archives, Libraries, Museum) Community with a space to ask questions, get answers, and develop a network of colleagues from institutions across the country. The Metadata Support Group has over 650 members and 18 channels dedicated to topics such as general questions, migrations, conferences, ArchivesSpace, tools, workflows, and much more. Anyone is welcome to join our community, just agree to our code of conduct when you fill out this form. If you have any questions about the group, you can stop by our virtual open house during the DLF Forum or feel free to reach out to the co-founders and facilitators: Julie Hardesty, jlhardes@iu.edu / Liz Woolcott, liz.woolcott@usu.edu / Anna Neatrour, anna.neatrour@utah.edu
Project Managers Group
Led by Todd Digby, Allyssa Guzman, Jenifer Ishee, Anu Paul, Robin Pike, Shilpa Rele, Krystal Thomas, Becky Thoms, and Cynthia York
The DLF Project Managers Group will use the working session to facilitate networking and skill sharing with project managers of digital library technologies and services. We welcome all types of project managers, project leads or project participants–regardless of job title, amount of experience, or preferred methodology. The Steering Committee will open the session with a short recap on the work that the Project Managers Group has done over the past year, including information about the PMG Mentoring Program which started its second cohort in August 2021 and the webinars hosted over the last year, and highlight the resources available to support project management such as the Project Managers’ Toolkit. We’ll then split the Zoom Room into breakout rooms to discuss topics crowdsourced in advance through the DLF PM community listserv. Past topics have included remote project management, emotional labor in projects, and managing up. Members of the Steering Committee will be in each room to facilitate discussion. We will have the groups all report out before the end of the session and also ask each group to take notes in the community document, encouraging the groups to share links to any resources, tools, and/or templates discussed so the community can benefit from all the discussions at the session. The Steering Committee will end the session with an open invitation to join the steering committee and work on new initiatives in the coming year.
Working Group Session C
November 3, 11:00am ET
Data & Digital Scholarship Working Group
Led by Jason Clark and Sara Mannheimer
We invite you to an interactive session with CLIR’s DLF Data and Digital Scholarship working group that will introduce the work of our group and connect folks for conversations about their current work and interests. Participants in this session will be matched around individual interests and given space to connect and network through breakout sessions. The session will provide opportunities for knowledge exchange about research data management, digital scholarship, and research support and will lay the foundation for our community of practice this year. Background note: DLFdds is a community of practice focused on implementing research data and digital scholarship services. The group focuses on shared skill development, peer mentorship, networking, and collaboration. DLFdds aims to create a self-reliant, mutually supportive community: a network of institutions and individuals engaged in continuous learning about research data management, digital scholarship, and research support. For more information on the history of the group and past projects, please see our Working Group Wiki.
Digital Accessibility Working Group
Led by Jasmine Clark, Adele Fitzgerald, Gabe Galson, Debbie Krahmer, Meg McMahon, Wendy Robertson, and Alex Wermer-Colan
The Digital Accessibility Working Group (DAWG) exists to explore issues related to ensuring that the digital resources within information organizations meet the needs of disabled users and staff. It is composed of 3 subgroups: Policy and Workflows, IT and Development, and Advocacy and Continuing Education. During this session, members of the group will introduce the work the group has done such as providing accessibility audits for commonly used technologies like Zoom, Doodle Poll, and Slack; programming around assistive tech, accessibility concerns in GLAM, and other continuing education topics; and upcoming guidelines for implementing accessibility policies. Members will also discuss the mission of DAWG, other work that has been done, and the plans DAWG has for the next year. Afterward, there will be time for Q&A, feedback, and dialog around other accessibility concerns within galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.
Museums Cohort
Led by Gayle Schechter
DLF’s Museums Cohort aims to build bridges between people who study and/or work at libraries, archives, museums and arts-based & cultural heritage institutions. Since 2015, the Museums Cohort has worked to build a community of those working on digital preservation, collections, exhibition development, museum libraries management, rights management, teaching, user engagement and more. Join #DLFmuseums for their November meeting at the DLF Forum. Opening the meeting, DLF’s program associate, Gayle Schechter, will provide a brief overview of the Cohort and opportunities for community involvement as well as take feedback from the group on community interests to guide planning and programming for the year ahead. The Cohort then hosts a brief presentation from community member Sumitra Duncan, head of the Web Archiving Program, New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC)/web archive lead, Frick Art Reference Library. Duncan will be joined by their colleagues from the Internet Archive, Lori Donovan, Community Programs Manager, Web Archiving & Data Services and Madeline Carruthers, Program Officer, Community Programs, to discuss the joint Internet Archive/NYARC project, Consortial Action to Preserve Born-Digital, Web-Based Art History & Culture. The project recently received a two-year, $305,343 Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant from the Division of Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the formation of a cooperative group of 30+ art and museum libraries from across the United States to collaborate on the preservation of, and access to vital arts content from the web.
Working Group on Privacy & Ethics in Technology
Led by Eliza Bettinger, Michelle Gibeault, and Paige Walker
First, PET will briefly present and discuss our group’s new values statement, produced through collaboration with the PET community. Anyone who subscribes to these values and wants to advocate for them in their institutions is welcome to join the group. The second part of the session will introduce PET members who are already doing technical, educational, or policy work related to privacy in their institutions, and have offered to act as a “Privacy Peer” to others. PET’s aim is to act as a mutual aid network to library workers who advocate for privacy in our libraries. But sometimes it can be hard for individuals to know where to start! A Privacy Peer can help you strategize your next (or first!) privacy moves in your library, and identify further resources or people to support you. Come meet folks who have learned some things from experience and who are eager to share what they know and learn from your situation, too.