Listen with LOUIS

David Gaither, along with other library faculty andstaff at LSUS, just conducted a 6-week white board assessment of the physical space in Noel Memorial library, and it was a huge success.

In this episode of Listen with LOUIS, David talks about why he chose to use whiteboards for assessment, the results of the assessment, and why he'll be using this method more in the future.

Amelia Brister is the newest member of the LOUIS Team,so in this episode of Listen with LOUIS, we asked Ameliaabout her new position as OER Project Coordinator. Amelia talks about the projects she is working on, what she's learned from LOUIS member libraries, and her passion for scuba diving, including a near-death experience!

It's National Library Week! So in this episode we talk to David Sesser, Lisa Perrilloux, and Ellen John about how Sims Memorial Library at Southeastern is celebrating. They talk about how they get the library faculty, staff, and student workers involved, how the community responds to the event, how they keep statistics for the event, and more!

During LUC 2024, KC Celestine, Therese Mobley, and Jessica Lee lead a sharing session about transforming libraries into learning hubs. In this episode I asked them to talk to me about what a learning hub is, what changes they've made at Fletcher Library, and how this has improved the space and experience for faculty, students, and the community. 

In this episode we speak with Elizabeth Kelly, who was recently promoted to Assistant Commissioner \ Assistant Director of Library Systems, Resources, & Analytics on the LOUIS Team. Elizabeth talks about what she's excited about in her new position, what she enjoys about working onthe LOUIS Team, and her love of turtles!

At the Nicholls Library, Andrew Barbier and Jessica Hawkes have started a new outreach endeavor: they livestream content on Twitch and Instagram. In this episode, hear about this new outreach effort -- how Andrew and Jessica approach streaming, what you need to stream, and other ideas about this cutting-edge library activity!

The social media landscape is in a constant state of rapid change in 2024, and it can be hard for libraries to keep up with trends and challenges. In this episode, three LOUIS members gather to talk about their approach to social media, current challenges and trends in social media, and more. Join us to learn from:

Daenel Vaughn-Tucker, Director of Library Services at CLTCC

Iriana Lonon, Outreach Librarian at Loyola New Orleans

Courtney Rimes-Stortz, Librarian and Professor at Delgado Community College

During LUC 2024, Rob Stephens went around the conference and interviewed attendees about their experience attending LUC. In this podcast you'll get a taste of LUC through the interviews of those who were there!

In March the Listen with LOUIS podcast focused on the topic of AI in libraries. Holly Goodwin, Dr. Megan Lowe, Phillip Martin, and Rob Stephens discussed AI in libraries, particularly about what the panelists were noticing at their libraries, what they found useful, and how libraries should be talking to their campus communities about AI.
AI continues to evolve, and libraries and institutions of higher learning respond to those evolutions. In this episode we provide updates to the AI in libraries discussion, but this time, live from the 2024 LOUIS Users Conference!

Emily Frank, Affordable Learning Administrator on the LOUIS Team, knows what it's like to collaborate. Her work in affordable learning has given Emily the opportunity to work with cohorts of teaching faculty and librarians from across Louisiana. In this episode hear Emily describe her work on the LOUIS team, what she has learned from LOUIS' affordable learning initiatives, and more!
Plus, Emily takes on a game of LOUIS Trivia about weird book headlines!

Dr. Dawn Kight, Dean of Libraries at Southern University, is always looking for new and innovative practices to meet the needs of Southern's campus and community, so when Dr. ValaRay Irvin, Executive Director and Licensed Psychologist in the Southern University Counseling Center, pitched the idea to create a Zen Space for campus faculty at the library, Dr. Kight was thrilled for the project. In this episode, listen to Dr. Kight and Dr. Irvin discuss how they came up with the idea for the Zen Space, what the space will look like, and how the Zen Space will serve faculty at Southern.

In this episode, we hear from Olivia Peltier, Instruction Librarian at University of Louisiana Lafayette, about how she has been using Pickaxe Project to create widgets for ULLs website, such as their Book Recommender tool. Olivia talks about how she got interested in this work, how to get started with widgets and artificial intelligence, and more!
Plus Olivia participates in our Pitch Your Passion segment to talk about sustainable living and owning chickens 🐣.

Each year since 2016 the LOUIS consortium recognizes the amazing talent and accomplishments of Louisiana’s academic libraries through the LUC Awards. These awards are given at the LOUIS Users Conference (LUC) in multiple areas, such as Library of the Year, Leader in Librarianship, Excellence in Library Support, and others.

In this episode we interview Lora Amsberryaugier, Brian Sherman, and Jessica Hawkes, who were each award winners in 2023, to find out what winning a LUC Award has meant to them, what kind of work they did to win the award, and what work they are doing in their library now.

Southern University's John B. Cade Library recently became a Patent and Trademark Resource Center, a designation given to them by the US Patent and Trademark Office. In this episode, Maya Banks, who serves as the Representative for Southern's PTRC, joins Listen with LOUIS to discuss how they became a PTRC, what benefit the PTRC will have for their students and community, and more!
And stay tuned to hear about Maya Banks' passion for editing!

On March 9th, Magale Library at Centenary College held the first ever Magale Fest, which was a celebration of "libraries and learning in a festive atmosphere featuring live music at the Shell, readings at the Library, food and beverages from great local food trucks, and carnival-style games and activities on the Quad," according to their website.
In this podcast we talk to Patrick Morgan, Library Director at Magale, about how this event came together, what their vision is for the festival, and more!
Plus, Patrick talks about his love of music in a Pitch Your Passion segment!

In this episode we interview Marcy Stevens, Library Services Platform Manager at LOUIS. This episode is part of our "Learn About the LOUIS Team" series, and in it we will talk with Marcy about what it's like to work on the LOUIS Team -- what she does in her daily job duties, what skills she's learned while working with LOUIS, and what she wishes more people knew about LOUIS.

Plus, Marcy plays LOUIS trivia about video game librarians, library-themed restaurants, and more!

It can be difficult to keep up with all of the news in the world of artificial intelligence. So in this episode, Holly Goodwin, Dr. Megan Lowe, Phillip Martin, and Rob Stephens try to give relevant updates about what they are paying attention to in AI, what tools they find useful, and how libraries should be talking to students, faculty, staff, and administration about AI.

If you are an employee at a LOUIS member library and want to join our basecamp, email Rob at rob.stephens@laregents.edu.

In this episode we are joined by Jeffrey Stepp, Cataloger/System Administrator/Electronic Resources Librarian at Prescott Memorial Library at Louisiana Tech University. Jeffrey will talk with us about how and others at Prescott Memorial started a fresh outreach initiative to market the library to their campus and create more student-centered programming.
Plus, Listen with LOUIS Trivia returns in this episode, with Jeffrey attempting to answer questions about New York museums and archives, gaming, and more!

In this episode we interview Victor Sanchez, Electronic Resources Manager at LOUIS. This episode is part of our "Learn About the LOUIS Team" series, and in it we will talk with Victor about what it's like to work on the LOUIS Team -- what he does in his daily job duties, what skills he's learned while working with LOUIS, and what he wishes more people knew about LOUIS.

Plus, Victor will talk about his passion for Travel and recent trips to Colombia and Japan in an edition of Pitch Your Passion!

Join us as we learn from Kat Williamson, Librarian at Centenary College, and our first ever student on the podcast, SGA Vice President of Institutional Affairs at Centenary, Cayman Hawkins. Kat and Cayman talk about how they conceived of and created a career closet at Centenary, a place where students can check out clothing they may need for an interview or other important occasion. Kat and Cayman also share their passion in our "Pitch Your Passion" episode, which for both of them happens to be sports!

LUC 2023 was a huge success and so much fun, so we wanted to share some sounds from the conference with you in this episode.

During the conference, Rob Stephens interviewed several conference attendees about their experience with the LOUIS Users Conference. We hope you enjoy!

Recently LOUIS has redesigned our website to improve navigation, accessibility, and design. In this episode, Elizabeth Joan Kelly joins us to talk about the process of redesigning louislibraries.org.

If you're interested in refreshing your library's website, give this a listen to hear the process LOUIS went through!

Plus, hear Elizabeth talk about her passion for music, and her endeavors as a composer and radio program host.+

This week we will listen to Mike Waugh describe his duties as Library Services Platform Administrator at LOUIS. Mike will talk about his daily job duties, his favorite things about his job, as well as his passion for homesteading! This episode will be the first in a series of episodes where we will be talking to each of the LOUIS Team members about what they do at LOUIS.

ChatGPT, the new large language model created by Open AI, has created new challenges and possibilities for the classroom due to its ability to quickly generate large amounts of text that approximate human writing. In this episode, Lauren McAdams and Karla Stewart, two librarians from Baton Rouge Community College, talk about strategies for approaching this technology in the classroom, what it means for assessment, and so much more!

Each year, Nicholls Library participates in Nicholls State University's annual day of giving, Give-N-Day, and they always do it with creativity and flair. In this episode, listen to Andrew Barbier and Brandy Burbante talk about how they came up with new ideas for fundraising to start a board game collection at Nicholls.
Then, listen as Andrew and Brandy attempt a game of LOUIS Trivia!

In addition to being a librarian at Dupre Library at University of Louisiana at Lafayette,  Peter Klubek is an artist and member of Nunu Arts and Culture Collective. Peter realized that much of the community programs at Nunu might have crossover appeal to the library, so he and Tiffany Ellis started using ideas from the collective to inform outreach initiatives at Dupre. The result has been "Creative Place Making," which encourages rethinking of the space of a library to better tailor it to the needs of its users.
Plus we get to hear about Peter's passion for his art, and Tiffany's love for baking in an edition of "Pitch Your Passion."

Learn more about events at Dupre Library here: https://library.louisiana.edu/services/user-engagement

Learn more about Nunu Arts and Culture collective here: https://nunuaccollective.homesteadcloud.com/.

Recently, Nicollette Davis, who serves as the Assistant Librarian for Kinesiology, Social Work, and Health Sciences at LSU Libraries, was named a 2023 American Library Association Emerging Leader. Nicollette joins us to discuss the work she is doing in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and gives advice and reading recommendations for those who want to start their own DEI work.

Plus, we get to learn a little about Nicollette outside of the library when she plays "Pitch Your Passion" and talks about how she refills her cup when she's not at work.

When she was hired at Northwestern State University as Head of Collection Development and Cataloging, Debbie Huntington was looking for a fresh way to grow Watson Library's collection and to do unique programming. The result has been Watson's Living Library, a program where Debbie recruits community members to talk about their life stories and experiences in a panel setting. Watson Library records those panels and considers them a valuable part of their collection.

In this episode of Listen with LOUIS, hear Debbie and Dr. Megan Lowe, Director of University Libraries at NSU, talk about the work it takes to create a living library both from the library and others on NSU's campus, the effect this program has on the community, and how Watson's Living Library fits with the mission statement of their institution.

Debbie and Megan have two forthcoming Watson's Living Library panels planned: late Spring 2023 they will host "What It Means to Be an NSU Athlete," and then during fall 2023 they are planning a session titled "Wounded Warriors."

Episode 2 of Listen with LOUIS features Rebecca Kelley talking about her work with the Louisiana Statewide Digital Inclusion Pilot, what digital equity and digital literacy are, and how librarians are at the forefront of helping create digital equity in their communities.

Plus, Rebecca plays a game of Listen with LOUIS Trivia about digital libraries that may or may not include Ryan Adams live concert footage, listservs on scythes and scything, and digital scans that are... upside down.

For more information about digital inclusion in Louisiana, Subscribe to the LOUIS Digital Inclusion Digest: https://louis.libwizard.com/f/digital_inclusion.

Join us as we listen to two librarians from Louisiana State University Alexandria: Martha Dauzat, Services & Outreach Manager, and Michelle Riggs Waller, University Archivist and Head of Central Louisiana Collections at the Bolton Library.

Martha and Michelle have lead new outreach initiatives in the library including a tiny art show, mini golf in the library, and a two-sentence horror story competition. We hear about how they have used these initiatives to better reach students, and what it took to start such initiatives at Bolton.

A short introduction to our podcast.