netsl Uncategorized

NETSL Executive Board Call for Nominations 2025/26

The NETSL Executive Board is committed to promoting and supporting technical services activities in New England. Board members plan and present the annual NETSL Spring conference. The Board also develops programs for the NELA Annual conference, presents the annual NETSL Award for excellence in technical services, and promotes technical services throughout New England and beyond through partnerships with other similar organizations.

We have one open position on NETSL’s 2025-2026 Executive Board:

–  Vice President/President Elect (3 year term)
After serving as VP for one year, the VP succeeds to the office of President, and remains a third year on the Board as Past President. The VP runs NETSL Board meetings in the absence of the president, coordinates the NETSL presentation track at the annual NELA conference, creates feedback surveys for the annual NETSL conference and the ballot for NETSL elections, and coordinates the award giving process, including managing nominee documentation and ordering awards.

You can read more about these and other Executive Board job descriptions at:
NETSL Board Positions

If you are interested in running for the position, please fill out this form and provide a brief personal statement outlining your background and interests, which will be included on the ballot.

Nominations must be submitted by Thursday, July 31. Election ballots will go out to the membership in mid-August. Once voting is complete, terms of office officially begin on October 1st, 2025.

netsl Uncategorized

Call for Annual Award Nominations!

New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Executive Board is seeking nominations for our annual NETSL Award for Excellence in Library Technical Services.

The NETSL Award recognizes and honors contributions to the field of library technical services in New England. We want to hear about those technical services librarians and library staff who have inspired others. Do you have a colleague who has tackled today’s challenges in technical services and triumphed? Do you know a person who leads the way in innovation, collaboration, or data integration? If you know someone who fits any or all of these descriptions, please consider submitting a nomination.

The next NETSL Award, which will be a prize of $300, will be presented at the fall webinar to be held online.  

Eligibility for nomination:

  • Nominees living in New England who have made contributions on a national level through publications, service, or innovations in practice.
  • Nominees living outside of New England whose service to the profession has positively impacted New England libraries.
  • Nominators and nominees are not required to be NETSL/NELA members.
  • Current members of the NETSL Executive Board are not eligible for consideration.

It’s easy to nominate someone, just fill out this brief submission form by Friday, August 1, 2025. 

Past recipients accomplishments include:

Advocacy

“illustrating that librarians in smaller academic and health sciences libraries have a valuable role to play in the advancement of technical services best practices.”

“being an advocate for “back of the house” operation while keeping public service in the forefront of her mind”

Innovation 

“ability to lead, innovate, and boldly face new challenges in technical services”

“dedicating her professional life to the cause of effective automation in the immediate service of technical services”

Leadership 

“infectious enthusiasm, big picture vision and can do attitude toward change” 

“outstanding management and intuitive mentoring and coaching of her staff, making her a highly respected by all who work with her”

Service

“dedicated participation in local and national library organizations, especially ALA and the Boston Library Consortium”

“contributions to the professional development of librarians through numerous presentations and publications and sharing his knowledge and insight with the library community”

netsl Uncategorized

NETSL Executive Board 2024/25

  • President: Cason Snow, Head of Cataloging and Metadata, University of Maine 
  • Past President:  Sarah Theimer, Description and Access Strategy Librarian, University of New Hampshire
  • Vice President: Katrina Jackson, Director of Cataloging and Discovery, Brown University
  • Secretary: Judy Njoroge, Bibliographic Services Manager, Library Connection, Inc.
  • Archivist: Judy Gitlin, Technical Services Librarian, Yale Divinity School Library
  • Member at Large: Max McConnell, Assistant Head of Access Services, The Peabody Institute Library of Danvers
  • Member at Large: Julia Ricks, Metadata Specialist, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Member at Large: Kim DeWall, Head of Technical Services, Falmouth Public Library
netsl Uncategorized

NETSL Spring Webinars May: Decolonizing the Library Catalog

Details:Friday, May 30, 2025 at 11:00am – 12:00pm over ZoomSession Speaker:Karl Pettitt, Associate Professor & Coordinator of Catalog & Metadata Services,University of DenverThis webinar will be recorded and made available for registered attendees.
Register Today

What does decolonizing the library catalog mean? What does this work look like? In this session we will explore the ways in which our catalogs represent and normalize certain viewpoints and why that presents a problem for our users. We will define the issue and then look at different ways we can work to break the hegemony of particular viewpoints in our work as catalogers making the catalog a place where diversity in thought and knowledge is exemplified.

____________________________________________________________________


Karl Pettitt is an Associate Professor & Coordinator of Catalog & Metadata Services at the University of Denver. He has been a faculty librarian since 2010 working in the field of cataloging for academic libraries. He holds a B.A. in Religion from Whitworth University, a M.A. in the History of Christianity from Wheaton College, and a M.L.I.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He has broad academic interests, but he has spent most of his professional career studying and applying the art and science of bibliographic description for databases within academic libraries.

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2024 NETSL Virtual Conference

Friday, APRIL 5TH

9:30 to 3:30

If It’s Broke, Let’s Fix It: Open Dialogue Between Problem & Opportunity

Join us for a day of sharing, exploring, and discussing the challenges and opportunities for improving access to collections!

This year’s keynote panel serves as an excellent example of how librarians raise questions, problem-solve, and effectively turn challenges into opportunities all in an effort to create and improve access and discovery.

Brian Dobreski

Brian is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at University of Tennessee-Knoxville. His research focuses on the practices and implications of knowledge and information organization, as well as the concepts of personhood and personal identity in information.

Jeff Edmunds

Jeff is Digital Access Coordinator at the Penn State University Libraries, where he has worked for more than thirty years. Since 2017, he has been an outspoken critic of BIBFRAME.

Violet Fox

Violet is a Cataloging & Metadata Librarian at Northwestern University’s Galter Health Sciences Library. She is the creator of the Cataloging Lab, a wiki designed to promote collaboration in library metadata. Violet is passionate about critical cataloging, zine librarianship, and promoting the mental health of library workers.

To register and to learn more about the conference, presentations, NETSL’s ever-popular Lightning Talks, and how you can take part in roundtable discussions on improving access to collections…

click here!

Follow us on Faceboook and Instagram to learn more about presentations and presenters.

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Call for 2024 Conference Proposals

The theme for the 2024 New England Technical Services Librarians Virtual Conference is

“If It’s Broke, Let’s Fix It: Open Dialogue Between Problem and Opportunity”

The aim of this year’s NETSL virtual conference on April 5th is to provide a platform for participants to share, explore, and discuss the challenges and opportunities for improving access to collections.

We are accepting proposal submissions for: 

  • 60-minute presentations on projects that aim to update and/or address any barrier to collection access.
  • Round table topics related to improving resource discovery (volunteer to be a facilitator, too!)  
  • 7-minute lightning talks on any project associated with Technical Services work

Deadline is February 7, 2024

Proposal Submissions

FYI: Nominations for the NETSL Award for Excellence in Library Technical Services have been extended to February 7th, too.  Fill out this brief submission form

netsl Uncategorized

NETSL Call for Award Nominations 2024

New England Technical Services Librarians (NETSL) Executive Board is seeking nominations for our annual NETSL Award for Excellence in Library Technical Services.

The NETSL Award recognizes and honors contributions to the field of library technical services in New England. We want to hear about those technical services librarians and library staff who have inspired others. Do you have a colleague who has tackled today’s challenges in technical services and triumphed? Do you know a person who leads the way in innovation, collaboration, or data integration? If you know someone who fits any or all of these descriptions, please consider submitting a nomination.

The next NETSL Award, which will be a prize of $300, will be presented at the annual conference to be held online on Friday, April 5, 2024.  

Eligibility for nomination:

  • Nominees living in New England who have made contributions on a national level through publications, service, or innovations in practice.
  • Nominees living outside of New England whose service to the profession has positively impacted New England libraries.
  • Nominators and nominees are not required to be NETSL/NELA members.
  • Current members of the NETSL Executive Board are not eligible for consideration.

It’s easy to nominate someone, just fill out this brief submission form by Friday, January 26, 2024. 

Past recipients accomplishments include:

Advocacy

“illustrating that librarians in smaller academic and health sciences libraries have a valuable role to play in the advancement of technical services best practices.”

“being an advocate for “back of the house” operation while keeping public service in the forefront of her mind”

Innovation 

“ability to lead, innovate, and boldly face new challenges in technical services”

“dedicating her professional life to the cause of effective automation in the immediate service of technical services”

Leadership 

“infectious enthusiasm, big picture vision and can do attitude toward change” 

“outstanding management and intuitive mentoring and coaching of her staff, making her a highly respected by all who work with her”

Service

“dedicated participation in local and national library organizations, especially ALA and the Boston Library Consortium”

“contributions to the professional development of librarians through numerous presentations and publications and sharing his knowledge and insight with the library community”

Further information, including past recipients, is available on the NETSL website: https://netsl.org/award/.

netsl Uncategorized

NETSL Executive Board 2023/24

  • President: Sarah Theimer, Description and Access Strategy Librarian, University of New Hampshire
  • Past President:  Yukari Sugiyama, E-resources Discovery Librarian, Yale University Library
  • Vice President: Cason Snow, Head of Cataloging and Metadata, University of Maine 
  • Outreach Officer: Kim DeWall, Head of Technical Services, Falmouth Public Library
  • Secretary: Julia Ricks, Metadata Specialist, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Treasurer: Joanna M. Fuchs, Metadata Coordinator for the Arts and Humanities, Brandeis University
  • Archivist: Judy Gitlin, Technical Services Librarian, Yale Divinity School Library
  • Member at Large: Max McConnell, Assistant Head of Access Services, The Peabody Institute Library of Danvers
  • Member at Large: Judy Njoroge, Bibliographic Services Manager, Library Connection, Inc.
netsl Uncategorized

Volunteer for the NETSL board!

We are seeking volunteers and nominees to run for NETSL Vice President/President-elect position. If you’re enthusiastic about innovations in technical services, interested in contributing to regional technical services programming, or want to shape the direction of NETSL as an organization, consider running for the position!

Submit your nomination here: https://forms.gle/wyyppyL8Myg2EaXf8

Nominations must be submitted by Monday, July 31. Election ballots will go out to the membership in mid-August. Once voting is complete, terms of office officially begin on October 1st, 2023.

If you have questions, please contact us at netsl@nelib.org.

netsl Conferences, General, NETSL Annual (Spring), Uncategorized

Registration is Open for the 2023 NETSL Annual Conference!

Passion Into Action: Your Initiative in Technical Services

We are excited to share the schedule of events and introduce our keynote speakers!

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE

Our Metadata, Ourselves: The Trans Metadata Collective

by Bri Watson & Jackson Huang

The Trans Metadata Collective (TMDC) is a group of dozens of cataloguers, librarians, archivists, scholars, and information professionals with a concerted interest in improving the description and classification of trans and gender diverse people, subjects, and resources in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Special Collections (GLAMS) and other information systems. The Collective’s primary goal was to develop a set of concrete, actionable best practices, which was collaboratively authored, reviewed, and released by a smaller subset of the collective as *Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources*. Many members of the TMDC – and the vast majority of the report’s authors and reviewers – fall under the trans umbrella, which makes many of these issues unavoidable for us and addressing these challenges a personal, political, and professional necessity. Approaching our work with TMDC as more than passion, but as necessity, informed both our process of non-hierarchical, collaborative decision-making and our final report as something practical and actionable across institutional context and professional backgrounds.

Bri Watson is a disabled, white, queer & nonbinary settler scholar at UBC’s iSchool. As a Vanier Scholar, they focus on histories of information and the practice of equitable cataloging in libraries, archives, museums, and special collections. They serve on the editorial board of Homosaurus (homosaurus.org),an international linked data vocabulary for queer terminology, and are the Director of HistSex.org. For 2022-23, they are one of UBC Library’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Scholars-in-Residence.

Jackson Huang is a gender variant library technologist whose work focuses on the intersections of structural politics and technological infrastructure in libraries and archives. Their research explores how metadata translation and digital aggregation impact the representation of marginalized communities. They currently work as the digital content and collections coordinator at the University of Michigan.