2026 PASCAL Member Conference

Academic libraries are mission-critical infrastructure within their institutions. Yet unless library leaders can articulate their work in donor-centered language, libraries often remain invisible within advancement strategy. This session will explore how academic libraries can strengthen partnerships with institutional Advancement teams to supplement budgets, accelerate strategic priorities, and build sustainable philanthropic pipelines. Drawing on fundraising leadership experience at two PASCAL member institutions, this presentation will demystify how Advancement offices operate and provide practical strategies library leaders can immediately apply. Topics will include:
- Working in partnership with the Advancement Team
- Translating library priorities into compelling philanthropic cases
- Building donor pipelines for libraries
- Implementing stewardship practices that encourage long-term investment
The session will also examine three common myths that often limit library engagement in fundraising efforts and offer practical reframing approaches that empower library leaders.

Library workers are subjected to burnout and low morale experiences throughout their careers, as evidenced by themes of library literature. This speaker, who has lived experience with both burnout and low morale (inside and outside of the library world and at a variety of academic libraries) will outline avenues for library workers to mitigate burnout and low morale through peer mentoring and mutual support group opportunities. This speaker, who has experience with the NASIG Peer Mentoring Program as well as the Urban Library Workers Library Workers Support Network (LWSN - not just for urban library workers) will outline research behind both types of programs as well as outline what she gained through participation in both programs. The presentation will also end with a call to action centered around the possibility of creating a peer mentoring cohort of PASCAL members, either through official or unofficial means to strengthen connections statewide.

Academic libraries are increasingly expected to deliver high-impact, low-cost programming that strengthens connections among faculty, students, and campus partners. This session introduces "Pecha Sharka," a library-led faculty research showcase inspired by PechaKucha ("chit-chat") style storytelling but adapted to fit institutional culture and faculty participation needs. Developed at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, Pecha Sharka uses a streamlined presentation format (10 slides, 20 minutes, visual-forward design) to help faculty share current research in an engaging and accessible way with other faculty and students. The program emphasizes narrative over lecture, encourages interdisciplinary visibility, and positions the library as a central hub for scholarly communication and community engagement. Attendees will learn how to design event infrastructure, recruit presenters, coordinate logistics and marketing, and scale the model for campuses of varying sizes. Through practical examples and lessons learned from pilot events, participants will gain a replicable framework they can adapt to strengthen campus partnerships, elevate faculty scholarship, and increase library visibility within the staffing, space, and budget constraints common at smaller institutions.

Whether you are teaching a library instruction session for the first time, filling in for your instruction librarian, or a seasoned veteran looking for quick tips on making a new template, join me as I present three easy and budget-friendly ways to organize and quick-start your instruction practice. I've developed the Three S's - Keep It Simple, Keep It Structured, and Keep It Student-Focused - as a baseline template that can be used in any instructional setting. We will define the Three S's, look at sample templates, and share tips and tricks on how I managed teaching subjects ranging from introductory library tours to first-semester composition classes to advanced history and even music courses.

With the move to Primo NDE on the horizon, I have customized our view with our college branding and colors. I will talk about updating the custom css file with custom colors, updating the default background image using an svg file, and updating the default buttons, both in look and number. I'll also cover checking custom colors for appropriate color contrast for accessibility.

Leaders in higher education often have a strong belief system regarding students' needs from the library. It is difficult to address these beliefs which are typically based on personal experience or articles that espouse what students need from the academic library but may not pertain to the students a specific academic library serves. The myriad beliefs and opinions that exist at the University of South Carolina Beaufort frequently drive how resources are prioritized and distributed. To address the anecdotal opinions about students' library needs, the USCB library conducts a one-week in-person intensive needs assessment survey of its students, faculty, and staff. The survey provides data that demonstrates what students need and provides support for the library's financial investment in services and provides data that demonstrates why the library prioritizes certain investments and how they support student success. The needs assessment is also used as the basis for requesting new resources for the library in the annual budget cycle and shows how the investment in resources addresses what students stated they want from the library. The needs assessment survey reduces reliance on personal opinions, and the process shows students that the library is interested in their opinion and wants to respond to their needs to support their success and comfort in the library.

Students are increasingly using generative AI for a variety of educational purposes including research, writing, and citing. Because of this, librarians at Coastal Carolina University decided that AI literacy should be integrated into a long-running, for-credit, information literacy course. This session will provide an overview of how AI literacy was integrated into the course, topics that were addressed, activities and course materials that were used, and how the course materials were received by students. While the presentation focuses on lessons created for a credit course, the material can be adapted to one-shot sessions. As a librarian who is new to generative AI, this presentation is geared towards other beginners who are interested in exploring this topic.

What if we turned source evaluation from the CRAAP test into a pirate adventure where the whole narrative was the lesson? Avoiding a Pirate TRAAP is an original OER narrative that shows what happens to two teenagers who buy the wrong information from a man named Blackbeard Joe. Join me as we look at narrative pedagogy and discuss how to teach source evaluation and information literacy with ancient pedagogy techniques - from the fables of Aesop to the parables of Jesus - as we remix storytelling and learning to make the experience both fun and tangible. We will also discuss using the Adventurfy Method, an instructional method created by Lian Warner, on creating your own learning experiences that add adventure, risk, and story. Participants will gain access to the Pirate TRAAP story and a launchpad on how to create instructional adventures in your own library.