2026 PASCAL Member Conference

Join a panel of scholarly communication professionals to discuss the role of librarians in shaping the academic landscape through education and the dissemination, preservation, and accessibility of scholarly works. We will focus on: 1. Open Access Initiatives: How are librarians advancing open access publishing models and ensuring researchers have access to free and equitable knowledge? 2. Scholarly Communication Education: What are the best practices for educating faculty, researchers, and students on scholarly publishing processes, copyright, and licensing?

In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a final ruling under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act establishing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for digital accessibility. The ruling requires state and local government entities serving more than 50,000 people to make their web content and mobile applications fully accessible by April 2026. For large research institutions, this mandate presents an enormous challenge: how do you ensure accessibility across hundreds of licensed databases, thousands of e-journals, multiple digital repositories, and countless web pages?

Springshare has released a new product called "LibSites" that allows for the creation of custom library websites using drag-and-drop functionality. Representatives from the Furman Libraries will demonstrate how they are using LibSites to re-envision their website. The presentation will include a brief demo, pros and cons of the software, and a sneak peak of their newly redesigned site built in LibSites.

Mature LibGuides implementations benefit from routine clean-up. After the initial "ugh" when considering how overwhelming the project could be, developing and implementing a strategic approach makes the maintenance efficient and adds value for librarians and Guide users. The presenters will each share how they approached recent clean-up and will propose a model for considering a strategic approach to maintaining LibGuides. One presenter will also touch on her approach to conducting a full systemic review of the entire suite of Springshare products and will discuss how that review intersects LibGuides cleanup. Participants will receive examples of spreadsheets and other organizational tools as well as framing questions for developing a local strategy.