Event Information

The Library Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (LAUNC-CH) Conference Committee will hold a Lightning Talk Day, scheduled for 1:00–3:45 PM on Thursday, March 19, 2026. This event will take the place of an annual conference this year, and all presentations are virtual via Zoom.

Registrations are open until noon on Thursday, March 19. Please review the event schedule and register for either or both sessions using the links below.

Registration

Please register for both Zoom webinars, one for each presentation track:

Schedule

Session 1

Zoom Link: https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3AL2dDGyTk60awWVEKPR9g

Time	Title	Speaker	Summary
1:00–1:10	Welcome
1:10–1:20	Tabling with Heart: Strengthening Library–Student Connections Through Love Data Week	Shannon Henry (UNC – Chapel Hill (MSLS student))	During Love Data Week this February, I tabled in the libraries and connected with more than 500 students. I will share the strategies that made tabling a success, with the hope that attendees go away better prepared for planning student-centered outreach that bridges the gap between library services and students.
1:20–1:35	“Resilient Duke”: Building Community to Address Climate Change	Evelyn Faith Haines (UNC–Chapel Hill (MSLS student))	“Resilient Duke” is an online reading group intentionally designed to discuss materials offering optimistic views and practical ideas to conversations about climate. This presentation traces collaborations and connections; two major components in the creation of the reading group and other work as a SILS field experience student.
1:35–1:50	Sustaining a Valuable Collaboration	Jason Fleming, Feletia Lee, and Alyssa Wharton (UNCW)	This lightning talk highlights how the UNCW Library MakerStudio and the UNCW Office of Sustainability have built a thriving and ongoing collaboration through repair-focused programming, creative events, and shared community values. We’ll showcase how these initiatives developed, how they connect students across disciplines, and how they are designed to sustain and grow in future years.
1:50–2:15	Q&A
2:15–2:30	Break
2:30–2:45	Wikipedia + Libraries: A Vision of Collaboration, Stewardship, and Community	Alex Konecky (Duke University)	Wikipedia, arguably the largest collaborative initiative in human history, is facing declining editorship as AI-facilitated search diverts traffic away from the site while still relying on its content. In this talk, I present a vision for a resilient Wikipedia with library workers as its stewards and advocates and explore what such a partnership could look like in your library.
2:45–2:55	Library Wrapped: Year-in-Review as Community Storytelling	Katherine Carlson and Hope Riffee (Duke University Medical Center Library)	Our “Library Wrapped” transforms library statistics into a charming digital story that highlights community achievements through data, events, and memorable moments. The project showcases a collaborative, cross‑department workflow that turns routine metrics into an engaging video shared across platforms to strengthen patron connection.
2:55–3:10	Start Somewhere: Preparing Digital Content for Title II Guidelines	Karen Grigg and Nora Burmeister (UNC – Chapel Hill)	Learn what the new DOJ Title II digital accessibility guidelines mean for libraries and walk away with approachable strategies—including best practices for creating alt text, meaningful link text, and evaluation tools. This session will help you “start somewhere” and build more accessible digital content with confidence.
3:10–3:20	Supporting Peer Scholars’ Teaching Development Through Program Assessment	Angela Nettles (UNC – Chapel Hill (MSLA student), NCSU (GA), and Duke University (intern))
3:20–3:30	Designing A Collaborative Wikidata Reconciliation Project for Oral History Collections	Camilla Crane (UNC – Chapel Hill (MSLS student/CALA))	This talk will discuss a project reconciling and linking interviewee names from the Southern Oral History Program with entries in Wikidata, through collaborative efforts like WFH projects and an upcoming workshop with the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists. This project builds off a 2019 finding aid-Wikidata reconciliation initiative by the Libraries..
3:30–3:40	Q&A
3:40–3:45	Conclusion

Session 2

Zoom Link: https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WdAbDEalROO8CLlxZhYagA

Time	Title	Speaker	Summary
1:00–1:10	Welcome
1:10–1:20	Connecting Academia and Community Through Photography	Adhitya Dhanapal, PhD (Duke University)	This presentation looks at the experience of curating a digital and physical exhibit centered on the student and youth movements around decolonization and the Global Cold War, inspired by Duke Professor, Michael Hardt’s The Subversive Seventies. Drawing from Duke University Libraries’ permanent and Global Studies collections, the curated exhibition culminated in a public conversation on authoritarianism and mass dissent today.
1:20–1:30	Libraries as Connectors: Building Reciprocal Partnerships Through Public History Podcasting	Lolita Rowe (UNC – Chapel Hill)	This presentation explores how an independently produced, librarian-led podcast became a model for fostering reciprocal partnerships across archives and communities. It provides practical strategies for using digital storytelling to enhance interlibrary relationships and community involvement.
1:30–1:45	The Press as Catalyst: Building Relationships Through a Teaching Press Initiative	Nadia Clifton and Aaron Smithers (UNC – Chapel Hill)	This lightning talk shares how a historic teaching press became a catalyst for collaboration and connection in special collections. We will reflect on how shared making, skill-building, and curiosity can strengthen connections and create new pathways for partnership in special collections instruction.
1:45–1:55	Cultivating Connection	Annie Peterson (UNC – Chapel Hill)	With the shift towards hybrid schedules, spontaneous in-person gatherings are rarer than they used to be. This lightning talk will share some low effort, high impact ideas for getting together in person to build connections, foster collaboration, and strengthen community within a department and across the library.
1:55–2:15	Q&A
2:15–2:30	Break
2:30–2:45	Microfocusing to Identify Gaps: Investigating the relationship between high school and university information literacy instruction	Shira Greer and Aasta Thomas (NCSU)	How can academic librarians partner with high school librarians to address the gap in information literacy (IL) skills between high school and college? In this session, NC State University librarians will discuss their ongoing project to explore how high school librarians teach IL and how these insights can be used to better tailor university library instruction to student needs.
2:45–3:00	Leveraging Performance Evaluations to Strengthen Relationships	Jesse Bethany (UNC – Chapel Hill)	Employee evaluations, required by those of us who supervise Work Study students, can easily be something we squeeze in, rush through, and then forget about as soon as they are done. This brief talk will suggest that viewing evaluations in this way is forgoing a valuable time to dive deeper with our employees, create connections, and strengthen existing bonds as well as provide a general framework for tailoring evaluations to support these outcomes.
3:00–3:15	Connect to Your Campus: Utilizing the Libraries as a Faculty Community Space	Cas Saroza and Emily Cox (NCSU)	After two years researching the needs of faculty on our campus, we found that faculty want to help building community among fellow researchers. By joining our lighting talk, you’ll learn about our pilot event in support of building faculty communities, what we learned for next time, and other ways your library can make faculty feel supported as a whole person.
3:15–3:30	The Anxious Academics Club: Incorporating Mental Health Awareness in Library Instruction	Claire Blandino (UNC – Chapel Hill (MSLS student))	This project was built out of a workshop “The Anxious Academics Club: Navigating Research Anxiety” to clarify and address undergraduates’ mental health needs in the research process. Now, this talk will serve to let information professionals understand what they can do to center mental health in their own practice.
3:30–3:40	Q&A
3:40–3:45	Conclusion

Additional Information