The 2022 NC Serials Conference special issue is an interesting reflection of the times, in particular, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the 2022 conference, which was held virtually on April 8th, 2022, did not have an official theme, there were several that organically developed across the program. More broadly and taken as a whole, the content illustrates a growing movement to reflect on why we do what we do, how we do it, and what we can walk away from. The pandemic has ended up being one of those moments in time when many of our sacred cows about where we work and how we provide access to resources can be left behind. This level of introspection has been valuable for pushing forward transitions and re-imagining the workplace.
In her presentation, the keynote speaker, Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, touched on an aspect that needs to be tended and managed for effective transition in libraries: workplace morale. Her research highlights the importance of paying attention to the needs of staff within an organization in order to have a productive and healthy culture. Practitioners often focus on the product or process without thought to the people that make the work happen. The first theme I'd like to call attention to, person-centered management, is also necessary to establish effective work practices. A focus on developing staff creates support and stability through change. Other topics from the conference such as establishing training practices for new systems and adjusting workflows to better support a hybrid or remote work environment, also point to the value of person-centered management practices. Whether you are dealing with creating a better workplace culture, training for new skills, or establishing new workflows, a person-centered approach to management will help staff feel heard and create the capacity to negotiate for what they need. The second theme that the conference points towards is the beginning of a sea change towards open. This was indicated through discussions of open scholarship, communities supporting open initiatives, as well as open practices for cataloging. Transitions in open access are becoming more commonplace, and movement is shifting from the theoretical to the practical. For instance, a session by Bundy and Goddard discussed OA transitions in respect to agreements, workflows, and tools. Another session by Craft focused on the collaborative efforts across communities, in this case, bringing visibility to open efforts across the UNC system through OpenUNC. Other community efforts noted during the conference included the Open Cataloging Rules (OCR) initiative, which aims to have volunteers create a community developed, freely available alternative to the Resource Description and Access (RDA) cataloging rules. All of these efforts indicate that momentum to advance open initiatives is happening from many fronts including content, collaborations, and tools.
Collaborative efforts are not new to the serials professional world, and as expected, sharing best practices remained an important part of the NC Serials Conference experience. This year's sessions continued to push forward critical ideas for evolving the profession and strategies for tackling new problems. Many of these problems spaces reflected impacts from the pandemic including trends related to working remote in technical services, strategies for supporting new programs, and changes in authentication practices. Other sessions focused on new practices in the field such as how to handle new formats such as data services or streaming video.
One thing the serials community does best is create a community of practice. Events like the NC Serials Conference are critical in helping professionals gather, pause, and consider bigger picture concepts, strategies for evolving practice, and suggestions and advice from a connected network.