San Diego State University Contributes to the Inaugural California State University Libraries Conference

Several San Diego State University Library faculty and staff are contributing to the CSU Libraries Conference on June 3, 2025. Led by the CSU Council of Library Deans and supported by colleagues from the Office of the Chancellor as well as sponsors including Sage, Elsevier, Clarivate, EBSCO, Oxford University Press, and others, this inaugural program is designed to highlight the expertise found among the CSU Libraries community and to promote opportunities for collaboration across the 23 campuses of the system on issues of shared interest and strategic concern.

To minimize cost and allow as many people as possible to attend, the conference was held virtually, with some campuses sponsoring watch parties at their libraries.

Building on the conference theme, “Collaboration: Stronger Together,” CSU library faculty and staff presented original research and data-informed best practices in areas including generative artificial intelligence, open access publishing and open educational resources, information literacy instruction and assessment, digital collections and digital scholarship, licensing and resource sharing, user engagement, distinctive collections, sustainability and more.

Nathan S. Evans, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs and Chief Academic Officer of the California State University, opened the conference by highlighting library contributions to educational affordability, student success, and innovation in teaching and scholarship across the system, concluding that "libraries are not only aligned with [the CSU's strategic priorities], they are integral to achieving them."

Michael Meth, Dean of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at San Jose State University, notes that this inaugural state-wide conference will “provide an inclusive and sustainable model for professional development for CSU library faculty and staff at a moment when a commitment to continuing professional education is of extraordinary importance to our libraries.”

"Collaboration” is a distinguishing feature of the conference programs being presented by SDSU faculty and staff, including:

• “Make It, Learn It, Share It: Collaborating Through build IT,” a presentation on the build IT creator’s space by staff member Mariah Finley-Gardner and faculty members Jenny Wong-Welch and Erik Valenzuela
• “Helping Communities Find Good Information: A Public and Academic Libraries Collaboration,” a presentation on the ongoing “Information Issues Initiative” shared across the libraries of the San Diego Circuit by Margaret Henderson and Sarah Tribelhorn from SDSU, and Amanda Kalish and Tricia Lantzy from CSU San Marcos
• The CSU’s commitment to sustainability will also be reflected in a presentation by Morgan Barker (Cal Poly Humboldt) and Sarah Tribelhorn (SDSU) on “Cultivating Sustainability: Libraries as Catalysts for Environmental Justice and Campus Action.”

Additional CSU Libraries Conference programs featuring SDSU contributions include:

• Creating an Optimized Strategy for Research Production and Analysis for CSU Librarians Collaborating Across Multiple Campuses (Cat Ellis);
• The Radical Potential of Mid-Career Librarians (Jenny Wong-Welch and Mara Cota); and
• Networked Connections: Building Support for the Digital Humanities across CSU Libraries (Pamella Lach)

According to Scott Walter, Dean of the SDSU University Library and member of the conference planning committee, the CSU has a unique opportunity to support professional development and collaboration across the state through the launch and ongoing commitment to the CSU Libraries Conference:

“The libraries of the California State University have been collaborating at the strategic and system levels for years, and our faculty and staff are recognized on each of their campuses as powerful partners with colleagues in Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Information Technology, and Research and Innovation when seeking to meet critical goals related to educational affordability, student success, innovation in teaching and scholarship, community engagement, and the transition from college to career. With the launch of this program, we are building a foundation for future success both for our library faculty, staff, and student employees, but for all members of the CSU community.”