Jessica Hollister

This October, I attended the 2024 UNYOC Annual Meeting in Celeron, NY. As a newer health sciences librarian, this served as a terrific opportunity to interact with and present to my fellow regional librarians.

At the University at Buffalo, I am the chair of the Libraries’ AI Literacy Training Task Force. This committee serves to assess AI competency and use in the UB Libraries, and to design and implement AI training opportunities for UB Libraries faculty and staff, and the wider UB academic community. When UNYOC put out the call for proposals, I was excited at the prospect of attending and the potential of presenting to a room of colleagues on a topic that was in line with the conference panel discussion.

After submitting a proposal, I was fortunate to be selected for a Lightning Talk session. From there, the challenge was to craft a presentation that would inform on the assessment work of the Literacy Training Task Force in a way that could be applicable to other institutions within the time limit. I elected to create a more content-heavy presentation, for the purposes of providing more scaffolding to any colleague who requested a copy. As a newer health sciences librarian, I was feeling a bit nervous to present. However, the UNYOC attendees did not disappoint as they facilitated an encouraging and dynamic atmosphere for each presentation. As an attendee, I was thrilled to learn about the creative and important work my chapter colleagues are doing at their institutions. Overall, the experience was energizing, and I look forward to continuing to interact with my fellow chapter members.

Anne Meore gave the keynote address on Thursday, October 24, 2024. Meore’s work as an instructor, social worker, and horticultural therapist presented a unique perspective for us librarians. She asked us to consider not only the physical characteristics of our own working spaces, but also the spaces in which we interact with our health sciences or hospital library constituents. Through her lecture and activity, she reasoned that spaces could be both productive and welcoming by introducing light and greenery sensory elements. The horticultural therapy exercise wherein each attendee decorated their own plant environment demonstrated the positive impact these elements can have—regardless of how small the element. Moving forward, my team and I seeking opportunities to apply these lessons and create friendlier spaces for ourselves and our patrons.

Thank you, UNYOC, for affording this opportunity, and your continued support for the regional MLA community!