Friday, September 18, 2026
Shift & Scale: An NC LIVE Workshop On Navigating Tools, Tech, and People-First Leadership
Location: Chapel Hill Public Library
Join us in Chapel Hill for a dynamic, hands-on workshop designed to bridge the gap between people-first leadership, ethical technology evaluation, and practical resource mastery. Registrants will choose one track when completing the registration form. As always, registration is free and includes breakfast and lunch.
Throughout the workshop, you’ll explore practical strategies to navigate the rapidly shifting landscape of educational technology and library leadership. Whether you are building an authentic framework to lead your team through organizational change, establishing an ethical approach to AI adoption, or deep-diving into the latest digital resources, this is your chance to collaborate with peers across the state, exchange ideas, and return to your institution energized and empowered to lead.
Choose Your Workshop Track
This workshop features three distinct tracks running simultaneously throughout the day. To ensure a focused and hands-on experience, participants will choose one track to attend when completing the registration form. Please note that you can only attend one track, so take a moment to consider which focus best aligns with your role, interests, and institutional goals.
Track 1: Authentic Alignment: Leading People through Purpose and Change
Focused on the "human side" of organizational success, this track is designed for current and aspiring leaders looking to strengthen their management toolkit. Participants will delve into the core principles of authentic leadership, learning how to lead with transparency, build deep trust, and align their personal values with institutional goals.
Through interactive, collaborative sessions, you will discover how to transition from a traditional manager to an impactful leader by mastering coaching techniques that empower your staff, unlock individual potential, and foster a culture of continuous growth. Additionally, because technology and education landscapes are shifting faster than ever, the afternoon will focus heavily on managing change. You will gain practical, actionable strategies to navigate organizational transitions smoothly, mitigate resistance, and guide your team through uncertainty with confidence and empathy.
Whether you are leading a small department or steering a large library system, this track will provide the framework you need to inspire your team and champion meaningful progress at your institution.
Track 2: Evaluating EdTech Through an Open Lens: A Framework for AI & Beyond?
This workshop track introduces a practical framework for assessing the opportunities and challenges of emerging educational technologies using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a case study. At the core of this framework are open values, such as open pedagogy and open education, that will allow attendees to evaluate new technologies with ethical considerations, like student agency, privacy, and accessibility. Participants will hear directly from our Spring 2026 virtual cohort, composed of educators and librarians from across the state, who will share their own strategies and plans to critically engage with edtech that they crafted as part of an interdisciplinary community of practice. Attendees will leave with a starting point for establishing their own framework to assess how emerging technologies can best serve their specific institutions and communities they serve.
Track 3: NC LIVE Resources in Focus
Focused on the "how-to" of using NC LIVE resources. This track provides deep-dive training on specific databases, updated interfaces, and practical ways to integrate NC LIVE resources into your campus curriculum or community programming. Led by vendor trainers and the NC LIVE Instruction Librarian, this track prioritizes hands-on practice so you can master the tools your community needs most.
To ensure this track meets your immediate needs, the final session will be determined by the specific resources and topics requested by registrants in the registration form. Whether it's advanced searching, specific database training, or AI-integrated tools, the curriculum is in your hands.
Schedule
| Time | Authentic Alignment: Leading People through Purpose and Change |
|---|---|
| 9:15 - 10am | Check-In (Whole Group) Participants arrive, check-in, and enjoy coffee while networking with fellow attendees. |
| 10 - 10:45am | Introduction to NC LIVE (Whole Group) Overview of NC LIVE's goals and mission, governance and structure, services, and impact. |
| 10:50am - 12:10pm | Flipping the Script on Library Leadership Library leadership is full of long‑standing assumptions - about communication, staff needs, political navigation, and what “good leadership” is supposed to look like. This session takes a practical, candid look at commonly held myths in administration roles and offers grounded strategies to replace them with more encompassing, yet effective approaches. Participants will explore communication methods proven to work in real library environments, including transparent updates, collaborative decision‑making, and clarifying expectations across teams. The session highlights a servant‑leadership response model - centered on empathy, accountability, and consistency - that supports staff during change, conflict, and uncertainty. The session also examines how leadership behavior directly shapes workplace culture, emphasizing trust, psychological safety, and shared purpose. A special focus will be placed on understanding the evolving needs and insights of frontline staff - what they are asking for, what they aren’t saying aloud, and how leaders can meet those needs without overextending resources. The session concludes with actionable tools to implement immediately in your own environment, helping you personalize the concepts for your own role, organization, and team. Learning Objectives:
Presenter: Atlas Logan is the Director of Chapel Hill Public Library. She brings over 20 years of library experience to her role, previously managing the Norcross Branch for Gwinnett Public Libraries in Georgia. |
| 12:10 - 1pm | Lunch & Raffle (Whole Group) Participants enjoy a catered lunch and continue networking with peers. |
| 1 - 2:10pm | Coaching in the Library: Adopting a Coach Approach to Empower Library Employees and Yourself Are you a transactional or transformative leader? Can you be both? A coaching mindset can help you spend more time developing professional agency for library employees, enabling them to initiate and follow through on projects that require managing change. Empowering library employees gives them the confidence to follow through on projects and work assignments by identifying and breaking down barriers that prevent them from doing their best work. This workshop will demonstrate the use of Michael Bungay Stanier’s seven coaching questions designed to engage employees, creating more organizational impact and will include discussions about when coaching is effective along with a list of resources to help you develop coaching skills and practices that fit your unique situation and leadership style. Presenter: Andrea G. Stanfield holds an MLIS from Florida State University and has over 20 years of experience in higher education, including 17 years of experience in academic libraries, and 7 years in library leadership. She has worked in public and private universities as well as in a technical college system. She is currently the Library & QEP Director at Queens University in Charlotte. Her interest in professional growth and development in libraries began with research related to training student library employees. She has participated in several leadership institutes focusing on libraries, higher education, and women’s leadership. To understand more about how organizational dynamics can impact professional and personal growth, she completed a graduate certificate in Organization Coaching at University of Georgia in 2024. As higher education, libraries, and the needs of students change, her research interests continue to explore the cultivation of professional and personal growth of library employees. |
| 2:10 - 2:20pm | Break |
| 2:20 - 3:30pm | Leading With and Navigating Authenticity in the Library Workplace What does it mean to “show up as your authentic self” work, and how possible is it in practice? This session invites participants to reflect upon the concept of leading with and navigating authenticity in the library workplace - including exploring what has shaped our definitions of authenticity, the various tensions and barriers around expressing it, and the organizational and structural conditions that can impact one’s sense of, and projection of self in the workplace. Learning Objectives:
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| Time | Evaluating EdTech Through an Open Lens: A Framework for AI & Beyond Track |
|---|---|
| 9:15 - 10am | Check-In (Whole Group) Participants arrive, check-in, and enjoy coffee while networking with fellow attendees. |
| 10 - 10:45am | Introduction to NC LIVE (Whole Group) Overview of NC LIVE's goals and mission, governance and structure, services, and impact. |
| 10:50am - 12:10pm | Part I of the Track
David Tully is the Principal Librarian for Student Affordability at NC State University Libraries. His work advances student success by reducing the financial barriers to higher education. Through leadership in open education and strategic fundraising, he works to expand access to affordable and impactful learning by supporting the adoption of open educational practices, managing student scholarship programs, and collaborating with campus partners to create sustainable, student-centered solutions. |
| 12:10 - 1pm | Lunch & Raffle (Whole Group) Participants enjoy a catered lunch and continue networking with peers. |
| 1 - 2:30pm | Part II Of The Track Note: This workshop track will end earlier than the other workshop tracks. |
| Time | Resource Training Track |
|---|---|
| 9:30 - 10am | Check-In (Whole Group) Participants arrive, check-in, and enjoy coffee while networking with fellow attendees. |
| 10 - 10:45am | Introduction to NC LIVE (Whole Group) Overview of NC LIVE's goals and mission, governance and structure, services, and impact. |
| 10:50 - 11:30am | Session 1: Supporting Lifelong Learning With Transparent Language This session offers a practical introduction (or refresher!) to Transparent Language, NC LIVE’s powerful tool for multilingual learning. We’ll explore the platform’s learning dashboard, highlight interactive activities, and discuss how it supports both non-English speakers (with 30+ language pairings) and English learners, including access to intermediate/advanced content and the American Citizenship Test Prep Course. We’ll also cover exciting new additions like the ASL Crash Course for Librarians, and share tips on how to promote Transparent Language in your library to support lifelong learning for all patrons. Presenter: Lauren Gancarz, Director of Customer Success for Transparent Language |
| 11:30am - 12:10pm | Session 2: Empowering Every Learner: Real-World Success with ProQuest’s AI Research Assistant In this session, we shift the focus from traditional database navigation to the future of guided inquiry. You will discover how to transform ProQuest’s AI Research Assistant into a powerful engine for patron success, moving beyond simple keyword searches to deep, contextual exploration. Rather than just touring the interface, we will dive into proactive strategies to meet the ambitious goals of students, researchers, and lifelong learners. You’ll gain hands-on experience navigating real-world scenarios, leveraging AI to bridge the gap between a broad curiosity and a refined, evidence-based thesis.
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| 12:10 - 1pm | Lunch & Raffle (Whole Group) Participants enjoy a catered lunch and continue networking with peers. |
| 1 - 2:00pm | Session 3: Gale Literature Resource Center: Supporting Readers’ Advisory and Academic Success Discover how Gale Literature Resource Center, available through NC LIVE, can strengthen readers’ advisory services, enhance book clubs in public libraries, and support coursework in community colleges and universities. This robust resource features author biographies, literary criticism, work overviews, reviews, and scholarly articles covering a wide range of writers, genres, and literary movements. In this interactive session, you’ll learn how to use the platform to recommend titles, spark deeper book discussions, and help readers explore new literary voices. You’ll also gain strategies for guiding students through research assignments and literary analysis. Whether you’re facilitating a community book club or supporting a college classroom, this session will equip you with practical tools to make the most of this rich literary resource. Presenter: Hannah Roudebush, Training Consultant for Gale |
| 2:00 - 2:10pm | Break |
| 2:10 - 3:10pm | Session 4: TBD TBD
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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
NCLA along with the Leadership, Administration, and Management (LAMS) Section is pleased to partner with NC LIVE on workshops for library leaders.
“We are excited for the opportunity to see our mission of ‘Developing leaders, building skills, and creating networks’ come to life in this way.”- Brandy Hamilton, Past Chair of LAMS. North Carolina Library Association - Inform. Connect. Support.
Guest facilitators will share their knowledge on specific leadership competencies and guide you through common leadership challenges. Whether you are in a leadership position already, or aspire to be, consider registering for an upcoming Leadership Development workshop. Is there a local library leader that you'd like to suggest as a session facilitator? Send a message to help [at] nclive.org (help[at]nclive[dot]org).
Testimonials
"This was time well spent! There was a lot of information packed in to a short amount of time. I have paid for leadership workshops that were less useful than this free one!"
"The presenters were very relaxed and approachable which created the feeling of a shared learning experience rather than a simple lecture designed to disseminate facts."
"Meeting NC LIVE staff and librarians on the various advisory councils makes me feel more comfortable about reaching out with feedback concerning future resources."
"I felt that the meeting was very productive. The subject-based handout was particularly helpful."
"Having the regional meetings was a great idea. Travel budgets are limited so it was nice to be able to take a day trip for professional development, refresh and meet the new NC LIVE staff! Please keep offering these regional meetings!!"