LILRC 2024 Conference Libraries and the Future Part III Carol Ann Tack and Nick Tanzi

In this final installment from the conference, Bob speaks with two former guests and friends of the podcast Carol Ann Tack from The Merrick Library and Nick Tanzi, Chair of the committee that puts the conference together and Assistant Director at the South Huntington Public Library.

Carol Ann is an amazing readers advisory librarian. She spoke about how she engaged patrons virtually during the pandemic with the Half Hour Happy Hour on Friday nights talking about. books, her virtual author talks and book groups (which attract 50+ people) and how it was an effective marketing strategy for services the library offers, including Libby, Hoopla, Goodreads, Novelist etc. She also talked about when we all went back in person, how she attracted 50+ people for in person events including author talks. Merrick also has a new program called “Real Talk” discussing non-fiction works. She envisioned it like MTV’s TRL (Total Request Live). Carol Ann also touches on if AI can do as good a job with readers advisory as a librarian! You can hear her podcast Top Shelf At The Merrick Library wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Nick joined the discussion talking about how LILRC put the conference together and how people were engaging in reading currently. Having speakers talking about the neuroscience behind the activity and practical applications was a good combination. Nick also spoke briefly about artificial intelligence and the role is may play in the library world in the near and distant future. Currently library has access without a real understanding of the power of AI.

As always, ,we thank LILRC for inviting the podcast to the conference and we hope to return next year.