New Workshop - "Getting Real Results with AI: Objective-Centered Strategies for Librarians and Educators"

Getting Real Results with AI: Objective-Centered Strategies for Librarians and Educators
A Library 2.0 / Learning Revolution Workshop with Reed Hepler

OVERVIEW

One of the biggest frustrations for librarians and educators integrating AI is the tendency to use these tools simply because they are available — resulting in wasted time, superficial outputs, and results that don’t actually advance real professional or learning goals. This workshop teaches the discipline of objective-centered AI use: starting every interaction with a clear purpose and ensuring AI truly serves human objectives rather than the other way around.

Understanding the distinction between objective-centered and tool-centered approaches carries profound implications for professional work quality, efficiency, and ethical practice. When librarians and faculty begin with objectives—supporting a specific patron need, achieving a particular learning outcome, completing a defined research task—they position themselves to evaluate whether AI collaboration genuinely advances that goal or merely produces impressive-looking content that misses the mark. This workshop provides practical frameworks for defining objectives with sufficient specificity to guide AI interactions productively, including the COSTAR framework (Context, Objective, Style, Tone, Audience, Response) and decision matrices for evaluating AI feasibility. Participants will learn to recognize when their objectives require human expertise that AI cannot replicate, when AI collaboration can enhance efficiency without compromising quality, and when the effort required to guide AI toward an objective exceeds the effort of completing the task through traditional methods. The workshop models the principle that AI tools should serve human objectives rather than humans serving AI capabilities.

By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will possess a systematic approach to objective-centered AI collaboration that they can apply across all professional contexts. Attendees will leave with objective definition templates, AI feasibility assessment tools, conversation steering techniques that maintain focus on goals rather than AI suggestions, and strategies for teaching students to approach AI use with clear purposes rather than vague hopes for assistance.

Participants will understand how to evaluate whether AI-generated outputs actually fulfill their stated objectives or merely approximate them in ways that require more correction than starting from scratch would have demanded. Most importantly, participants will recognize that objective-centered practice represents the foundation of all other AI literacy competencies—without clear objectives, verification becomes impossible, ethical evaluation lacks criteria, and collaboration devolves into passive consumption of whatever the AI produces. This workshop ensures that participants leave equipped to use AI deliberately and purposefully rather than experimentally and reactively.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Participants will be able to

• Articulate specific, measurable objectives for professional tasks before engaging with AI tools, using frameworks that clarify purpose, audience, context, and success criteria
• Evaluate AI feasibility for defined objectives by assessing whether AI collaboration will enhance efficiency and quality compared to traditional methods or alternative approaches
• Apply conversation steering techniques that maintain focus on stated objectives throughout AI interactions, resisting AI-generated tangents or suggestions that drift from the original purpose
• Assess AI outputs against stated objectives using criteria that distinguish between genuine objective fulfillment and superficial approximation requiring substantial revision

The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register. 

DATE: Tuesday, July 14th, 2026, 2:00 - 3:00 pm US - Eastern Time

COST:

• $99/person - includes live attendance and any-time access to the recording and the presentation slides and receiving a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.

TO REGISTER: 

Click HERE to register and pay. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.

If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.

NOTE: Please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.

SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):

• Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $99 each for 3+ registrations, $75 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
• The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $399.
• Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $599 (hosted either at Learning Revolution or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.

REED C. HEPLER

Reed Hepler is a digital initiatives librarian, instructional designer, copyright agent, artificial intelligence practitioner and consultant, and PhD student at Idaho State University. He earned a Master's Degree in Instructional Design and Educational Technology from Idaho State University in 2025. In 2022, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science, with emphases in Archives Management and Digital Curation from Indiana University. He has worked at nonprofits, corporations, and educational institutions encouraging information literacy and effective education. Combining all of these degrees and experiences, Reed strives to promote ethical librarianship and educational initiatives.

Currently, Reed works as a Digital Initiatives Librarian at a college in Idaho and also has his own consulting firm, heplerconsulting.com. His views and projects can be seen on his LinkedIn page or his blog, CollaborAItion, on Substack. Contact him at reed.hepler@gmail.com for more information.

 

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:

 July 8, 2026

 July 9, 2026

 July 10, 2026

New Webinar - "Responding to First Amendment Audits at Your Library: Survival Tools for Leaders and Staff"

Responding to First Amendment Audits at Your Library: Survival Tools for Leaders and Staff with Leith Harrell
A Library 2.0 Service, Safety, and Security Webinar with Dr. Steve Albrecht

OVERVIEW: 

First Amendment Audits, and the protesters who do them, have been on the rise for more than a decade. Each day, new videos are posted to various social media platforms, featuring public employees who appear completely unprepared for the encounters. “Failed” audits, as defined by the protesters who upload their content, can undermine public trust in our already embattled institutions and, all too often, result in increasingly costly civil suits.

All library leaders and staff must be equipped with the most current case law, the requisite communication skills, and the right mental attitude, if we are to expect them to meet this challenge and uphold the public trust. There are service concerns, legal issues, and stress control approaches.

This session is taught by a national expert on this subject, a former law enforcement supervisor from Florida, who has actually met with the organizers of these events and knows their tactics.

This training offers practical tools for both public-facing, frontline library personnel, including library security officers, and library policy makers alike.

LEARNING AGENDA: 

How to Recognize an Audit

• What do they look like?
• Where do they take place?
• What are common Auditor tactics?

Current Case Law

• Which activities are protected?
• Who may film? When? Where?
• What is a “Journalist”?

Their Strategies and Tactics versus Ours

• Things you should say and do during an Audit.
• Traps and pitfalls to avoid.
• How to recognize and professionally deflect the Auditor’s attempts to provoke library leaders, library security, and library staff.
• How to be better at what you do than they are at what they do.

DATE: Thursday, July 9th, 2026, 2:00 - 3:00 pm US - Eastern Time

COST:

• $99/person - includes live attendance and any-time access to the recording and the presentation slides and receiving a participation certificate.
• To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.

TO REGISTER: 

Clck HERE to register and pay. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.

 

If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.

NOTE: Please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.

SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):

• Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $75 each for 3+ registrations, $65 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
• The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $299.
• Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $499 (hosted either at Library 2.0 or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.

LEITH HARRELL

Leith Harrell retired from the Orlando (FL) Police Department after 28 years of police service. He worked as a uniformed first responder for more than 20 years, and as a supervisor for 13 years. He has delivered more than 5,000 hours of training, as a Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission (CJSTC) certified instructor, in service and advanced specialized programs. He’s presented courses for civilian and sworn personnel from more than 300 federal, state, and local public agencies, as well as private sector organizations. He holds a M.S. in Counseling from Troy University. He’s been studying the First Amendment Auditing phenomenon since it first emerged more than 15 years ago.

DR. STEVE ALBRECHT

Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained tens of thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and leadership. His programs for both staff and library leaders are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace. His books include:

The Library Leader’s Guide to Employee Coaching: Building a Performance Culture One Meeting at a Time (in-press, Bloomsbury, 2026)

The Library Leader’s Guide to Human Resources: Keeping it Real, Legal, and Ethical (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025)

The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities (ALA, 2015)

Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.S. in Psychology, and a B.A. in English. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment. He has written 28 books on business, security, and leadership. He provides a loving home for four rescue dogs. 

More on The Safe Library at thesafelibrary.com. Follow on X (Twitter) at @thesafelibrary and on YouTube @thesafelibrary. Dr. Albrecht's professional website is drstevealbrecht.com.

 OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:

 June 30, 2026

 July 8, 2026

 July 10, 2026

 July 14, 2026