2025 ILA-ACRL & IPAL Spring Conference Call for Proposals

The educational landscape is rapidly changing across the nation and in Iowa, requiring librarians to respond to and prepare for unpredictable challenges. Artificial intelligence, active legislation, and budget cuts are altering the way academic libraries interact with their communities while still striving to offer the highest quality library experiences and resources. Further, we’re encountering students with a wider degree of attitudes, expectations, and preparedness for higher education than ever before. We’re equipping our collective toolboxes as we navigate a future that has Some Assembly Required.

Join us May 28-29, 2025 for the ILA-ACRL & IPAL. We invite your proposals for 6-minute lightning talks and 50-minute concurrent sessions. Please submit proposals by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 28, 2025.

Direct questions to Conference Planning Committee Chair Hope Bibens (hope.bibens@drake.edu).

 

 

Dear members,

This is a reminder that a Zoom ILA/ACRL Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 4th at 10 am.

• Wednesday, December 4th from 10:00 to 10:50 am, Topic: Initiatives at your library and informal conversations.

Check your email for the Zoom link and more details!

More information about the organization can be found on the ILA/ACRL Website.

Ellen Neuhaus – On behalf of the ILA/ACRL Electronic Communication Committee [Ellen Neuhaus (chair), Eleanor Ball, Claire Bowling, and Liz Winter]

 

On behalf of the Membership Committee, I am pleased to announce the results of election of officers for 2025-2026.

Kris Stacy-Bates, Research Services Librarian at the Iowa State University Library was elected to serve as Vice-President/President-Elect. Kris has been active in ILA-ACRL for more than 27 years serving in various roles. Most recently, Kris chaired the Conference Planning Committee that hosted the joining IPAL/ACRL annual conference at Parks Library at Iowa State in May 2024.

Sheri Muller, Access Services Librarian and Archivist at Grand View University, was elected to be the ACRL Secretary/Treasurer for 2025-2026. Sheri has served on ILA committees and also served as the chair of the Special Libraries Roundtable. Last summer, she completed a 7-year stint as the secretary for the Central Iowa Collaborative Collections Initiative (CI-CCI).

Lauren Claeys, Cataloger at the University of Iowa Libraries, was elected to serve as Member At-Large for 2025-2026. Lauren was the 2023 recipient of ILA/ ACRL’s Mary Iber Spring Conference Scholarship Award and she participated in the 2024 ILA Leadership Institute.

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to run for office this past year.

Jodie Morin, chair of the Membership Committee and Vice President/President Elect

This is a reminder that a Zoom ILA/ACRL Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 7 at 1 pm.

• Thursday, November 7 from 1:00 to 1:50 pm, Topic: Professional Development and informal conversations.

Check your email for the Zoom link and more details!

More information about the organization can be found on the ILA/ACRL Website.

Ellen Neuhaus – On behalf of the ILA/ACRL Electronic Communication Committee [Ellen Neuhaus (chair), Eleanor Ball, Claire Bowling, and Liz Winter]

• Here are the November 2024 professional development opportunities, both free and paid!
• If you know of webinars, classes, conferences, publishing opportunities, etc. that would be of interest to fellow Iowa library folks, please pass it along to one of us on the ILA/ACRL Professional Development Committee.

ACRL Presents Webinars and Online Discussion Forums

• Webinar archive

Choice-ACRL

• Beyond history: Using primary sources in interdisciplinary teaching and research – Nov. 12, 2024

• The Geopolitics of the Internet and Its Implications for the Governance of AI – Nov. 19, 2024

• Class Is in Session: The Library’s Role in OER Adoption – Nov. 21, 2024

  • Archive

EBSCO 

• Recurring trainings and open question sessions on new EBSCO UI

  • View all

News Literacy Project

• Teach With TikTok: Help students stick to the facts on social media  – Nov. 14, 2024

• Niche Academy

• Congress.gov: Taking the Fear out of Questions about Congress – Nov. 6, 2024

  • Archive

NNLM (selected) 

• Providing Multilingual Health Information – Nov. 7, 2024

• Open Tools for Data De-identification – Nov. 7, 2024

• A Guide to Getting Started in Research and Publishing – Nov. 13, 2024

• Creating Maawn Doobiigeng: Developing A New Classification System for a Tribal Library – Nov. 15, 2024

• Providing Mental Health Resources at Your Library – Nov. 20, 2024

  • See more

OCLC (selected)

• How do we rebuild trust in authoritative information sources? – Nov. 12, 2024

• Understanding linked data and what it means for your library – Nov. 20, 2024

  • See more
  • On-demand webinars

Programming Librarian

• Media Literacy Education for Adult Audiences: Decoding Algorithms – Nov. 13, 2024

• Media Literacy Education for Adult Audiences: Navigating the Attention Economy – Nov. 20, 2024

  • Archive

Ballots for the election of Iowa ARL officers were sent out to all active Iowa ACRL members on Wednesday, October 30. The voting period will run from October 30, beginning at 8:00 a.m., until Friday, Nov. 8, at 5:00 p.m. If you did not receive a ballot and believe that you should have, please check the following: Did you update your email address recently? Ballots were sent to whatever email you use for ILA business. This may or may not be your work address. Check your spam filter. Emails were sent from a uiowa.edu address and the subject line references the ILA/ACRL election. Please contact me to get a paper ballot or to check on your ACRL membership status. I can be reached at morinj@bvu.edu

We are proud to announce the recipient of the ILA/ACRL Scholarship to the ILA Annual Conference. Congratulations to Ashley Wildberg!

Biography

Ashley lives in downtown Des Moines, Iowa with their husband and dog. They are currently an online SLIS student with the University of Iowa, with a concentration in archives and special collections. They plan on graduating in two years. They also work as a reference associate at the State Historical Society of Iowa, where besides helping patrons with research questions they do cataloging and make archival-quality containers for books. They graduated in 2020 from Drake University with a BA in drawing, minors in English and graphic design, and the honors program. They also worked at the Drake archives for over a year as an undergrad, which was the original inspiration to pursue librarianship as a career. They are very grateful to have received the scholarship and had an illuminating experience at the conference. It has reaffirmed their professional goal of improving the quality of diversity, equity, and inclusion in whatever space they work in through leadership and effective change.

Quote

“As a student new to the professional field of librarianship, I came away from the conference with the impression that, for leaders in the field, community organizing and political activism with government bodies are a fundamental part of the position.”

 

Please join your ACRL Executive Board for our Fall Business Meeting, to be held virtually on Friday, October 25 at 1:00 p.m.  This meeting is open to all ACRL members.

Check your email for the link to the Zoom meeting.

Dear members,

This is a reminder that a Zoom ILA/ACRL Town Hall meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, October 2 at 10 am.

• Wednesday, October 2 from 10:00 to 10:50 am, Topic: Upcoming ILA Annual Conference and informal conversations.

Check your email for the Zoom link and more details!

More information about the organization can be found on the ILA/ACRL Website.

Ellen Neuhaus – On behalf of the ILA/ACRL Electronic Communication Committee [Ellen Neuhaus (chair), Eleanor Ball, Claire Bowling, and Liz Winter]