CARLI News July 30, 2025

CARLI Annual Meeting, 20th Anniversary Celebration, and Annual Directors Meeting 

Please plan to joins us for the CARLI Annual Meeting and 20th Anniversary Celebration, to be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign!

There will be a meeting of the CARLI Governing Directors preceding the annual meeting.

We are pleased to announce that Scott Carlson, Senior Writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, will be our keynote speaker for the event.

Registration is now open. The complete agenda will be posted to the event page later this summer. 

For your convenience, CARLI staff have secured a block of rooms for anyone that would like to make a reservation at the I Hotel the night before the meeting. Please visit this booking link and use this information to enter the block reservation area: 

• Group/Block Code: CARLI1025
• Password yPY8^

We hope you will join us! 

CARLI Announces Recipients of Scholarships for 2025–2026 Academic Year

CARLI is pleased to announce the recipients of the CARLI 2025–2026 Academic Year Scholarship that helps support the education of the dedicated staff of CARLI member libraries. The recipients are Allison Barrows, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Kaitlyn Godsil, Knox College; Joanna Kulma, Northern Illinois University; Brandon Neary, College of DuPage; Elynnor Sandefer, Newberry Library; Ailyn Trujillo, Harper College; and Alexandria Vlahos, Lewis and Clark Community College. 

The scholarship is funded by donors who have generously supported this important program, helping CARLI to grow the profession.

"I am thrilled to be a recipient of the CARLI Scholarship. Working towards my MSLIS has been a wonderful journey. I'm looking forward to finishing my last two semesters in the program and continuing to work in libraries in the future.  Thank you to the scholarship committee and my colleagues at Founders Memorial Library for always encouraging me" Kulma said.

The recipients were selected based on their responses to a personal essay question regarding their professional goals and objectives in pursuing a library career that demonstrates a commitment to the profession and the strength of their references.

Trujillo added “I am honored to be a recipient of the 2025 CARLI Scholarship! I would like to thank the CARLI Scholarship donors and committee for making this award possible to help MSLIS students reach their goals. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and colleagues at the Harper College Library for their encouragement and support of my library journey so far.” 

The CARLI Scholarship provides financial assistance to current employees of CARLI Governing Member Libraries pursuing graduate studies leading to a Master′s Degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The scholarship is funded by donations. To contribute, visit the CARLI website at https://www.carli.illinois.edu/give.

"Behind the Scenes: An Introduction to Archival Processing" Slides Available

On June 6, the CARLI Archives Task Force hosted an in-person program "Behind the Scenes: An introduction to Archival Processing” This workshop offered hands on experience with archival arrangement and description. Participants worked through a hands-on processing activity using a real archival collection, toured the National Louis University Archives, and networked with others doing archival work.

The slides from this program are now available. 

These resources as well as the resources for previous CARLI Archives Task Force programs are available on the CARLI Archives and Special Collections Resources webpage in the Training section.

Professional Development Alliance Events

The following programs from the Professional Development Alliance (https://www.carli.illinois.edu/professional-development-alliance) are currently on the calendar. Programs are offered on a wide variety of subjects. Check out everything the alliance is making available to our libraries!

• August 6: Framing Our Value: “Selling” Research and Instruction Services Through Meaningful Faculty Outreach 
• August 7: Summer Book Bash: Book Buzz with Disney, Lee & Low, and Sourcebooks
• August 14: Summer Book Bash: Book Buzz with Abrams, Harlquin, and Hachette
• August 21: Summer Book Bash: Summer Romance with Ronni Davis, Kaitlyn Hill, Jason June, and Jackie Khalilieh

• September 4: Embracing Failure: Accepting and Addressing Imposter Phenomenon for Growth
• September 9: Building a Sustaining Content Maintenance Schedule through Summer LibGuides Challenges
• September 16: Game On! Leveling Up in Cataloging and Acquisitions
• September 18: Co-Creating a Student-Centered Research Support Service

• October 1: Save the Date: Critical Data Storytelling for Libraries: Crafting Ethical Narratives for Advocacy and Impact
• October 8: Information for All: Fostering Belonging Through Access to Educational Materials

Recordings are now available from the Summer Digitization Webinar Series: Dive into Digital.

Recordings of other past CARLI-sponsored PDA events are available on the Professional Development Alliance website when permitted by the presenter. 
 
Are you interested in presenting a topic for CARLI members and the Professional Development Alliance? Or would you like to moderate a follow up discussion for an upcoming program? Email us to become more involved in CARLI's continuing education efforts!

Preservation Tip

Preservation Survey Demonstrates the Persistent Need for Collaboration
Brad Wiles, Northern Illinois University

The CARLI Preservation Committee will soon release the results and official report of a consortium wide survey on the status of collections preservation across its member institutions. The 2025 survey utilized many of the same questions as the previous survey conducted in 2015, capturing information on institutional resources, personnel, and activities related to physical and digital collections preservation activities. In some instances, the new survey sought more detailed and granular information about the types of budgetary and non-budgetary funds allocated for preservation. But the most substantial expansion from the 2015 survey included a section with questions attempting to gain a better understanding of respondents’ knowledge and preferences around preservation staff development and training. In 2015, the most selected preservation areas that members sought assistance or advice for were digital preservation, disaster and emergency management, and media preservation. In the 2025 survey, these three remained at the top along with digitization and reformatting, pointing to an even greater emphasis on the need for digital preservation skills development. 

The information gathered in the survey will help the CARLI Preservation Committee coordinate programs and develop resources that will benefit member institutions and the individuals conducting preservation work. Read the full article and view additional articles in the Preservation Outreach and Engagement Series.

Other Library News

Two Week Crash Course in Collection Development Offered in August

Do you want to learn how to write a collection development policy and learn how to weed your collection? Dr. Pamela Thomas will spend two weeks discussing collection development in the course, "Focus on Collection Development" offered August 18-31. 

Register in L2.

Western Illinois University Librarian Faculty Named 2025 Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year 

The Western Illinois University (WIU) Librarian Faculty; Jeff Hancks, Michael Lorenzen, Krista Bowers Sharpe, Julia Thompson, Sean Cordes, Michelle Holschuh Simmons, Brian Clark, and Hunter Dunlap, are collectively the 2025 recipients of the Illinois Library Association (ILA) Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award. A ninth WIU librarian who also lost their job has successfully found a position outside Illinois and chooses to be an anonymous award recipient. 

The award, presented by the ILA Illinois Association of College and Research Libraries (IACRL) Forum, recognizes Illinois librarians who make an outstanding statewide contribution to academic or research librarianship and to library development. The award is sponsored by Library Juice Academy. 

When the WIU library faculty were terminated in the summer of 2024 (effective May 2025), they began a large-scale collaboration to draw attention to the significant role of librarians in Higher Education. Librarian Krista Bowers Sharp created a YouTube series called “Library Magic” to emphasize the role and contributions of academic librarians. The library faculty also adopted a Resolution of Concern, writing numerous letters to WIU accreditation agencies about the deleterious effects on student learning that were engendered by the terminations. 

The efforts of the WIU Faculty Librarians to emphasize the important role of librarians in academia have received national attention. The librarians received media training from IFT/UPI union partners and were interviewed by television, radio, web, podcast, and print outlets, including The Washington Post, Vox, Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, and local NPR affiliates. The librarians’ efforts garnered over 10,000 supporters, who submitted petitions to the WIU Administration to attempt to have the cataclysmic decision reversed. 

Librarian Hunter Dunlap drafted legislation and served on the Coalition for Higher Education Libraries, which successfully lobbied the Illinois General Assembly to pass SJR13 in late May 2025. The law will create a blue-ribbon committee of legislators and university library stakeholders to strengthen the role of academic librarianship within Illinois.

The WIU Faculty Librarians created a website (savewiulibrarians.org) that tracks their news and their support. This site contains the CARLI Governance Board’s Statement on the Importance of Librarians in Academic Libraries as well as ILA's endorsement of that statement. The WIU Faculty Librarians developed two primary strengths as they contended with the unfortunate situation—they were unified and principled. The librarians met weekly, via Zoom, to keep up with each other and the changing details in their shared circumstance. These meetings created unity by providing an opportunity to plan, communicate, develop talking points, and provide support to each other during a very difficult time. Likewise, in their common struggle, they remained principled by focusing their campaign and press interactions on highlighting the harmful outcomes that the termination decision would have on WIU students and the campus community. 

IACRL is proud to recognize the fine work of our colleagues in bringing state and national attention to not only their own plight, but to the importance of academic librarianship. Their termination has spurred many uncomfortable conversations in academic institutions but has also inspired a recommitment to education and librarianship in many hearts. This award expresses our gratitude as well as our commiseration and sorrow. 

The Illinois Academic Librarian of the Year Award will be presented at an awards ceremony during the 2025 Illinois Library Association Annual Conference. The conference will take place October 14-16, 20 in Rosemont, Illinois. 

2025 Recipient of the ILA TBS, Inc.Technical Services Award

Dr. Pamela Thomas, Bibliographic Grant Manger at the Illinois Heartland Library System, is the recipient of the 2025 ILA TBS, Inc. Technical Services Award. 

The Illinois Library Association is proud to announce that Dr. Pamela Thomas, Bibliographic Grant Manager at the Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS), is the recipient of the 2025 Illinois Library Association TBS, Inc. Technical Services Award. 

This annual award, presented by the ILA Resources and Technical Services Forum and sponsored by Today’s Business Solutions, Inc. (TBS), is awarded to an individual who has made a substantial contribution in the area of library technical services, principally with a commitment to leadership, programming, and professional development in the technical services field. Dr. Thomas coordinates the Cataloging Maintenance Center (CMC), which provides cataloging support for members of Illinois library systems and consortia. 

Congratulations to Dr. Thomas!

Congratulations to 2025 Core Career LIFT Award Recipient

CARLI member librarian, Ricardo Rodriguez, Circulation Coordinator at Dominican University is the recipient of an ALA 2025 Core Career LIFT Award sponsored by OCLC. 

This award is designed to support information professionals whose passion, actions, and everyday work warrants recognition and celebration.

HSLI Call for Conference Proposals

The Health Science Librarians of Illinois Annual Conference will be both in-person and virtual in 2025. The Conference will be held virtually November 11-13, and in person November 14, in Champaign, IL. This year's theme is "Navigating the Future Now". HSLI is seeking proposals for both lightning talks and poster presentations.
 
Ideas can include any area of librarianship. Student submissions are encouraged. 
 
For either submission type, presenters must register for the conference and be available to present at the assigned time. There may also be an opportunity to present in person. More information about the Conference can be found at the HSLI website.
 
For consideration, please submit an abstract (including your preference for a lightning talk or poster presentation) of no more than 300 words to Carmen Howard. The deadline for submission is Monday, September 15. 
 
Any questions can be directed to Carmen Howard, HSLI Conference Planning Committee, at the address above. 

RAILS Leadership Coaching

RAILS is looking for professionals currently working in RAILS member libraries who are eager to expand their leadership responsibilities or enhance their impact in their current roles. 
 
Successful applicants will receive real-time coaching from Certified Professional Coach and respected leader Becky Thalmann. Over eight months, participants will engage in six monthly virtual sessions with a peer cohort and come together for two in-person meetings. 
 
Applications are due by Friday, August 15 at 11:59 p.m. 
 
Learn more via the RAILS Catalyst webpage. (L2 login required to access the application.)

Upcoming CARLI Events and Meetings

Consult the CARLI calendar to view the current list of meeting times and locations.

Contact Us

Please direct all questions and comments about the e-newsletter to CARLI Support. 

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