CARLI News June 24, 2026
ILDS Turnaround Time Change Begins June 29
Due to sustainability, efficiency, and safety reasons, the Consortium for Academic & Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), the Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS), and the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) are announcing a change to the Illinois Library Delivery Service (ILDS).
We are moving the RAILS and IHLS delivery vans′ regular meetup time. Currently, RAILS and IHLS shuttles meet every weeknight in Champaign to exchange materials. These shuttles will meet during the day, rather than at night effective June 29.
This change will mean that some items will now have a 48-hour turnaround time instead of 24 hours. The change will only impact items that are traveling between two separate hubs. Items that stay within their respective systems′ service areas will be unaffected.
Other than this change, statewide interlibrary loan delivery will remain the same. We at CARLI, IHLS, and RAILS understand that ILDS is a significant benefit for our member libraries.
IHLS and RAILS libraries that do not participate in CARLI will see little to no change in their delivery turnaround times.
We appreciate your understanding in this matter and hope this change will cause minimal disruption to our interlibrary loan delivery patterns.
For more information, please contact the following organizations:
- CARLI: support@carli.illinois.edu, or 217.244.7593
- IHLS: delivery@illinoisheartland.org, or 618.467.8683
- RAILS: communications@railslibraries.org, or 630.734.5000
Save the Date: CARLI Annual Meeting and Annual Directors Meeting
Mark your calendars for the CARLI Annual Meeting, to be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 10, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign. There will be a meeting of the CARLI Governing Directors preceding the annual meeting.
Registration information will be shared as soon as it becomes available.
CARLI Committee Appointments and Annual Reports
The appointment process for the 2026-2027 CARLI committees is now complete!
Staff from fifty-three member libraries will serve on CARLI Committees in 2026-2027. As in previous years, we will keep the volunteer list on file for any additional openings that may occur this year. We offer our sincere thanks to all those who volunteered to serve on the CARLI committees. To review the committee charges and rosters, visit the Committee Directory in the Governance section of the CARLI web site.
We also encourage you to view the committee's annual reports. The reports detail the activities of each committee and give a big picture of their collaborative efforts.
CARLI's committees play a vital role in the ongoing success of the organization, and the service of all our volunteers maintains the tradition of commitment to developing and maintaining quality programs and services that enhance CARLI′s reputation in Illinois and beyond.
The efforts of CARLI committee members provide a critical service to the organization and to all Illinois libraries, and we offer our thanks and deep appreciation for their service.
CARLI Announces Recipients of Scholarships for 2027–2027 Academic Year
CARLI is pleased to announce 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 Levi Curtis, University of Chicago; and Kennedy Gerton, Greenville University.
The scholarship is funded by donors who have generously supported this important program, helping CARLI to grow the profession.
"Thanks to the financial support from the CARLI Scholarship, I will be able to give more directed focus toward my studies instead of the costs of my courses. I am incredibly grateful to have this support to further pursue my studies related to accessibility and technology in the realm of libraries and archives. I hope that this extra attention to my studies will go on to improve my current work at the University of Chicago and support the local communities I find myself a part of in the future. I look forward to making the most out of the rest of my time at UIUC!" Curtis 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.
Gerton added "I am honored to accept CARLI's scholarship offer. Thank you for supporting my education and my next steps into the CARLI community. This opportunity will allow me to pursue academic excellence and expand my capacity to care for Greenville University's library and patrons. I am deeply grateful to all the family members, professors, coworkers, and CARLI members who have encouraged and inspired me to explore work that brings me great joy. "
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 scholarship program webpage.
CARLI Ebook Program Update – June 2026
Additional information is available on the CARLI Ebook Program webpage.
University of Illinois Press Ebooks
CARLI has finalized its agreement with the University of Illinois Press and ebooks published from 2014 – June 2027 will be available to all CARLI Governing Members on the JSTOR platform. The difference from the previous year’s access is the additional content for July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027.
New Publisher: Bloomsbury
CARLI is pleased to announce that the CARLI Governance Board has allocated CARLI funds to grow the CARLI Ebook Program!
As of July 1, 2026, all CARLI Governing Members will have access to Bloomsbury Collections that includes ebooks from Bloomsbury and its imprints from 2020 – June 2028. This is a consortial evidence-based acquisitions program with access for both FY27 (titles from 2020 – June 2027) and FY28 (titles from 2020 – June 2028). CARLI will make selections for perpetual access in summer 2027 and summer 2028. Members will also have the opportunity to purchase consortial access to ebooks.
Please see full information about Bloomsbury on the CARLI Ebook Program webpage.
New Consortial Vendor: Project Muse
CARLI is working with Project MUSE for access to ebooks for all Governing Members. More information will be shared when this agreement is finalized.
Virtual CARLI New Directors' Institute
Join us for the Summer 2026 Virtual CARLI New Directors' Institute held across two-hour Zoom sessions on July 13 and July 21.
The CARLI New Directors' Institute is designed for library directors in their roles for three years or less; however, all CARLI member library directors are welcome to attend.
Please register to attend each session. All programs will be recorded except the final Directors' Panel.
Session 1: July 13 - 9:00–11:00 a.m.
- 9:00 a.m. "Communicating with the 'Dark Side' - Dr. Sarah Zehr Gantz
- 10:00 a.m. "Critical Data Storytelling for Libraries" - Dr. Kate McDowell
- Join Dr. Sarah Zehr Gantz and Dr. Kate McDowell to learn skills for communicating with your administration and how to craft evidence-based narratives for library advocacy and impact!
Session 2: July 21 - 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
- 10:00 a.m. "CARLI Services Overview" - CARLI Staff
- 11:00 a.m. "Directors' Panel: Sharing Experience, Answering Questions"
Learn about CARLI Services and benefit from the perspective of experienced library directors at CARLI-member libraries.
Design, Build, Refine, Repeat – Supporting Active Learning with 3D Printing
CARLI is pleased to share with its members webinars that provide an overview of 3D printing as well as practical advice. There will also be Office Hours offered for you to ask additional questions.
3D printing as a process for creating real-world objects from digital models has hit its stride in the consumer and academic spheres, and many places of learning are now equipped with some form of 3D printing – though a lot of printers are, sadly, collecting dust. Educators are looking beyond the initial novelty of these devices and imagining ways to deploy them for pedagogical support, and curricula that integrate 3D printing no longer need to be limited to pure tech or engineering disciplines.
This workshop will provide participants with a brief overview of 3D printing as a concept and a process, as well as practical advice on how to make the most out of a 3D printer in the classroom. Whether you want to create tangible, customized learning objects to facilitate understanding of complex ideas, or you want to actually include your students in the design process and foster a mindset of iterative "productive struggle", join us for this session to spark your creativity and get excited about 3D printing!
The webinar content will be the same for all sessions. Registration is required. All CARLI Members are invited to attend these sessions.
Webinars:
Office Hours:
Electronic Resources Management Tea (ERMT)
The ERMT: Electronic Resources Management Tea is continuing through the summer!
Join us on the fourth Wednesday of the month from 9–9:45 a.m. on Zoom.
More information about ERMT is shared on the CARLI E-Resource Contacts mailing list. If you are not currently a subscriber, visit the link to subscribe.
LibreTexts Workshops
These workshops are part of a series of workshops designed for the support of Open Education Resources in the State of Illinois for the CARLI member institutions who have opted to use LibreTexts. Please share with faculty and staff who are interested in Open Education Resources. Please register in advance for each session.
OER Adopting, Adapting, and Creating with LibreTexts - July 13 at 2 p.m.
Please join CARLI as we demonstrate some of the uses of LibreTexts for OER project planning and management. This workshop will also demonstrate how to get started on adopting, adapting, remixing, or creating your OER project.
Creating Ancillaries with LibreStudio and Adapt on LibreTexts - July 22 at 1 p.m.
Are you interested in adding dynamic assignments to your Open Educational Resources? Want to learn how to add H5P learning tools to your course materials? Or create stored testbanks to accompany the OER materials in your class? Then, this is the course for you. You should also request access to LibreStudio and Adapt on the LibreTexts site prior to the class so we can get you started creating new learning tools.
Professional Development Alliance Events
The following programs from the 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!
- Digital Possibilities Webinar Series
- July 8: Session 4: Digital Realities and Possibilities for a Sousa Archives Researcher
- July 15: Session 5: Meet the Chicago Collections Consortium and Revs Institute
- July 29: Session 6: Strategic Approaches to Transcription
- July 22: An Open Conversation: Building Accessibility into Vendor Relationships Under ADA Title II
To register, visit the CARLI Event Calendar.
Recordings of past CARLI-sponsored PDA events are available on the Professional Development Alliance website when permitted by the presenter.
View recordings of past AI-specific PDA webinars offered this fiscal year, compiled by Minitex.
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!
Digital Possibilities Webinar Series hosted by CARLI and FLVC:
The University of Illinois' Sousa Archives and Center for American Music is both a special collections music archives and museum whose historical collections document diverse music cultures, legacies, and technologies in North, Central, and South America as well as portions of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Our collections are meant to be actively engaged by people of all ages and music backgrounds and abilities. Our philosophy is grounded in providing access to our music collections using all available resources and technologies to enable our visitors to engage with our collections physically, intellectually, and actively. In this presentation, Scott Schwartz will highlight how the Sousa Archives approaches on-site and online public engagement to its music collections using some of today′s digital technologies.
Session 5: Meet the Chicago Collections Consortium and Revs Institute - July 15, 10:00–11:00 a.m.
The Chicago Collections Consortium (CCC) is a membership organization of 60+ institutions composed of public and private universities, public libraries, special libraries, museums, and other repositories with collections that chronicle the rich history of Chicago. Its portal, EXPLORE Chicago Collections, is its flagship initiative, providing "one stop shopping": a site for researchers, teachers, students, and the public to find digital images and locate archival holdings on Chicago topics without searching individual institutions′ online catalogs one at a time. Founded in 2012 with twelve governing members, CCC has since grown to 60+ members. Ellen Keith, Executive Director, will discuss the portal, the organization′s other outreach activities, and the organization′s next steps in its second decade.
Revs Institute will share how they are embracing emerging technologies and digital dissemination to expand access, enhance discovery, and preserve specialized knowledge. Arthur Carlson, Director of Archives and Research Center - Revs Institute, will highlight current projects at Revs Institute including a machine learning metadata generation project, the development of a specialized large language learning model to support research, and efforts to document and share specialized at-risk knowledge and share that with the world.
Session 6: Strategic Approaches to Transcription - July 29, 1:00 p.m.
Liz Bloodworth, Illinois Wesleyan University, will discuss the use of AI tools for transcription of both oral history interviews and handwritten text documents. With increasing demands on staff time, especially in small shop archives, AI offers an opportunity to enhance the discoverability of archival materials through efficient transcription. Liz will share tips for using AI tools ethically and responsibly, stressing the importance of human review throughout the process.
Then, Chris Levesque will discuss digital engagement in the University of West Florida′s Citizen Archivist Projects. During Library Week 2025 and 2026, the UWF University Libraries hosted participatory transcription events of letters and ship logs from their Digital Archives. This effort is built on the well-known National Archives′ Citizen Archivist model to engage students, faculty, and the larger UWF community. This talk will discuss selection of materials, implementation of the project, and lessons learned.
An Open Conversation: Building Accessibility into Vendor Relationships Under ADA Title II – July 22, 1:00 p.m.
In this virtual, open conversation on building accessibility into vendor relationships under ADA Title II, discuss with library and consortial colleagues what the recent deadline extension means for you, share your experience setting content priorities, compliance workflows, and adding accessibility clauses into contracts, and consider how we can work together in these efforts.
Other Library News
CMC Cataloging Courses and Online with CMC Webinars from IHLS
- In the Right Order: The Sequence of Series Authority Records - Aug. 13, 2026. Register in L2.
Join CMC Cataloger Mary Cornell as they look at the basics of series authority records, including fields in a record, traced/untraced series, and the different kinds of series records. - Press Start: Cataloging Games with RDA - Sept. 10, 2026. Register in L2.
Join CMC Cataloging Trainer Eric McKinney and Bibliographic Grant Manager Pamela Thomas as they guide you step by step through the process of cataloging video, outdoor, card, and board games using Resource Description and Access (RDA) guidelines. This session will provide practical insight into applying cataloging standards to games, highlighting key elements, common challenges, and best practices for creating accurate and consistent metadata. Ideal for catalogers, librarians, and information professionals, this webinar will help you build confidence in working with non-traditional materials, such as games. - Focus on Deriving a Record - September 21–October 4, 2026. Register in L2.
Have you found records in OCLC that are a match, but you need to create a new bibliographic record, or do you? If you find a close match, you can derive a new record. Eric McKinney will teach you how to do that.
HSLI Annual Conference
HSLI is seeking proposals for Lightning Talk Presentations for the Health Science Librarians of Illinois (HSLI) annual conference being held virtually, September 29 - October 1, 2026. The theme is "Preserving the Past, Inspiring the Present: Librarians Advancing Health Science".
Each presenter will have 10 minutes to present their Lightning Talk with a small set of slides (7 slides maximum). Topics can include any area of librarianship. Incorporating this year's conference theme is appreciated but not required. Student submissions are encouraged. If you have presented, or plan to present, a poster or lightning talk at another meeting this year (such as MLA or Midwest Chapter/MLA), recycling the content for HSLI is totally okay!
For consideration, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words using our submission portal. The deadline for abstract submission is July 20, 2026. Participants will be notified of acceptance no later than August 11, 2026. Once notified of acceptance, slides are due on September 10, 2026.
Any questions or concerns can be directed to Carmen Howard.
Upcoming CARLI Events and Meetings
Consult the CARLI calendar at to view the current list of meeting times and locations.
Contact Us
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