Public Services Committee Meeting: March 18, 2026

Public Services Committee Meeting: March 18, 2026

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Kristen Blankenship (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Kelly Fisher (Eureka College), Charity Ringel (University of Illinois Springfield), Gretchen Schneider (Oakton College) Dawn Sterning (Prairie State College), Diana Sykes, co-chair (Erikson Institute), Kate Tallman (Illinois State University)

Members absent: Beth Hultman, (Elgin Community College), Kimberly Shotick, co-chair (Northern Illinois University)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Amy Maroso

Decisions

  • Minutes of February 18, 2026 approved with corrections.

Tasks Assigned

  • Minutes taken by Kate Tallman.

Announcements

  • Member Announcements:
    • Kelly Fisher (Eureka College): Eureka College's remodeled library and student success center will have a soft opening on May 7 for the college's trustees. The stacks will be moved in and populated during the summer, with full re-opening of the library portion expected at the beginning of the fall semester.
    • Dawn Sterning (Prairie State College): Their Dean has been laid off, and library employees will now report to the Dean of Liberal Arts.
    • Charity Ringel (University of Illinois Springfield): Charity is leaving her position at the University of Illinois Springfield this summer.. UIS Library is  currently working on rewriting her job description, so keep an eye out for that.
  • CARLI Announcements:
    • Call for Committee Volunteers for FY27 (July 2026-June2027) is available until May 1.
    • Continuing Education. There are a lot of great webinars coming up. Here are some that are the most closely related to this committee
      • March 19, 12-1pm: CARLI Instruction Committee: To Teach or Not to Teach: How Censorship Appears in Library Instruction - A Guided Conversation
      • March 24, 2-3pm: From Memorization to Critical Thinking: An Embedded Librarian's Guide to Designing Higher-Order Assessments
      • March 25, 1-2pm: Beyond the Prompt: Building Sustainable AI Literacy Programming
      • March 31, 12-1pm: Personal Workflows, Tips, and Tricks to Make Our Jobs Easier
      • April 14, 12-1pm: Teaching Data Literacy
      • April 14, 1-2pm: Visibility Over Perfection: Social Media for Libraries
      • April 16, 1-2:30pm: Free Speech Needs Free Libraries: Censorship in Libraries and Academic Spaces – This is the first of a series of free programs put on by CARLI, Orbis Cascade Alliance, and PALCI – around the theme of “Free Speech Needs Free Libraries”. This features Theresa Chmara from Freedom to Read Foundation and Dr. Emily Knox (Dean of the UIUC iSchool). 

Discussion

  • Learning Commons and Collaborative Library Spaces Open Houses
    • April 8, 2026: Kishwaukee College and Northern Illinois University
      • Registration is available.
      • Any final logistics or planning – Kimberly has it handled.
      • Has there been an increase in non-committee registration? 
        • Amy and Elizabeth announced it to the whole CARLI email list and there are more registrations. It’s going out again in the next newsletter. There are currently 23 registrants. Catering doesn’t need the count until April 2nd.
    • May 27, 2026: Oakton College, Skokie and Des Plaines campuses
      • Logistics and planning
        • Gretchen wrote a blurb and sent to CARLI. She also worked on the schedule and questions for the panel. See the committee’s internal planning document. The panel will feature individuals from the different departments that work in/worked on the learning commons. There will be a 30-minute presentation, the panel with Q&A, a tour, travel to Skokie, groups discussion. 
        • The next PSC meeting will deal with more logistics and planning. Elizabeth sent Gretchen an email with logistics questions.
      • Blurb for registration – final event in the series
    • A Virtual Visit to the Sauk Valley Community College's Learning Commons on April 21, 2026 at 1-2p.m.
      • Charity and Gretchen volunteered to help moderate the chat and discussion. Elizabeth and Amy will provide a first slide and can introduce the speakers if they’d like. Diana will ask the speakers for brief bios for their introductions unless they prefer to introduce themselves during the program.
      • The presentation will be recorded, but the Q&A will not. Any slides given to CARLI for posting on the website need to be accessible. It’s very challenging. CARLI can, however, post the recording since it can be transcribed and made accessible for the website.  
      • Registration link – 29 are registered. 
  • Recap of the Spring OER/Public Services Joint Community Chat on March 5, 2026
    • This was an interesting chat. There was some discussion about wanting to see more cohesiveness between the two presentations. One was on programming/outreach and one was on OER. How did they connect? They put it under the umbrella of student engagement.
  • Other Business
    • The Committee’s Annual Report is due May 29. Kimberly and Diana will work on it together.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The Public Services Committee will meet next on April 15, 2026, at 10-11 a.m.

Committee Meetings:

September 17, 2025, minutes taken by: Kimberly Shotick 
October 15, 2025, minutes taken by: Dawn Sterning 
November 19, 2025, minutes taken by: Diana Sykes 
December 17, 2025, minutes taken by: Charity Ringel (in place of Kate Tallman)
January 21, 20326, minutes taken by: Kristen Blankenship 
February 18, 2026, minutes taken by: Kelly Fisher 
March 18, 2026, minutes taken by: Kate Tallman (in place of Beth Hultman)
April 15, 2026, minutes taken by: Charity Ringel 
May 13, 2026, minutes taken by: TBD
June 17, 2026, minutes taken by: TBD

Deadlines:

May 29, 2026: Committee Annual Report due