CARLI News April 30, 2025

Volunteer for a CARLI Committee: Deadline May 2!

If you have been considering volunteering for a CARLI committee, the time is now! The application period will remain open until May 2. Volunteers chosen for a committee will serve a three-year term. Faculty and staff from all CARLI member libraries are encouraged to apply! 

Service on CARLI committees and task forces affords individuals a unique opportunity to use their experience and expertise to help shape the future of the consortium and its services. You can find more information including the charges for the various committees from the committee directory.

We hope you will apply during the 2025 committee volunteer period!

Apply for the CARLI Scholarship by June 1

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. Scholarships may be awarded for both on-campus and/or distance education programs.
 
Applicants must be employed by a CARLI Governing Member Library at the time of application. Preference is given to full-time employees, but part-time and student employees may also apply. The applicant must also be enrolled or accepted and will be a student in a graduate school program during the academic year, semester, or academic quarter for which the scholarship is received. First-time recipients are given preference, but students may apply for and be awarded the scholarship more than once. Candidates awarded the scholarship must supply proof of admission or enrollment to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before the scholarship is disbursed. Applications are due on June 1, 2025.
 
Amount for the 2025–2026 academic year (August 2025–May 2026) will be a minimum of $1,000.
 
Based on available funding and application review, CARLI reserves the right to increase or decrease the award amount, and/or award multiple scholarships or no scholarships for any academic year.
 
An individual will be selected by the CARLI Scholarship Committee based on the following criteria:

• An applicant′s response to a personal essay question regarding his/her professional goals and objectives in pursuing a library career that demonstrates a commitment to the profession.
• Strength of references. Three CARLI Scholarship Reference Forms are required, at least one of which must be from a librarian at the applicant′s library. References may include additional comments or letters. 

Scholarship Committee members are appointed annually by the CARLI Senior Director.
 
Review the application instructions.

Give to the CARLI Scholarship Fund

We would like to thank our donors for their generous contributions to the scholarship fund. You can give to the scholarship fund online. The minimum donation is $5.00. We hope you will consider supporting future librarians and help CARLI grow the profession with a contribution.

Call for Proposals for CARLI OER Conference

CARLI is pleased to announce a two-day conference, Soaring with Open Educational Resources: Furthering the Role of Cooperative Development in OER. All CARLI members are invited to submit a proposal to share your experiences and your expertise with open educational resources. 

The conference′s purpose is to raise awareness of the ongoing work in Illinois around creating and adapting OER, specifically to showcase the Open Educational Resources (OER) textbooks and ancillary materials created by CARLI members and to highlight consortial support for OER from across the country, including US Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot consortial grant recipients and the Illinois State Library OER Grant program.

With this conference, CARLI wants to celebrate Illinois OER creators and learn how it can continue to support its members in their open education efforts!

Please submit your proposal by May 23.

The conference will be held at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign July 29–30.

13th Annual CARLI Instruction Showcase 

Registration is now open for CARLI′s 13th Annual Instruction Showcase!

This free virtual event is hosted by the CARLI Instruction Committee and will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, May 21, 9:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Please share with anyone at your institution who may be interested: we welcome all library staff and LIS students to this event in the hopes of expanding our community of practice.

This year′s program continues the committee's year-long theme of "Instructional Possibilities", which invites librarians to reflect on their praxis and explore ways to refresh their teaching.

• Keynote speaker Merinda Hensley will discuss the value of information literacy and instruction in shifting landscapes.
• Presentations by librarians from a variety of CARLI institutions will explore diverse themes clustered around Navigating Instructional Currents: Culture, Teaching, and Collaboration and Establishing New Waters: Emerging Technology and Developments.
• We are also delighted to host two panels of graduate students addressing these themes, so we can hear from emerging voices.
• The event will end with a networking opportunity. We are encouraging our graduate student participants to stay and build community with current instruction librarians: if you can set aside the time to join us and share your experiences with current and future colleagues, that would be wonderful.

Resource Sharing Open House

Come join colleagues from across Illinois to talk about resource sharing! The CARLI Resource Sharing Committee is pleased to announce our second in-person open house and discussion event where you can meet other library workers, grab lunch together, and talk about topics in library resource sharing.

This event will be hosted in-person on Friday, May 30 from 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m., at Harper College (WRH) in the morning and College of DuPage (COD) in the afternoon.

Agenda:

9:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m.: Arrival and Welcome at Harper College Library, Palatine
10:00 a.m. –11:30 a.m.: Resource sharing workflow tour and discussions 
11:30 a.m. –1:00 p.m.: Travel to College of DuPage E.E. Gibson Cafeteria in Glen Ellyn on the first floor of the Student Resources Center (SRC); lunch together at College of DuPage (purchase lunch at COD or bring your own lunch)
1:00 p.m.–1:15 p.m.: Arrival and Welcome at College of DuPage Learning Resource Center 
1:15 p.m.–3:00 p.m.: Resource sharing workflow tour and discussions 

Registration is required and limited to thirty people. The deadline for registering will be in mid-May.

Lunch and coffee will not be included. Plan to purchase lunch at the College of DuPage cafeteria, bring your own lunch, or to pick up a meal en route to COD.

Ask a Preservation Expert 

May 1, 10:00–11:00 a.m. 

Do you have questions about the best way to store and preserve your institution's collections? Join the CARLI Preservation Committee for Ask a Preservation Expert virtual office hours. Committee members will be on hand to answer questions, offer advice, and share resources to help you plan for the long-term preservation and access of your materials. The Preservation Committee includes members who specialize in archives and special collections, conservation, collections care, disaster planning, and more. 

Don't have a specific question? You're still welcome to join the session and hear what other CARLI members want to know. 

Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing

The CARLI Archives Task Force is pleased to host this two-day online program on May 14–May 15, 1:00–4:00 p.m. on each day.

Digitization can help bring your archival materials to life by making them accessible and easy to use in a variety of projects and settings. There are many reasons to start digitizing your institution′s holdings, and likely just as many stakeholders who want an institution's archival materials digitized. If you don′t have a digitization department, this work can seem daunting—even if you do have a digitization department, you might have good reasons to supplement their output. This webinar will cover getting started on digitization projects in the archives when you do not have many resources.

We will cover equipment recommendations, digitization workflows, metadata, and platforms and tools for managing, accessing, and working with digitized or born digital materials. During the webinar, we will discuss advocating for resources, project planning, and documentation, along with demonstrations. Options for hands-on exploration of several content management systems will be available to registered participants.

All sessions will be recorded.

Registration is required. Register once for both days. Attendees are invited to attend all the sessions or only those that interest them. 

Behind the Scenes: An Introduction to Archival Processing

The CARLI Archives Task Force is pleased to announce an in-person, hands-on archives processing workshop, "Behind the Scenes: An Introduction to Archival Processing" for CARLI members at National Louis University in Chicago on June 6. 

This workshop will offer hands-on experience with archival arrangement and description. Participants will have the opportunity to work through a hands-on processing activity using a real archival collection, tour the National Louis University Archives, and network with others doing archival work.

As this program has limited space, registration is limited to two people from the same CARLI institution. All who register will be placed on a waitlist. You will receive a confirmation email if your registration changes from waitlist to confirmed.

More details and registration can be found on the program webpage.

ACRL Assessment in Action Workshop

CARLI, Illinois State University, and Illinois Wesleyan University, are pleased to host ACRL Assessment in Action: Demonstrating and Communicating Library Contributions to Student Learning and Success. The roadshow will be held on Thursday, June 5, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., at the Illinois State University Alumni Center,
 
In this full-day interactive workshop on strategic and sustainable assessment, participants will identify institutional priorities and campus partners, design an assessment project grounded in action research, and prepare a plan for communicating the project results. Librarians, library staff, and library administrators will learn how to design and implement robust assessments, collaborate with key institutional partners, and communicate assessment activities in engaging and effective ways. Presented by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).
 
Designed for:

• All librarians, library staff, or library administrators that seek to design and implement a student success assessment project.
• Library staff or administrators who want to identify and improve relationships with campus partners and stakeholders.
• Library staff of administrators who want to align library assessments with institutional priorities.
• Library staff or administrators with little or no previous experience with the assessment cycle.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
 
Attendance is limited to one hundred. The non-refundable registration cost is $50, payable by credit card.

Offer to CARLI Members from Library Juice Academy

Library Juice Academy is pleased to offer CARLI member libraries a 20% discount on online courses for librarians, archivists, and library staff. Course topics include cataloging, social media, controlled vocabularies, technology, metadata, digital curation, OER, instructional design, digital humanities, artificial intelligence, and more.

Please contact CARLI Support to obtain the discount code that you can use at checkout. Thank you to Library Juice Academy for supporting our professional development goals!

Call for Submissions to the Shared Documentation Depository

The Technical Services Committee encourages submissions to the Shared Documentation Depository, a vital resource for the I-Share community, providing accessible and collaborative documentation to support library operations and services. We are excited to invite new contributors like you to share your expertise by submitting valuable documentation and resources to expand our collective knowledge base.
 
If you have created or maintained documentation, templates, or guides in your library, we encourage you to share them with the community. Your contributions can make a significant difference to other libraries facing similar challenges or exploring new opportunities. 

We welcome webpages, LibGuides, and other online guides or instructions! Simply drop the URL(s) into the appropriate field in the Smartsheet form when you submit your documentation. 

We recommend contributing documents, webpages, LibGuides, or other resources that describe your library′s acquisitions, cataloging, e-resources, or Alma/Primo workflows. We are also seeking training documents related to Technical Services duties, especially those designed for early-career librarians or student employees. 

Submit your contributions via this Smartsheet form. Please ensure you have the appropriate permissions to share the content before submission. 

We are here to support you throughout this process. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to us.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to share your knowledge and contribute to the success of our shared community. Together, we can continue to build a robust and practical depository for all.

Partial Registration Support for Creative Commons Certificate 

Partial registration support is available for up to five library workers at CARLI member institutions to participate in the Creative Commons Certificate Program.

Creative Commons (CC) licensing is a type of license commonly used with open educational resources. The course delves into the Creative Commons licenses and open practices. This 10-week certificate course is asynchronous, online training, with options for synchronous discussions. 

To qualify, members must register for a course that begins prior to June 30, 2025. In return for CARLI's financial contribution to your registration fee, we ask that you provide CARLI with at least two of the resources you created during the certificate program so that all of CARLI may benefit from these projects.

For complete details on how to register for the course and receive the MHEC discount, please visit the program web page.

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!

• May 2: AI Competencies for Library Workers
• May 6: Breaking Boundaries: Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence to Transform Florida Library Services
• May 8: Critical Cataloging and the American Library Association Subject Analysis Committee
• May 14–15: Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing
• May 21–22: Florida OER Summit: Engage and Empower
• May 22: Reviving the Hennepin County Authority File

• June 2: Leadership Series Part 2: Developing Leadership Skillsets
• June 11: NISO Webinar: AI & the Research Cycle (Phase II: Data Collection & Analysis)
• June 11: Summer Digitization Series: Integrating AI into Digital Collections: Strategy and Practice at Yale Library

• July 2: Summer Digitization Series: From Analog to Digital: The Journey of Digitization
• July 16: Summer Digitization Series: Digitization Projects Showcase 1
• July 22: Leadership Series Part 3: Cultural Competence in Leadership
• July 23: Summer Digitization Series: Digitization Projects Showcase 2

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. 
 
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!

AI Competencies for Library Workers

May 2, 1:00–2:30 p.m.

At the start of his term in June 2024, ACRL President Leo Lo established a task force to develop comprehensive AI competencies for library workers, aligning with the evolving needs of academic libraries. In this session, Dr. Lo and the co-chairs of the task force— Keven Jeffery and Jason Coleman—will present the most recent draft of the competencies, describe the processes used to create them, and discuss how they can be applied by library administrators, educators, faculty, and staff to help us and our patrons adapt to new ways of creating, consuming, analyzing, and describing information.

Summer Digitization Series

Join CARLI and FLVC for a series of digitization webinars on Wednesdays in June and July! 

Integrating AI into Digital Collections: Strategy and Practice at Yale Library

June 11, 1:00–2:00 p.m. 

Mike Appleby, Director of Software Engineering, and Jonathan Manton, Director of Digital Special Collections and Access at Yale Library, will explore the thoughtful integration of artificial intelligence into Yale Library′s digital collections ecosystem. 

Mike will introduce a prototype application, Digital Collections AI, which leverages large language models (LLMs) to analyze OCR-transcribed texts from Yale′s digitized collections. This tool can rapidly summarize content, extract entities such as people, places, and subjects, and even perform stylistic analyses, thereby enhancing researchers' ability to explore and interpret vast amounts of digitized material.

Jonathan will provide strategic context, outlining how this tool aligns with Yale Library′s broader goals for responsible innovation and sustainable stewardship of the library′s digital collections. Together, they will reflect on the opportunities and challenges of embedding AI in cultural heritage workflows, offering insights for institutions navigating similar paths. 
  
From Analog to Digital: The Journey of Digitization 

 July 2, 1:00–2:00 p.m. 

This presentation explores the transformative journey from physical to digital formats, using the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida as a case study. We will walk through the step-by-step digitization process, from selection and preparation to capture, metadata creation, and long-term digital access. Attendees will gain insight into the key tools and technologies that power modern digitization workflows. The session will also highlight critical questions institutions should ask before launching a digitization project—such as identifying priorities, planning for scalability, and ensuring accessibility. Whether you′re just beginning or refining your digitization strategy, this session offers practical guidance rooted in real-world experience.
 
Digitization Projects Showcase 1
 
July 16, 1:00–2:00 p.m. 

The CARLI Preservation Committee is delighted to showcase digitization projects at Illinois libraries as part of the Summer Digitization Webinar Series in partnership with the Florida Virtual Campus. 

Project 1: "Using Multispectral Imaging to Augment Digitized West African Manuscripts" presented by Stephanie Gowler, Northwestern University Libraries

Project 2: "Collaborative Preservation at the Crossroads of Science and History: Digitizing the Barnard Atlas" presented by Christina Miranda, University of Chicago Library. 

Digitization Projects Showcase 2

 July 23, 1:00–2:00 p.m. Central Time

Join the CARLI Preservation Committee for a second showcase of impressive digitization projects happening at Illinois libraries. 

Project 1: "Picturing Lincoln: Digitizing a Physical Collection at the ALPLM" presented by Kelsey Wise and Matthew Deihl, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Project 2: "Collaborative Preservation at the Crossroads of Science and History: Digitizing the Barnard Atlas" presented by Abigail Mann and Liz Bloodworth, Illinois Wesleyan University.

Preservation Tip

Promoting Collections Care in Academic Libraries
Liz Bloodworth, Illinois Wesleyan University

The goal of collecting rare books and manuscripts in academic libraries often revolves around the use of those collections by students. From a preservation perspective, promoting student use must be balanced with prioritizing care. For archivists and special collections librarians, time with students is often limited to one-shot instruction sessions. This reality leaves little space for thorough overviews of collections care. As a result, we often must find creative ways to encourage responsible and safe handling of archival materials.

Learn more about how assigning pre-work, promoting and modeling best practices during in-person sessions, having appropriate signage, and using tools and collection housings to signal the need for careful handling of materials can provide a multipronged approach to share collections care information with students.

Other Library News

HSLI Call for Proposals

The Health Science Librarians of Illinois Annual Conference will be both in person and virtual in 2025. The virtual portion will be held November 11–13. The in-person event is on Friday, 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.

If you have presented, or plan to present, a poster or a lightning talk at another meeting this year (such as MLA or Midwest Chapter/MLA), recycling content at HSLI is fine! Posters will be in electronic format only. If you would prefer a lightning talk, you can submit a small set of slides (5 or fewer). Each presenter will have 5-10 minutes to discuss their poster or lightning talk. 

Ideas can include, but are not limited to, any area of librarianship, such as instruction, leadership, DEI initiatives, program development, communication, collections and collection management, outreach, and evaluation. Incorporating this year's Conference theme is appreciated but not required. Student submissions are encouraged. 

For either submission type, presenting author(s) must register for the conference and be available virtually to present (exact time TBD). There may also be an opportunity to present in person. More information about the conference can be found on the HSLI website.

For consideration, please submit an abstract (including your preference for a lightning talk or poster presentation) of no more than three hundred words to Carmen Howard. The deadline for submission is Monday, September 15. Participants will be notified of acceptance no later than Tuesday, September 30. Once notified of acceptance, posters or slides are due on Friday, October 31. 

Any questions or concerns can be directed to Carmen Howard, HSLI Conference Planning Committee, at the address above.

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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If you need disability-related accommodations to participate in any of the events mentioned below, please email the CARLI Office. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs.