ARLIS/NA 54th Annual Conference

Register for the conference, pick up registration materials, or get conference information.

Self-Schedule Room
ARLIS/NA conference attendees may reserve a space in the self-schedule room for informal in-person meetings to be held during the conference. This space is meant for conversations and knowledge-sharing on topics related to art librarianship. Meetings may be private or open to all conference attendees. The room will be equipped for groups of up to 48 attendees. A/V and catering are not available. Click here to reserve the room. The deadline to sign-up is Friday, April 10th.  All meetings will be listed in Sched by April 17th.
 
If you have any difficulty with the registration form, or if you have any questions, please contact Gwen Mayhew ([email protected]).
 
Restrictions

• The room should not be used by vendors or sponsors. Vendors or sponsors wishing to reserve a space should reach out to ARLIS/NA conference planner Megan Brouwer ([email protected]). 

• The room should not be used by constituency groups (i.e. SIGs, Chapters or Divisions) for their annual meetings. Constituency group meetings are held virtually before or after the conference. CLICK FOR FORM HERE

Please note that adding a workshop to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the workshop. You must register via conference registration.

Art exhibition publications pose unique cataloging challenges and often require more use of cataloger's judgment than other types of art documentation. They usually necessitate intervention in terms of transposing, omitting, and supplying data, and choice of access points can be complicated.

This workshop will provide practical guidance to catalogers working with art exhibition publications by explaining issues and situations characteristic of this type of material. The four chapters of Cataloging Exhibition Publications: Best Practices, updated 2023-2025, will frame the program, and relevant standards and documentation will also be covered. Presentations by members of the Cataloging Advisory Committee will be supplemented by interactive learning activities, real-world examples, and discussion.

The workshop will include an overview of cataloging art exhibition publications; recommendations for applying RDA rules and policies; instruction on assignment of Library of Congress Subject Headings and use of controlled thesauri for genre/form access; and local considerations in selection of subject headings and name access points.

While especially helpful to catalogers, the workshop also welcomes new professionals and students interested in cataloging, solo librarians for whom cataloging is only a minor part of their job, and other art library workers.

Learning Objectives:
• An understanding of cataloging issues unique to art exhibition publications and familiarity with best practices and documentation.
• RDA rules and national policies applicable to transcription of title and statement(s) of responsibility, addition of notes, and selection of name and title access points.
• Use of controlled vocabularies for subject and genre/form access, especially assignment of LCSH in accordance with the relevant sections of the Library of Congress Subject Headings Manual.

Please note that adding a workshop to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the workshop. You must register via conference registration.

How do you see AI? What metaphors, images, and associations come to mind when you think about its impact on society and visual culture? For the past year, we have been exploring these questions through a series of public workshops that use collage inquiry—an arts-based research method that invites participants to construct meaning through layering and juxtaposition of images. Each workshop has featured a talk by an artist or scholar whose work critically examines AI, addressing issues such as intellectual property, social ethics, privacy, creative authorship, and surveillance. These talks have provided grounding and provocation, after which participants respond visually by creating collages from an array of provided ephemera.

In this workshop, rather than listening to a guest speaker, participants will engage directly in collage-making while learning about our project findings. In doing so, they will experience firsthand how collage inquiry can serve as a tool for reflecting on complex, rapidly evolving issues like AI—where metaphor, symbolism, and image association often reveal insights that elude purely verbal analysis.

Participants will leave with their own visual reflections on AI, strategies for incorporating collage inquiry into their teaching or outreach, and a deeper appreciation of how visual metaphor can open up new ways of understanding technological and cultural change.

Please note that adding a tour to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the tour. You must register using the tours registration link.

Cost : $ 35

Old Montréal – Origins, Presence, and Resistance
This tour explores the earliest documented presence of people of African descent in Montreal, beginning in the 17th century. Participants will learn about early Black figures and examine the realities of Black people in New France and under British rule. The tour also highlights sites connected to Black labour, resistance, and community formation, revealing how Black history is foundational to the city’s earliest development. Through architecture and place-based storytelling, participants gain a deeper understanding of how Black presence shaped Montreal from its beginnings.

Rito Joseph is the founder and lead tour guide of Black Montreal Experiences, where he brings Montreal’s Afro-descendant history to life through engaging and immersive storytelling. Blending culture, history, art, and music, he guides participants on a journey that uncovers the rich presence, lasting contributions, and demographic evolution of Black communities in the city.

Transportation : not provided.
Meeting point is a short walk from the hotel (9 minutes) at the the corner of McGill and Saint-Jacques streets, near Square-Victoria Metro. 

Important Information:
The tour will be offered in English, however the facilitator also speaks French.
$ All costs are in USD.

#madeinquebec

We are happy to announce that tour registration is now open to non-conference participants!
Please note that adding a tour to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the tour. You must register using the tours registration link.

Cost : $ 25

Starting from Dorchester Square, formerly Dominion Square, created in the 19th century and later becoming the gateway to downtown, this Heritage Montreal tour, led by an architect specializing in heritage conservation, traces the major stages of the city’s development. It takes visitors from early landmark buildings, such as Windsor Station and the cathédrale-basilique Marie-Reine-du-Monde, to large commercial complexes like the Sun Life and Dominion Square buildings, culminating with the iconic Place Ville Marie, a symbol of modernity. 

Transportation : not provided.
Dorchester square is a short walk (7 minutes) from the hotel. Meet your guide at the fountain in front of 1001 Dorchester Square.

Important Information:
The workshop will be offered in English, however the facilitator also speaks French.
$ All costs are in USD.

#madeinquebec

Please note that adding a workshop to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the workshop. You must register via conference registration.

This workshop will be led by experts who will share their perspective on professional branding in GLAM industries.

This workshop will take the format of individual lightning round feedback from panelists, with time allotted at the end for audience questions. Discussion will focus on strategies to present one’s skills and experiences to hiring committees in new and emerging media types. The workshop will closely analyze the role of digital tools such as portfolios and personal websites in the hiring process.

In addition to traditional resumes and CVs, digital methods of personal branding are emerging among graduate programs as an option for representing one’s work in professional spaces, and in some cases are submitted as graduation requirements. This workshop seeks to explore the ways in which these emerging digital tools may enhance or hinder an individual’s success in the job market, as well as which, if any, alternatives may better demonstrate one’s skills in a digital format. Attendees will explore how to effectively align early career experience to required and preferred qualifications. This workshop will also aim to discuss the best ways in which to include transferable skills in other industries into job requirements. Participants in this workshop will explore how to craft application documents in a variety of formats that illustrate how their skills meet the needs of the hiring organization.

Open to all ARLIS/NA members who lead, aspire to lead, or wish to support the evolution of our field and organization.

This year’s Institute has two parts. For the first half, we are excited to welcome Vesna Antwan, a Montreal-based professional coach, who will facilitate a workshop titled “Burnout Prevention: Navigating Stress and Building Resiliency in Challenging Times.” See below for the full workshop description. For the second half, we will focus on rethinking the structure of ARLIS/NA and brainstorming ways to make our work more sustainable for our members.

Burnout Prevention: Navigating Stress and Building Resiliency in Challenging Times

Burnout is not simply the result of working too hard, it is often the predictable outcome of chronic stress, structural constraints, and care-based professions being asked to do more with fewer resources. For those whose work sits at the intersection of service, education, and community care, burnout has become increasingly common and increasingly normalized.

This participatory 90-minute workshop invites participants to explore burnout through both an individual and systemic lens. Together, we will examine what burnout is (and what it isn’t), how it shows up emotionally and physically, and why resilience cannot rest solely on individual coping strategies. The session will combine short teaching segments, reflection, and facilitated group engagement to support shared language and collective insight.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

· Distinguish between stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout, and recognize early warning signs

· Understand the emotional, physical, and relational impacts of burnout, particularly in care-oriented and service-driven roles

· Identify how organizational culture and systemic pressures contribute to burnout

· Apply practical, realistic tools to support energy, boundaries, and resilience in the workplace and beyond

Participants will leave with greater clarity, shared language, and concrete strategies they can adapt to their own professional contexts — as well as a renewed sense that burnout is not a personal failure, but a collective challenge that deserves collective care.

Photo: Vesna Antwan, professional coach

A light snack will be provided. 
#food #madeinquebec

Please note that adding a tour to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the tour. You must register using the tours registration link.

Cost : $ 75

Discover the fundamentals of Riso pritning through a creative Zine worshop at No Gloss Risography Studio! Participants will produce and original creation (Illustration, collage etc.) on site and learn how to separate their work in 2 colours. All participants works will be grouped in a zine format that we will also print together. Throughout the workshop we will go over topics like transparencies, overlays and file preparation. Each participant will leave with a copy of the zine.

Transportation : not provided. 
The recommended transportation arrangements are to coordinate a shared Uber or to allocate sufficient time for travel via public transit (which involves significant walking).

Destination address : 5445 de Gaspé #609
Once you are in the buidling, chose the second set of elevators (see here). Go up to the 6th floor, take a right when you get our of the elevator, then another right to turn the corner and look for #609. There will be a little doorbell you can ring to inform Sophie of your presence.

Important Information :
The workshop will be offered in English, however the facilitator also speaks French.
All costs are in USD.

#madeinquebec

Please note that adding a tour to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the tour. You must register using the tours registration link.

Cost : $ 20

Located on McGill University’s downtown campus at the base of Mount Royal, Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) is home to McGill's historic humanities and social sciences library collections. RBSC collects a broad range of materials, from manuscript and published works to puppets, and is particularly strong in holdings related to Montreal and Canada, the history of printing, natural history, Enlightenment philosophy, and architecture. Enjoy a curator-led tour of collection highlights, with a special focus on Montreal’s history and built environment through books, photographs, and archives. We will finish the tour with a quick visit to the Book Arts Lab, featuring our refurbished 1821 Columbian printing press.

Spend a little extra time in the Visual Arts Collection’s Visible Storage Gallery before entering the Rare Books & Special Collections reading room on the 4th floor of McLennan Library. You can also expand your visit with a self-guided virtual tour of Indigenous art on public display at McGill. This interactive map highlights Indigenous art across campus from the McGill Visual Arts Collection: https://www.mcgill.ca/vacollection/indigeous-art-public-display-mcgill

McGill University is an English language, public university founded in 1821. Learn more about the university: www.mcgill.ca/about and McGill Libraries: www.mcgill.ca/libraries.

Transportation : not provided. 
Tour guides will meet the group at the hotel and walk together to McGill campus (approximately 20 minutes, walking outdoors, slight incline). Alternatively, participants may wish to share an Uber (approximately 10 minutes).

Destination address:
McLennan Library Building, 4th floor, 3459 McTavish Street, Montreal, H3A 0C9.

Important Information: 
The tour is planned as a walk-through of the Visible Storage Gallery, special collections reading room, classroom, and letterpress lab, located on the 4th floor of the McLennan Library Building. Elevator accessible. Visitors should be prepared for walking and standing during the visit; chairs available on request.

Tours will be offered in English, and guides will be pleased to answer questions in French.
$ All costs are in USD.

#madeinquebec

Specimen of printing types and ornaments, in use at the printing office of Lovell & Gibson, Montreal, 1846.

Please note that adding a workshop to your Sched itinerary does NOT mean you have registered for the workshop. You must register via conference registration.

Dog Ears is an alternative reading list and zine collaboratively developed by workshop participants. Its title and triangular form reference the practice of folding over the corner of a page in a book. It signifies reading in progress; a place to return to. A dog-eared book has been well-read, well-worn, perhaps overly-loved. It is the tactile result of a book passed among friends or strangers.

Led by artist-publisher dani neira, the workshop’s participants will learn to make an accordion-folded zine, and collaboratively design an alternative reading list. Dog Ears broadly defines “alternative” as independently published materials, artists’ projects, or other non-traditional means of production and dissemination.

As a part of the project’s critical and conceptual grounding, the workshop will discuss community-based strategies in independent publishing, and the reading list as a networked structure where meaning is produced. This web of relationships will be explored through the lens of kinship, framed by queer, feminist, and BIPOC perspectives on citational justice.

*Workshop Participants: Please bring a zine, artists’ book, or otherwise “alternative” book that you feel kinship with. The participants’ books will create the collaborative reading list — which is the content of the zine! Bringing a physical copy is ideal, but if this is not possible, a title in mind works as well. New to the world of independent publishing? Don’t worry! There will be a small zine library to select from.

Key Themes for Discussion:
- Affect, materiality, and printed matter
- Zine-making as pedagogy
- Citational justice and approaches to developing reading lists and collections
- Strategies of resource and knowledge-sharing in independent publishing

Meet Your Divisions, Sections, SIGs, and Affiliates Ice Cream & Coffee Social

Cool off, recharge, and connect! Join us for a relaxed ice cream and coffee social where you can meet colleagues from ARLIS/NA’s Divisions, Sections, Special Interest Groups, and Affiliate organizations.

Whether you’re new to ARLIS/NA or a longtime member, this is a sweet way to discover communities that match your professional interests and get involved in collaborative projects.

All attendees welcome — come for the connections, stay for the sprinkles! 

#food

Join us for a conversation on onboarding and offboarding practices for ARLIS/NA chapter chairs and executive board members. This session offers an opportunity to share experiences, discuss best practices, and connect with others stepping into or out of leadership roles.

In-Person Session — Annual Conference Open to all ARLIS/NA chapter executive board members. The session room accommodates up to 48 attendees.

Virtual Session — Post-Conference A virtual option will be offered for those unable to attend in person. The date will be announced over the summer.

Questions? Contact Lori Salmon, ARLIS/NA Chapters Liaison, [email protected]

Reception hosted by Liv Valmestad, ARLIS/NA President, and our ARLIS/NA Membership Committee. Mix and mingle with members of the ARLIS/NA Executive Board, members at large, as well as your fellow attendees. Ribbons on badges identify attendees as speakers, moderators, board members, and more, making it easy for you to introduce yourself to new people. First-Time ARLIS/NA attendees and attendees from outside the United States are encouraged to attend.
#food

Reconnect with colleagues at a catered opening reception in the hotel’s elegant Montreal Ballroom. Drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and hors d'oeuvres will be provided.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the following ARLIS/NA chapters whose generous contributions made the opening reception possible: Central Plains, Mid-Atlantic, Midstates, Mountain West, New England, New York, Northern California, Northwest, Southern California, and Twin Cities.
#food