ARLIS/NA 54th Annual Conference

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.

Special collections bring their own (special) challenges and opportunities. This session will cover topics related to managing special collections in libraries.

The #GayAgenda: LGBTQIA2S+ materials in the Murray & Hong Special Collections at Michigan State University Libraries
Speakers: Nicole Smeltekop and Eli Landaverde
MSU Libraries Special Collections began collecting radicalism and activism materials in the late 1960s. The large amount of LGBTQIA2S+ materials collected over four decades remained dormant and the collection had not been kept up to date until the appointment of a curator in 2018. This paper presentation will discuss assessing previous collection development decisions, setting collection development priorities for the collection, and expanding cataloging practice beyond inventorying to follow more current practice. This will include details on conducting a collection analysis to identify gaps in the collection, developing policies that include ensuring various experiences and identities were represented in the collection, and cataloging material focused on the LGBTQIA2S+ community ethically and empathetically. A focus for the examples will be on the art prints and posters collected, many from lesser-known artists. The cataloging part of the presentation will include tips for working with this material - including a list of best-practices and resources, using both Library of Congress Subject Headings and Homosaurus as controlled vocabularies, and considerations when creating Library of Congress Name Authority File headings for underrepresented groups.

Photobooks as Resistant Objects: Politics, Propaganda, and the Colonial Gaze
Speaker: Margherita Naim
Many library holdings worldwide include photobooks on politically significant topics from several historical periods and regions of the world. At times, these photobooks can be considered sensitive materials due to both contained images and accompanying texts. This may be the case with war and propaganda materials, photojournalistic reports, or publications originating from colonial contexts. As such, these photobooks must be viewed not only as particularly significant sources for research into the history of photography, but also within a transdisciplinary framework.
I refer to them as ‘Resistant Objects’ (Thomas, K. and Gu, J. H., ‘Resistant Objects’, Conversation, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, October 10, 2025), as they hold a resistant potential in reframing perspectives on historical narratives as well as reconstructing creative processes.
In this context, I would like to present a case study from the Martin Salter Collection, a private collection of photobooks recently acquired by the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI). The collection consists primarily of photographers’ monographs from a wide range of countries, veritable book objects, some of them very rare. An overview of the ‘Resistant Photobooks’ included in this collection will be matched by descriptions of other photobooks held by the KHI, and by other libraries.

What’s in an Artist File? The Future of Artist Files
Speakers: Amelia Nelson, Alexandra Reigle, Kathleen O'Reilly, and Bridget O’Keefe
Artists’ files are a uniquely rich and dynamic resource, that may include zines, correspondence, artist statements, exhibition ephemera, and other documentation that illuminate artists’ careers and practices. Despite their significant research value, the idiosyncratic nature of their content and varied methods of acquisition often present challenges for libraries.
Increased attention to documenting regional artists, particularly those historically underrepresented in traditional art historical narratives, has underscored the critical importance of artist files. In many cases, these files serve as the only record of underrecognized artists, regionally significant artists, and artist-run spaces. In this presentation, members of the Artist File SIG will share and synthesize the results of a survey of institutions that collect artist files to provide a snapshot of current practices, perceived value, and resource needs. Building on these findings, SIG members will propose community-driven best practices and tools to support those responsible for creating, maintaining, and activating artist files.

The work of archivists is often performed in parallel to librarians. Although the approach to managing an archival collection is different from managing a library collection, many of the same issues are raised in both fields. Attendees to this session will hear about current issues and topics within archives.

Establishing the NYC Trans Archives: Archival resistance in action
Speaker: Elvis Bakaitis (they/them)

NYC Trans archives is a newly founded, community-based archives located in New York City. We collect personal papers, art, digital media, zines, comics, and other forms of self-expressive works by and about transgender individuals and communities. This talk will provide a focused introduction to the start of an entirely new organization, based on a model of collective agreement/discussion, and operating on a limited, non-institutional budget. As a non-profit organization, NYC Trans Archives has been the recipient of two grants and will host an intern from the Mellon-funded FOCAS project in Fall 2026. The presenter will outline the NYC Trans Archives' origin story, a form of "resistance" in a time of systemic hostility to gender diverse lives in the United States. The purpose of this talk is to inspire connection at ARLIS between professionals in the field and the shared project of preserving histories of gender diverse people across the world.

滋賀重列: A case study of mutual influences and the archival traces they leave behind
Speaker: Emilee Mathews

In this paper I discuss archival traces across Japan and the United States regarding 滋賀重列|SHIGA Shigetsura, a Japanese architect who studied at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the 19th century and went on to develop the leading theory on late Meiji period Japanese housing typology. Perhaps most poignantly, only one building remains of SHIGA-san’s work: his own family home, which is still occupied by his descendents. That he was known for his expertise on housing and his own home still stands today is a testament to his understanding of the building typology. His own theory, one more defined by relativism than absolutist dictates, builds in flexibility and empathy to the individual circumstances of home ownership. SHIGA-san’s considerable body of writing and association with multiple institutions and publications left traces across both the University of Illinois archives and historic collections, and several repositories in Japan. It is a case study that illuminates links between Japan and the U.S. that are often acknowledged, yet our understanding of those influences still has much to improve. By telling this story through the lens of archival research, we can illuminate mutual dependencies between libraries across nations to tell expansive stories and celebrate cross-cultural accomplishments.

There’s Tea on the Table: end of life and legacy work in archival donor relations (or what I wish I had known before talking about death at work)
Speaker: Lucy Pauker

This paper addresses the challenges and offers potential aids to navigating trauma and grief in donor relations, from the perspective of an early career archivist. It explores these themes through the author’s role as Processing Archivist at a community archive (Jewish Public Library Archives) and leans specifically on the author’s relationship with a Montreal artist whose fonds is housed at the JPL-A. The presentation aims to dive into the trust building and difficult conversations that occur when pursuing legacy collections in which the donor is also the creator. By exploring examples of conversations with donors who are approaching end of life, or the families/colleagues of the recently departed, the author hopes to outline both the messiness of grief in the workplace and supports needed to aid in this process.

The NeverEnding Story: Current and Ongoing Issues in Architecture Archives
Speaker: Tellina Liu

This paper addresses three issues in architectural archives: increasing access and use, backlog and accruals, and donor relations.

While much has changed in librarianship in recent years, the need for thoughtful and innovative instruction has never been more important than now. Presenters in this session will discuss what library instruction looks like in 2026.

The Power of Pausing: Resisting AI Pressure Through Intentional Slowness
Speaker: Eva Sclippa

In an environment in which AI is being urgently pushed throughout academia, we have found that pausing offers a powerful means of resistance. Students are using generative AI, at times with institutional encouragement, without guidance about how to consider the larger ramifications on the artistic, academic, or information landscape, or on their own work and learning. At Boston University, colleagues spanning the libraries and the Educational Resource Center identified a pressing need for more informed decision-making about AI tool engagement, use, and intention. This led to the development of the “Pause Before You Prompt” tool for reflection before the point of algorithmic engagement.

Structured around seven concepts—ethics, consequences, privacy, copyright, transparency, personal motives, and accuracy—Pause Before You Prompt introduces mindful slowness into the AI use process. It provides students with key questions to address in advance of AI use to help them determine how or if to use generative AI products for their specific needs. We then built on this core framework to develop an accompanying assignment and in-class activity for instructors to incorporate into their courses.

Pause Before You Prompt has since been published in BU’s institutional repository and both library and writing instructor resources. Additionally, we successfully piloted the in-class activity with writing tutors on campus, who have now been trained to use it in their conversations with students. Meanwhile, other academic services have independently begun training their peer tutors in using Pause Before Your Prompt in their work with their fellow students. Faculty have demonstrated the tool within their own classes across disciplines. Other campus partners and stakeholders have expressed interest, including advising and student success teams and our Institute for Excellence in Teaching. Finally, library leadership has put forward a proposal for us to share Pause Before You Prompt with Boston University’s AI Development Accelerator as part of their AI developments symposium series.

During this session, we will discuss the process of creating this tool, with a particular focus on methods for assessing and organizing individual and institutional values. Attendees will have an opportunity to reflect on the values and questions about generative AI that they feel are most critical for members of their campus community to engage with, as well as methods for effectively reaching their students and colleagues in a period of accelerating change.

Zine workshops for Critical and Creative thinking in the Academic Library
Speakers: Sarah Wood-Gagnon, Lindsey Baker
In an age increasingly dominated by AI, digital communication, and surveillance capitalism, it is important to nurture in-person community building and tactile experiences. This presentation will highlight a series of zine-making workshops designed to engage students with experimental modes of learning and foster creativity within library environments. The idea arose from a growing interest in zines and crafting on campus. The workshops focus on diverse approaches to knowledge creation, encouraging participants to explore new ways of expressing ideas and remixing information through physical media. The workshop series beings with basic how-tos and distilling a research project into a zine for accessibility and concludes with more explicitly creative workshops on visual storytelling and poetry. This presentation will discuss how to stage these types of workshops, content covered and a selection of student work, and overall takeaways. We hope to highlight the importance of informal learning and making within the academic library.

Map Making and Treasure Hunting: understanding and supporting the information seeking behaviors of artist researchers
Speaker: Melanie Landsittel
In Map Making and Treasure Hunting: understanding and supporting the information seeking behaviors of artist researchers, Graduate Assistant Melanie Landsittel, MFA, aims to identify how research-based instruction in museums, galleries, and libraries has the potential to enrich studio-based visual arts education. She discusses the need for structured supplementary resources for studio-based learning, situated in frameworks like Research Creation and Practice-Led Scholarship. Drawing on her experience earning both the MFA and MLIS, she will share research tools in the form of a targeted workbook, student workshops structure, and results of a focus group analysis with visual arts student participants on the resources’ effectiveness.

Picture This: Collaborative approaches to visual literacy instruction
Speaker: Sara Ellis
“Picture This” outlines the development of an ongoing visual literacy workshop series at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Library. The ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education serve as an intellectual and pedagogical framework to anchor the series and the Art & Visual Literacy Librarian is positioned as project lead, collaboratively partnering with librarians and specialists in other units to plan and deliver visual literacy instruction. Core goals for the workshops include: identifying relevant research tools and strategies for developing visual literacy skills across disciplines, creatively and critically engaging with special collections and resources, reframing liaison and instructional partnerships, and providing opportunities to engage in dialogue while learning how to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Specific aspects of workshop planning and implementation are discussed while identifying challenges and successes that have emerged in the process.

We are living in the ludic century: an era of gamification, participatory culture, and play. Whether aware of it or not, most people engage with some kind of game – or gamified experience – every day. Video games have exceeded film and television as the most popular form of media, while the popularity of tabletop games – including role-playing games – is surging. How are information workers rising to meet the new standards for critical thinking and information literacy required to foster informed participants of these thriving and ever-present media? How can gamification tactics and participatory culture be harnessed to disrupt and expand information literacy services? How can game collections be curated and activated as new sites of research for art scholarship? Art and design libraries specifically hold a unique position of responsibility in this field as many of their users not only play - but intend to create - games. How are libraries stepping up to shape the future of this field? Hear from three information workers who have been spearheading innovative game collections, services, and research in their libraries.

The first presentation, Videoludic Literacies: How The SVA Libraries are Shaping the Future of Video Games, recounts the creation of a Retro Game Lounge at the School of Visual Arts, which marked the latest milestone in the continued development of the SVA Libraries' branch, Library West – a non-traditional library hub. This presentation will discuss how The Retro Game Lounge and its associated collections were conceived, planned, and built, with a focus on both the practical aspects and how it further realizes the communal, multimedia, and multimodal ethos of Library West.

The second presentation, LARPing in the Library: Activating Live Action Research Protocol, examines a collaboration between a librarian and art professor from Southern Methodist University who teamed up to create a research assignment that had students LARPing in the library. Students used various physical resources in the library to create a symbol and lore for their guild. This multi-session exercise disrupted students’ expectation that research in an academic setting would mirror their everyday searching behaviors.

The third presentation, "I've Experiments to Run, There is Research to be Done": The State of Video Game Collections in Academic Art Libraries addresses how academic art libraries are shaping the future of video game scholarship within the art history discipline – by virtue of what they deem relevant for entry into their collections. By identifying video game materials in the collections of research-focused academic art libraries, this presentation outlines which aspects of art historical video game research are currently supported, and which aspects of gaming's art culture are missing. Special attention is given to counterculture game creation including rom hacks and hardware mods as they have been largely absent from video game exhibitions.

This session contains a paper presentation followed by a pre-coordinated panel in English and French focusing on architecture and libraries.

“Designed to be Seen”: Revisiting Library Architecture and its Remnants of Colonial Legacies” - This presentation focuses on how library architecture buildings and their designs, often viewed with admiration and inspiration, may evoke colonial legacies. Like colonial museum architecture, colonial library architecture has parallel connections to imperialism in knowledge production and how such architecture portrays a particular aesthetic sensibility: an enduring symbol of imperial power and knowledge over colonized populations. Drawing on works of architectural historians and historians of empire, and case studies of libraries built in colonial-era regions, this presentation argues how library architecture did not only serve as a repository for colonial knowledge and practice in the imperial landscape but was designed in function and form to invoke imperial power in post-colonial societies.

From a different angle, the colonial legacy of library architecture relates to the larger idea that architecture is not neutral. Instead, architecture reflects cultural values, public needs, and urban change, and across Canada, buildings have been repurposed or demolished in response to shifting social priorities, economic forces, growth, and community resistance.

In the second part of this session, then, the bilingual panel will discuss the evolution of architecture in two major Canadian cities, Montréal and Toronto, through the lens of library and archival collections. Each panelist will highlight examples of architectural development, repurposing, and/or resistance held at their institution, encouraging discussion about the role libraries and special collections play in preserving Canada’s architectural history and its societal impact. Through textual documents, photographs, building records, maps, and other documents, libraries and archives provide evidence of these architectural evolutions, making them available for both studying the past and inspiring the future.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) will illustrate some of the architectural transformation in Montréal through Expo 67 islands and pavilions that have since been repurposed, such as the Pavilions of Québec and France. As well, they will highlight the Shaughnessy house, which similarly embodies this sense of adaptation. Built in the 19th century and once threatened with demolition, the mansion has now been restored and revived through its integration into a research institution. In different ways, these examples both demonstrate how architecture can be reimagined and sustained across generations and also highlight the cultural value embedded in the built environment.

The Eberhard Zeidler Library (University of Toronto) will highlight architectural resistance and development in Toronto through Ontario Place, a public entertainment space on Toronto’s waterfront since 1971, where redevelopment has recently become a point of civic debate. The topic of Ontario Place in our libraries and special collections demonstrates how resistance has shaped architecture and design in Toronto, from defending public space to establishing a cultural self-definition.
 
The first part of the panel will be in French and the second part in English. The slides will be bilingual. Questions in English and French are welcome. 
#madeinquebec

This pre-coordinated panel, organized by the Museum Library Division, will feature speakers from galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). Panelists will speak on experiences and preventive measures taken with various environmental crises, including fires, floods, and tornadoes. Utilizing a case study approach, panelists will draw on personal experiences with disasters and their impact on work practices. The theme of resistance will be explored in how staff prioritize collection care, access policies, and well-being during times of disasters in GLAM environments. Attendees will come away from this panel with resources on disaster preparedness to spark dialogue and action in the ARLIS/NA community.

Documenting Disaster: The Role of Technical Services and Archival Work in Times of Severe Weather
Speakers: Jenna Stout, Rebecca Brown-Gregory
This paper will explore the intersection of technical services and archival work in documenting past disasters and historic building vulnerabilities while also preparing for future disasters. In the wake of ongoing environmental events, including recent tornado activity, and infrastructure deterioration, it is more important than ever to have continuity of operations in place. Art museum library workers will speak on the significance of cataloging and making accessible past institutional reports on environmental risks. The paper will also dive into departmental efforts, ranging from the creation of disaster kits to the flagging of priority collections for first responders, and overall maintenance of institutional knowledge.

The Emotional Toll of Protecting Archival Memory in the Path of the Los Angeles Fires
Speaker: Lola Jalbert
I began an internship with the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library (housed in USC Special Collections) last January as the Los Angeles fires broke out. Part of the collection is housed at USC and was untouched by the fires, but other materials are stored in a house in the Pacific Palisades, where the fires began. I am interested in drawing on my personal experience, as well as the experiences of other involved parties, to argue that emotional resilience is as much a part of disaster preparedness as bureaucracy and logistics.

“A Plan, and Not Quite Enough Time”: My Journey Through Disaster Planning, Recovery, and Management for Audiovisual Archives
Speaker: Linda Smith
I have interned at two sites that experienced significant flooding and while almost no AV materials were significantly destroyed, some changes to the space/storage were made (while other changes could or have not be made); students from my program were also involved in flood recovery to an AV archive and I have spoken with the archives director about those efforts and the aftermath of the flood; I will be approaching this from a research/case study methodology, utilizing interviews with those directly involved to emphasize the need for greater attention to this issue and how different care can look for AV materials/collections.

Collective memory institutions have functioned as gatekeepers of Remenkeemi (Indigenous Egyptian) cultures and knowledges stolen and retold through colonizing tales and mythologies. Colonial institutions including libraries, archives, universities, and museums hold manuscripts and art in Metremenkeemi (language of the people of the Black Soil) written in several scripts (Hieroglyphic, Hieretic, Demotic, Coptic). Categorizing our Indigenous language and cultures as ‘ancient’ history violently erases the Niremenkeemi's centuries long fight to survive through art, oral histories, and familial practices. Indigenous languages and sacred artifacts held within colonial institutions are undervalued, severed, categorized as dead historical artifacts, and remain inaccessible for revitalization efforts.

The language revival process we embarked upon is a land-based practice reconnecting colonized and displaced north Africans with the lands and ancestors that made them. We share how language revival through varied art practices is a form of archiving that preserves our language as both a cultural praxis and acts of living. Further, our multigenerational engagement and outreach through language and art programming to build our living archive connects Niremenkeemi across generations strengthening our language revival process.

This pre-coordinated session includes three Niremenkeemi (Egyptian people) language revival journeyers who carry and intersect the skills of archiving, art-making, and scholarship to explore art and visual literacy as a simultaneously archiving and reviving tool for ancestral languages and the teachings woven within. We explore Metremenkeemi’s expressions and archives through art and share the collective journey we have embarked upon through ancestral language lessons, cultural revival, and at this time, art to propel us further into our language as a day-to-day praxis. Working against the dominance of gatekeeping and access, this panel shares examples of the various artworks, writings, and alternative publications being created by Niremenkeemi through our language revival arts project.

We also share the many ways colonial memory institutions gatekeep our ancestral scripts and sacred artifacts. Many are catalogued as ‘rare’ and remain imprisoned within inaccessible special collections. We reflect on the ways that digital platforms allow us to undo some of that gatekeeping. For example, the Living Keemi website and online video meeting platforms enabled us to participate in language lessons across time zones. Recording/archiving lessons by our language keeper allow sharing our language with artists needed for our language revival process. Simultaneously, we are navigating the precarity of digital preservation and planning around the colonizing tendencies of predatory technology. Our process requires an ethics of care as we introduce artists to the language, engage in art making, plan a hybrid art exhibit, and decolonize approaches for archiving and sharing language revival art.

Language revival is an indigenization process that resists erasure and initiates healing from colonial violence and trauma. Learning our ancestral language allows us to access our ancestral wisdoms and knowledges, for language holds the nuances and analogies that make meaning out of the world around us. At its core Indigenous language revival as an archival process decenters colonialism and white supremacy and advocates for social justice while opening portals towards new world making and healing.

About the moderator:
Erika DeFreitas is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes performance, photography, video, installation, textiles, drawing and writing. Placing emphasis on gesture, process, the body, documentation and paranormal phenomena, DeFreitas mines concepts of loss, post-memory, legacy and objecthood. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. DeFreitas holds a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.