Agenda: 188th Association Meeting: Spring 2026

Monday ■■ April 27

7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.	Breakfast
OPENING SESSION
9:00 a.m.	ARL President's Welcome
9:25 a.m.	Program Planning Task Force Chair's Welcome
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.	Knoxville's Living Black Atlas: Recovering and Retelling the Story of Black Knoxville as It Was Impacted by Urban Renewal Derek Alderman ■■ Reverend Reneé Kesler Scholars have long been engaged in adapting and sometimes challenging dominant ways of knowing to address issues, people, and places that would otherwise be invisible or ignored. The Living Black Atlas, based at UT Knoxville, incorporates archival and ethnographic research to uncover neglected mapping traditions of Black communities and to offer new thinking about what a map is, who map-makers are, and what role maps can/should play in social life and reparative truth-telling. Dr. Alderman and Rev. Kesler will talk about their collaboration and the use of archival sources to tell the story of urban renewal in Knoxville from the perspective of its most affected citizens. How are research libraries evolving our systems and services to build capacity for this sort of scholarship built upon accountable partnerships with communities?
10:30 a.m.	BREAK
10:35 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.	Energizer
11:05 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.	Adaptation of the Coalition for Networked Information Karim Boughida (M) ■■ John O'Brien ■■ Kate Zwaard Kate Zwaard will share her experiences 7 months into her tenure as CNI's Executive Director and her vision of how the organization is adapting to new leadership and the current environment. John O'Brien, EDUCAUSE, and Karim Boughida, CNI Steering Committee, will join the conversation.
12:05 p.m.	Daily Program Wrap-up
12:10 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.	NETWORKING LUNCH
12:10 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.	New & Interim ARL Member Representatives Lunch [Invited] Hosted by the Member Engagement & Outreach Committee
AFTERNOON BREAKOUTS
	Association committees host Committee Conversations, open to all member representatives. Unless otherwise noted, they are also open to guests. Please join these conversations to connect what's happening in your library to the ARL Action Plan. Any pre-reading will be added to the Attendee Mobile app prior to the meeting.
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.	Committee Conversations Advocacy & Public Policy Committee: Preserving User Rights for Computational Research Learning Network Committee: Leading the Research Library Member Engagement & Outreach Committee: How Do You Invite and Evaluate New Ideas in Research Libraries?
2:45 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.	BREAK
3:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.	Committee Conversations Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee: The Future of Representation Research & Analytics Committee: Developing Analytic Tools to Support Executive Leadership Scholars & Scholarship Committee: Emerging Research Trends and What They Mean for Libraries
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.	EVENING AT UT KNOXVILLE

Tuesday ■■ April 28

8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.	Breakfast: Program Strategy Committee Meeting [Invited] Hosted by the Member Engagement and Outreach Committee
8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.	Breakfast
MORNING SESSION
9:30 a.m.	Morning Welcome
9:35 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.	ARL BUSINESS MEETING [Member Representatives & Proxies]
11:05 a.m. – 11:25 a.m.	BREAK
11:25 a.m. – 12:25 p.m.	Action Planning Kick-off Melissa Just (M) ■■ Simon Neame (M) The Association will create a new Action Plan in 2026. This interactive program will formally launch the process, outlining timing, opportunities for engagement, and roles and responsibilities. In keeping with the theme of adaptation, ARL's planning will balance “feet on the ground” realism with “reach for the stars” aspiration, prioritizing community-building in the execution of ARL's mission to champion research libraries and archives, develop visionary leaders, and shape policy for the equitable advancement of knowledge.
12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.	NETWORKING LUNCH
1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.	11th Annual ARLIES Film Festival
2:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.	BREAK
AFTERNOON BREAKOUTS
2:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.	Breakout Sessions 1. Emerging Frameworks for Stewarding Open Content in the AI Age Facilitators: Brent Reidy & Sarah Shreeves In 2025, bots surpassed human traffic on the internet. Stewards of open content, including cultural heritage organizations, are facing new digital infrastructure challenges and considering new technical, ethical, and business frameworks for making content openly available. Join your peers for a discussion of ARL members’ stakes and interests in this new paradigm. Together, we’ll review where these conversations are taking place, where libraries need to be represented, and collective strategies for adaptation. 2. Libraries and Climate Resilience Facilitator: David Banush Large-scale disasters, many of them climate-related, have become more frequent and much more intense. Fires, floods, aged infrastructure, even cyber attacks have all brought major disruptions to institutions around the globe. Traditional disaster planning for research libraries often focuses on preserving collections. That remains important, but the post-pandemic world has also changed expectations about the possibilities of operational continuity, often with tacit assumptions that bring additional friction and complexity for library leaders. Research libraries must adapt to this environment in a more expansive and nuanced way, taking into account a variety of perspectives on what is reasonable. This breakout session explores the kinds of operational challenges major disasters bring and how research libraries have (or have not) adapted to them. This is an opportunity to explore ideas and share experiences with peers in a confidential setting." 3. Trends in Special Collections Facilitator: Toby Graham Is your library using AI to process, transcribe, and enable users to converse with primary sources and special collections? Do undergraduates engage with your special collections in their curricula? Has the focus of your special collections forged new strategic partnerships with surrounding communities, or vice versa? Join your colleagues for a discussion of current trends, opportunities, and challenges of building and maintaining distinctive collections. 4. Membership Hot Topic MEOC is holding this space for late-breaking issues critical to our community.
4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.	BREAK
AFTERNOON SESSION
4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.	AI and Openness: How Technology is Challenging Both Norms and Law Brent Reidy (M) ■■ Betsy Rosenblatt As technology tends to outpace law and policy, community norms have tremendous significance for governing behavior. In the wake of rapid AI disruption, libraries, artists and creators, technology companies and fans have strong and distinct norms around adapting copyrighted works. What does this mean for research libraries, which sit at the balance of user and creator? Law professor and fandom expert Betsy Rosenblatt talks to Brent Reidy about library norms of openness and reuse in the AI age, before opening to audience Q&A.
5:15 p.m.	Daily Program Wrap-up
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.	EVENING AT KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART

Wednesday ■■ April 29

8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.	Breakfast
CLOSING SESSION
9:30 a.m.	Morning Welcome
9:35 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.	Conversation: The Library That Dolly Built Nick Geidner ■■ Lindsey McBee ■■ Steve Smith (M) ■■ Danielle Velez ■■ Samuel Wolfe Join representatives of the Dollywood Foundation—Danielle Velez and Sam Wolfe—along with professor and filmmaker Nick Geidner of Land Grant Films and Lindsey McBee, for a conversation about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the infrastructure, partnerships, and vision that have enabled it to reach children around the world. Using insights from the documentary The Library That Dolly Built as a springboard, the panel will explore how the Imagination Library has grown into one of the most effective and scalable literacy initiatives in the world. The discussion will examine the operational model, community partnerships, storytelling, and sustained institutional commitment that underpin the program’s success—offering research library leaders a closer look at how mission, trust, and infrastructure come together to create lasting impact.
10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.	ARLIES Film Festival Awards
10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.	BREAK
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.	GLAM Practices and Responsibilities under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Heather Bidzinski ■■ Ellen Lofaro ■■ Claudio Gómez ■■ Jody Gray ■■ Leslie Sharp (M) ■■ Nancy Weiss Revised regulations to improve the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) went into effect in 2024. This session explores how research libraries and museums navigate the new requirements, balancing federal policy, professional duty of care, and institutional responsibilities to respect Indigenous communities—both past and present. Drawing on the perspectives of legal and museum and library professionals, including experts who are members of Indigenous communities, the panel will offer practical insights into ethical stewardship, collaboration, and leadership decision-making in this evolving area of practice.
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.	NETWORKING LUNCH
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.	Closing Keynote: Trends in Higher Education in US and Canada Robert Kelchen ■■ Alex Usher Join higher education experts Alex Usher and Robert Kelchen for a conversation about trends in both the US and Canada affecting higher education; including reduction of research funding, immigration policy, AI, and more. You may know Usher and Kelchen from the annual end-of-year episode of the World of Higher Education podcast.
2:15 p.m	Program Closing Remarks
2:30 p.m.	Meeting Adjourns
3:00 p.m.	Optional Post-Association Meeting Experiences Pre-registration required Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Knoxville Skeletal Collection at UT’s Forensic Anthropology Center (“Body Farm”) Tour UT Libraries’ New Library Storage Annex Tour

Thursday ■■ April 30