All times listed are eastern daylight time (EDT).
Zoom information will be shared with registered attendees.
Note: Sessions are for ARL member representatives, member alternates who are attending the Association Meeting in place of member representatives, and AULs who serve on Association committees. Guests are welcome to attend all sessions, with exceptions noted below.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Executive Committee Meeting
(open only to members of the Executive Committee)
Association Committees
(Note: Committee meetings are working meetings open only to committee members, ARL member representatives or specified proxies, and invited guests.)
1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Advocacy and Public Policy Committee
3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. Research & Analytics Committee
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Association Committees
(Note: Committee meetings are working meetings open only to committee members, ARL member representatives or specified proxies, and invited guests.)
1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. ARL Academy Committee
2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m. Member Engagement and Outreach Committee
3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. Scholars & Scholarship Committee
Monday, April 26, 2021
11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Board of Directors Meeting I
(open only to member representatives or specified proxies)
2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. Board of Directors Meeting II
(open only to member representatives or specified proxies)
For technical questions, contact Gary Roebuck (gary@arl.org) or Emery Durnan (edurnan@arl.org)
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. Program Strategy Committee
(open only to members of the Program Strategy Committee)
2:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. ARL Business Meeting
(open only to member representatives or specified proxies)
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
12:00–12:20: President’s Welcome
John Culshaw, Jack B. King University Librarian at the University of Iowa
12:20–1:20: Situating Misinformation and Disinformation in a Contemporary Landscape
Libraries claim information literacy as a core area of expertise, our praxis evolving as we shape and are shaped by knowledge systems. Among the many forces impacting these systems are a greater and more active reckoning with the gaps and silences in epistemologies oriented around a western- and white-dominated culture; an array of powerful, rapidly evolving, and often under-interrogated technologies; and a landscape awash in dis- and misinformation. Panelists will discuss their research and our current understanding of these and other forms of disordered information. How do ethics, technology, and our understandings of information production and consumption help or harm our goal to advance societal goals and create a more open, just, and equitable world?
Moderator: Claire Stewart, Dean of University Libraries, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Speakers:
- Clara Chu, Director and Mortenson Distinguished Professor, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Whitney Phillips, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse University
- Sarah Sobieraj, Professor, Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University
1:20–1:35: Break
1:35–2:35: Conference Topical Chats
- Claire Stewart (Nebraska): Misinformation and Disinformation program continuation
- Beth Sandore Namachchivaya (Waterloo), Steve Smith (Tennessee) & Ginny Steel (UCLA): Libraries Post-Covid: Planning for Library Services in Fall 2021 and Working in New and Modified Ways
- Dale Askey (Alberta): Moving beyond Diversity Residency Programs
-
Gale Etschmaier (Florida State) & Barbara Rockenbach (Yale): Leadership Skills during the COVID-19 Pandemic: What Skills Are Most Valuable and Needed
2:35–2:50: Break
2:50–3:50: Who Knows? Who Decides? Identity, Authority & Trust
Scholars aim for the truth over a very wide range of topics and we aim to teach our students how to make responsible judgments about what is true in our specialized domains. We face challenges not only to our opinions—about climate change, the epidemiology of pandemics, the nature of social justice—but to our right to make our own choices of subjects on which to express opinion. We want to be free, of course, but we also want to deserve and receive trust. And in a world of contending claims to authority grounded in identities other than academic fields, that can be hard to achieve.
Moderator: Jim O’Donnell, University Librarian, Arizona State University
Speaker:
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law, New York University
4:00–5:00: Arlies Presentation
5:00: Adjourn
Thursday, April 29, 2021
12:00–1:00: Conference Topical Chats
- Jim O’Donnell (Arizona State): Identity, Authority & Trust program continuation
- Greg Cram (New York Public): Section 230 Reform of the Communications Decency Act (see this brief for more information): Discussion to clarify and communicate ARL’s position on these complicated intersections of free speech, misinformation, and digital platform regulation
- Lorraine Haricombe (Texas at Austin) & Denise Stephens (WUSTL): Restoring Communities of Work: Discussion of ideas for restoring and healing of employees following the experiences of the pandemic, societal discord, and financial cutbacks
- Greg Raschke (North Carolina State): Discussion of libraries’ role in open scholarship, research/scientific integrity, and publicly/community-engaged scholarship as institutional strategic tools to increase public trust in science and credible information
1:00–1:15: Break
1:15–2:15: COVID-19: A Catalyst for Innovative Course Delivery
The swift pivot to emergency remote teaching has been a jolting disruption at a massive scale, leaving campuses, faculty, and instructors with little time to prepare or plan for this new modality. For some, this extended period has been a catalyst for evolutionary teaching practices, reimagined innovative course delivery, and inspired new pedagogical approaches that may very well lay new groundwork for what will come next.
Moderator: Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs, Duke University
Speakers:
- Joshua Eyler, Director of Faculty Development and Lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, The University of Mississippi
- Matthew Rascoff, Special Advisor to the Provost, Stanford University
- Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, Associate Professor, Department of French Studies, York University
2:15–2:30: Break
2:30–3:30: Conference Topical Chats
- Joy Kirchner (York): Innovative Course Delivery program continuation
- Rhea Ballard-Thrower (Illinois Chicago): Vaccine Hesitancy amongst Employees
- Kris Maloney (Rutgers): Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources (OER): A strategic conversation about where the center of gravity is for OER on campus (it differs) and how it might fit into libraries’ and/or presses’ publishing strategies and their copyright leadership on campus
- Greg Eow (CRL) & Diane Dallis-Comentale (Indiana Bloomington): Codes of Conduct and Documenting Organizational Expectations for Communication to Promote Equity in Research Libraries: A conversation to help libraries develop statements about the kind of culture (respectful, inclusive, equitable, etc.) they envision for their organization and put it into daily practice
3:30–3:45: Break
3:45–4:45: Anti-intellectualism and Its Effect on Our Global Future
Although not new to our history and culture, anti-intellectualism appears to be on the rise with its attendant anti-science, fake news, and conspiracy theories. Anti-intellectualism evidences itself in hostility and mistrust of intellect and reason in general and higher education in particular. Support for the arts, literature, culture, and science are seen as politically motivated. The speakers will explore the forces behind and the effects of today’s anti-intellectual/anti-scientific attitudes and policies, and will suggest ways to engage culture in positive ways.
Moderator: Elaine Westbrooks, Vice Provost for University Libraries and University Librarian, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Speakers:
- Eric Merkley, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
- Matthew Motta, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Oklahoma State University
- Colleen Shogan, Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Government, Georgetown University
4:45: Adjourn
