2025 Conference

Click here to see the TILC 2025 conference materials.

TILC 2025 Schedule

Thursday, June 5, 2025

2:00-4:00 pm: Pre-conference workshop held at William & Mary’s Swem Library
4:00-5:00 pm: Swem Library open house and tours
5:00-7:00 pm: Poster session and social held at William & Mary’s Swem Library

Pre-conference Workshop

Swem Library, 2-4 PM

Anti-Racist Approaches in Library Instruction: from Reflection to Action
Audrey Richardson, Katara Hofmann, and David X. Lemmons | George Mason University
This interactive workshop will explore anti-racist library instruction through activities developed in a semester-long Anti-Racist Teaching Strategies cohort. Participants will engage in a variety of activities to reflect on their identities, fostering community and dialogue. By integrating anti-racist pedagogy with library instruction, we aim to spark a conversation on creating more inclusive, just library environments. Attendees will gain practical strategies to incorporate anti-racist frameworks into their teaching and contribute to a more equitable library future.

Poster Session

Swem Library, 5-7 PM

Crafting a Reflective Mapping Exercise for STEM Students
Kathryn E. Shenk | James Madison University
In May 2024, a reflective mapping exercise was trialed in a one-shot information literacy session for students conducting summer research. The mapping exercise prompted students to consider their summer research topics holistically— spanning from big picture concepts to searching the literature. The activity, grounding in reflective learning theory, has since been adapted for information literacy sessions across the College of Science & Math. Learn how the activity was designed, implemented, and adapted.

No More Slide Decks!: Using Your LibGuides as Active Learning Materials in the Library Classroom
Liana Bayne-Lin | James Madison University
Have you ever found yourself in the middle of building out a large slide deck and wondered: Why am I doing this? How can I make this easier? You’re not alone. My answer: Use your LibGuides! In this poster, I will share how I transformed my LibGuides to be functional teaching materials for my one-shot library instruction sessions, featuring two case studies of using my LibGuides as active learning materials in the science research classroom.

Trends in Library One-shots: An Examination of 10 Years of Data
Robert Arndt | UNC-Pembroke
Librarians at UNCP had noticed that the number of one-shot library instruction sessions had been decreasing. No one had completed a thorough examination of data to confirm this observation and to determine what classes and what academic levels were the cause of the trend. Library instruction data from UNCP was compared to two other UNC system peer schools to determine if the trend was localized or more far reaching.

Creating a Sustainable Upper-Division Research Course: McNair Summer Scholars at SUNY Geneseo
Max Sparkman and Sherry Larson-Rhodes | SUNY Geneseo
The McNair Summer Research Seminar is a 6-week credit-bearing course for marginalized and underrepresented students anticipating going to graduate school. While working on faculty-supervised research, the research instruction librarians provide 12 total information literacy and graduate school preparation workshops with the goal of providing research and information literacy skills with immediate applications. Collaborating with the McNair Scholars Program and interacting with a small, longer-term class provides many opportunities and challenges for sustainable information literacy instruction.

Working 5 to 9: Supporting Adult Graduate Students with Cross-Campus Online Instruction
Christopher Lowder and Denise Klasen-López | George Mason University
This poster introduces an approach to providing introductory information literacy instruction to new and returning graduate Education students through online cross-campus collaboration. At George Mason University, many Education students are part-time adult students who require directed information literacy instruction to help them become reacquainted with academic research. This poster details the process of developing and assessing a cross-campus library partnership to design sustainable, asynchronous online instruction objects for this key student group.

Learning from Student Perspectives on AI: Considerations for AI Literacy Instruction
Madison Veeneman | UNC Chapel Hill
This poster will present the results of a master’s paper study on undergraduates’ use, perception, and evaluation of generative AI tools. I will share the themes that emerged from holding focus groups with undergraduates and discuss how my findings can inform approaches to teaching about AI and developing students’ AI literacy.

“Did Reese pick this book yet?”: Fostering Ecoliteracy in a Campus Book Club
Piper L. Cumbo | Auburn University
In fall 2024, an R-1 institution’s Common Book program selected a novel focused on community efforts to protect the ecosystem. In response, the library launched an outdoor book club aimed at fostering ecoliteracy—understanding connections to nature and sustainable solutions for ecological issues. This initiative enhances ecological awareness and lays the groundwork for an ongoing club and potential credit-bearing course. The poster will overview the club and suggest ways to integrate ecological content into library programming.

Incorporating AI Literacy Into Undergraduate Research Methodologies
David A. Salomon and Sherry Matis | Christopher Newport University
This collaborative project between the library and the office of student research aims to give agency to students, helping them to better evaluate and understand the ethical and proper use of AI. Using an existing assignment that asks students to evaluate the credibility and efficacy of the reporting of research findings, we then asked students to conduct the same assignment using AI in specific ways, and reflect on the outcomes.

Supporting Academic Success: Faculty and Student Perspectives on UDC's Embedded Librarian Initiative
Tricia Clarke, Cathy Meals | University of the District of Columbia
The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public, historically Black, land grant university with several branch campuses, including a community college campus. The librarians began the embedded librarian program, starting with general education classes, in fall of 2022 and have been working to support faculty and students by being integrated into the Blackboard shells of those classes. This poster presentation will outline best practices, observations and feedback from participating faculty and students.

Friday, June 6, 2025

8:30 am-4:30 pm: TILC conference held at William & Mary’s School of Education

8:30-9:00 am Registration and Breakfast
9:00-10:00 am Keynote by Dr. Don Simmons
10:10 am-12:00 pm Sessions 1 & 2
12-1:10 pm Lunch
1:10-3:00 pm Sessions 3 & 4
3:00-3:15 pm Break
3:15-4:30 pm Lightning Talks and Closing Remarks

TILC 2025 Keynote

Dr. Don Simmons

The TILC 2025 keynote address will be given by Dr. Don Simmons. Dr. Simmons holds an EdD from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MLIS from Syracuse University. Before joining Simmons' School of Library and Information Science department, he worked at both public and academic libraries, including the White Plains Public Library and Westchester Community College Library. As a public librarian, Dr. Simmons managed services for children, teens, and adults, running programs and leading outreach and community based workshops. At Westchester Community College, he was the Information Literacy Coordinator and Student Engagement Librarian, working with student groups on campus, managed all one-shot instructional operations, and launched research in Critical Information Literacy. Currently, his research focuses on misinformation, algorithmic bias, and information privilege within the context of Critical Information Literacy, emphasizing innovative teaching methods for one-time instruction sessions. He also examines how the Hidden Curriculum intersects with academic librarianship and one-shot instruction, and plans to broaden his research to examine how AI intersects within the LIS profession and its impact on information centers.

Sessions

Schedule	Matoaka Woods	Holly	Dogwood
10:10 - 11:00 am	The Power of No: Setting Sustainable Boundaries to Avoid Burnout Garrison Libby \| UNC-Charlotte As instruction librarians, we often want to say "yes." Yes to that last minute class, yes to accommodating an instructor's request even when it doesn't fit our pedagogy, and yes to doing more. But saying yes to everything has real consequences. It can create extra mental load on yourself, put extra stress on your colleagues, and lead to burnout. This session will focus on identifying signs of burnout in yourself and your colleagues, finding ways to say no, and sharing tips from both a personal and programmatic perspective for maintaining library instruction that is open to innovation while ensuring a sustainable for yourself and colleagues. Attendees will be invited to share their own experiences with setting and maintaining boundaries, and ways to break the vocational awe that leads us to keep saying "yes."	Genre-Style Pedagogy: Sustaining Information Literacy for Gen Z Beyond the Academy Abe Nemon \| Virginia Wesleyan University Textual literacy is backsliding as students are engrossed in TikTok, Twitch, and mobile games while instructional librarians struggle to act as guides to unstable traditional hierarchies of information authority. Participants will learn how genre-style pedagogy—an autonomous IL pedagogy in which students identify patterns in scholarly and popular media and construct their own “stylistic interventions”—bridges this divide, empowering students with transferable metaliteracies to respond to new technologies and power structures in a changing society.	Inquiry as a Higher Order Thinking Tool: In a World with AI Does Any Other Pedagogy Matter? Amanda Harrison \| University of Central Missouri As AI makes information access easier and more accessible, the need to reframe pedagogy around higher-order thinking becomes even more vital. Librarians are often in the position of teaching one-shot digital literacy lessons based on tools that are limited and soon to be outdated. This session explores inquiry-based learning to build critical thinking, creativity, and metacognition. We will consider practical ways to build a self-reflective inquiry pedagogy in all types of library programming.
11:10 am - 12:00 pm	Am I the Drama? Decentering Ourselves to Reimagine Instructional Programs Ula Lechtenberg \| University of Pittsburgh Despite recent conversations around the effectiveness of the one-shot, there is still resistance to embracing different ways of thinking about library instruction, particularly if they challenge the librarian’s own sense of value and impact. What could sustainable instructional programs look like in practice if librarians decentered themselves in the design process? In this presentation, participants will reflect on the impact of their current efforts and will consider sustainable strategies moving forward.	Making Instruction Assessment Sustainable: Exploring a Programmatic Approach to Student Learning Assessment Jasmine Spitler and Patrick Rudd \| Elon University In this session, we will discuss and demonstrate how we implemented a sustainable, programmatic approach to student learning assessment across the curriculum at Elon University. Attendees will address the nuances in creating and developing an assessment plan appropriate to their institution. Participants will learn how to work within their own unique cultural contexts, create ownership of assessment efforts among library staff, and take away strategies for creating their own student learning assessment plan.	Bingo! Turning Passion into Action with High-Impact Sustainability Activities Tyler Kroon \| North Carolina State University Discover how a Sustainability Bingo Board activity and hands-on Sustainability Research Workshop engaged students in high-impact learning about sustainability concepts and research tools. This session will highlight the design and implementation of these initiatives, which combined campus exploration with active learning and a practical research experience to foster student excitement about sustainability, and provide them with pathways to turn that excitement into action.
1:10 - 2:00 pm	Feminist Fuel for Your Fire: Reigniting Passion, Combating Burnout, and Creating Sustainable Careers through Feminist Pedagogy Morgan Johnson and Addison Stinson \| Meredith College Plenty of literature touts the benefits of implementing feminist pedagogy in the classroom. Feminist pedagogy breaks down power dynamics and prioritizes students’ experiences to promote active learning. We propose that implementing feminist pedagogy is mutually beneficial for both students and teachers in the library classroom, effectively helping early career instructional librarians cultivate sustainable careers and prevent burnout. Through our experiences as young professionals, we will share how feminist pedagogy can empower both students and teachers.	Waste Management: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to Sustain Your Sanity Lisa Nichols \| University of Kentucky Librarians may feel pressured to “cover all the things!” but this approach is meaningless to students. This session will highlight ways to plan just enough to get started and then how to transition the workload to students, changing our role from librarian as presenter to librarian as guide by using the Think-Aloud technique to model effective research strategies. We will also brainstorm ideas for working with faculty since collaboration between librarians and faculty is essential.	Building a Strong Library Ecosystem: ONE VOICE for Library Instruction, Advocacy, and Resilience Delandrus L. I. Seales \| UNC-Wilmington By understanding the interconnectedness of libraries, we can cultivate a strong library ecosystem that promotes information literacy and shared priorities. This session will explore strategies for building partnerships, advocating for library services, and incorporating sustainability into instruction. By empowering individuals with information and skills, libraries can create a more sustainable future. Participants will learn to use the ALA Ecosystem Toolkit to facilitate communication and inspire joint action across different library types and with their constituents.
2:10 - 3:00 pm	Going Small to Go Big: "Pop-Up" Teaching Basics Kelsey Hammer \| Virginia Tech Many libraries struggle with low attendance for workshops and other co-curricular programming. At Virginia Tech, we developed a process for converting existing lesson activities into learning interactions that meet students where they are: outside the classroom with 5 minutes to spare. “Pop-up teaching” is low effort/cost, time/space flexible, and leads to high interaction numbers, while still meeting meaningful learning goals. Come learn the pop-up basics, including sample activities on artificial intelligence and fact-checking.	Speed Networking Lucy Wittkower \| Old Dominion University Want to meet more folks at TILC? Join us for a series of activities intended to build community and strengthen connections between attendees.	Fostering Sustainable Instruction and Faculty Partnerships Through the Use of Secondary Education Reflective Feedback Practices Amber Ovsak \| University of Kansas This presentation explores the use of reflective observation tools from secondary education within academic library instruction. Adaptation of these practices can help librarians gather meaningful feedback from faculty partners, fostering collaborative discussions that result in more impactful instruction. The presenter will share strategies piloted by a small group of academic librarians and suggest that thoughtful experimentation with feedback can help to create a sustainable framework for continuous improvement in library instruction within higher education settings.

Lightning Talks

Matoaka Woods, 3:15-4:15 PM

Prompting Change: Teaching Effective Prompt Design and the Environmental Impact of Generative AI
Jacob Hopkins | University of the District of Columbia
This lightning talk will explore how academic librarians and other professionals are teaching effective prompt design for generative AI tools. Together, we will consider reframing prompt design (and AI literacy instruction generally) to foster awareness of AI’s environmental footprint and to communicate the impact of using AI efficiently and judiciously.

An Exploration of Data Literacy in Library Instruction
Nikki Galloway and Amber Gruszeczka | Old Dominion University
Data literacy is increasingly critical to students’ academic success, prompting faculty requests for library instruction in this area. Two librarians blended concepts of both information and data literacy into a discipline-specific undergraduate session. By demonstrating a model of educational sustainability, the intent is to encourage students’ growth as responsible researchers.

Labor and Sustainability: Building Compassionate Structures in Academic Librarianship
Cecelia Parks | University of Virginia
If librarians’ working conditions are our students’ learning conditions, what does a sustainable workplace look like? Drawing on previous work about compassionate teaching and creating cultures of care, this lightning talk will examine the link between sustainability in the academic library workplace and the student learning experience.

Small Changes, Big Impact: Using Archives to Enhance Student-Centered Learning
Ashelee Gerald Hill and Rebecca May | Wake Forest University
We have a sustainable and manageable approach to teaching one-off classes. Integrating new perspectives and voices into our teaching, highlights long held, but seldom used collections, while supporting new classes and programs. Leveraging the University Archives to reflect student interests and experiences is a small change with a big impact.

You’re Going to Need a Bigger Framework: Caring, Listening, and Supporting During Library Instruction
John Glover | Virginia Commonwealth University
Students may forget specific lessons, but they remember how we treat them. The Framework, however, is silent about care, leaving affective elements of instruction to our discretion. Pandemic effects, ongoing national unrest, and the “demographic cliff” all highlight the need for more than information literacy in the library classroom.

TILC 2025 Theme

Pre-conference Workshop, Poster Session, & Social on Thursday, June 5 and Conference on Friday, June 6, 2025
William & Mary, Williamsburg VA

TILC 2025 - Teaching for a Sustainable Future

Theme Overview:
Sustainability is crucial for building strong and knowledgeable communities and its principles are essential to fostering resilient, informed communities. In the context of library instruction and information literacy, sustainability can be interpreted in several ways:

Environmental Sustainability: What are strategies for integrating environmental topics into information literacy instruction? How can libraries contribute to ecological awareness and action through teaching and learning?
Information Sustainability: How do we teach students to navigate and preserve information responsibly?
Educational Sustainability: How do we create lasting learning experiences and adaptable teaching methods that equip learners with skills for lifelong information literacy?
Program Sustainability: How can we advocate for and implement sustainable practices for ourselves? How do we build sustainable library instruction programs that meet the evolving needs of our learners?
Cultural and Social Sustainability: How do we promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within information literacy programs to support marginalized and under-represented communities?

We are planning for an in-person conference. We will follow the best safety practices as recommended by the CDC, Virginia Library Association, and William & Mary. We are prepared to cancel the conference if needed. (We do not have the budget or equipment to do a hybrid conference.)

If you have any questions, email us at [email protected]

Registration:

$80 for Attendees
$70 for Presenters and Members of Indigenous Tribes

Pre-conference workshop will be an additional $25 and space is limited.

The 2025 William & Mary Libraries Travel Grant recipients have been announced. See the recipients here.

Schedule	Matoaka Woods	Holly	Dogwood
10:10 - 11:00 am	The Power of No: Setting Sustainable Boundaries to Avoid Burnout Garrison Libby \| UNC-Charlotte As instruction librarians, we often want to say "yes." Yes to that last minute class, yes to accommodating an instructor's request even when it doesn't fit our pedagogy, and yes to doing more. But saying yes to everything has real consequences. It can create extra mental load on yourself, put extra stress on your colleagues, and lead to burnout. This session will focus on identifying signs of burnout in yourself and your colleagues, finding ways to say no, and sharing tips from both a personal and programmatic perspective for maintaining library instruction that is open to innovation while ensuring a sustainable for yourself and colleagues. Attendees will be invited to share their own experiences with setting and maintaining boundaries, and ways to break the vocational awe that leads us to keep saying "yes."	Genre-Style Pedagogy: Sustaining Information Literacy for Gen Z Beyond the Academy Abe Nemon \| Virginia Wesleyan University Textual literacy is backsliding as students are engrossed in TikTok, Twitch, and mobile games while instructional librarians struggle to act as guides to unstable traditional hierarchies of information authority. Participants will learn how genre-style pedagogy—an autonomous IL pedagogy in which students identify patterns in scholarly and popular media and construct their own “stylistic interventions”—bridges this divide, empowering students with transferable metaliteracies to respond to new technologies and power structures in a changing society.	Inquiry as a Higher Order Thinking Tool: In a World with AI Does Any Other Pedagogy Matter? Amanda Harrison \| University of Central Missouri As AI makes information access easier and more accessible, the need to reframe pedagogy around higher-order thinking becomes even more vital. Librarians are often in the position of teaching one-shot digital literacy lessons based on tools that are limited and soon to be outdated. This session explores inquiry-based learning to build critical thinking, creativity, and metacognition. We will consider practical ways to build a self-reflective inquiry pedagogy in all types of library programming.
11:10 am - 12:00 pm	Am I the Drama? Decentering Ourselves to Reimagine Instructional Programs Ula Lechtenberg \| University of Pittsburgh Despite recent conversations around the effectiveness of the one-shot, there is still resistance to embracing different ways of thinking about library instruction, particularly if they challenge the librarian’s own sense of value and impact. What could sustainable instructional programs look like in practice if librarians decentered themselves in the design process? In this presentation, participants will reflect on the impact of their current efforts and will consider sustainable strategies moving forward.	Making Instruction Assessment Sustainable: Exploring a Programmatic Approach to Student Learning Assessment Jasmine Spitler and Patrick Rudd \| Elon University In this session, we will discuss and demonstrate how we implemented a sustainable, programmatic approach to student learning assessment across the curriculum at Elon University. Attendees will address the nuances in creating and developing an assessment plan appropriate to their institution. Participants will learn how to work within their own unique cultural contexts, create ownership of assessment efforts among library staff, and take away strategies for creating their own student learning assessment plan.	Bingo! Turning Passion into Action with High-Impact Sustainability Activities Tyler Kroon \| North Carolina State University Discover how a Sustainability Bingo Board activity and hands-on Sustainability Research Workshop engaged students in high-impact learning about sustainability concepts and research tools. This session will highlight the design and implementation of these initiatives, which combined campus exploration with active learning and a practical research experience to foster student excitement about sustainability, and provide them with pathways to turn that excitement into action.
1:10 - 2:00 pm	Feminist Fuel for Your Fire: Reigniting Passion, Combating Burnout, and Creating Sustainable Careers through Feminist Pedagogy Morgan Johnson and Addison Stinson \| Meredith College Plenty of literature touts the benefits of implementing feminist pedagogy in the classroom. Feminist pedagogy breaks down power dynamics and prioritizes students’ experiences to promote active learning. We propose that implementing feminist pedagogy is mutually beneficial for both students and teachers in the library classroom, effectively helping early career instructional librarians cultivate sustainable careers and prevent burnout. Through our experiences as young professionals, we will share how feminist pedagogy can empower both students and teachers.	Waste Management: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to Sustain Your Sanity Lisa Nichols \| University of Kentucky Librarians may feel pressured to “cover all the things!” but this approach is meaningless to students. This session will highlight ways to plan just enough to get started and then how to transition the workload to students, changing our role from librarian as presenter to librarian as guide by using the Think-Aloud technique to model effective research strategies. We will also brainstorm ideas for working with faculty since collaboration between librarians and faculty is essential.	Building a Strong Library Ecosystem: ONE VOICE for Library Instruction, Advocacy, and Resilience Delandrus L. I. Seales \| UNC-Wilmington By understanding the interconnectedness of libraries, we can cultivate a strong library ecosystem that promotes information literacy and shared priorities. This session will explore strategies for building partnerships, advocating for library services, and incorporating sustainability into instruction. By empowering individuals with information and skills, libraries can create a more sustainable future. Participants will learn to use the ALA Ecosystem Toolkit to facilitate communication and inspire joint action across different library types and with their constituents.
2:10 - 3:00 pm	Going Small to Go Big: "Pop-Up" Teaching Basics Kelsey Hammer \| Virginia Tech Many libraries struggle with low attendance for workshops and other co-curricular programming. At Virginia Tech, we developed a process for converting existing lesson activities into learning interactions that meet students where they are: outside the classroom with 5 minutes to spare. “Pop-up teaching” is low effort/cost, time/space flexible, and leads to high interaction numbers, while still meeting meaningful learning goals. Come learn the pop-up basics, including sample activities on artificial intelligence and fact-checking.	Speed Networking Lucy Wittkower \| Old Dominion University Want to meet more folks at TILC? Join us for a series of activities intended to build community and strengthen connections between attendees.	Fostering Sustainable Instruction and Faculty Partnerships Through the Use of Secondary Education Reflective Feedback Practices Amber Ovsak \| University of Kansas This presentation explores the use of reflective observation tools from secondary education within academic library instruction. Adaptation of these practices can help librarians gather meaningful feedback from faculty partners, fostering collaborative discussions that result in more impactful instruction. The presenter will share strategies piloted by a small group of academic librarians and suggest that thoughtful experimentation with feedback can help to create a sustainable framework for continuous improvement in library instruction within higher education settings.

TILC 2025: Teaching for a Sustainable Futrure