The LOEX Fall Focus 2025 Conference Planning Committee invites you to submit session proposals for consideration to the conference. The conference will be held, in an online format, on two or three days over November 17-19, 2025 (exact dates will be finalized by September 12; update -- those dates have been finalized).
Format
- For this online conference, there is only one type of full-length breakout session:
- Presentation: A 50-minute session that includes time for a 40-45 minute presentation and 5-10 minutes of question and answer. Most feature a successful program, practice or key issue related to instruction or information literacy. The exact number of attendees won't be known until the session takes place. Presenter(s) should include in the proposal a description of the topic and an outline of the presentation.
Proposal Focus
- Proposals should be written to address one of the three focuses of the conference:
- Focus 1: Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping how information is created, discovered, evaluated, and shared—and libraries are at the forefront of helping students and faculty navigate this evolving landscape. As AI tools become more integrated into academic workflows, it is essential for library instruction to adapt thoughtfully, addressing both the opportunities and challenges AI presents.
- We invite proposals that explore innovative approaches to incorporating AI into library instruction and student learning. How are you introducing AI concepts and tools to students in ways that foster critical thinking, ethical awareness, and practical skills? What strategies have you developed for teaching prompt engineering, guiding responsible AI use, or supporting AI-assisted research and writing? How do you collaborate with campus partners to expand AI literacy across disciplines? What lessons have you learned about integrating AI into your instructional design or campus initiatives?
- Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- - Introducing AI concepts and tools in library instruction
- - Critical evaluation of AI-generated information and content
- - Teaching prompt engineering and effective AI interactions
- - Ethical considerations and digital literacy in AI use
- - AI-assisted research tasks, writing, and citation management
- - Using AI for generating images or multimedia in assignments
- - Collaborating with faculty, IT, or writing centers around AI integration
- - Designing lessons and curricula that incorporate AI responsibly and creatively
- Focus 2: Archives & Special Collections
- In a time of increasing technological change and homogenization, there is something comforting about an archive—a collection of materials that are not typically readily accessible to the public, and may be the only examples of its kind in the country, if not the world. Primary source materials, photographs, drawings, manuscripts and more that help connect an individual library to its institution to a specific event or time or place or person (e.g., sketches and drawings by a now well-known artist who got his undergrad degree at your school).
- How have you used your institution’s archive to connect with students? What finding aids have you created to help make the collection more accessible? What outreach have you conducted to make the archive more well-known and relevant to faculty, students, and/or the community? How have you used new technology to analyze, summarize and contextualize the collection, or to make it available outside of the physical space? What experiential learning opportunities have you developed to allow students to engage hands-on with materials and increase their connection & appreciation?
- Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- - Collaboration across multiple departments with archives
- - Scaling instruction through the use of digital pedagogy
- - Improving critical thinking by accessing primary source material
- - Utilizing educational frameworks (e.g., UDL) to make materials more accessible
- - Building relationships with the community to increase opportunities for learning
- - Engaging in place-based learning with material drawn from local collections
- Focus 3: Sense of Belonging
- Academic libraries play an important role in cultivating a sense of belonging for the communities we serve. Whether it’s in the classroom, in our library spaces, or through our outreach programming, we want our students to feel like they are part of their library. Our work should help students feel that their library is there to help and support their success. This sense of belonging also applies to the library organization itself; how do we create departmental cultures where people feel supported and empowered to thrive? As higher education experiences pressures from outside forces, cultivating a sense of belonging is more important than ever.
- We invite proposals that share initiatives, services, programs, and practices that help to cultivate a sense of belonging in your communities. How do you foster community, with your students and within your library organizations? How have you built community within the classroom? Have you built new services or tried new programming? How have you reached out to students who might not be in-person or are part of other student populations? What strategies have you tried to cultivate a culture of belonging in your unit? How do you support your students and take care of yourself?
- Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- - Cultivating sense of belonging in one-shot instruction
- - Library outreach that centers student belonging
- - Creating belonging with various student populations (online students, residential students, first generation students, etc.)
- - Supporting student wellness
- - Building departmental cultures that focus on belonging
Submission Information
***The deadline for proposal submissions was September 5, 2025; proposals are no longer being accepted.******Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal!***
- Proposals can be submitted only through the ***online submission form*** and must be received by Friday, September 5, 2025. The primary contact for the proposal will receive an automated email indicating receipt of the proposal when it is submitted and will be notified if the proposal has been accepted for presentation by Friday, September 26, 2025.
- If your proposal is accepted, then up to three presenters will be automatically registered for the conference and required to pay registration in full by the due date in early November.
- All proposals must include the following:
- - Session title (limit 20 words)
- - Short description of the session (limit 100 words)
- - Long description of the session (limit 500 words)
- - List of 1-3 learning outcomes (visit Choosing the right verb and How to write effective LOs from the University of Nebraska for guidance)
- - Type of audience(s) for which the session is intended
- You do not need to be a LOEX member to submit a conference proposal. We accept the best proposals, regardless of institution or membership. LOEX membership only matters for general registration, which begins Friday, October 17, 2025.
Proposal Timeline
- Friday, September 5, 2025: Deadline to submit proposals
- Friday, September 26, 2025: Notification of acceptance of proposal
Proposal Selection Criteria
- Successful proposals will showcase effective and innovative library instruction & information literacy practices, provide valuable information that participants can utilize at their libraries, support collaboration, and be applicable to the broad variety of academic institutions. The committee will be using a rubric to score the proposals. Along with the criteria listed under the session format descriptions, the rubric scores each proposal on: - Content and objectives of presentation
- - Relevance to the selected focus and to the field of library instruction
- - Originality and creativity
- - Demonstrated expertise of the presenter(s) on the topic
- - Methods used to inform and also engage the audience
- All committee members participate in the review process. Each proposal will undergo double-blind peer review by two committee members and be scored based on our rubric. Upon receiving the recommendations of the reviewers, the LOEX Director and conference co-chairs will conduct a final, overall review of these sessions to ensure variety in presenters, institution types, and topics.