LOEX Currents -
Summer 2025
Announcements
Conferences
LOEX 2026 will be in Norfolk, VA on May 7-9. The call for breakout session proposals will go out by the end of September and will be due just after Thanksgiving. More details will be available when we launch the website in early September.
LOEX Fall Focus 2025, a low-cost, streamlined, online conference—Focus 1: Artificial intelligence, Focus 2: Archives & Special Collections and Focus 3: Sense of Belonging—will occur on November 17-19, 2025. The call for proposals has been released; submit yours by September 5, 2025.
ALA Annual 2026 will be held June 25-29, 2026 in Chicago, IL. The call for Education Program and for Poster proposals is open and submissions are due September 22, 2025.
ALA and ACRL News
Upgrading Your Library’s Website, a two-part webinar series, will be held September 2 and September 4, 2025 at 2:30PM EST. Registration costs $129; $116.10 for ALA members.
Understanding Emotional Intelligence, a four-week online course, will be held September 15 - October 13, 2025. Registration costs $229.00; $206.10 for ALA members; $148.85 for ACRL members.
A Discussion of Faculty and Predatory Journals: The Potential Role of Librarians, a free online presentation, will be held September 17, 2025 from 2-3pm ET. Sponsored by the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee.
Consider becoming a mentor or mentee in the 2025/26 ACRL Instruction Section Mentoring Program. This program creates a forum for learning opportunities, networking, and the exchange of ideas about instruction and information literacy between paired mentors and mentees. Deadline to apply is September 10, 2025. Membership in both ACRL and Instruction Section are required to apply.
The ACRL Instruction Section is reopening nominations for the 2026 Officers slate. The section is currently soliciting nominations for the following roles: Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect (3 year term) ; Secretary/Archivist (2 year term) ; Member-at-Large (2 year term) - 3 positions. Take a moment and submit your nomination today, due by September 1!
Volunteer for an LIRT Committee: LIRT is still accepting volunteer applications for committee members and is looking for members interested in the following committees: Awards Committee ; Communications Committee ; Conference Program Committee; Top 20 Committee. Apply by September 5, 2025.
Recently released book from ALA Editions (2025): Critical Information Literacy Applications for All Libraries. Edited by Julie N. Hornick and Lauren Kehoe. Get a taste of this book by reading a free excerpt and watching the editors' Information Literacy Mailbag presentation.
Professional Development
Call for papers and book reviews: LOEX Quarterly
Share your instruction ideas and innovations with the thousands of LOEX member librarians. The focus is on substantive, but practical articles, so do not miss an opportunity to share with others your interesting programs, experiences, ideas or insights. Submissions are relatively short: between 1250-2000 words. Email LOEX if you have any questions. Deadline for the next issue: October 15, 2025.
Join us the next LIS Pedagogy Chat on September 5 at 2pm EST. This session's topic is "Co-Teaching as Professional Development." How can co-teaching support professional development for early career and experienced librarians? Register at: https://www.lispedagogychat.org/schedule-registration.
Online free presentation, "Evidence-based Mindsets in an Era of Information Confusion: An Information Literacy Approach" on September 12, 2pm EST by Professor William Badke. Hosted by the Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue,
Are you an early or mid-career librarian with job responsibilities in instruction? Apply to take part in a research study documenting the next 10 years of instruction librarianship! IL Generations is a longitudinal qualitative research study conducted by Amber Willenborg, Rob Detmering, and Kristina Bloch from the University of Louisville. Over a ten-year period from 2026 to 2036, the project will utilize periodic semi-structured interviews (approximately 30-60 minutes) to document and compare the lived experiences of two separate cohorts of academic instruction librarians: early career and mid-career.
Tessa Withorn and Maria T. Accardi (Co-Editors) welcome book chapter submissions to be published in the forthcoming Critical Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence in Librarianship, an edited volume to be published by Litwin Books/Library Juice Press. Submission deadline, of a 300-500 word proposal, is October 1, 2025. Questions and completed proposals should be directed to the editors at critlibaibook@gmail.com as a Word document (.docx) email attachment or in the body of your email.
Job Notices
CA (Pomona) - Cal Poly Pomona - Associate Dean, University Library - Open until filled.
CO (Denver) - University of Colorado Denver, Auraria Library - Teaching & Learning Librarian - Preference will be given to complete applications received by September 15, 2025.
FL (Winter Park) - Rollins College - Reference & Instruction Librarian - Open until filled.
IL (Chicago) - Walden University - Lead- Academic Support - Open until filled.
LA (Shreveport) - Louisiana State University Shreveport - Business and Data Services Librarian - Open until filled.
MI (Ann Arbor) - University of Michigan Law Library - Assistant Director for Research & User Services - Apply by September 22, 2025.
MI (Dearborn) - University of Michigan Dearborn - Head, Library Research Center - Apply by September 26, 2025.
MI (Rochester) - Oakland University - Assistant Professor, Humanities Librarian - Review of applications will begin on September 2, 2025 and will continue until the position is filled.
MN (Minneapolis) - Walden University - Lead- Academic Support - Open until filled.
MO (Cape Girardeau) - Southeast Missouri State University - Information Literacy Librarian - To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by September 19, 2025.
NY (Albany) - University at Albany - Business and Data Services Librarian - University Libraries - Open until filled.
OH (Athens) - Ohio University - Head of Research Services - For full consideration, please apply by September 4, 2025.
OH (Oxford) - Miami University - Head, Learning and Engagement; Associate Librarian or Principal Librarian - Open until filled.
PA (Glenside) - Arcadia University - Student Success Librarian - Application review will begin immediately.
SC (Charleston) - Medical University of South Carolina - Research and Education Informationist - Review of applications will begin on October 1, 2025.
SC (Charleston) - Medical University of South Carolina - Research Impact Informationist - Review of applications will begin on October 1, 2025.
SC (Columbia) - Walden University - Lead- Academic Support - Open until filled.
UAE (Sharjah) - American University of Sharjah - Scholarly Communications Librarian - Open until filled.
UT (Logan) - Utah State University - Scholarly Communications Librarian - Review will begin on October 1, 2025.
Readings
Clarissa M. Ihssen (July/August 2025). Becoming Embedded by Supporting Departmental Accreditation: One Librarian’s Experience. College & Research Libraries News, 86(7), 283-287.
Jane Hammons et al. (July/August 2025). Celebrating 50 Years of Information Literacy. College & Research Libraries News, 86(7), 300-304.
Amber Willenborg and Robert Detmering (July 2025). “I Don’t Think Librarians Can Save Us”: The Material Conditions of Information Literacy Instruction in the Misinformation Age. College & Research Libraries, 86(7), 535-553.
Mandi Goodsett and Melanie Gagich (June 2025). From Cynicism to Trust: Strategies for Teaching Students Source Evaluation Skills. Communications in Information Literacy, 19(1), 69-92.
Jennifer Jarson (July 18, 2025). In Search of Serendipity. Retrieved from https://acrlog.org/.
Brian Phillips (August 20, 2025). Stop AI-Shaming Our Precious, Kindly Em Dashes—Please. Retrieved from https://www.theringer.com/.
Hilke Schellmann (August 19, 2025). I Tested How Well AI Tools Work for Journalism: For research, the results were a disaster. Retrieved from https://www.cjr.org/.
Ian Bogost (August 17, 2025). College Students Have Already Changed Forever. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/.
Nate Anderson (August 14, 2025). Dedicated Volunteer Exposes “Single Largest Self-Promotion Operation in Wikipedia’s History”. Retrieved from https://arstechnica.com/culture/.
Nicole Nguyen (August 10, 2025). Google, Schmoogle: When to Ditch Web Search for Deep Research. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/tech/.
John Herrman (August 4, 2025). SEO Is Dead. Say Hello to GEO. Search-engine optimization now feels dated. Generative-engine optimization is all about trying to trick AI chatbots. Retrieved from https://nymag.com/intelligencer/.
Horace Bianchon (July 29, 2025). You’re Not Supposed to Remember the Book. Retrieved from https://horacebianchon.substack.com/.
Facts and Figures...and LIFE
"The American audiences of 30 prominent news sources vary dramatically in their levels of education. Roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults (62%) who say they regularly get news from The Atlantic have at least a bachelor’s degree. Axios, NPR and The New York Times also have audiences with relatively high levels of formal education. By comparison, Univision and Telemundo have the lowest percentages of college graduates in their audiences at 15% and 16%, respectively."
Pew Research Center (August 18, 2025)
"The percentage of U.S. adults who say they consume alcohol has fallen to 54%, the lowest by one percentage point in Gallup’s nearly 90-year trend. For the first time in Gallup’s trend, a majority of Americans, 53%, say drinking in moderation, or “one or two drinks a day,” is bad for one’s health. Just 6% say it’s good for one’s health, while 37% believe it makes no difference. ."
Gallup (August 14, 2025)
...and: the "LIFE Magazine: Interesting Page of the Month" - from August 14, 1964 (pg. 43-44, 46)
Brad's thoughts - The look on this man's face reminded me of something out of a horror movie, but nope -- just one of the great medical minds of the 20th century, the man who I came to learn literally invented angioplasty, concentrating while doing his 10th ever-procedure. I reckon you want a person with that kind of focus, determination, and investment in what he is doing when he is pioneering a procedure so complicated.
LOEX Currents is distributed electronically once each month September through May. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to contact@loex.org. This e-publication is compiled and distributed by Brad Sietz, LOEX Director.