ILA/ACRL

Author: ECC ILA/ACRL

  • ILA Conference Scholarship

    ILA Conference Scholarship

    The Awards Committee of ILA/ACRL invites applications for a scholarship to attend the Iowa Library Association Annual Conference on October 1-3, 2025, in Sioux City, IA. The scholarship will cover the registration fee and up to $200 in travel, hotel, and meal expenses.

    Applicants must fall into at least one of the following three categories:

    1. Paid members of ILA/ACRL, working full-time in an Iowa academic or research library, and either: attending their first Iowa Library Association Conference, or have worked in an Iowa academic or research library for fewer than three years.
    2. Library science students.
    3. Support staff working in an Iowa academic or research library (part-time or full-time).

    Student and support staff applicants do not have to be paid members of ILA/ACRL. Previous ILA Fall Conference scholarship recipients are NOT eligible.

    Please submit this application form, including an essay no longer than 250 words, describing your interest in the scholarship and how you believe the scholarship will benefit your professional development. The scholarship recipient will be selected by the Awards Committee based on the quality of the essay.

    The deadline to submit an application is August 27, 2025. The selected recipient will be notified by September 9, 2024.

    Questions? Please contact Lisa Martincik, University of Iowa, Awards Committee Chair.

    — Thank you for your applications!

    — The 2025 ILA/ACRL Awards Committee (Alyssa Grigsby, Debra Lowman, Lisa Martincik, McKenzie Reimer, and Emily Simmons)

  • Announcing the Mary Hammond Iber ILA/ACRL Spring Conference Scholarship winner

    Announcing the Mary Hammond Iber ILA/ACRL Spring Conference Scholarship winner

    Congrats to Zane Collett!

    About the scholarship:

    The Mary Hammond Iber Spring Conference Scholarship helps to fund attendance at the ILA/ACRL and IPAL Spring Conference. This year’s conference was held at the Cowles Library, Drake University on May 28-29, 2025.

    About the winner:

    Zane Collett is a U2G (undergraduate-to-graduate) student in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa, where they are focusing on academic libraries, cataloging, and reference. They recently completed their undergraduate studies also at the University of Iowa where they received a B.S. in mathematics and a B.A. in linguistics. Zane hopes to combine all of these facets into a library career where they can leverage their math background to better assist those with similar interests.

    In their words: 

    “As my first professional conference, this was my first opportunity to engage with people who do what I want to do. They not only implicitly affirmed my desire to be an academic librarian through their actions and discussions but also explicitly made me feel that this was my place. Through this conference, I found a community of individuals who believe in intellectual freedom and helping others in the same way I do. Finally, this conference has made me excited about librarianship in a way I have not since being admitted to library school.”

  • Spring Conference Recap

    Spring Conference Recap

    Academic librarians from around Iowa met at Drake University on May 28 and 29 for the annual joint meeting of the Iowa Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and Iowa Private Academic Libraries (IPAL). Seventy people attended the conference, and another 9 members attended virtually. The theme of this year’s conference was “Some Assembly Required.”

    Attendees were welcomed by Hope Bibens (Drake University) Chair of the conference planning committee, Teri Koch (Drake University) Dean of Cowles Library, Provost Sue Mattison (Drake University), Jodie Morin (Buena Vista University) President of Iowa ACRL, and Eric Jennings (University of Northern Iowa) President of ILA. Lisa Martincik (University of Iowa) Chair of the Awards Committee, introduced Zane Collett, a student at the School of Library & Information Science at the University of Iowa, who is this year’s winner of the Mary Iber Spring Conference Scholarship.

    During the conference, which concluded Thursday afternoon, members could participate in nine concurrent sessions, seven different interest group sessions, seven “lightning talks,” and dine-arounds held at area restaurants Wednesday evening. We were fortunate to welcome many members attending their first ILA/ACRL/IPAL conference and to recognize Cyd Dyer (Simpson College) who was attending her 48th spring conference on the eve of her retirement.

    Next year’s conference will be held at Wartburg College in Waverly. A new conference planning committee will be convening soon to begin work on our 2026 conference. Watch the ACRL listserv for more details!

    Thank you to our presenters, everyone on the conference planning committee, Cowles Library and Drake University for a very successful conference!