The Library and Institutional Success
July 14-25, 2025
The Library and Institutional Success
The Chronicle and Ithaka S+R are partnering to provide library leaders a professional development program tailored to their unique challenges and goals. This two-week virtual program is designed to empower participants to develop their leadership skills and drive institutional success.
The first week of this program will offer librarians a chance to dive into three core seminars. These high-level, large format seminars will include insights on national trends, the higher-ed business model, and the library’s role in institutional initiatives. Together, these seminars will provide context on the external challenges, pressures, and opportunities that higher education institutions and their libraries face in today’s evolving economic and political climate, as well as guidance on the ways libraries might position themselves to respond and support their institutions’ strategies.
With that context as background, the second week will divide the larger group into topic-based workshops. Each group will hone personal action plans based on their area of focus and the strategic needs of their institutions. Participants can choose from workshop session topics including the library’s role in student learning, active collection management for contemporary libraries, and research libraries and artificial intelligence.
Program Packages
Small-Group Workshop Program
For current and incoming library leaders
Save $100 with Early-Bird Code LIBRARY25
This package includes:
Save $100 with Early-Bird Code LIBRARY25
This package includes:
- Four 1-hour seminars, plus post-event recordings
- Up to three 2.5-hour small-group workshops on areas of key interest for library leaders
- The Library of the Future, a Chronicle report
- A Visioning Roadmap to implement goals within your institutional context
- Opportunities for self- and peer-assessment
Seminar-Only Bundle
For future library leaders and other stakeholders:
This package includes:
This package includes:
- Four 1-hour seminars, plus post-event recordings
- The Library of The Future, a Chronicle report
Program Leaders
Tracy Bergstrom
Program Manager, Library Collections and Infrastructure
Ithaka S+R
Agenda
Seminar
Program Overview
All Access Program Overview
This dynamic two-week program is designed for prospective and current librarian leaders, diving deep into the ways that a campus library and its associated functions can prosper, and the ways that the success of a library contributes to institutional success. The live components of the All-Access program are presented in two modes: seminars and workshops.
- Seminars are live, 60-minute Zoom Webinar events that will be recorded and distributed to registrants upon their conclusion.
- Workshops are live, 2.5-hour Zoom Meeting events that include small groups from each topic focus. Registrants will sign up based on desired workshop topic and timing. Due to the interactive nature of these events, they will not be recorded for post-event distribution.
Seminars
The first week of the program includes four 1-hour seminars on the following topics:
- July 14, 2025, 1 p.m. ET | National Trends in Higher Education
- July 15, 2025, 1 p.m. ET | Understanding the Higher-Ed Business Model
- July 16, 2025, 1 p.m. ET | Academic Libraries and Artificial Intelligence
- July 17, 2025, 1 p.m. ET | The Library Leading Through Innovation
Workshops
The second week of the program includes up to three topic-based workshops. The topic options are as follows:
July 21 or July 22, 2025 | Change Management: This interactive workshop provides professionals with practical tools and frameworks for navigating organizational change. The session will explore the challenges organizations face during transformation, regardless of the drivers. Participants will engage in activities and discussions that highlight the dynamics of change and build confidence in addressing resistance while supporting teams.
July 23, 2025 | Active Collection Management for Contemporary Libraries: This workshop aims to prepare participants for active collection management oversight by understanding new practices and tools to make better informed choices about collections management and growth. The workshop will focus on how collecting opportunities and practices have changed in recent years, and the resulting effects for libraries and their users.
July 24, 2025 | The Library’s Role in Student Learning: Participants will engage with library leaders who have a proven track record of implementing strategies to enhance services and support student success at their institution. This workshop will highlight how library leaders can enhance student success at their institution through identifying and assessing student needs, developing services, enhancing community spaces, leveraging technology, and more.
Program Pricing
Our program is offered with flexible registration depending on your professional development needs. The pricing of each package is as follows:
- Single-Workshop Package: $995
- Two-Workshop Package: $1,395
- Three-Workshop Package: $1,695
- Seminar-Only Bundle: $495
Register by June 13 to save $100 on the Workshop Packages with early-bird code LIBRARY25. Specialized pricing on the workshop packages is available for consortia groups of 10 or more, community colleges, and for institutional groups of 3 or more. Reach out to workshops@chronicle.com for group inquiries.
Seminar
National Trends in Higher Education
01:00 PM, July 14, 2025
Recent developments have changed the higher-ed landscape, creating uncertainty and challenging institutions to strategically adjust priorities, and follow a decade of opportunities of dynamic change in higher education. Staying informed about this shifting environment, and differentiating between passing fads and long-term structural changes, is critical to understanding your institution’s strategy and to making strategic decisions for your library.
Join us for this 60-minute session to discuss key trends in higher education and its economic and policy context.
In this session, you will learn:
Join us for this 60-minute session to discuss key trends in higher education and its economic and policy context.
In this session, you will learn:
- How declining public trust and increasing political intervention are affecting the priorities and structure of higher education institutions.
- How higher education institutions are adapting to a shifting enrollment and budgetary landscape.
- Strategies for equitably serving the emerging majority of students who are older, working, have earned credits elsewhere, or are from minority or lower-income backgrounds.
- How higher education institutions are responding to new technologies and a growing emphasis on sub-degree credentials.
Martin Kurzweil
Panelist
Martin Kurzweil is Vice President of the Educational Transformation Program at Ithaka S+R, which studies and supports the implementation of practices, policies, and innovations that improve student postsecondary access and success.
Catharine Bond Hill
Panelist
Managing Director, Ithaka S+R
Seminar
Understanding the Higher-Ed Business Model
01:00 PM, July 15, 2025
As colleges explore different strategies to achieve a sustainable future, it is essential for library leaders to understand their institution’s financial context.
What is a discount rate? Where does most of a college’s revenue come from? What is an institution’s greatest expense? For many campus and library leaders, the financial realities of their institution as a whole–and the sustainability of its operations--are not often on their radar. To lead a library strategically, understanding the mounting financial pressures facing campuses, whether from falling enrollment, decreased public funding, and constraints on tuition increases, is increasingly important.
In this session, you will learn:
What is a discount rate? Where does most of a college’s revenue come from? What is an institution’s greatest expense? For many campus and library leaders, the financial realities of their institution as a whole–and the sustainability of its operations--are not often on their radar. To lead a library strategically, understanding the mounting financial pressures facing campuses, whether from falling enrollment, decreased public funding, and constraints on tuition increases, is increasingly important.
In this session, you will learn:
- The financial fundamentals of different kinds of institutions
- How external pressures are reshaping institutional finances
- The most common financial strategies colleges pursue and how they affect academic departments
Liz McMillen
Moderator
As contributing editor at The Chronicle, Liz McMillen brings more than 30 years of experience covering higher education. She is a sought-after speaker who frequently addresses college leaders in the United States and overseas about big-picture trends in higher education.
Robert Kelchen
Panelist
Professor and Department Head, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Seminar
Academic Libraries and Artificial Intelligence
01:00 PM, July 16, 2025
The rapid spread of generative AI has led to widespread calls for integrating artificial intelligence AI (AI) into libraries’ everyday work. Within research libraries, potential applications for AI span both user-facing and backend applications. As libraries have unique expertise in the information environment, and are key providers of instruction on research methods and research integrity, libraries bear an increased role in helping their campus constituents understand the opportunities and risks of AI as integrated into the research process. Applications utilizing AI, including within cataloging and metadata enhancement, are also being more widely adopted by libraries to streamline their work.
This seminar will familiarize participants in areas in which AI is making impacts within libraries. As this topic is evolving quickly, the workshop will focus on tangible examples in use today, and how libraries have upskilled staff to be ready to meet new challenges in this area.
In this session, you will learn about:
This seminar will familiarize participants in areas in which AI is making impacts within libraries. As this topic is evolving quickly, the workshop will focus on tangible examples in use today, and how libraries have upskilled staff to be ready to meet new challenges in this area.
In this session, you will learn about:
- AI literacy: evolving definitions of AI literacy, what this means for library staff who support teaching and research, and the considerations of AI usage in academic environments
- The library as incubator: how libraries can partner with other university units to support AI integration for students and faculty on campus, and how the library can lead discussions around the ethical consideration of usage.
- Enhancing workflows: how AI tools have been put into practice by libraries, and areas for which new technologies can enhance workflows and productivity.
Seminar
The Library Leading Through Innovation
01:00 PM, July 17, 2025
In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, it is crucial for academic library leaders to understand and actively drive the role of libraries to pioneer institutional success. As stewards of knowledge and innovation, library leaders are uniquely positioned to influence and expand the library’s impact across research, teaching, and student success domains.
By strategically aligning library services and resources with the broader goals of their institutions, leaders can demonstrate the library’s integral role on campus. This proactive approach not only reinforces the library’s value but also ensures its continued relevance and resilience in the face of digital transformation and changing academic needs. Effective leadership in academic libraries, therefore, is essential not just for the success of the library itself but for the institution as a whole, as it empowers the library to become a central hub for academic and community innovation.
In this session, you will learn:
By strategically aligning library services and resources with the broader goals of their institutions, leaders can demonstrate the library’s integral role on campus. This proactive approach not only reinforces the library’s value but also ensures its continued relevance and resilience in the face of digital transformation and changing academic needs. Effective leadership in academic libraries, therefore, is essential not just for the success of the library itself but for the institution as a whole, as it empowers the library to become a central hub for academic and community innovation.
In this session, you will learn:
- The key strategic priorities of the institution and the ways in which the library contributes to those priorities
- How to align the goals of the library to the goals of the institution
- New areas, such as engagement in digital scholarship, generative AI, research partnerships, and teaching collaborations where libraries are making impact within their institutions
- Assessment of libraries’ impact and communication of their role and value
Workshop
Change Management for Libraries
July 21 or 22, 2025
This interactive workshop provides professionals with practical tools and frameworks for navigating organizational change. The session will explore the challenges organizations face during transformation, regardless of the drivers. Participants will engage in activities and discussions that highlight the dynamics of change and build confidence in addressing resistance while supporting teams.
Through a combination of presentations, group discussions, exercises, and practices, participants will deepen their understanding of how to lead or support change effectively within their organizations. They will work through change scenarios using planning tools. By the end of the session, attendees will gain actionable steps and clarity about how to lead with resilience and adaptability in a continually evolving landscape.
Attendees who participate in this workshop will:
Session options:
Through a combination of presentations, group discussions, exercises, and practices, participants will deepen their understanding of how to lead or support change effectively within their organizations. They will work through change scenarios using planning tools. By the end of the session, attendees will gain actionable steps and clarity about how to lead with resilience and adaptability in a continually evolving landscape.
Attendees who participate in this workshop will:
- Identify common challenges and dynamics associated with organizational change and transformation.
- Apply practical tools and frameworks to analyze and plan for change within their organizational context.
- Demonstrate strategies for addressing resistance and supporting teams through periods of transition.
- Develop a personalized action plan to lead or support change with resilience and adaptability
Session options:
- July 21, 1 - 3:30 p.m. ET
- July 22, 1 - 3:30 p.m. ET
Workshop
Active Collection Management for Contemporary Libraries
July 23, 2025
With decreasing or flatlining budgets, many academic libraries are making difficult decisions about collection resource allocations. In conjunction with reallocated budgets, libraries are also reevaluating traditional collection development practices, including item selection, approval plans, and demand-driven acquisitions. These issues need thoughtful examination to be more inclusive of contemporary student and researcher needs as well as reflective of the new fiscal reality.
This workshop aims to prepare participants for active collection management oversight by understanding new practices and tools to make better informed choices about collections management and growth. The workshop will focus on how collecting opportunities and practices have changed in recent years, and the resulting effects for libraries and their users.
Participants will advance knowledge in the following areas:
Session options:
This workshop aims to prepare participants for active collection management oversight by understanding new practices and tools to make better informed choices about collections management and growth. The workshop will focus on how collecting opportunities and practices have changed in recent years, and the resulting effects for libraries and their users.
Participants will advance knowledge in the following areas:
- Vendor relationships: Participants will learn how to cultivate and maintain effective relationships with vendors to maximize the resources available to their institutional community.
- Acquisitions models: Participants will understand the effectiveness and strength of acquisitions models including traditional item level selection, demand-driven acquisition (DDA), evidence-based acquisition (EBA), and purchasing complete collections.
- Consortial collecting: Participants will hear about successful initiatives of consortial or collective collecting, and what institutions gain from these partnerships.
- New opportunities: Participants will learn about new opportunities for collections growth, including through support of open access and open educational resources initiatives.
- Assessment: Participants will understand metrics that can be used to measure return on investment of their collection, and how they can be utilized to create an informed and data-driven collections growth strategy.
Session options:
- July 23, 9 - 11:30 a.m. ET
- July 23, 1 - 3:30 p.m. ET
Workshop
The Library’s Role in Student Learning
July 24, 2025
Participants will engage with a library leader who has a proven track record of implementing strategies to enhance services and that support student learning at their institution. In this session participants will learn how libraries are uniquely qualified to enhance student learning by serving as hubs for innovation, critical inquiry, and academic support. As generative AI tools like large language models (LLMs) become embedded in higher education, libraries can take the lead in helping students understand how these tools work, how to use them ethically, and how to develop core skills such as prompt engineering and critical evaluation.
During the session, participants will also engage with examples of how libraries can serve as essential partners to faculty in rethinking assessment. As traditional assignments become increasingly vulnerable to AI misuse, librarians can collaborate with instructors to redesign coursework in ways that emphasize inquiry, iteration, and authenticity. From integrating reflective writing on the use of AI to scaffolded research assignments that prioritize the learning process, libraries bring both instructional design insight and a deep understanding of student needs to the table.
Beyond AI and assignment support, libraries continue to play a vital role in advancing student learning through a variety of services: they provide inclusive study environments tailored to different learning opportunities, foster information and digital literacy across disciplines, and curate resources that ensure all students—regardless of background—can succeed academically. Whether by supporting undergraduate research, offering multimedia creation spaces, or mentoring students in source evaluation and citation practices, libraries remain central to the intellectual and personal growth of the students they serve.
Session options:
During the session, participants will also engage with examples of how libraries can serve as essential partners to faculty in rethinking assessment. As traditional assignments become increasingly vulnerable to AI misuse, librarians can collaborate with instructors to redesign coursework in ways that emphasize inquiry, iteration, and authenticity. From integrating reflective writing on the use of AI to scaffolded research assignments that prioritize the learning process, libraries bring both instructional design insight and a deep understanding of student needs to the table.
Beyond AI and assignment support, libraries continue to play a vital role in advancing student learning through a variety of services: they provide inclusive study environments tailored to different learning opportunities, foster information and digital literacy across disciplines, and curate resources that ensure all students—regardless of background—can succeed academically. Whether by supporting undergraduate research, offering multimedia creation spaces, or mentoring students in source evaluation and citation practices, libraries remain central to the intellectual and personal growth of the students they serve.
Session options:
- July 24, 9 - 11:30 a.m. ET
- July 24, 1 - 3:30 p.m. ET