The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) Golden Anniversary Annual Conference returns to an in-person event in Chicago, the City of Broad Shoulders. Chicago looms large in society history: ARLIS/NA’s storied founding in 1972 happened in Chicago which was also the site of two subsequent conferences in 1976 and 1992. Embodying the Golden Anniversary milestone is the conference theme, “Past, Present, Future: Aspiring to New Heights”. Our host city reflects that theme with its 19th century development and its remarkable rebirth following the calamitous 1871 fire to become the most architecturally significant city in the country in the 20th century.
The term Chicago is derived from the Algonquin word “chicagua” used by the Miami-Illinois and Potowatomi peoples and Chicago has grown into the nation’s third-largest city since its establishment as a trading post by Jean Baptiste Point DuSable. Throughout these centuries Chicago has been a significant migratory destination of global peoples to become the multicultural and ethnically diverse hub of the Midwest. Within the Chicago context, the ongoing work being done to achieve social justice, equity, and inclusion is very present and real.
The conference Co-Chairs have assembled an impressive schedule of panel sessions, posters, roundtables, and workshops with content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion; advocacy, social justice, public policy, and activism; and critical librarianship. Joining those are the perennially strong topics of collection development and management, visual literacy, digital scholarship, and pedagogical practice among others—such as the highlighting of local art and architecture—that all combine to make the annual conference the professional development event of the year.
Hyatt Regency Chicago
151 East Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL
41.887692564242, -87.62276855
ARLIS/NA 2022: 50th Annual Conference
