Date:
Location: Montreal , CanadaContact: Program Co-Chairs Hélène Brousseau and Gwen Mayhew
Email: helene.brousseau@concordia.ca or gmayhew@cca.qc.ca
Website: https://www.arlisna.org/news/call-for-proposals-arlisna-2026-conference
ARLIS/NA 2026 Conference
May 2-8, 2026
Proposal Deadline September 29, 2025
The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) will hold its 54th annual conference in Montreal, May 2-8 2026.
The theme for the 2026 conference is Resistance.
While it sometimes may seem futile, we as librarians both perform and experience resistance in many aspects of our work.
We resist government directives to ban books and censor information by committing to the accessibility of our collections, now and forever.
We resist cuts to our budgets and reductions of our spaces by lobbying our administrations for support and justifying the essentiality of the library.
We resist the privatization of information by improving open access to research.
Resistance, however, is not a new concept. In Quebec, a long history of resistance runs through its people, culture, and territories. From Indigenous cultural preservation and revitalization to the safeguarding of the French language, and the use of art as a tool for political expression, Quebec has continually asserted its identity and fought against forces seeking to suppress it. The struggle for linguistic and cultural autonomy has often found its voice through creative expression, with the arts serving as a powerful form of resistance.
At the 2026 ARLIS/NA conference in Montreal, we invite you to join the resistance and explore how resistance continues to shape the work of art librarians today. As we face new challenges, the spirit of resistance that has long been a part of Quebec’s history can inspire us to stay true to our mission: to ensure that libraries remain spaces where knowledge, creativity, and freedom are preserved and protected for all.
The deadline for proposals is Monday, September 29, 2025 at 6 pm EST.
The Conference Program Committee invites librarians and library professionals, archivists, curators, museum professionals, visual resources specialists, publishers, educators, artists, designers, architects, students, and scholars to propose papers, sessions, workshops, and speakers that reflect the theme Resistance as it relates to the practice of art information and scholarship. The committee also encourages submissions that stretch the bounds of traditional conference scholarship in terms of format and delivery.
Presentations in either English, French or Spanish are encouraged.
Conference registration and attendance are mandatory for all presenters.
The program committee encourages submissions that include, but are not limited to the following topics:
Types of Submissions
PAPERS: An individual paper presentation, potentially addressing new research, a case study, or an innovative idea with a total time of 15-20 minutes. Presentations provide attendees with new tools, strategies, or inspiration that they can apply in their own practice. The Conference Program Co-Chairs and the Conference Program Committee will group individual presentations into paper panels with a common topic or theme, which will run from 60 to 90 minutes, including a Q&A.
LIGHTNING TALKS: A short individual presentation (5-10 minutes maximum) addressing a topic that is particularly timely or specific in scope. Lightning talks provide attendees the opportunity to hear about a range of innovative projects or ideas from a broad and varied group of colleagues in a short amount of time. Lightning talks will be grouped into sessions that may or may not be themed. Lightning talk sessions will be 60 minutes, including a Q&A.
PRE-COORDINATED PANELS: A pre-coordinated session of up to 4 presenters with a moderator addressing a common topic or theme with a total time of 60-90 minutes, including a Q&A. Panels provide attendees with multiple views/strategies on a single topical area, a comparison of tools or methods, or a number of case studies on related topics. It is not necessary to identify all potential presenters before submitting. Naming a moderator, who will advocate for and develop the session, is required, and the moderator cannot present on the panel.
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS: Small, informal group discussions around a common theme or issue. In the abstract field, facilitators should identify a topic and submit at least three potential questions that will keep the discussion moving. Roundtable speakers should also be prepared to take questions from the audience. Discussions are 60 minutes in length.
WORKSHOPS: An opportunity to teach and explore current and emerging topics in an intimate atmosphere. Workshops encourage a focused, engaging experience led by experts who combine presentation, active learning, collaboration, and discussion. They may last 90 to 180 minutes.
Additional Details
The following fields will be used by the programming committee to review proposals. In addition, some non-personally identifiable demographic information will be used by the reviewers to ensure that the papers, lightning talks, workshops, and invited speakers are inclusive and diverse, both in the voices present and content delivered.
WORD LIMIT: All proposal abstracts are limited to 500 words or fewer.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: You will be asked to list 2-3 learning objectives, takeaways, or goals for your proposal.
TOPICS: You will be asked to select 2 to 5 topics relevant to your session.
AUDIENCES: You will be asked to pick up to 5 target audiences for your session.
DEIA-AR: You will be asked if your presentation addresses issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and/or anti-racism. The committee is particularly interested in seeing papers and sessions that include attention to DEIA-AR.
YEARS IN PROFESSION (optional): You will be asked to select how long you have been working in the field.
FIRST TIME PRESENTER (optional): You will be asked if this would be your first time presenting at an ARLIS/NA conference.
SELF-IDENTIFICATION (optional): You will be asked if you are a member of a historically under-represented group. This information will only be used to help us coordinate diverse sessions and is not required to propose a paper or panel.
Funding Opportunities
Prospective presenters interested in funding and support for conference attendance are encouraged to apply to the Society’s Conference Attendance and Travel Awards or to contact their local ARLIS/NA Chapter about the availability of additional awards.
How to Submit Proposals
The review of proposals is a blind peer review process. You must anonymize your proposal description. All personal or institutional names must be removed from the description and learning objectives (however, these details must remain in other fields of the form), and may be replaced by terms such as “presenter,” “author,” or “speaker”, or in the case of institutions, terms such as “large academic library,” “small museum library,” etc. Non-anonymized proposals may be ineligible.
SUBMIT HERE: https://www.openconf.org/arlisna2026/track1/openconf.php
Submit your presentation, panel, roundtable, and workshop proposals by creating an account and navigating to Submissions > Make Submission.
The call for posters and constituent group meetings will be announced later this year.
Please direct any questions to the Program Co-Chairs:
Hélène Brousseau, Concordia University (helene.brousseau@concordia.ca)
Gwen Mayhew, Canadian Centre for Architecture (gmayhew@cca.qc.ca)
