Thank you to all who were able to attend this year's IPAL Instruction Interest Group session! This is such a valuable opportunity to connect with colleagues each spring! We had 17 people attend the Instruction Interest Group session held Thursday, May 28, 2026, at Wartburg College in Waverly.
Laurie Neuerburg started with a little orientation to the session and activities, and outlined expectations for everyone to get the most from this time together. After introductions around the room, the bulk of the time was spent exploring Table Topics. What are Table Topics, and how do they work?
- Participants joined a group discussing a topic they had an interest in. (There were prompts for each topic to help get the conversation started.)
- Each table appointed a note taker for their table.
- The session was structured to emphasize participation -- Conversations are made richer by everyone's expertise and experience!
Attendees had the option to pop over to another group partway through the time together to discuss a different topic.
We've brought together the notes from each group and posted them in the embedded Google Doc below. There were so many rich conversations happening during the entire session, and it's particularly nice to find folks who are also interested in what you're interested in to be able to share around the table. The topics were:
- Critical thinking
- What helps students improve their critical thinking skills?
- How do you promote critical thinking in your library?
- In what ways do you use critical thinking?
- AI Literacy
- What do you think students should understand to achieve AI literacy?
- How can librarians support AI literacy?
- What ideas do you have about incorporating AI literacy into lesson plans?
- ACRL Framework
- What ideas do you have about using the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in instruction?
- What do you think about the draft 2026 revision to the ACRL Framework?
- The draft 2026 revision is at http://bit.ly/4uBAvHt
- Tech Tools
- What are your favorite tech tools?
- How do you learn about new tech tools?
- What tech tools do you share with students?
- Whole person station
- What recharges your energy?
- How do you stay inspired?
- What helps you support yourself (self-care) and others?
After Table Topics, the group switched gears to allow time for the Solution or Sympathy activity where participants wrote down instruction/library-related questions or concerns; shared the questions anonymously to see if the group has experienced something similar; and offered up possible solutions, or sympathized to let the person who submitted the question know that at least they're not alone.
From Laurie: "The theme of the conference was Critical Thinking in Critical Times, and one of our takeaways was that we are always using critical thinking skills in our roles and that we can promote and be more explicit about the critical thinking that we do in our work. We also talked quite a bit about supporting AI literacy for our campuses as well as self-care, and it was wonderful to hear many good ideas shared on these topics in a supportive environment. "
Thank you again to everyone who participated, and to Laurie for your leadership! This is all made possible because of your participation! We are grateful to have such caring, creative, and invested colleagues throughout Iowa!
Link to 2026 IPAL Information Literacy Interest Group Table Topics Notes in Google Drive.
