NASIG held its 2025 Conference online this year, which coincided with the fortieth anniversary of the organization! I served as the NASIG Board liaison to the Conference Planning Committee again this year, and the conference was very well run from start to finish. Live sessions were presented via Zoom, while pre-recorded sessions were uploaded to NASIG’s YouTube channel and made available to all registrants. (The pre-recorded sessions are now available for all to view.) Even though there were the customary technological glitches, attendees were able to effectively navigate their conference experience.

Takeaways from this year’s conference included:

• The Vision Sessions continued to challenge attendees to be more forward thinking about libraries with specific emphasis on the roles of library workers. Speaker Amy Tureen suggested that employee wellness should be added to the overall values of librarianship, including several components (i.e. emotional wellness and intellectual wellness) into the wholeness that defines each person. Speaker Lynne Stahl submitted that “infrastructural literacy” should be utilized to confront the convention that libraries themselves are beyond criticism, lest factors such as vocational awe overwhelm employees that change cannot be accomplished.
• Licensing continues to evolve, as libraries contend with both changing technologies and publisher requirements. A new eBook about licensing was recently published by several librarians that offers a road map for existing policies and can be updated as the policies change. Thanks to ARL, the book is freely available electronically and can be viewed and/or downloaded here: https://berkeley.pressbooks.pub/eresourcelicensingexplained/
• Recent news in continuing resources was also addressed in several sessions. Recent developments, such as the demise of ProQuest’s EDDA program, became a place for libraires to discuss how they are addressing the fallout on their e-book purchasing operations. Other timely programs included copyright law, the continued effects of AI, and the mental health of library workers. Recordings of all conference sessions- apart from Vision Sessions- will become available for non-members to view later this year on NASIG’s YouTube channel.

The 2026 Conference will be held in person at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and preparations are already underway. Since this year’s conference didn’t have any scenic shots of the location available, please enjoy this picture of my conference companion indulging in a nap.