School faculty, staff, and students will present their research at the 2025 Illinois Library Association (ILA) Annual Conference, which will be held on October 14–16 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. The theme of this year's conference is "You Belong Here."
The Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab (Fab Lab) will host a makerspace at booth 736 in the exhibit hall. Associate Professor and Fab Lab Director Kyungwon Koh, Fab Lab Instruction and Engagement Coordinator Emilie Butt, Fab Lab Business Operations Specialist Amanda Elzbieciak, and MSLIS students and graduate assistants Jaidyn Smith and Mads Christiansen will be available at the booth to help visitors create buttons, custom badge ribbons for their conference credentials, and charms for ribbon bookmarks.
"Our pop-up maker booth will engage attendees in hands-on, playful activities that promote making in libraries. The idea is to use the maker approach—interactive, creative, and fun—to spark conversations, gather feedback, and raise awareness of the National Library Makerspace Forum," said Koh. "In addition, we will have a poster summarizing Forum findings and postcards inviting attendees to share their input on the final report draft and join us for our closing webinar."
The Fab Lab's makerspace booth is being funded through a grant that Koh received from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant LG-256680-OLS-24) as part of the National Leadership Grants for Libraries program.
Poster Sessions, October 15
Kyungwon Koh, Emilie Butt, and Rebecca Teasdale, associate professor of education psychology at the University of Illinois, will present their poster, "Strategic Directions for Library Makerspaces: Findings from a National Forum."
MSLIS student Sarah Wallenfelsz and Emily Benton, librarian at the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois, will present their poster, "Getting Your Bear-ings with Fat Bear Week: Outreach and Engagement for Early Career Librarians."
Recent graduate Victoria Antwi (MSLIS '25), assistant professor and research and learning librarian at Stetson University, will present her poster, "Family-Friendly Library Spaces: Supporting Student Parents' Success."