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2025 Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference recap

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The Indiana Library Federation (ILF) Annual Conference was held Nov. 9-11, 2025 at Union Station in Indianapolis. ILF is the statewide nonprofit organization serving all library types: academic, public, school, special and library supporters/trustees. ILF provides educational opportunities for library staff and trustees year-round with the annual conference being their premier event.

Two exhibitor booths at a conference.The theme of the 2025 conference was “On Track for the Future of Libraries.” This theme correlated with both the conference location (a former train station with active tracks occasionally rumbling throughout the day) and the 2025 legislative session, which resulted in changes to property taxes in Indiana (taxes which comprise approximately 90% of public library budgets) and a reduction of the Indiana State Library’s agency budget.

Decorative. While there were captivating keynotes and many general educational sessions, including readers advisory and staff safety, there were a number of sessions geared toward library directors and trustees to help them understand the potential effects of SEA 1 and other legislative updates on their future library budgets.

A Q&A with legislators was held which included Senator Greg Goode (Terre Haute) and Representative Danny Lopez (Carmel). Both shared their personal interest in library matters and provided recommendations for library staff in fostering relationships with their representatives and local government, a strategy that will be more necessary as public libraries fight to keep their piece of the local property tax pie.

Additional sessions were held including budgeting in uncertain times and legislative changes to municipal bonds.

Indiana State Library staff also presented sessions at the conference. Public library consultant Hayley Trefun presented “Teamwork makes the Dreamwork,” which covered the topic of library mergers, along with Liz Schoettle (Indianapolis Public Library) and Fonda Owens (La Porte County Public Library). Suzanne Walker, in the interim of her transition to the Library of Congress, presented tips and tricks for borrowing and using the ISL’S Escape Experiences in a box. Additionally, Meg Adams Pool and former ISL regional consultant Lacey Klemm provided an early morning session on “Facilitating Positive Conversations,” which was well attended for it’s 8 a.m. start time.

Despite the impending budget changes that will affect the future of libraries, the conference was an excellent opportunity to convene library champions statewide and to learn from each other.

This blog post was written by Jen Clifton, Library Development Office.

Professional conferences – There’s an app for that!

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Professional conferences are a great way to refresh, get inspiration, meet new people and see new places and things. In graduate school I attended my first professional library conference and was totally lost. Which sessions should I attend? How do I figure out this big bulky book that has anything and everything I ever wanted to know about the conference in it? What is the exhibitor’s hall and why should I care? I was so overwhelmed! Twenty eight years later – conferences haven’t fundamentally changed.  You still need to bring the essentials: a sweater, refillable water bottle and comfortable shoes. But what is relatively new is the conference app! They are amazing! No more carrying that big bulky book or tearing out pages – yeah! This year’s ALA Annual Conference was my first time using a conference app.

With this app you could view exhibitor information, contact information and location of their booth, all easily accessible. It also included a floor plan of the exhibit floor. You could also browse the speakers, poster presenters and other attendees. Forget your business cards? No problem! Each attendees’ badge had a QR code so you could scan other attendees’ badges with their QR code when making connections. And you could also send messages to other app users. The app would also send alerts and updates for the conference right to the app.

Best of all, you could create a personal schedule by starring the sessions you planned to attend. You could see exactly what you want to attend, what time and where the session located. Having back up sessions starred was a must just in case the session you wanted to attend was full. Presenter’s slide presentations were also available on the app. You could draw on presentation slides, highlight text and take notes. It was even better if you had the conference app on a tablet or iPad.

The upcoming Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference on Nov. 13-15 also has an app. Search the Google Play or Apple App stores for “2017 ILF Annual Conference” to download this app. Like the ALA conference app, it also includes links to attendees, favorites, notes, schedule, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, interactive map and more!

Want to learn how to get even more out of attending conferences? Be sure to sign up for this upcoming webinar: It’s Not Just Packing a Cardigan: How to Attend a Conference to Get the Most out of Your Experience on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017 from 9:30 to 10:30 am, EST. No LEUs will be offered, but we still hope this is a great event to get ready for all the library conferences!

This blog post was written by Paula Newcom, northeast regional coordinator, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Professional Development Office at (317) 232-3697 or email.