ACRL Information Literacy Immersion Program

About Immersion ‘25
The ACRL Information Literacy Immersion Program is an intensive 2.5-day program held at Loyola University in Chicago, IL, July 23-25, 2025. The program provides participants with an immersive learning experience where they can reflect on core issues related to teaching and learning in libraries and develop new relationships with colleagues from a variety of institutions.

The Immersion curriculum challenges you to:

• Examine the educational role of librarians in higher education in order to appraise your own context, position, and practice.
• Reflect on various conceptions of information literacy in order to develop and apply a personal and, when applicable, shared understanding of information literacy.
• Examine and question underlying assumptions about teaching and learning in order to develop critically informed instructional practices.
• Engage with theories of influence, change, and leadership in order to address institutional dynamics in higher education and foster inclusive workplaces and communities.

Why You Should Attend
The Immersion program welcomes participants with any level of library experience. We invite anyone who would like to reflect upon, extend, and deepen their practice as a library educator, regardless of particular job function or title. 

Attending Immersion is a long-term investment in your professional development and will provide you with a conceptual and theoretical grounding to grow and develop your professional identity over the course of your career.

This program is for you if:

• You want to work closely with a group of co-learners and facilitators to critically examine why you do what you do in your educational role in libraries
• You are willing to be a co-learner and co-teacher, helping to build a learning community through honest and brave conversations throughout the week.
• You are committed to creating equitable learning and working environments
• You want to surface, examine, and reframe issues for positive social change
• You would like to investigate and commit to making change in your practice, environment, or workplace

Learning Environment & Outcomes
In preparation for the program, participants will be asked to engage with a short selection of readings; participate in critical reflective practice exercises; and identify an aspect of your practice that you would like to investigate and/or change to explore and critique during the program through online conversations with other participants.

Upon completion of the program you will be able to start putting theory into action and:

• Appraise your own context, position, and practice
• Develop critically informed instructional practices
• Examine institutional dynamics in higher education to foster inclusive workplaces and communities
• Develop a conceptual toolkit to use as you re-establish your professional identity moving forwar

Join a community of people with whom you can continue thinking and talking about and reflecting upon your work.

Schedule
Immersion will kick off first thing in the morning on Wednesday, July 23, and will conclude by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, July 25, 2025.

Immersion ‘25 is an intensive 2.5-day program that depends on active participation by all attendees. Previous attendees will tell you that engaged participation and interactions with colleagues are central to making Immersion an enriching and fulfilling experience. You will benefit most if you fully commit your time, including scheduled meals, during the duration of the program. In order to receive a certificate of completion, you must participate fully in the program activities, including pre-assignments. The full program schedule will be available later this spring.

Program Facilitators
During Immersion, nationally-recognized facilitators lead participants through intensive information literacy training and education.