ACTAL 2025 Annual Meeting

November 5–7, 2025 | University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The Association of Creative Technologies in Academic Libraries (ACTAL) is thrilled to announce its 4th Annual Meeting, taking place November 5–7, 2025, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Continuing in the tradition of past ACTAL meetings—where creative library professionals gather to share their work in innovative, creativity-focused environments—this year’s event brings us to a campus where experimentation and collaboration thrive. UT Knoxville’s Libraries opened the Medbery Makerspace in February 2024 and continue to expand creative support through The Studio, a media production and design lab. Together, these spaces demonstrate the library’s deep investment in creative technologies and interdisciplinary partnerships.

UT Libraries are also key collaborators in the development of UT’s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies, a new academic unit focused on forward-looking fields such as AI, game craft, cybersecurity and data science. Library professionals are actively shaping curriculum and services that support these new modes of scholarship and creative learning.

Knoxville, nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, is a vibrant city known for its rich arts scene, historic downtown, and world class restaurants. Its compact and walkable downtown offers easy exploration of attractions like Market Square and the Tennessee Theatre, while McGhee Tyson Airport, located just 12 miles south of downtown, provides convenient air travel access, making it easy to get to and even easier to explore everything from murals and music to makerspaces and mountains.

Join us in Knoxville to share your ideas, connect with creative colleagues, and explore what’s next for academic libraries and creative technologies. We can’t wait to welcome you!

Schedule

Find a detailed schedule with session descriptions on Sched. Note that all meals between Wednesday dinner and Friday lunch are included with registration.

Registration and Accomodations

Register for the conference using Sched.

Our hotel block at the Cumberland House Knoxville is sold out, but rooms are still available at regular rates.

Other options that are within walking distance to the John C. Hodges Library include:

The Graduate Knoxville – very close to campus and also has government rate options for those of you at state schools! Just choose the “special rate” option and choose government to see pricing.

These options do not have government rates available but are still quite walkable:

The Marriott Knoxville Downtown
The Hampton Inn and Suites Knoxville-Downtown
Hilton Knoxville

Getting to the Conference

If you’re flying in to join us, check out this page to find out your options for getting to your hotel from the airport: https://actal2025.sched.com/info

Driving to the conference? Hotels have their own parking rates (please visit their sites to know more), but there are other, potentially less expensive parking options near the conference site. You can see them here: https://actal2025.sched.com/info

More information about local logistics, including the full program, will be posted here and shared on our mailing list.

For more information about the annual meeting, please contact Jennifer Nichols at jtn@arizona.edu or join our mailing list.

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Looking for information from the ACTAL 2025 Virtual Conference, July 29-30? Visit the virtual website.