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Skepticism (Not Cynicism): Navigating Knowledge in a Time of Uncertainty
Skepticism (Not Cynicism): Navigating Knowledge in a Time of Uncertainty
The College of DuPage Library and the DePaul University Library are pleased to announce the call for proposals for the 24th Annual Illinois Information Literacy Summit. The Summit will be held in person on Friday, May 1, 2026 at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL.
In an age when skepticism is often mistaken for cynicism, libraries remain among the last public spaces dedicated to truth-seeking, questioning, and dialogue. This year’s Information Literacy Summit explores how we can model and teach skepticism as a productive, hopeful stance — one grounded in curiosity, respect for evidence, and an openness to understanding.
Skepticism today must operate on many levels: questioning the inevitability of AI, asking who trained the model and whose data it reflects, recognizing who benefits from particular narratives, and acknowledging the emotional toll of constant uncertainty and information overload. Just as importantly, skepticism is a civic and scholarly skill, essential to democratic participation, informed discourse, peer review, and academic integrity.
ACCESS
ACCESS
If skepticism is the stance, ACCESS is the work.
Amid book bans, campus speech restrictions, disappearing digital archives, and algorithmic filtering, ACCESS offers both a diagnosis and a response: a framework for understanding the forces shaping what we can see, share, and trust, and a call to action for libraries, educators, and students to rebuild trust, protect knowledge, and strengthen critical engagement.
This year, we take ACCESS as our guiding theme:
A — Authority & Algorithms
A — Authority & Algorithms
Who decides what counts as knowledge? From governments and institutions to AI systems and search engines, power and technology shape what we encounter, what we trust, and what is quietly erased. This theme invites skepticism toward claims of neutrality, inevitability, and objectivity in algorithmic and authoritative systems.
C — Censorship
C — Censorship
Book bans, speech restrictions, and political and institutional pressures continue to limit what can be read, taught, and shared. This theme examines both overt and subtle forms of censorship and their consequences for intellectual freedom, academic inquiry, and democratic life.
C — Control
C — Control
Control does not always look like a ban. Gatekeeping, content moderation, platform policies, and curricular constraints determine which voices are amplified and which are obscured. This theme asks participants to interrogate who controls information—and who is left unheard.
E — Equity
E — Equity
Access is not equally distributed. Structural inequities shape whose knowledge is valued, whose histories are preserved, and whose perspectives are legitimized. This theme centers inclusion, representation, and justice as essential to true information access.
S — Suppression
S — Suppression
Information can disappear without notice: digital archives vanish, data changes, and stories are removed or buried. This theme focuses on the fragility of knowledge, the risk of erasure, and the urgent need for preservation, transparency, and documentation.
S — Survival
S — Survival
In a time marked by uncertainty, burnout, and information fatigue, survival requires more than endurance. It demands care, resistance, collaboration, and the active cultivation of informed, engaged citizenship. This theme highlights the role of libraries, educators, and learners in sustaining critical inquiry, civic reasoning, and shared memory.
Proposal Formats
Proposal Formats
We’re considering proposals in the following formats:
Breakout sessions or panels: These sessions will be 50 minutes long and consist of a presentation from the front of the room. We encourage presenters to incorporate audience interaction or hands-on demonstrations when possible. Panel discussions should include a maximum of three (3) presenters.
Roundtable discussions: These sessions are 50 minutes long and consist of a brief presentation from the facilitator to set the stage, followed by small or large group discussion among attendees. If you’d like to propose a roundtable discussion, please include a brief (5-7 item) bibliography of publications related to your chosen topic and several discussion questions (3-5 questions).
Lightning talks: These are short 5-7 minute presentations which serve as an optimal format for presenting work-in-progress, sharing successes (and things that didn’t work out as expected), or introducing attendees to a teaching tool, lesson plan or learning activity, or critical framework.
Submitting Your Proposal
Submitting Your Proposal
The deadline for proposals is Monday, February 2, 2026.
The Summit is a regional conference that draws attendance from university, community college, and school librarians from Illinois and neighboring states. Sessions typically have 20-40 participants.
The submission should include a 200-400 word description of your presentation and a brief explanation of what attendees should expect to take away from the session. Proposals for roundtable discussions should include a brief (5-7 item) bibliography of related publications and 3-5 proposed discussion questions.
We’ll also ask for a short (approximately 50-100 word) abstract of your session to include in the conference program. If you have questions or would like to discuss your idea for a proposal, feel free to reach out to the planning committee at infolitsummit@gmail.com.
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