Dates: October 6-7, 2025
Location: Pyle Center at UW-Madison (Madison, WI)
Registration will open Spring 2025!
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Join us in Madison, WI, October 6-7, 2025, for Upgrade: Enhancing Library Services with Technology, a dynamic two-day conference dedicated to exploring the intersection of libraries and technology. Hear from leading experts, share best practices, and network with peers. This conference will include topics such as artificial intelligence applications in libraries, effective use of social media for community engagement, best practices for digital collections, and the crucial importance of cybersecurity in protecting our digital resources. Don’t miss this chance to learn, connect, and inspire at Upgrade: Enhancing Library Services with Technology 2025!
Call for proposals now open!
We are currently accepting proposals for presentations, workshops, lightning talks, and roundtable discussions. The deadline to submit your idea is March 2, 2025!
Opening Keynote – Dr. Brandy McNeil
As the Deputy Director of Branch Programs and Services at the New York Public Library, Dr. Brandy McNeil has transformed community access to technology, knowledge, and opportunity across the 89 branches under her stewardship. Dr. McNeil’s game-changing innovations have forged successful partnerships between libraries and tech giants such as Apple, Spotify, and Google to name a few. Her visionary leadership and dedication to community empowerment have led her to create the highly successful TechConnect program, which has become a digital literacy model for libraries nationwide. She is a contributing writer for Public Libraries Magazine and a contributor to the book titled Libraryland; It’s All About The Story, published in 2020. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Public Library Association and served on the Black Caucus of the ALA Executive Board. Dr. McNeil’s expertise is not limited to her work in libraries, she holds a Doctorate in Business and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and has worked for several Fortune 500 companies.
Closing Keynote – Dr. Alex Hanna, Ph.D.
Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies, and the ways in which these data exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequality. She also works in the area of social movements, focusing on the dynamics of anti-racist campus protest in the US and Canada. She holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and a BA in Sociology from Purdue University, and an MS and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Hanna has published widely in top-tier venues across the social sciences, including the journals Mobilization, American Behavioral Scientist, and Big Data & Society, and top-tier computer science conferences such as CSCW, FAccT, and NeurIPS. Dr. Hanna serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies, and sits on the advisory board for the Human Rights Data Analysis Group and the Scholars Council for the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry.
She is a receipient of the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Forward Award, has been included on FastCompany’s Queer 50 and Go Magazine’s Women We Love lists, and has been featured in the Cal Academy of Sciences New Science exhibit, which highlights queer and trans scientists of color.
With Dr. Emily M. Bender, Alex is working on The AI Con (Forthcoming Spring 2025, Harper Books), a book about AI and the hype around it. The two also run the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series, playfully and wickedly tearing apart AI hype for a live audience online on Twitch and on their podcast.