2026 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries
Commons Conference Center, Austin, Texas
10100 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78758
Dates: June 2-4, 2026
Theme: Finding Joy! Playful Innovation and Community in Action
In the constantly evolving digital landscape, our community faces both complex challenges and unique opportunities. The Texas Digital Library (TDL) and the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL) believe that embracing joy, playfulness, and experimentation is a powerful way to honor our core values of collaboration, openness, and service.
“Play” in our professional context isn’t about mere diversion; it is an active approach to fostering creativity, exploring new ideas in a low-risk environment, and building strong, supportive connections within our community. It is the spirit of intellectual curiosity and flexibility that drives innovation in how we manage, preserve, and provide equitable access to digital content of enduring value.
TCDL is a gathering place to explore how we can infuse a playful mindset into our daily work:
- Playful Innovation: We invite you to share how experimentation with open source technologies, creative problem-solving in metadata or preservation, or agile approaches to project management have led to breakthroughs and new ways of working. This includes imaginative approaches to existing services (such as repositories, ETDs, or research data management) or piloting new initiatives that enhance user engagement and access. We also encourage proposals that explore how playful elements can be used in teaching, services, or as tools for professional development and team building.
- Community in Action: TCDL thrives on the mutual support and shared expertise of its members, from repository managers to faculty, students, and technical staff. We will celebrate how our collaborative spirit, our “community in action”, turns individual creativity into collective solutions that build a practical, usable, and sustainable model for digital libraries across Texas and beyond. We will also explore how a shared sense of play can help us build a resilient and mutually supportive community.
Join us as we explore how a playful approach can transform our work, spark new collaborations, and, most importantly, help us find joy while serving our communities and advancing the future of digital libraries.
Keynote Speakers: Jessie Contour and Kelcey Gray
Jessie Contour
Jessie Contour is a creative technologist, educator, and game designer whose work spans interactive experiences in art, play, and public engagement. She has collaborated with AAA game studios, museums, educational institutions, and startups on projects ranging from globally launched video games to a permanent exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. As Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin, Jessie mentors emerging artists and technologists at the intersection of creativity and innovation. A frequent speaker at industry events including GDC Festival of Gaming, SXSW, and Women in Games, her practice explores game development, immersive media, interactive storytelling, and the evolving landscape of digital experiences.
Kelcey Gray
Kelcey Gray is a graphic designer, author, and educator who works with words and explores the possibilities of typography and lettering. She is the author of Let’s Make Letters! from PA (Princeton Architectural) Press and currently teaches design and typography in the Department of Design at the University of Texas at Austin. Within these fields, her focus has recently been on developing workshops—with institutions like Letterform Archive and Type Directors Club—and interactive, narrative-based experiences to increase access to typographic education.
Opening Keynote Session on June 2, 2026
Illuminating Dropcaps: The Magic of the Collaborative Process
Keynote speakers Jessie Contour and Kelcey Gray are serious about play. Last year, the two associate professors of Arts and Entertainment Technologies (AET) and Design, respectively, published a Medieval-themed word game about spelling and strategy called Dropcaps.
In their keynote address, Illuminating Dropcaps: The Magic of the Collaborative Process, Contour and Gray will address topics like persuasive prototyping, the magic found in archives, when to use (and not use) AI, how to start, maintain, find joy, and execute a multi-year project, and how their cross-departmental collaboration sparked the development of a UT course that bridges two creative communities.
TCDL 2026 Student Scholarship Recipients
- Daniel Esparza, University of North Texas
- Sarah Eubanks, University of North Texas
- Luz Gonzalez, University of Texas at Austin
- Audrey Waite, University of Texas at Austin
The TCDL Student Scholarship program is made possible through generous anonymous contributions from TDL members.
Conference Proceedings
The 2026 TCDL Conference Proceedings are available in the Texas Digital Library (TDL) repository.
TCDL 2026 Announcements
Sponsors
Thank you to our TCDL 2026 Sponsors!
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– Visionary Level –
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TCDL 2026 Planning Committee
Chair: Elliot Williams, University of Texas at San Antonio
Vice Chair: Isabelle Antes, Texas State University
Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni, Texas A&M University
Gab Alderete-Cruz, Texas State University
Maria Balduf, UNT Health Fort Worth
Cristina Berron, University of Texas at Austin
Sarah Lynn Fisher, University of North Texas
Meagan Hernandez, Texas Digital Library
Susan Hoover, University of Houston
Ke’ara Hunt, Texas Digital Library
Whitney Johnson-Freeman, University of North Texas
Jean Jolly, Tarrant County College
Tom Lyons, UNT Health Fort Worth
Marcia McIntosh, University of North Texas
Devon Murphy, University of Texas at Austin
Phebe Raglin, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Adriance Rhoades, Texas Woman’s University
Megan Scott, Rice University
Marian Smith, University of Houston
Michelle Speed, Baylor University
Ateanna Uriri, Texas A&M University
Millicent Weber, Baylor University
About the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries
Since 2007, the Texas Digital Library has hosted the annual Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL). TCDL covers topics relevant to the creation, promotion, dissemination, and preservation of research, scholarship, and cultural heritage digital materials. The goal of TCDL is to bring together those working on digital projects — including outreach librarians, repository managers, catalogers, faculty members, technical staff, and others — in order to build a practical, usable, and sustainable model for digital libraries.
TCDL encourages and welcomes participation from students, scholars, librarians, researchers, faculty, and users from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. All are welcome!
Read TCDL’s Code of Conduct and Land Acknowledgement.