Monthly Archives: December 2016

New Discoveries in Reference: The 23rd Annual Reference Research Forum

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS: 2017 REFERENCE RESEARCH FORUM

The Research & Statistics Committee of the Reference Services Section of the
Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) invites submission of reference
service research project proposals for presentation at New Discoveries in
Reference: The 23rd Annual Reference Research Forum at the 2017 American
Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. Researchers and
practitioners from all types of libraries, library school faculty and
students, and other interested individuals are encouraged to submit a
proposal.

The Reference Research Forum is a popular and valuable ALA Annual Conference
program. Attendees have the opportunity to learn about innovative research
projects conducted in reference services including user behavior, electronic
services, reference effectiveness and assessment, and organizational structure
and personnel.

For examples of projects presented at past Forums, please see the Committee’s
website: http://connect.ala.org/node/64439

The Committee employs a blind review process to select three projects for 20-
minute presentations, followed by open discussion.  Identifying information
will not be shared with reviewers until after final selection of projects.
Selected submissions must be presented in person at the Forum during ALA
Annual in Chicago, IL.

Criteria for selection:

1.      Originality: Potential for research to fill a gap in reference
knowledge or to build on previous studies
2.      Quality: Research design and methodologies
3.      Impact: Significance of the study for improving the quality of
reference service

NOTE: Research projects may be in-progress or completed. Previously published
research or research accepted for publication will not be accepted.

Important Dates:

Proposals are due by December 28th, 2016. Notification of acceptance will be
made by Monday, February 6th, 2017. The submission must not exceed the stated
word count limit.

Submissions will be accepted using our online form at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CWPMJK6

FORM PAGE 1: Contact Information
Fill out the fields for the primary contact’s name, title, institutional
affiliation, mailing address, and email address.  Additional research team
members should also be noted in the appropriate field.

FORM PAGE 2: Research Description (250 Word maximum)
The research description must not include any personally identifiable
information, including your name, or the name of your institution. Please
include these elements:

1.      Title of the project
2.      Explicit statement of the research problem
3.      Description of the research design and methodologies
4.      Findings or results if available
5.      Brief discussion of the originality, unique contribution, potential
impact, and significance of the research (if you use semi colons between items
in a list, you need to make sure the entire list is a complete sentence.)

Proposals that exceed the word count or that do not follow the format
described above will be automatically rejected.
Questions: Please contact the chairs David Ward (dh-ward@illinois.edu) and
Cindy Levine (crlevine@ncsu.edu)

Sixth REFORMA National Conference (RNC6)

The Call for Proposals to present at the Sixth REFORMA National Conference (RNC6) taking place in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 7-9, 2017 is now open!

The REFORMA National Conference VI Program Committee invites you to present your work with others international library community colleagues in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 7-9, 2017. 

 The conference theme is “Building communities: saving lives”.  Remember that all proposals should reflect the conference theme.  Conference Program Committee will evaluate proposals for relevance to the theme, as well as clarity, originality, and timeliness.  

Proposals deadline: Friday, May 5, 2017.

For more information, please email to jcanfield@pucpr.edu or lgonzalez@northmiamifl.gov

Credit-bearing Information Literacy Courses: Critical Approaches

Call for chapter proposals

Working title: Credit-bearing Information Literacy Courses: Critical Approaches

Critical librarianship understands the work of libraries and librarians to be fundamentally political and situated in systems of power and oppression. This approach requires that information literacy instruction expand its scope beyond straightforward demonstrations of tools and search mechanics and towards more in-depth conceptual work that asks questions about, among other things, the conditions of information production, presumptions of neutrality, and institutionalized oppression.

The goal of this book is to examine those critical approaches specifically in the context of credit-bearing courses. This will be useful to librarians who have struggled to find literature and case studies that directly address the unique features of teaching a credit-bearing course, including course and lesson planning, designing formative and summative assessment measures that address course-level learning outcomes, and building rapport with students.

Contributed chapters will discuss some of the ways these concepts have been developed, implemented, and assessed in various course contexts. Those who teach information literacy courses draw from many influences, including (but not limited to) literacy studies, social justice work, and sociological and anthropological approaches. This book will highlight the diversity of possibilities for implementing a critical approach to teaching information literacy in credit-bearing courses.

The book will include both discussions of conceptual approaches and case studies. Contributed chapters will be divided into appropriate sections, based on their foci.

We invite chapters on topics including, but not limited to, the following, within the context of a credit-bearing class:

  • Feminist/anti-racist/anti-colonial approaches to curriculum development
  • Critical approaches to grading and assessment
  • Unique challenges and opportunities of incorporating a critical approach in a credit course vs. one-shot/course-integrated instruction session
  • Critical reflection about instructor positionality vis-a-vis critical content and/or relationship to students
  • Conceptions of neutrality and objectivity with regard to information literacy and potentially controversial (and/or political) subject matter
  • Difficulty of critical approaches in a stand alone information literacy course (and/or criticisms of the credit-bearing mode of instruction)
  • Approaches that critique the academy and/or higher education and the neoliberal discourses that shape it
  • Reflections on the process of adopting a critical approach, whether shifting the content to critical information literacy or adopting other practices from critical pedagogies (like eschewing the banking model of education, breaking down hierarchies, incorporating social justice, etc)

Proposal submission guidelines:

  1. Abstract of up to 500 words – submit as a google document shared with creditclassbook@gmail.com
  2. Author/s CV – email to creditclassbook@gmail.com

Please feel free to email the editors with any questions about the suitability of proposal ideas or the scope of the publication.

Timeline

Proposals (up to 500 words) due February 27
Notifications sent out by March 17
Completed manuscripts (tentatively 3,000-6,000 words) due June 30

Publisher: ACRL Press

Editors:

Angela Pashia is an Instructional Services Librarian and Associate Professor at the University of West Georgia. She regularly teaches an undergraduate level credit bearing information literacy course. She also teaches an online course for Library Juice Academy, “Developing a Credit-Bearing Information Literacy Course.”

Jessica Critten is an Instructional Services Librarian and Associate Professor at the University of West Georgia. She teaches a credit-bearing information literacy course that focuses on news and media literacy.

ALA International Relations Round Table (IRRT) International Poster Sessions

The ALA International Relations Round Table (IRRT) International Poster Sessions Committee invites you to submit poster session proposals on international themes for the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago!

The poster session committee encourages submissions from all types of libraries and on any topic relevant to international librarianship. Submissions may include a description of an innovative library program; an analysis of a solution to a problem; a report of a research study; or any other presentation that would benefit the larger library community.

Poster session participants place materials such as pictures, data, graphs, diagrams and narrative text on boards that are usually 4 x 8 feet. During their assigned 1½ hour time periods, participants informally discuss their presentations with conference attendees. Titles/abstracts from previous years are available on ALA Connect (note that this site is only serving as an archive for previous Annual Conference poster sessions – for information on this year’s posters, go to the 2017 ALA poster session website).

The deadline for submitting an application is February 3, 2017. Applicants will be notified by the end of March, after a double blind peer review process, whether their submission has been accepted for presentation at the conference. The 2015 ALA Annual Poster Sessions will be held June 24 and 25, 2017 (the Saturday and Sunday of the conference) in the exhibits hall.

Start your application process now. You must create a username and password for the site before you submit your application, you must choose to submit a poster session proposal after you log-in, and you will receive a confirmation e-mail after you have completed your submission.

Additional questions regarding international poster sessions can be directed to:

Sara Margaret Rizzo, co-chair of the IRRT International Poster Session Committee, srizzo@caldwell.edu

Or

Laura N. Evans, co-chair of the IRRT International Poster Session Committee, evans@binghamton.edu

Pennsylvania Libraries Research & Practice (PaLRaP)

Pennsylvania Libraries Research & Practice (PaLRaP) invites submissions for peer review for the Spring 2017 issue. Articles can be under the category of research or practice, and must feature Pennsylvania libraries and librarians.

Full descriptions of the types of articles accepted, as well as online submission, can be found on the journal’s web site. (http://palrap.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/palrap)

For full consideration of articles for peer review, please upload submissions by March 15, 2017.

Any questions can be directed to the journal’s editors, Anne Behler (behler@psu.edu), and Tom Reinsfelder (tlr15@psu.edu).

Academic Libraries and the Academy: Strategies and Approaches to Demonstrate Your Value, Impact, and Return on Investment

Call for Book Chapter Proposals in Library Assessment  

(For a PDF version of this announcement, please click here).

We are seeking chapter proposals for a book on library assessment. Please consider sharing your work in this area to this effort.

Working Title – Academic Libraries and the Academy: Strategies and Approaches to Demonstrate Your Value, Impact, and Return on Investment

Publisher

This book will be published under the auspices of ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries). The anticipated publication date is early 2018.

Introduction

Assessment in academic libraries will play an increasingly crucial role in higher education. With the demand for greater transparency and accountability in funding for institutions, diminished budgets, and a shift to performance-based funding, academic libraries are examining and implementing new and creative approaches to demonstrate their inherent, immediate and long term value and impact to their institutions and stakeholders. Academic libraries of all shapes and sizes are understanding the need to establish their place and role in supporting institutional goals and objectives particularly related to student learning outcomes, academic student success measures, and faculty teaching and research productivity. To this end, many academic libraries are investing in efforts focused on implementing assessment initiatives that demonstrate their value and impact to their institutional stakeholders and community.

Objective

This book will present cases of how academic libraries are successfully implementing initiatives to demonstrate their worth and value to their institutional and community stakeholders. The cases will include proven strategies, lessons learned, effective approaches and practical applications successfully employed by academic staff and support professionals. The publication is intended to inform those at all levels of experience and stages of implementation— that is, those who are considering or just beginning to embark on this path, as well as others who have already taken the plunge and are looking to leverage or triangulate other strategies.

Target Audience

This publication will primarily target librarians, professional staff and administrators at all types of academic libraries, and we anticipate it will also be of interest to others across disciplines and industries who are engaged in similar assessment initiatives. It will present practical, easy-to-adopt strategies and approaches based on case studies, and will offer a breadth and depth of options to appeal to a wide range of readers at various stages of experience with demonstrating library value — from beginners to experts.

Proposed Book Sections

This book will be structured in four sections of case studies as described below:

Section 1: Seeding the Initiative. Explores the planning stages or “works-in-progress” in assessment that relate to the library’s impact and value. The results of these efforts may not be imminent. Nevertheless, these case studies demonstrate the potential value and the importance of the initial design and planning stage.   

Section 2: Low-Hanging Fruit.  Provides stories of assessments that are easy to measure, short-term (less than one year), low cost, require few resources (staff or tools), and are easily replicable at similar academic libraries.

Example: ROI spreadsheets at the University of West Florida

Section 3: Reachable Fruit (with some effort).  Provides stories of assessments that may require more external and internal resources to measure, may take more than six months to one year to collect and analyze, feature medium costs and resources (i.e., incentives, equipment, tools), and may be replicable at other academic libraries that are similar in size or scope.

Example: Contingent valuation measures

Section 4: Hard-to-Reach Fruit. A range of assessment activities more difficult to measure and time and resource intensive, may require long-term data collection (e.g. longitudinal studies that require more than a year to collect a dataset or have measures that require more time, such as measuring a cohort’s graduation rates), and feature greater external partnerships, internal infrastructure, and/or additional resources to measure and analyze.

ExamplesThe Library Cube (which required the creation of a relational database), and Mixed-method Ethnographies, such as the ERIAL Project. (Ethnographic qualitative studies require more time to transcribe and analyze.)

Chapter proposals should focus on a topic that is related to one of the four sections listed above. Authors are also welcome to propose additional topics or sections that may be relevant to this publication.

Submission Procedure

Authors are invited to submit a chapter proposal as an email attachment in Word or PDF to academiclibrariesandtheacademy@gmail.com on or before Monday, January 09, 2017. The chapter proposal should be 300-500 words clearly explaining the intent and details of the proposed chapter as it relates to one of the four sections of the book described above. Authors will be notified by Monday, February 27, 2017 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Completed chapters are expected to be between 3,000-5,000 words, although shorter or longer chapters are negotiable. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by Tuesday, May 29, 2017.

Proposals should include:

  • Author name(s), institutional or organizational affiliation, job title/role
  • Brief author(s) bio
  • Proposed chapter title
  • A summary of the proposed chapter (300-500 words)

 

Proposed chapters should be based on unpublished work, unique to this publication and not submitted or intended to be simultaneously submitted elsewhere.   

Important Dates

Book Chapter Proposals Submission Due: Monday, January 09, 2017 Authors notified: Monday, February 27, 2017  Abstracts/Full Chapters Due: Tuesday, May 29, 2017  Feedback and revisions to Authors: Summer, 2017

Final Revised Chapter Due: September, 2017  Copy-editing, production: Fall, 2017

Publication Date: Early 2018

Inquiries to: academiclibrariesandtheacademy@gmail.com

Editors

Marwin Britto, Ph.D., MLIS

University of Saskatchewan

Canada

 

Kirsten Kinsley, Ed.S., MLIS

Florida State University

USA

Equity in access to digital literacy training

Call for Chapters
The role of the library as technology facilitator has been well established by the efforts of library professionals over the last decade. Yet libraries still have vastly differing resource levels, leading to some libraries providing more access to emerging technologies than others. People from rural communities, urban areas, the poor, and new immigrants are just some of the populations who are not being exposed to technology in meaningful and substantive ways. How do we level the technology playing field, and how do libraries act as a vector for that?
Has your library addressed these issues? Have you made strides in addressing the broader digital divide and can you offer practical solutions to others who are looking to do the same? We are looking for case studies from practitioners who have been able to offer high quality technology and training for patrons and library systems. We are looking for proposals that address projects on the following themes, physical access, patron and staff training, makerspaces, technology for jobs and business, and tech industry partnerships. Proposals are welcome from varying communities, including both urban and rural areas. Proposals from authors of diverse backgrounds are encouraged.
Each chapter should include:
An explanation of the problem and community need, including demographics and geographical information about the community
A project summary, including budget, resources, methods and process
A description of how the project affected the community and lessons learned
Chapters may include up to 5 figures such as images or graphs
Proposals should include;
Author Name(s)
Brief author bio(s)
Proposed Chapter Title
A summary of the proposed chapter (300 – 500 words)
Proposals should be submitted to laurenandreacomito@gmail.com, and will be due January 1, 2017, drafts of chapters will be due May 1, 2017.
The book will be published as a LITA Guide with Rowman and Littlefield.

Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice and Policy 

A new online Major Reference Work (MRW) co-sponsored by AECT and Springer entitled Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice and Policy has been launched covering topics concerning research and practice related to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of learning environments, instructional systems, and performance technologies. This is an ongoing effort with an evolving collection of contributions that are peer reviewed. Because the MRW is online, substantive contributions longer than a typical journal article are encouraged (e.g., 7.000 to 17.000 words), and contributions can include interactive elements and can be modified by authors as new findings become available. 

The Literature Reviews and Systematic Reviews of Research Volume is one of 16 Volumes. We specifically seek to update and explore standard literature reviews conducted in educational research as well as systematic reviews of research per the special issue on that topic published in Educational Technology & Society and/or in other major research journals. Expanded works previously published that incorporate additional findings, works that synthesize findings across several studies are especially sought. All contributions will receive much wider dissemination than is possible in a typical journal publication. 

We are on the lookout for systematic examinations of prior scholarly work that: (1) Define and clarify the problem/research question (2) Summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of research; (3) Identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature; (4) Suggest the next step or steps in solving the problem/answering the research question. All contributions to the Literature Reviews and Systematic Reviews of Research Volume will undergo the same peer-review process as all other submissions to the other fifteen volumes. 

You can access the guidelines for authors: http://refworks.springer.com/mrw/index.php?id=7054 

If you are willing to contribute to this state-of-the-art project, please send your proposal in Word format (no longer than 250 words) by December the 18th, 2016, summarizing: the problem/research question you will address; what is already known about it; questions that have not been answered; and a case for why further study of research questions is important to the field. 

Please send your proposal as well as any questions you might have, to Dr. Gloria Natividad & Dr. Hale Ilgaz, Section Co-Editors.

Dr. Gloria NatividadGloria.Natividad@itsaltillo.edu.mx Dr. Hale Ilgaz hilgaz@ankara.edu.tr

9th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries International Conference (QQML2017)

With pleasure we invite you to participate, submit an Abstract and/or organize and chair an Invited Session (4-6 talks) or address an invited talk in the forthcoming Conference in Limerick, Ireland ((23-26 May 2017) for the 9th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries International Conference (QQML2017,  http://www.isast.org) which is organized under the umbrella of ISAST (International Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology).

This is the ninth year of the conference which brings together different disciplines on library and information science; it is a multi–disciplinary conference that covers the Library and Information Science topics in conjunction to other disciplines (e.g. big data, open data and open source, innovation and technological transfer, management and marketing, statistics and data analysis, information technology, human resources, museums, archives, special librarianship, etc).

The conference invites special and contributed sessions, oral communications, workshops and posters.

Target Group

The target group and the audience are library professionals in a more general sense: professors, researchers, students, administrators, stakeholders, technologists, museum scientists, archivists, decision makers and managers, information scientists, librarians, records managers, web developers, IT specialists, taxonomists, statisticians, marketing managers, philologist, subject and reference librarians et al.

Main topics

The emphasis is given to the models and the initiatives focus on the  Data.

The conference will consider, but not be limited to, the following indicative themes:

  1. Data Mining, content analysis, taxonomies, ontologies
  2. Open Data, Open Access, Analysis and Applications
  3. Big Data and its Management
  4. Information Ethics
  5. Information and Knowledge Management
  6. Synergies, Organizational Models and Information Systems
  7. Multimedia Systems and Applications
  8. Computer Networks and Social Networks,
  9. Health Reference and Informatics
  10. Information Technologies in Education
  11. Decision making in service innovation
  12. STM information development

Special Sessions – Workshops

You may send proposals for Special Sessions (4-6 papers) or Workshops (more than 2 sessions) including the title and a brief description at:  secretar@isast.org or from the electronic submission at the web page: http://www.isast.org/abstractsubmission.html

You may also send Abstracts/Papers to be included in the proposed sessions, to new sessions or as contributed papers at the web page: http://www.isast.org/abstractsubmission.html

Contributions may be realized through one of the following ways

  1. structured abstracts (not exceeding 500 words) and presentation;
  2. full papers (not exceeding9,000 words);
  3. posters (not exceeding 2,500 words);

 

In all the above cases at least one of the authors ought to be registered in the conference.

Abstracts and full papers should be submitted electronically within the timetable provided in the web page: http://www.isast.org/.

The abstracts and full papers should be in compliance to the author guidelines: http://www.isast.org/

All abstracts will be published in the Conference Book of Abstracts and in the website of the Conference. The papers of the conference will be published in the website of the conference, after the permission of the author(s).

Student submissions

Professors and Supervisors are encouraged to organize conference sessions of Postgraduate theses and dissertations.

Post Graduate Student sessions for research are especially organized.

Please direct any questions regarding the QQML 2017 Conference and Student Research Presentations to: the secretariat of the conference at: secretar@isast.org

Important dates:

Deadline of abstracts submitted: 20 December 2016

Reviewer’s response: in 3 weeks after submission

Early registration: 30th of March 2017

Paper and Presentation Slides: 1st of May 2017

Conference dates: 23-26 May 2017

Paper contributors have the opportunity to be published in the QQML e- Journal, which continues to retain the right of first choice, however in addition they have the chance to be published in other scientific journals.

QQML e- Journal is included in EBSCOhost and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).

Submissions of abstracts to special or contributed sessions could be sent directly to the conference secretariat at secretar@isast.org. Please refer to the Session Number, as they are referred at the conference website to help the secretariat to classify the submissions.

For more information and Abstract/Paper submission and Special Session Proposals please visit the conference website at: http://www.isast.org or contact the secretary of the conference at : secretar@isast.org

Looking forward to welcoming you in Limerick,

With our best regards,

On behalf of the Conference Committee

Anthi Katsirikou, PhD

Conference Co-Chair University of Piraeus Library Director Head, European Documentation Center Board Member of the Greek Association of Librarians and Information Professionals

anthi@asmda.com

 

EdMedia 2017

June 21-23, 2017

Washington, DC

Proposals Due: Dec. 19, 2016

https://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call/

INVITATION

EdMedia–World Conference on Educational Media & Technology is an international conference, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education.

EdMedia, the premiere international conference in the field, spans all disciplines and levels of education and is expected to attracts many leaders in the field from 70+ countries around the world.

We invite you to attend EdMedia and submit proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, tutorials, workshops, posters/demonstrations, corporate showcases/demos, and SIG discussions. The Conference Review Policy requires that each proposal will be peer-reviewed by for inclusion in the conference program, proceedings book, and online proceedings available on LearnTechLib–The Learning and Technology Library.

TOPICS

The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following major topics as they relate to the educational and developmental aspects of multimedia/hypermedia and telecommunications. Sub-topics listed here.

Infrastructure

Tools & Content-Oriented Applications

New Roles of the Instructor & Learner

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI/CHI)

Cases & Projects

Universal Web Accessibility

Indigenous Peoples & Technology

PRESENTATION TYPES

F2F Presentations Virtual Presentations

The Technical Program includes a wide range of interesting and useful activities designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information.

  • Keynote Speakers
  • Invited Panels/Speakers
  • Papers
  • Panels
  • Student Panels
  • Posters/Demonstrations
  • Corporate Showcases & Demonstrations
  • Workshops
  • Roundtables
  • Symposia
  • Virtual Papers

For Presentation descriptions, and information about what to submit with your proposal, click here.

CORPORATE PARTICIPATION

A variety of opportunities are available to present research-oriented papers, or to showcase and market your products and services. For information about Corporate Showcases (30 minutes) and Corporate Demonstrations (2-hours, scheduled with the Poster/Demos), click here.

PROCEEDINGS

Accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings as well as in LearnTechLib, The Learning and Technology Library. These publications will serve as major sources of information for the community, indicating the current state of the art, new trends and new opportunities.

Selected papers may be invited for publication in may be invited for publication in AACE’s respected journals.

Please note that reviewers may reject submissions if the written product shows exceedingly poor grammar or structure. For this reason, all papers and presentations—especially those written by non-native English speakers—should be proofread or copyedited prior to submission.

PAPER AWARDS

Papers present reports of significant work or integrative reviews in research, development, and applications. All presented papers will be considered by the Program Committee for Outstanding Paper Awards. There will also be an award for Outstanding Student Paper (therefore, please indicate with your submission if the primary author is a full-time student).

See previous award papers featured in the LearnTechLib Digital Library proceedings.

To request further information and keep informed about the EdMedia Conference, click here.

If you have a question about the EdMedia Conference, please send an e-mail to AACE Conference Services