Call for Proposals
The Road to Information Literacy: Librarians as Facilitators of Learning
IFLA Satellite Meeting in Tampere, Finland – August 8, 9, and 10, 2012
Sponsors: IFLA’s Continuing Professional Education and Workplace Learning and Information Literacy Sections
The satellite conference will be held immediately prior to the World Library and Information Congress in Helsinki, Finland, August 2012.
The theme of the satellite conference is: The Road to Information Literacy: Librarians as Facilitators of Learning.
The IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section (CPDWL) and the IFLA Information Literacy Section (IL) invite proposals for presentations – research reports, smaller scale interactive roundtable discussions, train-the-trainer sessions, workshops, and poster sessions. Some proposals will be considered for publication in the proceedings, which will be distributed at the Satellite Meeting.
First-time presenters and new professionals are encouraged to apply. Students in the final year of studies are also invited to participate.
All proposals must be submitted by November 9, 2011 to Iflasatellite2012@gmail.com.
Conference Theme and Focus
We are interested in exploring issues such as: how to provide professional development to librarians in all types of libraries so they can help their user communities become information literate; tools to support and promote information literacy; information literacy in a work context; and the importance of the information literacy concept to the role of library/information professionals regardless of type of information organization.
We are interested in these issues as they cut across a variety of organizational structures, library types, different cultures and geographical regions. We encourage a diversity of voices.
The conference organizing committee wishes to showcase examples of best practices in strategies for developing a library work force that uses information literacy skills, both through research based scholarly presentations and experiential and practical stories of successes and lessons learned. The organizers are particularly interested in receiving proposals for presentations on any of the following, or related, key themes and issues:
General Themes
· Strategies for designing and implementing a professional development information literacy program for librarians.
o To help them become effective information literacy guides for their community
o To foster their own conceptual understandings and practical applications of information literacy in their work
· What works best in institutionalizing information literacy in workplace training programs?
· How do we sell information literacy as a necessary practice to librarians and administrators?
· What tools and resources are needed to support information literacy development for librarians?
· What information literacy standards and competencies should be incorporated into a staff development program?
· The role of library associations and library education programs in preparing librarians for information literacy and education roles.
Success Stories and Lessons Learned
· What qualities and skills are needed to become skilled at information literacy?
· What are the roles of librarians in successful information literacy programs?
· How does one evaluate librarians as facilitators of learning?
· What are the challenges in including information literacy in a staff development program?
· Are there any cultural or regional differences in developing an information literacy staff development program?
Thinking Outside the Box Themes
· How do we promote modeling of good information literacy practices in libraries?
· What are strategies for teaching librarians to be excellent communicators?
· What type of feedback is most helpful to librarians implementing an information literacy program?
Target Audience for the Satellite Meeting
We welcome librarians from public, academic, special and school libraries who are interested in developing their information literacy skills and knowledge; and librarians who want to understand how to build a strong information literacy culture in their libraries. We also encourage the attendance of library and information science students and faculty as well as association staff who are interested in the topic.
Conference Location and Dates
The satellite meeting will be held in Tampere, Finland from Wednesday, August 8th until Friday, August 10th, 2012. The venue is the Tampere University and local organizers include: Tampere University Library, local libraries in Tampere, and the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tampere. Tampere, less than 2 hours’ drive northwest from Helsinki, is a lively city beautifully located on an isthmus between two lakes, and the Tammerkoski rapids run through the city. Tampere is the 3rd largest city in Finland with excellent travel connections: there are direct flight routes to many European cities, and trains to Helsinki run on almost every hour. The meeting venue, Tampere University, is within walking distance from a number of hotels. There will be various accommodation price categories available.
The satellite conference will start on Wednesday, August 8 with a local tour and a reception hosted by the Tampere City Mayor in the town hall. The sessions will run all day on Thursday, August 9th and will end by 16:00 on Friday, August 10th. There are frequent trains between Tampere and Helsinki and the travel time is about 2 hours.
Summer night in Tampere market square. © City of Tampere/Sami Helenius
Conference Format & Structure
The conference will be structured to maximise opportunities for interaction and learning with a focus on expanding knowledge and understanding and enhancing capabilities in this key area of professional practice. Active sharing of ideas and knowledge will be encouraged and presenters are encouraged to think about the most effective ways of delivering their presentations. The conference will be arranged to include a mix of plenary sessions (with time allowed for discussion and comment on each paper), smaller scale interactive presentations (where presenters make their presentation to a small group and then engage in participatory/interactive work with that group), breakout sessions/workshops and poster presentations. To enable information exchange and networking the smaller scale interactive presentation sessions may be repeated multiple times and the poster sessions may be staffed at several times throughout the conference.
Published Proceedings
All keynote presentations and a selection of other significant presentations at the conference will be peer reviewed and published by K.G. Saur as part of the IFLA “greenback” publication series. The editors of the Conference Proceedings will be Roisin Gwyer (University of Portsmouth Library, UK), Graham Walton (Loughborough University Library, UK) and Ruth Stubbings (Loughborough University Library, UK). The peer and editorial review of papers proposed or selected for publication in the Proceedings will focus in particular on: originality of ideas, readability, intellectual rigor and the level of authority and scholarship demonstrated, and validity of the results of any empirical research.
Presenters who prefer not to have their paper considered for publication should indicate their preference on the proposal submission form.
Conference Language
The conference will be conducted in English. All papers and presentations will be required to be in English (it is hoped to translate papers into the official IFLA languages post-conference for addition to the conference website)
Submission of Proposals for Conference Presentations
To submit a proposal for presentation at the conference please complete the proposal submission form (MS Word file) attached.
Proposals must be submitted in electronic format.
Proposals should be sent, no later than November 9, 2011, to Iflasatellite2012@gmail.com
Deadlines/Timelines for Published Papers
· Proposals for papers must be submitted by November 9, 2011.
· Successful applicants will be advised of the acceptance of their proposal for possible inclusion in the proceedings in early December 2011
· Then the full paper must be submitted for review by January 31, 2012.
· Invited contributors/presenters will be advised of final confirmation/acceptance of their paper (following peer review) in April 2012.
Deadline/Timelines for Non-Published Papers/Presentations/Posters
· Proposals must be submitted by November 9, 2011
· Successful proposals will be notified of acceptance in early January.
· Final presentations/papers/posters must be submitted for review by March 31, 2012.
Review and Selection of Presentations
Proposals for papers for presentation and publication will be assessed by the Conference program committee and will be subject to a peer review process. The program committee will decide which proposers should be invited to develop and submit full presentations and/or papers. Confirmation of invitations to present at the conference will be subject to the receipt and approval, following second round peer review, of the full paper (if for publication in the Conference Proceedings) or presentation outline/poster as applicable.
Revisions may be required before final confirmation and acceptance.
Guidelines for Published Papers
Presenters whose papers are selected for publication in the Proceedings will be provided with detailed guidelines on the required format for manuscripts.
Registration Costs
Details of the cost of the conference (registration fees, accommodation options and costs etc.) will be available later in 2011. Invited speakers and presenters will be required to pay the registration fee and their own travel, accommodation and associated costs. The registration fee will cover a set of the published conference papers, lunch, mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshments, the conference dinner, and a tour of Tampere.
CPDWL and IL will have a limited number of awards to pay the registration fee of first time presenters who have been in the profession less than five years since the receipt of a library degree. Please indicate on the proposal submission form if you wish to be considered for one of the awards. The awards will be given on a competitive basis. Criteria for the award will include acceptance of the proposal, the appropriateness of the topic, and geographical distribution.
Mentoring Opportunity
Both sections are happy to offer a mentoring opportunity to interested participants. Mentors will be available to work with presenters on their papers and presentations. If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please check the mentoring box on the Proposal submission form.
Questions/Comments?
The Program Co-convenors will be happy to respond to questions or comments about this conference. Please direct questions to Susan Schnuer at schnuer@illinois.edu and Leena T Toivonen at Leena.T.Toivonen@uta.fi
Annamarie Goosen
CiCD Project Co-ordinator
A LIASA-Carnegie Project
Tel: 012 324 6096
Fax: 086 694 7272
E-mail: cicd@liasa.org.za
http://www.liasa.org.za
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