ARLIS/NA 38th Annual Conference - Call for Papers
Revolution and
Innovation: At the Hub of Discovery
The ARLIS/NA 38th Annual Conference will explore revolution
and innovation within art librarianship and visual resources
librarianship as
new technologies, economic changes and other factors transform our
profession. Rapid change creates
opportunities to embrace new ways of exploring the issues librarians
face
daily. How have you responded to the
changes in the information landscape?
What innovative methods have you developed to resolve the
problems that
have arisen from all these new developments?
How have collaborations amongst colleagues, peers, institutions
and more
changed how you work?
Individuals are invited to submit proposals for papers that
provoke critical exchange and debate as well as practical advice and
solutions
in relation to the broad thematic areas referred to below. Submissions
are
encouraged that support opportunities for interaction between
participants and
enable the conference to engage in a truly interdisciplinary exchange
of ideas
and viewpoints.
Individuals wishing to contribute paper abstract proposals for the
ARLIS/NA
38th Annual Conference must submit a 250 word abstract for review by
the
Conference Program Committee. All abstracts must be submitted
electronically
using the online form available below.
The abstract submission deadline is June 22, 2009.
Abstracts received after the submission deadline
will automatically be placed on the waiting list
Abstract guidelines can be found in the online submission form.
Incomplete abstracts will not be reviewed.
Thematic Areas
The following themes have been identified as the main
interests of conference attendees from the conference evaluation and
planning
surveys. The themes are purposefully
broad. The questions have been written
to prompt and suggest possible platforms for discussion and debate. The
Program
Committee welcomes responses that extend and develop these themes in
areas that
will engage attendees in sharing different perspectives and provoke
speculation
about the future direction and development of art librarianship in the
twenty
first century.
Future of Art and Visual Resources
Librarianship
- As academic institutions look to cut
their budgets, will art/architecture/visual resources libraries become
merged with main libraries? Is this an opportunity?
- Digital libraries and repositories
will begin taking advantage of full text searchability. Where do
catalogers fit into this new view of access?
- Considering today’s tight budgets, how
much metadata is enough when working with less support?
- How do you increase your visibility on
campus? What novel ways do you advocate for
your library’s services?
- How have you developed grant proposals
for projects in your library? What were the
challenges and what surprised you?
- How do you satisfy customers in an
increasingly 24/7 instant access world? What do
you do differently?
- Going beyond statistics, how do you
know that you are providing patrons with the services and resources
that they want? What are some inventive and successful measures that
your library has taken to
determine patron satisfaction?
- Do corporate or business customer
service practices such as “secret shoppers” have a place in libraries? Have any libraries used any of these methods
successfully?
Collection
Development
- In light of the current economic
climate, what strategies have you developed to provide quality
resources for your community?
- How do we provide access to
information and ideas that are being created in technologies that have
not been traditionally supported by libraries? How
do we preserve that knowledge?
- Is this an opportunity for
collaborative collection development? Why or why not will collaborative
collection development take root?
- How do libraries balance fulfilling
the patron’s desire for digital content with the realities of the
heavily print nature of art, architecture and design publishing?
Emerging
Technologies
- How have you successfully created
solutions using emerging technologies such as open source programs,
mobile technologies, mashups and more?
- Taking advantage of new technologies,
what unique projects have you successfully collaborated on with your
colleagues (library, IT, etc.)?
Reference and Instruction
- With reduced staffing, who should be
answering questions at the reference desk?
- What are some strategies being
employed by libraries to provide reference and instruction to distance
students/faculty?
- How have libraries developed
instruction that integrates into the studio culture?
- How are information and visual
literacy programs being successfully integrated into curricula?
Visual Resources
- The value of visual resources
libraries is being questioned in some institutions. What
are the strategies that can be employed to educate institutions and
administrators about the value of such collections? How
do you promote these collections to faculty and students who prefer
Flickr databases and web searching?
- Are there new paradigms for the
building of and access to visual collections that we should be moving
towards?
Please submit your abstract by following this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yzQS2txK78auP5kfgmiIjQ_3d_3d.
If you have any questions, please contact the Program
Co-Chairs: Jennifer Friedman, MIT ([log in to unmask]) and Ann Whiteside,
MIT
([log in to unmask]).
With regards,
Jennifer Friedman, on behalf of the Program Committee
Program Committee
Jennifer Friedman, MIT, Program Co-Chair
Ann Whiteside, MIT, Program Co-Chair
Susanne Javorski, Wesleyan
University
Kathy Ritter
Deb Verhoff, Art Institute of Boston
at Lesley
College
Whitney Vitale, Boston
Architectural College
__________________________________________________
Jennifer Friedman, Collections Manager and Public Services Librarian
Rotch Library of Architecture and Planning
Building 7-238, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: (617) 258-5595 Fax: (617) 253-9331