The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) will hold its 50th annual conference, Past Present Future: Aspiring to New Heights in Chicago, IL, April 5th to 9th, 2022.
As the Art Libraries Society of North America celebrates its golden anniversary, the conference theme underscores the history of art librarianship, focuses on the current emergence of new technologies and modes of interaction, and provides
an opportunity to consider how the events of the past two years may impact the future. It also reflects Chicago’s own story, from the resiliency and optimism that allowed Chicago to reinvent itself as a modern city after the Great Fire, to its development
as a city of dynamic diversity where issues of equity, inclusion, accessibility and anti-racism are of paramount importance.
The Chicago Conference Program Committee invites fellow librarians and library professionals, archivists, curators, museum professionals, publishers, educators, artists, designers, architects, and scholars to propose papers, sessions, workshops,
and speakers that reflect reinvention and the aspiration to reach new heights.
The 2021 conference survey revealed that attendees were most interested in the following topics, listed in ranked order. The program committee encourages submissions that include, but are not limited to:
Types of Submissions
PAPERS: An individual paper presentation, potentially addressing new research, a case study, or an innovative idea with a total time of 15-20 minutes. Presentations provide attendees with new tools, strategies, or inspiration that they
can apply in their own practice. The Conference Program Co-Chairs and the Conference Program Committee will group individual presentations into paper panels with a common topic or theme, which will run from 60 to 90 minutes, including a Q&A.
PRE-COORDINATED PANELS: A pre-coordinated session of 2-5 presenters with a moderator addressing a common topic or theme with a total time of 60-90 minutes, including a Q&A. Panels provide attendees with multiple views/strategies on a single
topical area, a comparison of tools or methods, or a number of case studies on related topics. It is not necessary to identify all potential presenters before submitting. Naming a moderator, who will advocate for and develop the session, is required.
SPEAKER SUGGESTIONS & PLENARIES: A plenary may be a prepared paper or discussion panel of significant importance to the profession. Plenaries are 60-90 minutes in length. No other meetings, sessions, etc. are scheduled during plenaries.
The content of plenaries should be current and of broad interest to attendees. Non-member speakers who will speak on a significant topic of interest to ARLIS/NA members may be suggested here.
WORKSHOPS: An opportunity to teach and explore current and emerging topics in an intimate atmosphere. Workshops encourage a focused, hands-on experience led by experts who combine presentation, active learning, collaboration, and discussions.
They may last two, four, or eight hours. Consider ways to benefit from local educational or cultural institutions in Chicago.
Additional Details
How to Submit Proposals
You must anonymize your proposal description. All personal or institutional names must be removed from the description and learning objectives (however, these details must remain in other fields of the form), and may be replaced
by terms such as “presenter,” “author,” or “speaker”, or in the case of institutions, terms such as “large academic library,” “small museum library,” etc. The review of proposals is a blind peer review process. Non-anonymized proposals may be ineligible.
The deadline is Tuesday, September 7th, 2021
The call for posters, roundtables, moderators, and other meeting proposals will be announced later this year.
Please direct any questions to the Program Co-chairs:
Stay well,
Gabrielle Webster
Deputy Director
ARLIS/NA
978-364-5129