‘The Library is open’: creating safe working environments for LGBTQ+ library employees and marketing supportive LGBTQ+ services

Call for Proposals – IFLA WLIC 2023

IFLA’s Management and Marketing Section, in collaboration with IFLA’s LGBTQ+ Users Special Interest Group, is pleased to invite you to submit your paper proposals for our upcoming satellite conference entitled: « ‘The Library is open’: creating safe working environments for LGBTQ+ library employees and marketing supportive LGBTQ+ services »

Organized on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th August, this event aims to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and more) communities in the workplace, as well as strategies for improving diversity and inclusion in libraries.

Indeed, libraries, over the past few years, have been engaging with their LGBTQ+ staff and users and taking positive steps for everyone to feel welcome within their spaces : raise of LGBTQ+ professionals groups ; collection, services, programming developments to create environments and activities where everyone, both staff and users, can feel welcomed, acknowledged and safe.

However, in recent years, there has been a marked increase in hate speech and hate crime targeting people and organizations based on sexual orientation and gender identity and libraries have been targeted for their work with LGBTQ+ communities. This can be complex to navigate for libraries and their teams. And while libraries have improved their practice, LGBTQ+ staff still experience forms of discrimination.

Working collaboratively with the IFLA LGBTQ Users Special Interest Group, this Satellite meeting, organized by the Management and Marketing Section, aims to connect librarians, library marketers and library directors from all over the world to share knowledge and experiences to inspire us all to engage positively with LGBTQ+ library employees and visitors to create welcoming libraries for all.

We are particularly interested in papers that address the following themes:

  • Human resources policies and practices for diversity and inclusion in libraries, particularly with regards to the LGBTQ+ communities.
  • The experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in both personal and professional life, including issues of equal opportunity, respect and acceptance.
  • The impact of management on the quality of life and professional performance of LGBTQ+ individuals.
  • Opportunities for Libraries to support and promote diversity and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community.
  • Collecting LGBT+ documents and related cataloguing policies.

Paper proposals should be submitted in the form of an abstract of no more than 500 words by April 316th. Papers will be evaluated by a scientific committee and authors of selected proposals will be notified by May 14th.

We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting and thought-provoking conference.

Date of the Satellite conference

The Conference will take place from Thursday a7 August – 13:00 til Friday 18 August – 17:00. A social event will be organized on Thursday evening

Satellite Meeting Location

The conference will take place on Rijnstraat 8, Government of the Netherlands, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Language of the sessions

The language of the sessions is English. However, presenters may choose to give their talk/oral presentation in any of the seven IFLA languages. Presentation slides must be in English.

Important Dates

  • 16 April 2023 – Deadline for submitting a 500 word abstract and author information.
  • 14 may 2023 – Presenters will be notified whether their proposals are accepted based on how well they have addressed the session theme.
  • 1 June 2023 – Full texts of papers and brief biographies of the presenter(s) are due. Both abstracts and full papers should be submitted as a MS Word file by email.

Submissions

Proposals must be submitted by email and must contain:

  • E-mail subject line “IFLA Rotterdam Paper Proposal”
  • Title of proposed presentation
  • Presenter(s) name, position and affiliation, email address, and biography (150 words maximum)
  • An abstract in English (500 words)
  • Language of the paper–Language of the presentation

Please submit your proposal to: anya.feltreuter@mjolby.se and thomas.chaimbault@enssib.fr

Important information

  • At least one of the presenters must deliver the paper in person at the program in the Hague. The expenses of attending the conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.
  • Papers should not be more than 4,000 words. Papers must be original submissions not presented or published elsewhere. Authors of accepted papers must complete the IFLA Authors’ Permission Form. All papers presented at WLIC 2023 will be made available online via the IFLA Library under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
  • A special invitation letter can be issued to the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.