Call for Papers — Open Sessions

Government Information and Official Publications

• 24 January 2020, 17:38

Theme: "Navigating the Government Information and Official Publications Landscape: Authority, Reproducibility and Accessibility "

The Government Information and Official Publications Section (GIOPS) of IFLA invites interested individuals to submit proposals for the open session at the World Library and Information Congress in Dublin, Ireland from 15-21, August 2020. GIOPS solicits submissions around the theme of “Navigating the Government Information and Official Publications Landscape: Authority, Reproducibility and Accessibility”

Aim and Scope

Government information and official publications have undergone many changes in recent years. The transformation from paper to electronic has made it easier and faster for government institutions and agencies to release information. At the same time, authenticity and authority of government information have come into question. The electronic format poses new problems for accessibility; paywalls or the digital divide may prevent access to official publications. The need to reproduce authentic government information has resulted in the innovation of new tools like identifiers. Archiving government information has become more important, because there have been cases where official information was deleted from government servers following a change in government. Government information is susceptible to attacks by cyber-criminals. GIOPS would like to explore these developments and their significance for libraries in its open session.

Potential speakers may include but are not limited to: information professionals, scholars, activists, officials and librarians from International Organizations, Government Institutions and Government Agencies and European Documentation Centres (EDCS).

Issues addressed in the session might include:

• What is considered a government publication today? How does the user know that this official publication is authentic? What does the change from print to online format mean for the work of government librarians?
• Do official publications need to have an identifier? What kind of identifiers have been developed for government publications? Should there be international standards?
• Can official publications be reproduced anytime? How reliable are government servers? Does a change of government have an impact on the work of government librarians?
• Archiving strategies for government publications. Who is archiving what? In which format should government information be archived? How do governments and international government organizations archive their materials? Are there co-operations? What is the role of technology in archiving?
• Government information and open access versus government information behind a paywall. Who suffers and who profits?
• Accessibility of government information and geography. Can location determine accessibility?
• Digitization of government information and open access: do we need fair trade in access to information (SDG 16)?
• Challenges for Developing Countries to access government information?
• How can legislation support open access of government information?
• To what extent can FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) principles be applied to government information?
• Cybercrime and government information: how to deal with a new development?
• Other topics relevant to this theme

Important Deadlines

15 March extended to 5 April 2020: Deadline for submitting proposals for open session

15 April 2020: Successful Speakers will be notified, and IFLA forms completed by the Speakers

07 June 2020: Deadline for submission of completed papers to GIOPS. The paper should be no more than 3000 words in length. The paper should be in one of the IFLA official languages, but the conference language will be English.

1 July 2020: Deadline for submitting any Power Point slides that will be used in the presentation at the conference.

Format Papers

We are looking for substantive papers of 5-7 pages. A paper may be submitted in any of the seven official languages of IFLA (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish) provided it is accompanied by an accurate summary in English of up to 400 words. A translation into English, provided by the author, will be required for papers selected for the session.

Both abstracts/proposals and full papers should be submitted as an MS Word file by email. Proposed papers must be original and not have been published elsewhere.

Format Presentations

The GIOPS open session will be comprised of four to five presentations, of 10 to 15 minutes (maximum) each, based on the selected papers. The session will be divided into two parts with a period for debate after the presentations. Presenters should be ready to present in English or in a language which has interpretation available.

Presenters are asked to select a presentation format, using a limited number of narrated slides, photos or video clips or similar, to ensure that the presentation is interactive and engaging.

Submissions

We are looking for proposals of 1-2 pages. Proposals should include name of the author, institutional affiliation, and contact information. The technical presentation requirements at the conference. An abstract outlining the project or initiative and its relation to the theme of “Navigating the Government Information and Official Publications Landscape: Authority, Reproducibility and Accessibility”

Please send to:

Cornelie Butz, Section Chair, Government Information and Official Publications Section
Email: Cornelie.Butz@bverwg.bund.de

and

Kathryn Tallman, Section Secretary, Government Information and Official Publications Section
Email: kathryn.w.tallman@colorado.edu

Please send your proposals by Sunday, 5 April 2020 at the latest.

Please note:

At least one of the paper’s authors must be present to deliver a summary of the paper during the program in Dublin. Abstracts should only be submitted with the understanding that the expenses of attending the conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.

The paper must be an original submission not presented or published elsewhere. All papers that are presented at the WLIC 2020 will be made available online via the IFLA Library under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Authors of accepted papers must complete the IFLA Authors’ Permission Form.

All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation letter can be issued to author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.

Congress Participation Grants

List of opportunities for support is available on the Apply for Grants & Awards webpage.