Call for Papers — Open Sessions

Knowledge Management joint with the Information Technology

• 2 February 2020, 16:08

Theme: "The future of the library and library systems: outsourcing, cloud, and new tech impact of user communities"

The IFLA Knowledge Management (KM) Section provides an international platform for professional communication and understanding of the significance of KM for libraries. It gives a voice to KM on a global scale and follows the developments in KM, promoting its practical implementation within the global library community.

The IFLA Information Technology (IT) Section promotes and advances the application of information technologies to library and information services in all societies, through activities related to best practices and standards, education and training, research, and the marketplace.

The Joint Open Session will enhance the discussion about the Library of the Future – is Open Source really the future, but will it only cost more than we think or are there other risks too?

The OS will promote the discussion between the commercial sector and the open source community and interconnect the Open Source with the Open Data Development. It will discuss the human factor approach of the delivery of services to user communities via the library systems. The human factor is the driving force for knowledge management projects.

Papers presenting innovative projects, experience, initiatives or services with a strong collaborative cross-border or international dimension are preferred.

Sub-themes

• New technologies enable an expanded vision of library services: Information Technology is an enabler for discovery services and also an enabler for whole-of-service outsourcing of library service delivery. Cloud computing offers many benefits, but is there also vulnerable to threats? Major suppliers are evolving full-service cloud solutions and discovery layers.  What about the advantages and challenges of cloud solutions – can we trust in cloud?
• How library systems affect human behavior and how library systems relate to knowledge management whose main component is people – users? Libraries are reorganizing themselves to center on the user. How can we ensure that libraries provide services with user centeredness as the number one priority? (see:  OhioLINK’s Vision)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an enabler of front-desk delivery replacement.  What about automatic indexing of content? What about AI and self-learning neural networks?
• How open source promote the ability to be more flexible in software innovation and how a cloud solution allows the institution to devote its resources to providing more localized value add services? What about resource discovery, knowledge capture, information dissemination in this tension?
• EBSCO produce a major open source initiative is a way in which major library systems vendors are responding to open source by enlisting it – what are the advantages and risks of using open source software? Knowledge sharing has been recognized as one of the most important factor in the success of Knowledge Management. How the user and user communities create new knowledge by sharing experiences and existing knowledge?

Important dates

15 March 2020 – Deadline for submitting and abstract (Email subject line “IFLA Dublin Paper Proposal Joint Session KM/IT Sections”

31 March 2020 – Presenters will be notified

1 June 2020 – Deadline for submitting a paper (approximately 8-12 pages)

15 July 2020 – Deadline for submitting the presentation.

How to submit a proposal

Proposals should include:

• Title of the presentation
• An abstract for your paper (up to 400 words)
• A short bio for all intended authors of your paper, including name, email, and institutional affiliation (as appropriate)
• Language of the paper
• Language of the presentation (preferably English)

Proposals should be submitted electronically no later than 15 March 2020 to the co-chairs of the session:

Leda Bultrini
IFLA Information Technology Section
Email: leda.bultrini@gmail.com

AND TO:

Steffen Wawra
IFLA Knowledge Management Section
Email: steffen.wawra@uni-passau.de

Proposals will be reviewed and ranked by members of the KM-IT Joint Organising Committee. Selection will be based on proposal content and fit to the overall theme of the session.

Authors will be notified of acceptance status by 31 March 2020.

For accepted proposals, full papers will be due by 1 June 2020. Papers should be original work not published elsewhere and written in one of the official IFLA languages (English is preferred, but Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Russian or Spanish is accepted as long you also are able to provide an English translation).

Presentations

The IFLA KM-IT joint session will be divided into two parts: part 1 will be comprised of 3 short presentations, of 15 minutes (maximum) each, based on the selected papers. After the presentations an one-hour debate-style session or roundtable discussion will follow. The panel discussion part will mainly consist of the presenters.

For accepted proposals, presentations will be due by 15 July 2020.

Presentations may be (preferably) in English.

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

Please note:

Papers should not be more than 4,000 words.

Papers must be original submissions not presented or published elsewhere – (IFLA rule).

The length of the presentations should be approximately 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions/discussion.

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.