DUE JANUARY 31, 2020

Submissions and instructions are available via this google form: https://forms.gle/cis5C9BzSE6ZiXfC8

The Library of Congress Labs will host ‘Connecting Collections as Data: Transforming Communities, Sharing Knowledge, and Building Networks with International GLAM Labs,’ May 4-6, 2020 in Washington, DC. This event builds on conversations the British Library and the Royal Library of Denmark hosted around the hopes, dreams, and practicalities of fostering digital innovation in traditional heritage organizations with limited resources. The discussion and output from these meetings, which included state and university libraries across European and Gulf regions resulted in a BookSprint project and the open access publication, “Open a GLAM Lab”. The buzz from these events created a community (https://glamlabs.io) of “labbers” and the lab-interested which has grown to 250 participants from 20 countries.

The Library of Congress Labs team will host this emerging community in the United States for the first time to connect with the active and robust digital library, digital scholarship, digital humanities, and collections as data communities active across North America to share knowledge and expand the network. The meeting will be an opportunity for participants to advance an international community of practice and to exchange strategies and methods for advancing the development of innovative services for cultural heritage audiences.

Brief proposals are sought from individuals and groups who are interested in contributing to the program. Submission will be accepted until January 31, 2010 for:
1) 10 minute lighting talks (that may be grouped into themes), or
2) panel proposals that address a single theme with 3 to 4 speakers and a facilitator, or
3) full or half day workshops, datathons, or other hands-on working session.

Submit proposals via the form linked above.

There will be no registration fee for attending the event. Pre-registration via the Library of Congress Eventbrite system will be required, a link will be shared when registration opens in February 2020. A limited amount of honorariums may be available for speakers who need financial support to participate in the event. Due to regulations, honorariums are paid after the event, and support is not guaranteed for all speakers.

Draft Schedule
May 4: Digital Transformation Workshop – facilitated with the Liberating Structures method (maximum 75 people)
May 5: Connecting Collections as Data Conference (maximum 150 people)
—–Five themed sessions consisting of three or four lighting talks followed by a panel discussion (60 mins/panel)—-
May 6: Datathons or other hands on work sessions in breakout rooms (maximum 100 people total)

Note: Morning coffee will be provided but lunch will be on your own. There is a cafeteria adjacent to the meeting room and numerous restaurants in the neighborhood.

Questions about the proposal process or the event can be sent to LC-Labs@loc.gov .

Proposed themes for presentations, panels or workshops:

– User focused digital/data/innovation/lab tools, services and experiences, online and in physical space
– Supporting digital scholarship partnerships, digital and data reference services in a local and international context
– Supporting diverse users and including users in designing digital/data/innovation/lab programs
– Artificial intelligence and GLAMs, including community guidelines, operationalizing workflows, and practices around sharing data
– Expanding user engagement with crowdsourcing volunteers, leveraging expert crowdworkers, and combining crowd/human and machine learning workflows
– Collections as data, collection-readiness, preparing and using data sets
– Digital scholarship project lifecycle in context with community needs around access to tools/technology
– Balancing technical debt, open access, scholarly publishing, and open source software
– Digital transformation and organizational culture
– OR, propose your own theme

The Library of Congress Labs has hosted a Collections as Data themed event, in different formats, since 2016.

Agendas and livestreams from other events in the Collections as Data series are accessible via https://labs.loc.gov/events, summaries are below.

EYEO Code + Libraries Summit (June 3, 2019) was a day-long open summit co-hosted with EYEO Design Festival to explore ways that libraries and the creative coding community can work together to create new forms of collaboration, to empower learners and to strengthen communities in a un-conference format.

Inside Baseball Labs Showcase (July 13, 2018) capped off a week-long user-centered flash build facilitated by JSTOR Labs and in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture that produced prototype tools, presentations about the process, and a discussion about the history of baseball in the American cultural memory.

Collections as Data: Impact (July 25, 2017)
More relevant, more accessible, more visual, and more useful–these are some benefits of making digital collections available as data and ready for computational analysis. The Library of Congress hosted a day-long event that featured case-studies and impact stories of applying digital methods to analyzing and sharing collections. Presenters shared how using collections as data reactivates the holdings of libraries and other centers of history and art to make deeper connections to the communities they serve.

Collections as Data: Stewardship and Use Models to Enhance Access (Sept 27, 2016)
The rise of accessible digital collections coupled with the development of tools for processing and analyzing data has enabled researchers to create new models of scholarship and inquiry. The National Digital Initiatives team invited leaders and experts from organizations that are collecting, preserving and providing researcher access to digital collections as data to share best practices and lessons learned. This event will also highlight new collaborative initiatives at the Library of Congress that seek to enhance researcher engagement and the use of digital collections as data.