Category: Call for Papers

Call for Participation: Research Project/Survey on Accessioning

Hello!

My name is Meaghan O’Riordan and I’m the Accessioning Archivist at Emory’s Rose Library. I’m collaborating with Rosemary K. J. Davis, Accessioning Archivist at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, on a long-term research project focused on archival accessioning. We’re interested in making accessioning work more visible in every way, primarily by illuminating the sorts of labor and relationships required in order to steward archival collections during the initial phases of acquisition and accessioning. We want to ground our research in the firsthand experiences of people directly involved in this work.

To that end, we have crafted a survey that collects information and experiences related to the intellectual, emotional, and physical labors involved in archival accessioning.

https://yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Vza9JzfyNvQSZ7

Developing a better understanding of how repositories define and navigate accessioning is crucial to performing special collections stewardship that is rooted in transparency and mutual trust between all parties, and ultimately results in richer archival description, faster processing of materials, and greater access for researchers. What’s more, raising the visibility of individuals performing accessioning work will hopefully contribute to the creation of an empathetic and engaged community of practice, while also making this work’s value more readily apparent throughout archival profession.

This survey will be open through December 20, 2019.

We encourage you to give yourself plenty of time to give specific and thoughtful answers. We’re interested in collecting information about the nuts and bolts of accessioning work, but we also want to hear about how this work is valued, how individuals navigate the complexities involved in their work, and how a more supportive community of practice might emerge.

Thank you all for your time and feel free to reach out to us with questions: accessioningresearch@gmail.com.

Meaghan O’Riordan
Accessioning Archivist
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library

Rosemary K. J. Davis
Accessioning Archivist
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Call for Book Chapter Proposals: Learning in Action: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries

Call for Book Chapter Proposals

Working title: Learning in Action: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries

Proposal submission deadline: January 27th, 2020

Editors: Arianne Hartsell-Gundy (Duke University), Kim Duckett (Duke University), Sarah Morris (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill)

Publisher: Association of College & Research Libraries

Chapter proposals are invited for Learning in Action: Designing Successful Graduate Student Work Experiences in Academic Libraries, a book examining how academic librarians can best support interns, graduate assistants, and practicum and field experience students (both LIS and other fields). We welcome proposals focused on philosophical perspectives, practical strategies, reflective essays, and/or case studies. In addition to contributions from staff working in academic libraries, we welcome contributions from LIS faculty and current and recent graduate students.

Proposals are sought for chapters related to the following themes. Proposals should be between 250-300 words, and final chapters will be between 3000-4000 words.

Preparing Graduate Students for Professional Roles

This section will explore how internships, assistantships, practicums, and field experiences can support the learning of graduate students in order to help readers consider how these programs benefit graduate students and how they might want to structure such learning experience in their institutions. We hope to see explorations of skill-based training and discussions of how to most effectively mentor graduate students through hands-on work.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • The role of internships, field experiences, and practicums in LIS or other forms of graduate education
  • Developing professional workplace skills (e.g: “soft skills,” time management, project management, workplace communication, reflective practice, self-awareness)
  • Preparing graduate students for the job search – job hunting, applying for professional positions, resume development, interview preparation

Logistics & Structures for Designing Graduate Student Work Experiences

This section will look at how to administer these types of positions and programs in order for readers to gain a bigger picture of what it takes to oversee this work.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Strategies for structuring learning experiences for students (either programs or individualized experiences)
  • Interviewing, selecting and/or hiring
  • Developing a diverse and inclusive workforce and environment
  • Onboarding and approaches to training
  • Program assessment

Ethical Considerations

This section will examine the complex ethical issues surrounding these types of graduate experiences in order to help the reader consider how they will address these questions in their work.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Issues surrounding paid versus unpaid labor
  • Ensuring students receive credit for their work (e.g. course credit, acknowledgement)
  • Issues related to balancing the organization’s needs and students’ learning and professional development needs

Managers’ Perspectives

This section will address the experience of the managers of these work experiences in order to give both new and seasoned managers insight into what these experiences will mean for them.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Tips for mentoring and coaching
  • The first-time manager perspective
  • Emotional labor, boundaries, and self-care
  • How to make it meaningful for you, your work, and your own professional goals

Students’ Perspectives

This section highlights LIS students’ perspectives on positive and negative aspects of their work experiences, and practical advice for making the most out of their internships, assistantships, etc.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Finding and designing meaningful graduate student work experience(s)
  • Strategies for self-advocacy
  • Perspectives on career-preparedness
  • Navigating workplace dynamics as a temporary employee
  • Balancing work responsibilities with coursework and life experiences

Submission Procedure

Proposals should be submitted as a single email attachment to learninginactionlibraries@gmail.com

Proposals should include:

  • Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), job title(s)
  • Brief description of your experience as a graduate student or working with graduate students in academic libraries
  • Brief statement of your interests in professional writing
  • Clear description of the topic you are proposing for a potential chapter (about 250-300 words)

Important dates:

Proposals due: January 27th, 2020
Authors notified and sent chapter guidelines: March 15th, 2020
Full chapters due: June 29th, 2020
Final revised chapters due: November 16th, 2020

For additional information contact:

Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Duke University Libraries: arianne.hartsell.gundy@duke.edu

CFP: “Evidence: The Use and Misuse of Data,” June 5, 2020, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA

Inspired by its 2020 exhibition Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist, the American Philosophical Society Library & Museum is organizing a daylong symposium that explores the nature of evidence. The symposium reflects Benjamin Franklin’s many different uses of information and data throughout his life. His work with electricity relied on experimental data, while his work in oceanography relied on observed data as well as the incorporation of ideas borrowed from other observers. As a newspaper publisher and essayist, he produced and often reproduced news and other important information. Through his almanacs, he shared a wide range of knowledge with the public. Later in life, his service on a French commission investigating mesmerism deployed the scientific method to test the reliability of evidence itself. Given Franklin’s myriad uses of and approaches to evidence, the APS Library & Museum invites innovative proposals from scholars who wish to explore the past, present, and future use of evidence and data.

Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

  • The various ways evidence has been interpreted differently over time and the ways it has been applied and misapplied to shape policy and decisions;
  • The past, present, and future methods used to collect evidence and present findings, and the opportunities and potential problems associated with such methods;
  • The presence and misuse of bad data, erroneous evidence, and misinformation, and the ways such material have affected the production of knowledge and threaten it today;
  • The role of bias during data collection and its interpretation by scholars;
  • The opportunities and perils presented when evidence produces unexpected results.

Applicants should submit a title and a 250-word proposal along with a C.V. by December 13, 2019 via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/69616.

The symposium will be held on June 4-5, 2020 in Philadelphia. Decisions will be announced in February 2020. All presenters will receive travel subsidies and hotel accommodations. Accepted papers will be due a month before the conference and pre-circulated to registered attendees. Papers should be no longer than 15 double-spaced pages. Presenters may also have the opportunity to publish revised papers in the APS’s Proceedings, one of the longest running scholarly journals in America.

For more information, visit https://www.amphilsoc.org/, or contact Adrianna Link, Head of Scholarly Programs, at alink@amphilsoc.org.

CFP: Reorganization of the Library: Investigating the Consequences @LibJuicePress

This call does not specifically mention archives, but is relevant to academic archivists.

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Call for Proposals

Reorganization of the Library: Investigating the Consequences
Edited by: Tim Ribaric

Library services are steeped in tradition and are built upon decades of past practice that have shaped the way patrons envision the library. These services also reinforce the mission of the library as a stalwart to the academic mission of the institution. However the library is not immune to change and this is being demonstrated in numerous contemporary library reorganizations that are occurring across academic institutions in North America and beyond. Quite often these exercises involve reorganizing staff and reporting lines in an attempt to find efficiencies and to provide new services. However, these reorganization exercises often create conflicts with established workflows, upend professional trajectories, and sometimes create labour issues. In addition, motivations and precipitating reasons for these exercises are often opaque and not clearly constructed. This work will investigate the current trend of library reorganization exercises, analyze the impacts, and investigate motivated factors.

Suggested Topics Include:

  • Case studies
  • Reorganization frameworks/methodologies
  • Organizational studies perspectives
  • Interrogation of ‘change management’ discourse
  • Bloat in quantity, and purview in administration positions
  • Deprofessionalization
  • Upskilling, changing roles, and continuing education
  • Equity, diversity, and inclusion perspectives
  • The effect of management trends and fads
  • Vocabularies and taxonomies (e.g. use of terminology such as “teams”)
  • Autonomy, professional identity and power-shifts
  • Longitudinal studies of effectiveness and effects
  • Exploration of rhetoric, “fear of change” dialog
  • Comparative studies of techniques and outcomes
  • The transition from liaison/subject librarianship to functional librarianship
  • Modeling library services on ‘market needs’
  • Discussions on neoliberalism in the academy and ramifications to Library services
  • Investigations of what is driving the neoliberal restructuring exercise
  • Strategic grievance filing
  • Self-governance mechanisms utilized in reorganization exercises

Estimated final submission length is between 5000 and 8000 words. The work will be published by Library Juice Press. Interested authors should provide a 500 word abstract to Tim Ribaric <tribaric@brocku.ca> before January 1, 2020. Notice of acceptance February 1. Submissions due: July 1. Anticipated publication date is Fall 2020.

CfP: Third Workshop on Scientific Archives / European XFEL, Hamburg, DE / 30 June-1 July 2020

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Proposals are now being accepted for the Third Workshop on Scientific Archives, which will take place at European XFEL (https://www.xfel.eu/index_eng.html), near Hamburg, Germany on 30 June and 1 July 2020.

Proposed topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Collaborating with scientists to capture contemporary scientific material
  • Using scientific archives for outreach and education
  • Using and re-using archival resources in current science
  • Enabling access to scientific records
  • Describing technical and scientific archives
  • Managing and archiving research data
  • Exploring the role of archives and records in open science
  • Capturing diversity in institutional archives
  • Scientific archives in a “post-truth” world
  • Diversity and inclusion in STEM // Diversity and inclusion in archives

Papers are to be 20 minutes. Please submit a 400-word abstract using the following form by Friday 31 January 2020: http://tiny.cc/e888cz

More information can be found at: https://www.embl.de/aboutus/archive/working-with-scientific-archives/workshop/

Organized by the Committee on the Archives of Science and Technology (https://www.ica.org/en/committees) of the International Council on Archives, Section on University and Research Institution Archives (https://www.ica.org/en/suv)

CFP: CJAL Special Issue: Academic Libraries and the Irrational (Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship) @CjalRcbu

This is for academic libraries, but academic archivists can definitely relate to the irrational and absurd found within academia.

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This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship (CJAL/Rcbu) will consider whether the seemingly logical pursuit of innovation, accountability, and efficiency puts academic libraries at risk of becoming irrational or even absurd, that is, marked by contradiction and incoherence, ultimately alienating library workers and their publics.

Academic libraries are bureaucratic and technocratic institutions: highly structured, rule-bound, and rationalized. In the current climate of austerity in higher education, which asks academic libraries to demonstrate their value to their host institutions by doing more with less, rationalization is a process that would appear to serve academic libraries well. However, as Max Weber (1968) argues, rationalization, when carried to an extreme, can become a form of irrationality, rendering bureaucracies inefficient, maladaptive, and dehumanizing. Drawing on this idea, David Graeber (2015) goes so far as to claim that bureaucracy is a form of existential violence that infringes upon human imagination and creativity.

As a growing number of LIS scholars have noted, this irrationality is evident in managerialism, McDonaldization, the cult of busyness, and discourses of the future and innovation in academic libraries, all of which serve to create a growing chasm between our stated values and our practices, ultimately alienating library workers. We seek articles and creative works that help us to see the irrational in the seemingly rational, to recognize the absurd in the commonsensical, and refocus our labour on those practices which more meaningfully support our constituents and communities.

Possible topics might include: 

  • Linguistic absurdities (e.g. doublespeak, buzz words, rhetorical obfuscations)
  • Bureaucracy/irrationality and professional practice (e.g. metrics, reporting requirements)
  • Bureaucratic structures/processes, and the irrational/absurd (e.g. managerialism, technocratic restructuring, hierarchies)
  • The fetishization of leadership
  • The cult of innovation and the future

Call for Proposals

Authors interested in participating are asked to submit a 750-1000 word proposal as an attachment by December 20th, 2019 by email to irrationaleditors@gmail.com. CJAL (Rcbu) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal published by the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL). Articles submitted for review must fit the journal’s Focus and Scope. The journal is bilingual (Eng/Fr); proposals may be submitted in both languages.

This will be a peer-reviewed issue of CJAL (Rcbu). However we recognize the limits of traditional scholarly research in engaging the absurd and the irrational, and as such,  photo essays and/or creative works are also welcome. Authors interested in submitting a creative work are asked to contact the editors at irrationaleditors@gmail.com with a description of their project. If you have questions about themes or formats not listed here that you would like to discuss, please contact the editors: Karen Nicholson, Jane Schmidt and/or Lisa Sloniowski at irrationaleditors@gmail.com.

Proposal acceptances will be confirmed by January 20, 2020. Completed papers are due April 15, 2020. Anticipated publication date for the issue is December 15, 2020.

Guest Editors

Karen Nicholson is Manager, Information Literacy at the University of Guelph. She holds a PhD (LIS) from Western University. Her research focuses on academic libraries, critical librarianship, information literacy, time/space, and higher education.

Jane Schmidt is a liaison librarian at Ryerson University Library. Her research interests include community-led service, literary philanthropy and collection development.

Lisa Sloniowski works at York University as a teaching and liaison librarian in the Scott Library, and as an associate faculty member in the Graduate Program in English. Her research focuses on the archival function of academic libraries, affective labour, and the role of librarians in knowledge production.

References

Weber, Max. 1968. Economy and society. New York: Bedminster Press.

Graeber, David. 2015. The utopia of rules: On technology, stupidity, and the secret joys of bureaucracy. Melville House Publishing.

Call for Proposals for The Handbook of Archival Practice

This is your opportunity to contribute to the development of an indispensable guide designed to meet the demands of records and archival professionals increasingly tasked with responsibility for hybrid materials: The Handbook of Archival Practice.

This work—written by experienced practitioners for current and aspiring practitioners—will cover all aspects of contemporary archival practice from records creation control through long-term preservation. Relevant archives- and records-related practices such as digital signatures, social media archiving, content management systems, and cybersecurity measures will be included.

This is NOT a dictionary, glossary, nor encyclopedia. It is a Handbook divided into ten sections—each with multiple topics not only describing activities (such as appraisal, digitization, reference services) but also providing examples of how they are or might be applied in the workplace. Checklists, images, graphics, and other materials are solicited and will be considered for inclusion. The institution at which the practices took place may remain anonymous if desired.

A website, The Handbook of Archival Practice, at https://thapproject.org/ provides additional information about the project, the editor, the distinguished members of the advisory board, and the proposal submission process (with a link to the proposal submission form).

The Survey Monkey submission form is now open to accept your proposals at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TheHandbookofArchivalPractice. It will remain open throughout the project, which will be submitted to the editor by January 31, 2021.  Successful proposals will be accepted as received and approved for inclusion.  Those who submit early have the best chance of being accepted to write about the topic of their choice.

The editorial advisory board will assist in reviewing the proposals, but the final decisions remain with the editor.

As a thank you, each contributor, regardless of the length or number of entries, will be provided by the publisher, Rowman & Littlefield, with one hard copy of the finished publication, as well as the opportunity to purchase additional copies at 50% off. Each contributor will also be credited in the Handbook.

Questions should be directed to the editor, Dr. Patricia C. Franks, at patricia.franks@sjsu.edu

 

 

 

 

 

Call for Proposals: Digital Initiatives Symposium 2020

The Digital Initiatives Symposium at the University of San Diego is accepting proposals for its full day conference on Tuesday, April 28, 2020. We welcome proposals from a wide variety of organizations, including colleges and universities of all sizes, community colleges, public libraries, special libraries, museums, and other cultural memory institutions.

Proposals should fall into one of two formats:

  • Concurrent sessions: 45 minutes (please allow 10-15 minutes for Q&A); 1-2 speakers.

  • Lightning talks: 10 minutes; limited to one speaker

This year, we are especially interested in proposals from international applicants and/or proposals with international perspectives. We will be welcoming keynote speakers Reggie Raju (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Arianna Becerril-Garcia (Redalyc).

Other relevant topics include:

  • social justice and open access

  • the future of open access

  • Plan S

  • data management and sharing; open data

  • Linked data

  • open educational resources

  • curation of digital collections

  • digital initiatives in instruction and undergraduate research

  • roles for deans and directors in digital and institutional repository initiatives

  • roles for disciplinary faculty in digital and institutional repository initiatives

  • diverse repository platforms and functions

  • digital humanities

  • copyright, licensing, and privacy issues

  • collaboration: interdisciplinary initiatives and collaboration within and between campuses

  • scholarly communication

  • technical applications related to platforms or tools

  • web archiving

  • web annotation

Submit your proposal at digital.sandiego.edu/symposium (Click on “Submit Proposal” on the left sidebar.) Please note:

  • In the interest of providing a rich, face-to-face experience for attendees, virtual / remote presentations and lightning talks will not be accepted.

  • All submissions will be evaluated based on the relevance of the topic and potential to advance thinking about digital initiatives, institutional repositories, and scholarly communication. Acceptance is competitive.

  • Registration fees will be waived for accepted presenters.

Proposal deadline: Friday, Nov. 22, 2019

CFP: 2020 Supporting Undergraduate Research Conference

Call for Proposals

The Supporting Undergraduate Research Conference planning team invites faculty, students, librarians, instructional technologists, and others interested in supporting student research to submit a session proposal for the conference.

Potential themes include:

  • Improving student research practices
  • Strategies for making research more prominent in the curriculum
  • Research support needs specific to sophomores and juniors
  • Outreach to and/or working with students from underrepresented groups
  • Data intensive research projects
  • Reproducible research across the curriculum
  • Working with primary sources
  • Designing and supporting digital scholarship projects in courses
  • Collaboration on campus and beyond
  • Engagement with the broader scholarly community

We welcome proposals that engage with these themes or other aspects of collaborative undergraduate research support, and are particularly eager to see proposals from teams that include students, faculty, and staff.

Submit session proposals by November 4, 2019.

CFP: Journal of Archival Organization, Special Issue on Radio Preservation

From the federal to the state and local levels, recent years have witnessed growing interest in radio preservation among archival organizations across the United States. This issue of the Journal of Archival Organization seeks to capture the present state and future of radio preservation, documenting key issues, projects, strategies, and initiatives pursued by contemporary archivists and preservation groups working within this rapidly expanding area of archival practice. What possibilities do new archiving technologies afford, and what new systems and workflows have developed around them? What challenges or opportunities do current laws present for effective preservation and access? What financial and administrative obstacles do preservationists face, and what strategies have they pursued in the face of these challenges? How have preservation workers sought to expand traditional forms of radio content and diversify the digital record? Who does the work of radio preservation, what measures are being taken to prepare professionals and other relevant groups to perform these duties?

For consideration, please email inquiries and short proposals to guest editor Shawn VanCour at svancour@ucla.edu, no later than October 31st.

Contributions should consist of 15-20 page essays that position themselves in relation to relevant scholarship and professional publications in archival studies, library studies, critical data studies, digital humanities, media studies, and other cognate fields. Articles selected for inclusion must be submitted by January 13, 2020 and will be published in the journal’s Spring 2020 issue.

Final submissions should conform to professional academic publishing conventions and must clear the journal’s double-blind review process for successful publication

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Legal issues impacting preservation and access (changes in copyright law, strategies governing deposit agreements, repatriation issues, digital distribution methods)
  • Innovations in preservation methods (new technologies for digitization or storage of radio materials, new conservation strategies, designing new preservation workflows)
  • Metadata management (automated transcription technologies, competing content management systems, challenges and strategies of radio description)
  • Institutional factors (advocacy work for radio preservation within archival organizations, reevaluation of best practices, shifting institutional priorities)
  • Education and outreach (use of radio materials in the classroom, public screenings and community engagement, preservation training, advocacy for archival professionals and radio materials within collecting institutions)
  • Diversifying the digital record (activist archiving strategies, identifying relevant stakeholders, funding challenges)
  • Collaborative approaches (cross-sector preservation work within and across archiving institutions, collaborations with professionals in cognate fields, community-based strategies and participatory archiving, crowdsourcing initiatives)
  • Archiving born-digital content (platform-specific strategies and preservation issues, technological challenges and innovations, professional vs. nonprofessional productions)