CFP: Reimagining Libraries: Exploring the AI & VR Revolution in Library Services

Artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) have emerged as powerful tools that enhance and expand the role of libraries, empowering them to provide innovative services and experiences to their patrons. Delve into the myriad ways AI, VR, and other emerging realities intersect with library services and learn how libraries leverage these developments to redefine their work.

Amigos Library Services is now accepting presentation proposals for the November 30, 2023, online conference, “Reimagining Libraries: Exploring the AI & VR Revolution in Library Services.”

Potential presentation topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • Impact of AI and VR on information literacy and library instruction
  • Intellectual property, privacy, and ethical considerations and challenges
  • AI-driven information retrieval
  • Virtual collections, repositories, and archives
  • Collaborative opportunities and partnerships with AI and VR
  • Automated cataloging and metadata tagging
  • Enhancing user experience

If you are interested in sharing your knowledge and experiences, please submit your proposal by September 20, 2023: https://forms.office.com/r/u9ea0ViSPT(link is external).

For more information about this conference, contact Jodie Borgerding, borgerding@amigos.org(link sends e-mail) or (972) 340-2897.

CFP: Minnesota Archives Symposium

The Minnesota Archives Symposium will be held Monday, November 6 at the Minnesota History Center in Saint Paul, MN. Driving and parking instructions can be found here: https://www.mnhs.org/historycenter/visit/directions. (Please note that parking at the History Center is free during the symposium).

The theme of this year’s symposium is “Handle With Care.”

Providing care is core to the archival profession. It is well-recognized that we provide care for the collections entrusted to us as well as to the collection users and community members who activate the materials under our care. Recent archives discourse has investigated how providing care and the act of caregiving impacts our profession more broadly, asking us to think deeply about what concepts such as responsible stewardship, radical empathy, and work-life balance mean to us and our profession.

During the symposium, we will reflect on the concept of care. How are we caring for our collections, our community, our colleagues, and ourselves? How might an ethic of care guide our work during difficult or uncertain times?

The planning committee is seeking proposals that explore the myriad ways care manifests itself in our work. Please send proposals to tcartmn@gmail.com by September 8th. Include a title for your presentation, a brief description of your talk, a list of speaker(s), and the preferred length of your presentation (15 minute presentation, 30 minute presentation, etc.). You do not have to be a member of TCART to submit a proposal.

Is there something you want to say, but you’re not sure how to shape it into a proposal or a presentation? The TCART officers are always happy to brainstorm with you. Just send us an email!

ISHMap Call for Proposals: 2024 Prize for Map Projects

Prize for Projects in Map History 2024

The International Society for the History of the Map (ISHMap) is pleased to invite nominations and self-nominations for its Prize for Projects in Map History.  

The ISHMap Prize in for Projects in Map History, awarded every two years and presented at the ISHMap General Assembly, will recognize a project that explores the history of maps and mapping outside of the format of an academic paper, book, or edited collection in a way that increases accessibility and engagement with maps and map history through innovative presentations. The prize will uplift projects that seek to expand the subjects, audience, scope, and/or methodology of engaging with the history of maps and mapping. Projects can take many forms including, but in no way limited to, physical exhibitions, datasets, online exhibitions, multimedia projects such as podcasts and films, thematic maps, games, and digital products.

The prize, to be announced at the Society’s General Meeting during the ICHC in July 2024, will consider projects that debuted or were substantively updated in 2022 and 2023.

Click here  for full prize description, and here for submission form

Deadline for nominations and self-nominations is December 31, 2023.

New/Recent Publications

Articles

Tearle, Barbara. “The Challenge of Old Legal Manuscripts in Modern Law Libraries.” Legal Information Management 23, no. 2 (2023): 68–72.

Books

Archive Activism: Memoir of a “Uniquely Nasty” Journey
Charles Francis
UNT Press, 2023

The Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium: Reflections, Revisions, and New Work
Yvonne Mery, Anthony Sanchez
ACRL, 2023

Delivering the Visitor Experience: How to Create, Manage and Develop an Unforgettable Visitor Experience at your Museum
Rachel Mackay
Facet Publishing, 2023

Heritage Building Conservation: Sustainable and Digital Modelling
Edited By Mohamed Marzouk
Routledge, 2023

Heritage, Memory and Identity in Postcolonial Board Games
Edited By Michal Mochocki
Routledge, 2023

The German Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1944: Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives
Ian Baxter
Pen & Sword Books, 2023

Podcast

Season 7, Episode 6: Lyric Evans-Hunter, Allegra Favila, and Lia Warner
Archives in Context

Issue Brief

ARL, CARL, and Ithaka S+R Release Issue Brief on Redressing Relationships with Historically Marginalized Communities

Newsletters

Mennonite Historian: a Publication of the Mennonite Heritage Archives (Manitoba), vol. 49, no. 2 (2023)

SAA seeks volunteers for Archives in Context

Join SAA’s Podcast Team!

Love a good podcast? Have a charming on-air presence? Excel at managing deadlines? Come join us!

SAA’s podcast is looking to add three people to its volunteer team: two Co-Hosts and one Project Coordinator. Archives in Context—now in its eighth season and sponsored jointly by the Publications Board, American Archivist Editorial Board, and Committee on Public Awareness—hosts dynamic conversations with archivists contributing to the archival literature, to SAA and the profession, and to public access and awareness of archives. The podcast team—made up of a project coordinator, four co-hosts, three producers, and SAA staff—release at least six episodes annually.

Co-Hosts are the voices you hear on the podcast. They prepare for interviews by suggesting topics, becoming familiar with the work of guests, and drafting questions and introductions. After conducting interviews virtually, co-hosts listen to the audio and recommend edits to the sound engineer.

The Project Coordinator serves as the “chair” of the team, setting a vision for a season, refining workflow, and bridging the work of the two sub-teams who create the episodes. The Project Coordinator:

  • Considers broadly the scope of the podcast, overarching themes for the season, diversity of topics and guests, order of episodes, and anything that comes up between planning sessions.
  • Leads monthly check-ins with the producers and keep both teams apprised of new developments via email.
  • Sets a timeline for episodes moving through the production process, keep teams on schedule, and liaisons with the sound engineer to finalize episodes. 

All candidates should have excellent project management and people skills and be an SAA member. Previous podcasting experience is preferred. The time commitment is about 5-10 hours per month.

To apply: send a letter indicating why you are interested in the position, your favorite podcast, and your résumé to podcast@archivists.org by September 15, 2023.

Call for Editors: Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editors in Chief of Scholarly Editing, we write to issue a call for editors and other recovery practitioners. Scholarly Editing seeks to develop and advance all aspects of textual and documentary editing, including the recovery of texts and artifacts that represent and celebrate the lives and contributions from and about Black, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples; Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of the Global South as well as others whose history has been erased, misrepresented, or disregarded. As we strive to diversify the journal’s staff and bring in new voices, we strongly encourage applications from these communities, as well as those who have expertise in the histories and literatures of those groups and peoples. This call reflects our commitment to ensure the journal’s sustainability by cultivating a robust editorial team that will succeed the senior editors over time. We reinforced this pledge in our recent call for contributions for Volume 40, published in 2022. Applications from outside the US are welcome.

Scholarly Editing seeks to fill the following positions on our editorial team, as described on our About website page:

·       Reviews Editor (Print and Digital) (1)

·       Voices and Perspectives Editor (1)

·       College and University Classroom Editor (1)

·       Interviews Editor (1)

Editors serve for three-year terms. Because the journal is grounded in higher education’s tradition of service, the work of editors is voluntary and uncompensated.

Editors have two main tasks in the production of each annual volume of Scholarly Editing, and both tasks involve spending time on outreach. Each editor’s first task is to cultivate contributions that speak to the rolling call. The editors’ equally important second task is to cultivate peer reviewers who will adhere to the journal’s commitment to generous and developmental peer review.

New editors can expect to spend roughly twenty hours per month on their work for the journal. Section editors meet monthly to discuss content development plans for their sections. A sample content development plan can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/s2un3ccn. Members of the executive editorial team are available for consultation and collaboration as needed.

The deadline for applications is September 30, 2023.

To apply, please complete the application form, which asks for a short statement of interest. It is available at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EUDAKc6UoasxdN53LXN_8uUj4azc7VVxityAI9gTs9I.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions about Scholarly Editing or the positions that the journal is seeking to fill.

Please circulate widely.

Noelle Baker

noelle.baker@me.com

Kathryn Tomasek

tomasek_kathryn@wheatoncollege.edu

CFP: Special Libraries, Special Challenges Column of Public Services Quarterly

Call for Submissions 

The “Special Libraries, Special Challenges” column of Public Services Quarterly is currently seeking submissions that explore all aspects of working in a special library. Each piece is approximately 2,000 words and focuses on practical ideas rather than theory. Case studies are welcome.  

Column Description 

“Special Libraries, Special Challenges” is a column dedicated to exploring the unique public services challenges that arise in libraries that specialize in a particular subject, such as law, medicine, business, and so forth. In each column, authors will discuss public service issues and solutions that arise specifically in special libraries.

Potential Article Topics

  • Impact of tourism on librarianship/collections that attract “fan” researchers
  • Profile of libraries/archives at professional organizations
  • Profile of libraries supporting the work in various branches of government   
  • Rebuilding library services and facilities after a building disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, etc.)
  • Innovative pilot projects 
  • Developing programs for students and/or faculty
  • Professional and continuing development for library staff
  • AI and library services
  • Emerging trends, such as empirical research, data analytics and alt-metrics 
  • Teaching various literacies (information, media, technology, etc.) 
  • Other ideas welcomed!  

Contact 

Special or subject-matter librarians interested in authoring a piece for this column are invited to contact the co-editors, Patti Gibbons (pgibbons@uchicago.edu) or Deborah Schander (deborah.schander@ct.gov).   

Call for Applications: Associate Editor of Provenance

—- SGA is still accepting applications

Interested in harnessing your editorial skills and passion for organizing fellow writers to serve as the associate editor or book reviews editor of a well-established open source archival journal?

The Society of Georgia Archivists’ Nominating Committee is accepting applications for the roles of Associate Editor and Book Reviews Editor for Provenance. For more information about Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists, visit: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/provenance/. The application deadline is August 11, 2023.

Candidates do not have to reside in the state of Georgia but must be members of the Society of Georgia Archivists. Information about membership can be found here: https://soga.wildapricot.org/membership

The Provenance Associate Editor assists the Editor in soliciting, editing, and production of Provenance. The position is a three-year term. Appointed by the Provenance Editor with SGA Executive Board approval. The time commitment: 5-8 hrs/month on average, with additional work required around publication.

DUTIES:

  • Solicits articles for inclusion in Provenance. 
  • Reviews articles as assigned by the Editor. 
  • Assists in copy and final editing considering content, quality, and style set by journal requirements. (could be done by a separate copy editor)
  • Works with contributors as assigned. 
  • Assists Editor with use and management of Bepress system.
  • Oversees marketing of Provenance, including advertising and exhibiting at professional meetings. 

The Provenance Book Review Editor solicits critical assessments of books, software, websites, and other tools useful to the archival profession. The position is a three-year term. Appointed by the Provenance Editor with SGA Executive Board approval. The time commitment: 5-10 hrs/month on average, with additional work required around publication. 

DUTIES: 

  • Solicits and selects, with advice from the Editor, publications or other relevant content to be reviewed for inclusion in each issue of Provenance. 
  • Arranges for reviewers of each identified publication or other content. 
  • Coordinates with reviewers; provides guidelines and determines deadline for submission. 
  • Edits the text of all reviews submitted for inclusion and submits final product to the Editor. 
  • Sends PDF copy of each review to the author and the publisher of the book. 

Applications will be accepted to nominating@soga.org until August 11, 2023. Applicants should submit a statement of interest explaining their experience editing; a writing sample; and a resume/CV. Questions may be addressed to nominating@soga.org. Thank you, 

2023 SGA Nominating Committee

–Cathy Miller, Chair

–Alex McGee, Georgia Tech

–Laura Starratt, Emory University

Call for Nominations: American Library Association’s “Best Historical Materials” List

The Historical Materials Committee of the American Library Association/Reference and User Services Association’s History Section is soliciting nominations for the committee’s annual Best Historical Materials list.

The list consists of the best print and online historical bibliographies, indexes, reference products, and published primary sources created, published, or significantly updated within the past two calendar years and primarily in English. The 2023 list will consider titles published or significantly updated in 2022 and 2023.

The committee encourages nominations from librarians, scholars, and students.

Nominations can be submitted for the committee’s consideration at https://forms.gle/ntm9UH8Y5M8pF5LbA . The deadline for nominations is September 30.

For past winners, please see rusaupdate.org/awards/best-historical-materials/. For questions, please email one of the co-chairs of the Historical Materials Committee, Steve Knowlton (steven.knowlton@princeton.edu) or Jennifer Bartlett (jen.bartlett@uky.edu).

Contact Information
Steve Knowlton, steven.knowlton@princeton.edu

Contact Email
steven.knowlton@princeton.edu
URL
https://forms.gle/ntm9UH8Y5M8pF5LbA

Call for Proposals: ARL IDEAL 2024—Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in Libraries & Archives Conference

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is now accepting proposals for the 2024 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in Libraries & Archives (IDEAL) Conference, to be held July 15–17, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The conference theme is Sustainable Resistance and Restoration in Global Communities.

To be considered, proposals should include:

  • Title of session
  • Abstract (up to 1,500 characters)
  • Learning outcomes
  • Outline
  • Keywords

Proposals should consider how the content of the session connects to the larger landscape of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and justice (DEIA/J) and how the session reasonably engages adult learners.

The internal review process is masked; no personal identifiable information (such as names, institutions, social identities) should be included in the proposal. These pieces of information will be collected separately.

The deadline to submit proposals is September 15, 2023, 11:59 p.m. Hawaii–Aleutian time zone (UTC-10:00).

PLEASE USE THE IDEAL 2024 PROPOSALS SUBMISSION SITE

We look forward to reviewing your proposal and creating a well-rounded conference for our attendees!

Please reference the Presenter FAQ or contact learning+dei@arl.org with questions or any accommodation requests.

About the Association of Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of research libraries in Canada and the US whose vision is to create a trusted, equitable, and inclusive research and learning ecosystem and prepare library leaders to advance this work in strategic partnership with member libraries and other organizations worldwide. ARL’s mission is to empower and advocate for research libraries and archives to shape, influence, and implement institutional, national, and international policy. ARL develops the next generation of leaders and enables strategic cooperation among partner institutions to benefit scholarship and society. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.