RBMS 2015 | Oakland, CA

Preserve the Humanities! Special Collections as Liberal Arts Laboratory
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 – Friday, June 26, 2015
Oakland Marriott City Center, Oakland CA

We intend for the preconference to look at the role of special collections libraries in the context of larger trends in the humanities and higher education. Speakers will focus on collaborative partnerships forged amongst archivists, librarians, researchers, and teaching faculty and position libraries as laboratories for the humanities. Despite claims of the so-called crisis in the humanities, higher education in the liberal arts and sciences remains as sought after as ever, embracing and fostering technological innovation. As stewards of cultural heritage and guardians of the historical artifacts that lie at the center of humanistic research, special collections librarians can and should play an important role in shaping humanities teaching and research.

Preconference  component committees will accept proposals for a variety of session formats. Proposals will be evaluated for relevance to the conference theme, except in the case of Seminars which can, but do not need to, conform to the theme. Special attention will be given to proposals that:

• demonstrate innovative thinking, originality, and timeliness.
• generate ideas or report research that contribute to ongoing discussion about the future of academic and research libraries within the evolution of the liberal arts and sciences
• present strategies for effectively implementing new ideas and technology; and
• encourage active learning among conference attendees.

Have an idea that doesn’t exactly apply to one of the formats below? We’d love your input!

– Preconference Co-chairs, Danielle Culpepper (dculpepper@virginia.edu) and Laura Micham (laura.m@duke.edu)

Seminars

Format: Seminars teach and present a variety of topics to round-out the preconference content and are not necessarily tied to the theme.

How to Submit: Please submit your proposal online or email it to seminars@rbms.info with a brief description (500 words or less) of the purpose, content, and format of your proposed seminar and list the names and affiliations of any presenters you’ve contacted.

Deadline: Proposals submitted by June 6, 2014 will be considered by the Seminars Committee for selection at its meeting during the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Notification: Late summer, 2014

Questions: Contact Jennifer Borderud (Jennifer_Borderud@baylor.edu) or Heather Smedberg (hsmedberg@ucsd.edu), Seminars Committee co-chairs

Workshops

Format: Formal half-day sessions requiring pre-registration that teach particular topics in depth

How to Submit: The Workshops Committee invites proposals for hands-on, off-site, half-day printing or book arts workshops, to be given on June 23, 2015, the Tuesday at the beginning of the 2015 RBMS Preconference in Oakland.  Workshops should be about 3 hours.  Proposals should include the following information:

• Name(s) and titles (if appropriate) of organizers and/or instructors;
• Address, phone, and email;
• A 150-250 word summary of your workshop, including a timetable, what sort of physical artifacts participants might expect to bring away with them, and an idea of what sorts of materials would need to be provided.  If possible, please include an idea of the transportation options between the conference site and the workshop site.

Deadline: For full consideration, submit proposals by June 24, 2014

Notification: By the end of July 2014

Questions: Jennifer MacDonald (jsmacdon@udel.edu), chair

Short Papers and Posters

Format: Brief presentations, either in the context of a panel of speakers or on a poster, in which presenters share their experience, ideas, or research. We are seeking submissions that address the conference theme for any of the following content types:

• Scholarly, research papers about materials, OR high-level work about libraries
• Case studies: studies of how things are done well at a library
• Reports, information exchange about collections and/or libraries.

Submissions may also vary in length:

• 3 people, 20 minutes each, followed by 30 minutes for discussion and questions
• 8 people (or 9), 7 minutes each, followed by 30 minutes for discussion and questions

Please indicate the content type and projected length of your talk. Feel free to submit proposals for medium and lightning talks as a group or part of a group (following the seminars proposal model). If you are submitting an individual talk, we will group successful submissions as appropriate.

How to Submit: Please submit proposals of 250 words by Friday, October 24, 2014, to: rbmstalks@rbms.info

Deadline: Friday, October 24, 2014

Notification: Applicants will be notified of the status of their proposals by Friday, January 16, 2015.

Questions: Lois Fischer Black (lob206@lehigh.edu), chair

Less Formal Participatory Sessions

Format:  Topics addressed in a variety of structures such as dork shorts (5-minute description/elevator pitch for a tool/project/etc.), lightening rounds, pecha kucha (presentation format in which speaker shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds), lunch meet-ups, reading group, curated pop-up exhibit, etc. for interaction and practical application

How to Submit: Please contact Jennifer Schaffner, schaffnj@oclc.org with ideas for novel formats and timely topics

Deadline: March, 28, 2015

Questions: Jennifer Schaffner, schaffnj@oclc.org