Call for Proposals (CFP) for Presentations at the ALA IRRT Chair's Program
The American Library Association (ALA) International Relations Round Table (IRRT) Chair's Program Committee invites proposals for participation in a panel presentation that will take place at the annual ALA conference which will be held in Washington, DC. The IRRT Chair's Program features speakers presenting on a specific theme related to international relations and the library. This year, the theme for the IRRT Chair's Program is: Global libraries as agents of leadership in our post pandemic world.
The past year has demonstrated the essential role of libraries in leading change and building on innovation to respond to continual needs within their communities. The disruptions we have been experiencing for the past several years have impacted all our lives. We live in a world marked by a global health crisis, a global environmental crisis, social, political, and economic disenfranchisement, disinformation, and movements toward authoritarian policy. In the IRRT 2022 Chair's program, panelists representing libraries around the world will share their experiences as agents of leadership through their innovative work serving their community, advocating for policy change, and acting as agents of social justice at either a grassroots or systemic level.
The Chair's Program Committee seeks proposals from speakers to be part of a panel that will describe and share the following:
Panelist presentations will discuss the individual library's - or librarian(s) - role in acting as agents of leadership for their communities by leading change, advocacy or social justice initiatives through outreach, services, programming, or other actions and are able to talk about the impact of the response. The best proposals will speak to specific actions taken by their libraries.
Examples of topics (presentations are NOT limited to these topics; creativity is encouraged):
- Providing programming or services that address social injustice issues during pandemics.
- Providing programming or services promoting gender equality and empowerment.
- Acting as advocates for public health and global environmental education through outreach, services or programming.
- Providing programming or services that cultivate sensitivity and understanding to marginalized groups.
- Acting as advocates for immigrants, migrants, refugees and marginalized groups through programming, services, outreach, or community discussions.
- Providing programming or services that support access to information for immigrants, migrants and refugees.
- Lobbying for policy change, creating partnerships, programming, or services that contribute to a culture of welcoming for migrants, refugees and other marginalized groups.
- Fighting poverty and hunger, allowing all to live with dignity, by supporting community needs.
IFLA's Library Map of the World Sustainable Development Goals Stories provides additional examples of topics of interest for presentations.
Presentation Format:
Each panel presentation is between 10-15 minutes. Applicants are encouraged to consider creative and effective presentations to connect attendees with the topic and to share information that will let attendees know how they could implement similar solutions/programs for their library communities. Since ALA has announced Annual 2022 is going to be an in-person conference, we are looking for proposals and panelists who are comfortable traveling to Washington, DC to present.
Deadline:
All proposals must be submitted by February 28, 2022 for consideration. Applicants will be notified in March if their submission has been accepted for presentation at the conference.
Send submissions via email to Mary Oberlies, Chair, at mkoberlies@wm.edu
Submission Guidelines:
Proposals should include two separate documents.
- The first document should include:
- Title of the presentation
- A 150- to 250-word biography of the presenters/panelists (If the program is accepted, biographies will be used in program advertising.)
- Name, title, institutional affiliation, and full contact information of the presenters/panelists
- The second document should not have any identifying information. This document should be an abstract of 300-500 words which addresses all of the following:
- describe the library and its community
- Identify the social problem or issue and its background
- describe how the library addressed the problem through leadership or advocacy
- discuss the impact on the library's city/region/country/community
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Mary Oberlies
Instruction & Research Librarian
William & Mary
She/Her/Hers
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