World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council

"Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding"

10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

Call for Papers

Education and Training Section

Theme: Recruiting students into LIS programmes: Navigating towards global understanding

The IFLA Section for Education and Training (SET) seeks papers for its Open Session on the topic "Recruiting students into LIS programmes: Navigating towards global understanding" This topic has been chosen in accordance with the main theme of the conference, Libraries without borders, Navigating towards global understanding. A separate call for papers has been issued for the Section's offsite session.

Colleagues from around the world are invited to submit an abstract for consideration for the SET Open Session.

We are particularly keen to have papers and perspectives from LIS educators, practitioners and students and from a wide range of library sectors (e.g. public, academic, school, special).

Papers must be original and could cover issues like:

Attraction to the profession (What attracts students to this profession?) ( Are we attracting the right people and the best people to the profession?).
They might be relevant, but are our educational programs attractive?
Is there a need for a professional qualification?
Employability of graduates.
Differentiation in educational programmes; or one size fits all?
Am I getting what I want after library school (are students getting the jobs they expect after graduating? Are employers getting the type of new graduate they expect?)

Language of the session: The paper should be in one of the IFLA official languages. It is hoped that simultaneous interpretation will be available for this session, but we strongly recommend that the presentation slides are in English, even if the presentation is delivered in one of the other official languages.

Important dates and information

Proposals for papers must be submitted by: February 1st 2008.
The proposal should clearly indicate the session it is for and include a title, a 200-400 word abstract plus a brief speaker biography.

All proposals will be evaluated by a refereeing committee representing the IFLA Section of Education and Training: Mouna Benslimane (Morocco), Barbara I.Dewey (United States), Jacqueline Dussolin-Faure (France), S.B. Ghosh (India), Niels Ole Pors (Denmark) and Kerry Smith (Australia).

Please email your proposals to:
Dr Kerry Smith (Australia)
E-mail: k.smith@curtin.edu.au

Successful candidates will be notified by 3 March 2008 and must supply the full paper by 15 April 2008 to allow time for the review of papers and preparation of translations. Details on the format and length of the final paper will be emailed to the successful candidates.

At least one of the paper's authors must undertake to be present to deliver a summary of the paper during the Section's programme in Québec.

PLEASE NOTE that the Section for Education and Training has no funds to assist prospective authors: abstracts should only be submitted on the understanding that the expenses of attending the Québec conference (including travel, expenses and conference fee) will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers. Some national professional associations may be able to help fund certain expenses, and a small number of grants for conference attendance may be available at: http://archive.ifla.org/III/members/grants.htm