2021 CONFERENCE Proposals

The Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) conference planning committee invites you to submit proposals for the 47th Annual Conference, Building Bridges: Dialogue, Deliberation, and Connection in Academic Libraries, which encourages us to consider helping our users connect and communicate in a divided world during historic times. The conference/committee encourages all members of the library community to submit a proposal. Staff, students, and librarians welcome from any division/subject area/public to technical services, special collections to systems.

• Conference Date: October 27-29, 2021
• Conference Location: Online
• Submission Deadline: extended to April 30, 2021

We encourage thoughtful, timely proposals from all areas of library work. Adherence to the conference theme is encouraged but not required. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Civic engagement
• Collaboration
• Dialogue
• Libraries as space/third space
• Instruction modalities & virtual libraries
• Misinformation
• Service changes/transitions
• Emerging technology solutions
• Crisis management

All presenters are responsible for their own registration.

Guidelines for Submissions of Presentations and Poster Sessions

• Proposals should appeal and be relevant to conference themes or academic librarianship generally
• Proposals should provide clear indication of actionable takeaways or practical applications
• Proposals should be concise, descriptive, and clearly written
• Proposals are blind, peer-reviewed
  
• Multiple submissions of presentation, poster, and lightning talk proposals are allowed
• • No more than two (e.g. two presentations, two posters, one presentation and one poster, or one presentation/poster and lightning talk) will be included in the final program
• Presenters will be asked to submit their content as a pre-recorded video a few weeks in advance of the conference, unless otherwise specified. Presenters will be contacted with further details if their session has been accepted

Proposal Elements

One proposal form will be used for all presentation types:

• Presentation: (50 minute block: 20-35 minutes of pre-recorded video, plus live Q&A; alternate use of time such as panels or other formats also accepted as “presentations”)

• Poster Session (image/text with up to 8 minutes of pre-recorded video, with asynchronous Q&A on the website)

• Lightning Talk (live talk up to 7 minutes, with Q&A after talks. Time limits will be strictly enforced.)

For Presentations, Posters, and Lightning Talks

• Title: 50 word limit
• Abstract: 200 word limit
• • Exclude the name of your institution, department and any personal names. If you include this identifying information, your proposal may not receive further consideration.
• How the presentation/poster will engage with audience
• Keywords that describe the content
• Presenter bio(s)
• For Presentations, Posters, Panel Sessions & Breakout Sessions
• • For Presentations, Posters, Panel Sessions & Breakout Sessions
  • • A well-written learning outcome will identify what participants will be able to do as a result of attending your program. How will your target audience’s skills, attitudes, knowledge, behavior, status, or life condition change or improve by participating in your program? Think about the intended impact of the program and how it fills a need or solves a problem. Tip: Consider using a verb or action phrase + “in order to” + an impact statement to design your outcomes. The first phrase describes the skill or task you want the learner to perform, and the second phrase describes its impact and why it is important. (Guidelines adopted from https://conference.acrl.org/conference-content/proposal-elements/)
    • At least one outcome is required; no more than three can be submitted

All presenters are responsible for their own registration.

Community Agreements

The conference planners seek to create a space for respectful dialogue and debate about critical issues. Upon registration, attendees will be asked to review and accept a list of community agreements. Conference planners will actively strive to create spaces in which multiple perspectives can be heard and no one voice dominates.

The proposal submission period has ended.

If you have questions, please contact Cara Calabrese, Mark Eddy, and Ken Irwin at program@alaoweb.org