The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the University of Washington Libraries, and the Conference Steering Committee invite paper and poster proposals for the 2018 Library Assessment Conference: Building Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment. This seventh biennial conference will be held in Houston, Texas, December 5–7, 2018, and is co-hosted by the University of Houston Libraries and Texas A&M Libraries.
The conference goal is to build and further a vibrant library assessment community by bringing together interested practitioners and researchers who have responsibility or interest in the broad field of library assessment. The event provides a mix of invited speakers, contributed papers, posters, and pre-conference workshops that stimulate discussion and provide workable ideas for effective, sustainable, and practical library assessment.
Proposal Topics
Paper and poster proposals that cover any aspect of library assessment in any type of library are invited. The conference steering committee especially encourages assessment-related proposals in the following areas:
- Collaborative assessments
- Data management and visualization
- Digital libraries and repositories
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Measurement and measures/indicators
- Methods and tools
- Organizational issues
- Research and scholarly life cycle
- Services, collections (including specialized collections), and programs
- Space and facilities planning and use
- Teaching and learning
- Usability
- User experience
- User needs
- Value and impact
Presentation Formats
Proposals are invited as papers and posters. Brief descriptions of the various formats are provided on the conference website. Proposals are required to include a title, author names, format, and abstract (maximum 500 words) describing the paper or poster.
Papers will be included in the conference proceedings and are due by January 15, 2019.
Proposal Submission, Evaluation, Notification, Publication
To submit a proposal, please visit the proposal submission site. The primary author will be required to create a profile. One author will complete the form submission and enter co-author information. Proposal submissions are due by Monday, May 7, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific daylight time.
Presenters who are not able to attend in-person due to a prohibition on using state travel funds to Texas will be able to present their papers virtually.
The Library Assessment Conference Steering Committee will evaluate proposals based on:
- Relevance to effective, sustainable, and practical library assessment
- Significance of contribution to the body of work associated with library assessment
- Clarity of expression
- Status of research (For paper proposals, are the results in hand? When appropriate, please include the timeline for completion of research.)
- Results/findings that can be used to enact change
Those submitting proposals will be notified of their status in June 2018. Drafts of papers will be due by November 1 and final papers for the proceedings will be due by January 15, 2019.
Each accepted presenter will be guaranteed a conference registration place and will be expected to pay the registration fee by September 1, 2018. Additional registration information will be available in June 2018.
Papers will be published in the conference proceedings, which will be freely and openly available via the conference website. Poster abstracts and PDF versions of posters will also be available on the conference website. Authors retain the copyright to their original work and are encouraged to publish their work in other established venues and professional journals.
More Information
For additional information, visit the Library Assessment Conference website or send email to LAConf@arl.org.