Health and Biosciences Libraries Section
& Library Services to People with Special Needs Section

Colleagues from around the world are invited to submit an abstract for consideration for the Open Session jointly sponsored by the Health and Biosciences Libraries (HBL) and the Library Services to People with Special Needs (LSN) Sections

Aim and Scope of the Session

It is hoped that papers will cover a wide range of areas of overcoming barriers – for example:

• How have mental and physical challenges been overcome? e.g. how do you promote mental health information to people with disabilities.
• How is health information delivered to those with poor literacy skills (literacy skills include basic literacy skills, health literacy, IT literacy etc.), and to the socially excluded?
• How is health information provided in cultures that do not endorse ‘open’ access to information such as publicly available brochures?
• What is the role of public libraries to support health information initiatives?
• How can libraries work in partnership with others to promote health information?

It is anticipated that presentations be 20 minutes with time for questions at the end of the session.

Important dates

February 1st 2011: Deadline for submission of abstract
March 1st 2011: Notification of acceptance/rejection
May 1st 2011: Deadline for submission of text

Submission Guidelines

The proposals must be submitted in an electronic format and must contain:

• Title of paper
• Summary of paper (250 - 350 words maximum)
• Speaker's name, address, telephone and fax numbers, professional affiliation, email address and biographical note (40 words)

The final paper should preferably be presented as a paper (that may be published on the IFLA website and as an option in the IFLA Journal). If the final presentation will be in the format of a power point, a substantial abstract will be required, including references such as URLs and bibliographies

Submissions are due before February 1st 2011 by email to:

tone@moseid.com

Tone Eli Moseid, Chair, IFLA Library Services for people with Special Needs Section.

CC to:  Heather Todd: h.todd@library.uq.edu.au and Paivi Pekkarinen:  paivi.pekkarinen@helsinki.fi

Proposals will be reviewed by a sub-committee of members of the HBL and LSN Standing Committees.

Successful proposals will be identified by 1^st March 2011

Please note

All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation can be issued to authors.

Congress Attendance Grants

The Puerto Rico National Committee and IFLA have worked hard to secure funds for Conference Participation Grants. Please check our Conference Participation Grants webpage for the most up-to-date information.