Government Libraries Section
& Government Information and Official Publications Section
& Law Libraries Section
& Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section

The above IFLA Sections invite proposals for papers to be presented at a two-hour programme in the next IFLA General Conference to be held on August 2012 in Helsinki, Finland.

Government Libraries are facing a transition period. Between some states looking for slash budgets due to the crisis and the ongoing revision of library services because of information technology’s advances, the role of librarians in this scenario must be addressed. This is a Call for Papers to solicit people to share their experiences and case studies that demonstrate how librarians can make a difference and manage complex situations within government structures, including the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary branches.

Subjects of interest include:

• How government libraries are surviving
• How government libraries fare during and after disasters
• The impact of government library closures
• Government libraries transition to the digital world
• The present state of Government Libraries in each country and the future prospect of user services
• Government libraries surprising: still here
• Relationship between open access and the public interest dimension on intellectual property law and policy in the digital age

Proposals should include:

• Title of the presentation
• Abstract of no more than 500 words
• Name, e-mail address, position (title) of presenter(s)
• Presenter(s) employed or affiliated institution
• A brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words

The selection of papers is based on the abstracts.

Important Dates and Timelines

Please email your proposals for papers before February 20, 2012 to Guillermo García-Capcha via ifla.governmentlibraries@gmail.com

The proposals will be evaluated and notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent by March 15, 2012

The presenters selected for the program at the Helsinki conference will be asked to submit a formal paper (for inclusion on the IFLA conference website and the Sections' websites) no later than May 30, 2012

The session will be conducted in English. All proposals and presentations will be required to be in English. Final papers can be submitted in one of the official IFLA working languages. If the paper is in any of other official IFLA languages than English, an accompanying translation in English must be attached. All selected papers will be uploaded on the IFLA website.

For more information, please contact us via ifla.governmentlibraries@gmail.com

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 Finnish National Committee and IFLA have worked hard to secure funds for Conference Participation Grants. Up-to-date information is available on our Conference Participation Grants webpage.