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

The IFLA Law Libraries Section, Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section, Information Technology Section and [to be confirmed] Government Information and Official Publications Section are seeking proposals for papers to be presented at a session to be held at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Lyon, France 16-22, August 2014.

Session Theme

In the context of increasing digital collections and open access to legal content, Law Libraries and Parliamentary Libraries are facing both opportunities and challenges. The session will focus on collaborative opportunities opened up by digital law and parliamentary libraries. It will be a perfect way to share our experiences by featuring partnerships, model experiences and promoting best practices.

We invite papers that:

• Describe collaborative digital collection building and preservation, with an emphasis on partnership with other libraries, publishers or vendors
• Show how technology can enable better services to users wishing to access legal and parliamentary documents
• New ways of information discovery and semantic connection between legal resources
• Analyze copyright issues related to access to electronic/digitized law and parliamentary collections
• Deal with professional challenges related to law and parliamentary libraries going increasingly digital
• Present Digital law and parliamentary libraries and associated services
• Consider case studies and innovative experiences

Papers presenting innovative projects, experience, initiatives or services with a strong collaborative cross-border or international dimension would also be appreciated.

Papers should reflect the conference theme, "Libraries, Citizens, Societies: Confluence for Knowledge".

The program will feature up to five presentations of 15-20 minutes each with additional time for questions.  

For information on IFLA’s general guidelines for papers see: http://conference.ifla.org/past/2013/general-guidelines-for-authors-of-papers.htm

Language of the session:

Papers should be in one of the seven IFLA official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish, however, abstracts should be in English.

Important dates and submission guidelines

• 15 February 10 March 2014: Deadline to submit proposals/abstracts.

Proposals should include:

• Title of proposed presentation
• Abstract of proposed paper (no more than 300 words)
• Name(s) of presenter(s) plus position and/or title
• Employer / affiliated institution
• Contact information including e-mail address, telephone number
• Short biographical statement of presenter(s)
• Language of final presentation

Send proposals via email to:

Pascal Sanz
Email: pascal.sanz@bnf.fr

• 31 March 2014: Proposals will be reviewed and successful candidates will be notified.
• 30 May 2014:  Deadline for selected presenters to submit formal paper (for inclusion on the IFLA conference website and the Section’s website).  Details regarding the format and length of the final paper will be sent to candidates whose abstracts are accepted.

Please note

At least one of the paper's authors must be present to deliver a summary of the paper during the program in Lyon. Abstracts should only be submitted with the understanding that the expenses of attending the Lyon conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.

Authors of accepted presentations will be requested to agree to publication of their paper in the IFLA library under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence (CC BY 3.0) to their work.

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 or the sponsoring sections, but a special invitation can be issued to authors/presenters if that is required. 

Congress Attendance Grants

The French National Committee and IFLA have worked hard to secure funds for Conference Participation Grants. Up-to-date information will be available on our Conference Participation Grants webpage.