Public Libraries Section

Date

13 – 14 August, 2015

Venue

Goodwood Community Hall, Cape Town, South Africa

IFLA Public Libraries Section invites you to submit a proposal for the IFLA Satellite Meeting to be hosted by the City of Cape Town Library Service and the Western Cape Provincial Library Services on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 August 2015.

You might like to propose a panel, a workshop or a debate Session theme and focus.

Conference theme and focus

Public library services around the world have reached the cross-roads. Collection formats and community needs continue to evolve at a rapid pace. Technology plays a major role providing people with access to information; bringing library staff out from behind the desk to engage with users and delivering programs and activities, to suit the local community.

• How do Public Libraries cope with these changes?
• How do we plan and adapt our spaces to incorporate these changes?
• How do we reorganise our service models?

These are the questions we need to answer through our exciting and very practical program. Its a multi-pronged approach with a combination of keynote speakers, targeted papers and workshop sessions.

The conference will be will be hosted by the City of Cape Town Library Service and the Western Cape Provincial Library Services. Delegates will have the opportunity to workshop solutions for service delivery options with their professional colleagues and to share and learn from others' experiences.

The expected audience is likely to include public library staff, cultural workers, students and scholars, other professionals working in the information industry and government representatives.

Proposals

The conference organisers invite proposals on the following issues:

How do we integrate technology into the Public Library? (e-resources, RFID, self-serve, mobile devices)

• Service - how do we deliver and design for new services
• Collections - how can make the transition for technology to provide greater and more relevant access?
• Spaces - how do we plan and adapt spaces in local context

Preference will be given to presentations that will equip participants with ideas and skills that can be applied in their workplace.

The Section is also eager to receive proposals under these themes that relate to mobile libraries.

15 minutes will be allowed for a presentation in the Conference followed by 5 minute discussion/question time. The full written paper is not to be read.

Proposals should include

• Title of the presentation
• Abstract of no more than 400 words
• Author(s) name, professional affiliation, postal address, e-mail address
• A brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words

The conference will be conducted in English. All proposals, papers and presentations will be required to be in English.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals should be sent before 27 February 2015 via email to:
Email: ifla@orange.nsw.gov.au

Submissions will be reviewed by the Program Committee with successful proposals identified and announced by 6 March 2015. Successful applicants will have until 20 March 2015 to confirm acceptance of the offer.

To provide for dynamic content, full text papers in draft form should be submitted in a Word file by 30 June 2015. Papers should be 3-20 pages long and must include an abstract and an appendix with practical recommendations derived from the paper. The length of oral presentations will be discussed with the presenters, but is most likely 15 minutes with 5 mins question time. It is intended all submissions will be published on the Satellite website.

The Program Committee may contact you to refine your proposal.

Key Dates

Date	Action
27 February  2015	Closing date for call for papers. Brief abstract required
6 March 2015	Applicants will be informed as to whether their paper has been accepted
20 March, 2015	Applicants to confirm their acceptance of the offer
30 June 2015	Full papers must be submitted to the planning team