Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning
& Public Libraries Sections

We invite you to submit a proposal for the joint session of IFLA’s Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning and Public Libraries Sections at the 81st IFLA General Conference and Assembly  to be held in Cape Town South Africa 15-21 August 2015. (Program dependent on acceptance of Joint Session proposal by IFLA)

Session theme and focus

The session will be developed as an Idea Café (Workshop?). Although the planning team is interested in a broad range of concepts, preference will be given to papers that reflect one or more of the following themes:

1. Diversity and Inclusion:  Creating an effective learning and working environment for people from other cultures and people at risk with a focus on customers’ colleagues.
2. Cross Border Collaboration or Exchange:  Facilitating global partnerships to support projects and or ongoing work
3. Cross Sector Collaboration:  Facilitating strong relationships with different types of libraries
4. Engaging staff :  Creating rich learning and development opportunities for the wide spectrum of staff employed in 21st century libraries – both professional and non-professional. 
5. New Roles:  Preparing the next generation of staff and managers for new skills and competencies

One spot is available for an emerging author who requires mentorship.

Submission Guidelines

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

Proposals should be sent before 22 November 2014 via email to:

Ms Jan Richards
Secretary/ Information Coordinator IFLA Public Libraries Section
Email: ifla@orange.nsw.gov.au

Submissions will be reviewed by the Program Committee with successful proposals identified and announced by 22 January 2015. Successful applicants will have until 22 February 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 22 May 2015.

Papers should be 3-20 pages long and must include an abstract and an appendix with practical recommendations derived from the paper. Final versions of the paper, incorporating new insights gained during the presentation, must be submitted for publication shortly after the conference. All papers that are presented at the WLIC 2015 will be made available online via the IFLA Library under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Authors of accepted papers must complete the IFLA Author Form. An abbreviated version of the paper will be published on the CPDWL and Public Libraries section websites.

The length of oral presentations will be 10 minutes. Presenters should be prepared to pose discussion questions to engage the audience in their work as part of the Idea Cafe. The full written paper is not to be read.

Language for abstracts:  English.
Language for presentations: English

The planning team reserves the right to ask applicants to make small adjustments to the shape of their papers to support the needs of the program.

Key Dates

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 letter can be issued to authors.

Congress Participation Grants

List of opportunities for support is available on our Conference Participation Grants webpage.