Liberal Arts Colleges/HBCUs Pre-Conference

HBCU Library Alliance logoDLF Liberal Arts logo

Please join us for a third annual DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference on October 22, immediately preceding this year’s DLF Forum. Unlike previous years, the 2017 #dlfLAC will be structured as an unconference and is being planned in partnership with a wonderful co-host around a special theme!

Representation, Information Careers, and the Liberal Arts

The HBCU Library Alliance and Digital Library Federation invite you to a one-day unconference, to be held on Sunday, October 22, 2017, in Pittsburgh, PA. Our theme is digital libraries and digital library pedagogy as common mission, common ground between liberal arts colleges & programs and HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities).

How might our digital libraries better represent diverse communities and experiences, and better support learners from minoritized groups? How can the teaching that librarians do now inspire students to future information careers and change the problematic demographics of our profession? And what resources and environments are needed to address the “leaky pipeline” problem; that is, how do we nurture and sustain current information professionals from underrepresented groups?

Participants and planning committee volunteers do not need to be members of DLF or the HBCU Library Alliance.

What is an Unconference?

Following an unconference model, #dlfLAC 2017 will be loosely structured and entirely participant-driven. We will have a plenary speaker and are accepting proposals for a limited number of lightning talks, but otherwise we will build the program together on October 22nd. (You can read more about unconferences on Wikipedia and look at a few meetings from #critlib and THATcamp.)

Call for Planning Committee Members

This is a grassroots, practitioner-based event, so we need HBCU and DLF community help in organizing it! If you care about representation and the liberal arts, we enthusiastically welcome you and your input. Time commitments will be extremely lightweight. (It’s an unconference! Expect just 2-3 conference calls and potentially some subcommittee work.)

If you are interested in playing a vital role in shaping the pre-conference, please let us know by completing this brief form by April 14.

Call for Lightning Talk Proposals

Most sessions will be generated the day of the unconference, but we are inviting proposals for pre-vetted lightning talks! These are high-profile, high-energy 90-second presentations held in a plenary session, with the opportunity to point listeners to additional information online.

Proposals of up to 250 words should be submitted along with a max 50-word short abstract for the program, using our online system: https://conftool.pro/dlf2017/.

Deadline: Monday, June 26th, 2017 at 11:59pm Pacific Time.  

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by our volunteer DLF/HBCU Library Alliance Planning Committee. Presenters will be notified in July and guaranteed a registration slot for the pre-conference. 

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