Call for Proposals – Deadline Extended to December 15, 2017

The 3rd National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in 2018, “Gathering all Peoples: Embracing Culture & Community” will take place September 26-30, 2018 in Albuquerque, NM. The conference is promoted by the Joint Council for Librarians of Color whose purpose is “To promote librarianship within communities of color, support literacy and the preservation of history and cultural heritage, collaborate on common issues, and to host the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color every four to five years.”

The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) is a conference open to all library staff, students, influencers, and decision makers interested in exploring inclusive policies and practices in libraries and how they affect the ethnic communities who use our services. JCLC strives to deepen connections across constituencies, create spaces for dialogue, promote the telling and celebrating of one’s stories, and encourage the transformation of libraries into more democratic and diverse organizations. This conference is sponsored by the five ethnic affiliates of the American Library Association: the American Indian Library Association (AILA), Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), and the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (REFORMA). JCLC 2018 follows the first gathering in 2006 in Dallas, TX and the second in 2012 in Kansas City, MO.

The 2018 JCLC Steering Committee invites you to submit a proposal for presentation at the conference focusing on the theme “Gathering all Peoples: Embracing Culture & Community”. Proposal submission deadlines are listed below.

JCLC Tracks and Topics

JCLC 2018 seeks conference session presentations in all areas of diversity, including, but not limited to, the topics below, focusing on the theme “Gathering all Peoples: Embracing Culture & Community.” Ideal sessions will provide:

• Insights, skills, tools, and strategies that stress solutions, implementation, and practical applications
• Highlight exemplary programs, approaches, and models
• Facilitate constructive dialogue, interaction, and understanding around significant issues affecting conference constituencies
• Discuss efforts to create more inclusive environments, curricula, and programs.

The Program Committee will strive to select a balance of academic, school, tribal, special, and public libraries learning opportunities.

• Advocacy, Outreach and Collaboration
  Marketing; outreach to diverse populations; community collaborations; user spaces; public policy; health education; using census data and other government information; cultural programming; services to and rebuilding of communities hit with disaster; research; undocumented, urban, rural and low-income communities; etc.
• Collections, Programs and Services
  Ethnic and multicultural collections; film and music; information literacy; children’s, youth and adult programming; programs for diverse populations; reference; instruction; grant funded programs; technical services; archives; preservation; digital inclusion; documenting traditional knowledge; research; cataloging/subject headings/controlled vocabulary; etc.
• Bridge Building, Intersectionality and Inclusion
  Fostering awareness, acceptance, and inclusion of all communities; disabilities; gender; celebrating elders; religion; sexual orientation/LGBTQIA populations; nationality; sharing traditional knowledge; serving the incarcerated; immigrant and refugees; cross cultural issues; transnational communities; multiculturalism; best practices and model programs promoting bridge building, intersectionality, and inclusion; microaggressions; cultural humility; etc.
• Leadership, Management and Organizational Development
  Administration; staff development/training; recruitment and retention; leadership; organizational culture; management; cultural competencies; mentoring; assessment; mid-career strategies; staff and paraprofessional issues; conflict resolution and mediation; reorganization and restructuring; leading during tight economic times; institutional change; research; fundraising; institutional racism; breaking the glass ceiling; etc.
• Technology and Innovation
  Teaching and learning; emerging technologies; e-repositories; social networking applications; digitization; equal access for users; library tools; e-books; mobile devices; widgets; mashups; online learning and collaboration; open access movements; social aspects of technology and implications for use; videos; etc.

Session Formats
All sessions are 75 minutes long with the exception of preconferences (Preconference programs may be either 4 or 8 hours) and may take one of the following formats:

• Panel Presentation
• Individual Paper/Presentation
• Roundtable
• Workshop
• Poster Session
• Film with discussion
• Preconferences

Proposals may be accepted on the condition of combining proposed sessions into a single session with other proposals or as a different format than originally accepted.

Prohibited Submissions
Program proposals promoting or selling products/services during conference sessions will not be accepted.

Deadline
All proposals must be received by midnight PST on December 15, 2017. No late submissions will be accepted. Notifications of proposal selection will be made on a rolling basis beginning on January 15, 2018 and ending on February 15, 2018.

Selection Criteria
All proposals will be reviewed by the JCLC Program Committee. Proposals are evaluated on quality and clarity of content, uniqueness of topic, relevance to conference attendees, ability to engage the audience, and the relationship of the proposal to the mission and theme of the conference, “Gathering all Peoples: Embracing Culture & Community.”

All presenters of selected programs must register for the conference. Only registered participants will be allowed to present.

Proceedings
JCLC will encourage the selected conference presenters, in all formats, to publish their content using the online conference program application. The content will be directly linked to the program abstract and remain posted for one year. It is recommended that all program content be uploaded by the day of the presentation. Authors will retain copyright to their original work and are encouraged to publish their content in other established venues.

Questions
Many questions can be answered on the JCLC website. Questions not answered in the below FAQs may be sent to the JCLC Programs Committee at jclc2018programs@gmail.com.

Call for Proposals FAQs