Call for participation

The Institute of Information and Library Science of the Jagiellonian University invites to Kraków, Poland (6th – 7th June, 2011) for the international conference:

How to teach students in information
and library science (LIS)?

Academic curricula vs. labour market and evolution of science

The Bologna Process, aimed at building a coherent area of higher education in Europe, contains two apparently conflicting strategic premises: one of them stresses the need for granting universities a margin of autonomy in creating new curricula and syllabi whereas the other presupposes standardization, mutual comparability and benchmarking of skills / competences / qualifications acquired by students either within different national education systems or within diverse institutions pertaining to the same national system. The instrument which, nonetheless, allows combining these two premises, is the European and National Qualification Framework, bound to be shortly implemented in the Polish law.

In the above-described context of imminent changes in the Polish higher education system, the goal of the conference is:

·         To discuss theoretical and methodological issues concerning the elaboration of subject benchmark statements and education effects' matrices for LIS academic curricula in various countries worldwide,

·         To analyse accreditation / certification systems applied in different national systems of higher education (ongoing or planned changes, review of measurement tools currently used to assess qualifications acquired by LIS graduates),

·         To draw an up-to-date balance sheet of expectations towards LIS graduates expressed by employers and to seek for permanent mechanisms best able to gauge the needs for LIS qualifications emerging on the labour market,

·         To consider the ambition to create an international board of experts ready to undertake the task of codifying the grids of education effects' description, which would allow European LIS schools to conceive their own, reciprocally comparable curricula for the best education in the LIS domain,

·         To reflect on modalities and advantages of for-profit transfer of LIS expert knowledge and know-how to the business sector of information.

This call for participation is addressed to all groups of stakeholders expected to make their contribution in defining education effects in the field on LIS or, broadly, in the sector of information management. Thus, invited are:

·         researchers from LIS academic milieu,

·         directors, managers and employees of libraries, information centres, museums as well as representatives of funding authorities supervising these institutions,

·         potential and actual employers coming from public sector, free market, social economy and third sector, who seek to recruit graduates with LIS competences,

·         representatives of ministries and other governmental bodies involved in designing development strategy for cultural institutions and public centres of information management,

·         members of librarians' and information workers' professional organizations,

·         information brokers and data dealers,

·         experts (scholars and practitioners) in competences management and organization of recruitment process (HR, coaching, mentoring, counselling).

Themes

1. Education

·         exchange of experiences and methodological recommendations regarding definition and implementation of LIS curricula based on education effects' matrices (Subject Benchmark Statements),

·         elaboration of LIS curricula which would subsequently enable LIS graduates to train teachers responsible for information literacy courses on every level and within all sectors of national undergraduate education system,

·         limits of interdisciplinarity as a specific issue in designing LIS curricula,

·         how to ensure complementarity of formal and informal education in the field of LIS, with particular focus on the educational offer of libraries and training institutions,

·         candidates for LIS studies: sources of recruitment and "label promotion",

·         LIS graduates: assessment / verification of knowledge and skills, image creation, life-long learning.

2: Work

·         labour market demand for LIS graduates' competences, related in particular to knowledge and skills in the domain of information management,

·         cooperation between potential employers and institutions forming future LIS specialists,

·         mechanisms, rules and practice of recruitment procedures in libraries, information centres, archives, museums and other entities active in public, private and non-governmental sector, searching for LIS competences,

·         role of leadership style and organizational culture in stimulating professional development of LIS workers,

·         real professional careers of LIS graduates vs. initial expectations and hopes.

3: Science

·         scholarly cooperation between higher LIS schools and companies / non-profit organizations: opportunities and barriers,

·         client-driven applied research, implementation projects, providing expert opinions and special courses tailored for entities from public and private sector,

·         research on competence profiles and attitudes of LIS (and related subjects) graduates conducted within the field of LIS and other disciplines (including interdisciplinary projects).

General information and notes for Authors

Important dates

1. Submission of contributions' titles and abstracts – up to April 1st, 2011

2. Submission approval – up to April 10th, 2011

3. Deadline for sending application forms – April 30th, 2011 (application form posted on the conference blog)

4. Fee payment – April 1st until April 30th, 2011

5. Full texts submission – up to June 15th, 2011

Conference secretary: Agnieszka Korycińska-Huras

E-mail: konferencjainib2011@gmail.com

Fax: 0048 12 664-58-54

Conference official blog: http://cracowlisconference.blogspot.com/

Participation

To reserve a place on the conference please e-mail an application form to the address konferencjainib2011@gmail.com. Remember to include your photograph in digital form.

Fees and accommodation

The conference fee is 130 Euro.

Payment has to be made between April 1st and April 30th, 2011. Please, transfer the money (after receiving confirmation of participation) to the following bank account:

Wydział Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego

ul. Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków

Bank: Pekao SA

Account number: 94 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 6759

Do not omit to add: "Konf. IINiB" and the name(s) of the delegate(s).

Accommodation fee should be paid individually.

Delegates wishing to have their hotel room booked by conference secretary are requested to contact directly Agnieszka Korycinska-Huras at: konferencjainib2011@gmail.com

Deadlines for papers

You are invited to send your proposals (title + abstract: about 100 words) and your short bio (an appropriate form is available on the conference blog) by April 1st, 2011 to Agnieszka Korycińska-Huras: konferencjainib2011@gmail.com

Abstract in English (approximately 100 words) should contain major research findings, conclusions, the purpose of the paper, its premises and a few keywords (one line in alphabetical order)

Autobiographical note should be supplied including: scientific title, full name, education with the stress on LIS qualifications, appointment, name of organization and e-mail address plus scientific output (three most important articles or books with their bibliographical description). The appropriate form is posted on the blog of the conference.

Full texts of accepted papers should be sent via e-mail as a "doc" or "rtf" file by June 15th, 2011, also to Agnieszka Korycińska-Huras: konferencjainib2011@gmail.com

Time of speech: 20 minutes

Paper feature and formats required of authors

The best papers will be reviewed and published. The texts received after the deadline will not be included in the conference proceedings.

The text should be divided into unnumbered chapters with individual headings

The papers cannot be longer than 27 000 characters (15 standard pages) including bibliography.

All the tables, figures, charts and diagrams should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numbers. They should have individual titles. Furthermore, author's name and the date of creation should be written. Reprint permission should be enclosed if needed.

In case of Web pages, the author, title, the date of publication (or last modification), URL and the date of visiting (in square brackets) should be given.

Footnotes containing digressions should be used only if absolutely necessary. They should be identified in the text by an asterisk and placed at the bottom of the page.

References to the list of publications placed at the end of the paper should be used instead of bibliographical footnotes. References should be shown within the text by giving the author's last name followed by a comma and a year of publication all in square brackets, e.g. [Brown 2000, p.53] or [Cook 2001, doc.electr.] or [Library 2001, p.2]

The list of used sources and publications should be placed at the end of the text in alphabetical order (sorted by authors' family names). Collective books should be listed under the names of their editors. In case a given publication hasn't got an author, it should be listed under the beginning of its title.

Conference venue

Kraków, the former capital of Poland and royal residence, lies in the southern part of the country. Kraków is one of the biggest European centers of culture and science with a wealth of tradition behind it. The historical area with its original layout dating back to 1257 has survived to this day. The royal castle on Wawel Hill and its cathedral, monumental palaces, old churches, Gothic bastions and walls - are all very interesting and worth visiting. The Jagiellonian University is one of the oldest in the world. It was founded by King Casimir the Great in 1364. Today, it is still one of the best and the biggest Polish universities.