ILI 2012 Call for Speakers Open!

Internet Librarian International is the innovation and technology conference for information professionals. The conference attracts hundreds of library and information professionals from around the world.

Internet Librarian International 2012 will take place at Olympia in London 30-31 October (with pre-event workshops scheduled for 29 October). We invite participation from a wide range of professionals – new and established – from all over the world to share their experiences of developing and delivering innovative information services. We seek dynamic speakers from all types of libraries – public, academic, government, national or commercial – as well as those working outside a ‘traditional’ library setting.

Share your success stories. Tell us what lessons you’ve learned if things didn’t turn out quite as expected. This is your chance to help others to rethink and recharge, and to benefit from the insights of others.

Re-imagine, Renew, Reboot: Innovating for Success

This year the conference will focus on how information and library professionals are successfully delivering innovative products and services to ever more demanding customers in a fast-changing technology landscape. Library patrons, users and customers now expect access to information wherever they are, on a variety of devices. Budgets remain under pressure. Access to information, data and knowledge is becoming more open and transparent, with partnerships and new social media contexts expanding knowledge sharing in new and surprising ways.

With all this going on, librarians need to stay at the leading edge of service provision. What innovative and imaginative solutions can make a real impact on our ability to serve our customers and our institutions? Share your experiences with your peers at Internet Librarian International.

Possible topics fall under the following headings.

• Meeting the ‘everything everywhere’ demands of customers
• New and innovative uses of technology
• Managing and maximising resources
• Redesigning services and products
• Using the internet for research and reference
• Marketing the service and reaching new audiences
• Educating and mentoring users
• Career opportunities – new skills and new roles
• Ideas for full or half day workshops

But don’t limit your imagination – click here to see more ideas.

How do I participate?

If you would like to be considered as a speaker, please submit your ideas here. The deadline for submissions is 12 April 2012.

The advisory committee will review all submissions and you will be notified in May 2012. If your proposal is selected, the primary speaker will receive a free registration to the full conference, which includes lunches and a drinks reception.

We’re looking forward to receiving your suggestions and ideas.

Val Skelton, Programme Director

Katherine Allen, Conference Director

Please note that the expenses of attending Internet Librarian International (including travel, accommodation, and any other expenses) will be the responsibility of the presenter. By submitting your proposal, you acknowledge that you accept this financial responsibility.

Possible topics include:

• 21st century collection management
• Big data initiatives; open data
• Content management
• Creating new products
• Demonstrating impact; influencing management; working with customers
• Development and rollout of library apps
• Digital libraries; digitisation projects; digital curation
• E-learning, information literacy; training skills
• E resources; ebooks; ejournals; creating digital collections; ebook policies; acquisition management; contract negotiation
• Financial challenges; new sources of funding; innovative ways to manage costs
• Future planning; service redesign; mashups; marketing the service; raising the profile, collaboration and partnering
• Gamification initiatives; location awareness
• Information legislation; copyright; data protection; managing digital rights
• Leading edge technologies
• Librarians as agents of social change; community development and cohesion
• New ways of skills development; developing unconferences; managing tweetups
• New roles for information professionals
• Mobile, multiplatform information provision; working with tablet devices
• New ways of creating content; crowdsourcing; user generated content
• Managing information flows
• Open access; open source
• Open data; linked data
• Outsourcing, offshoring, insourcing
• Publishing trends
• Redesigning websites; usability; optimisation
• Semantic web
• Supporting the mobile workforce
• Taxonomies; ontologies
• Using social media tools to maximum effect; podcasting; Twitter/YouTube techniques
• Using the internet for research; search tips and techniques; new search tools
• Web publishing; web technology; the cloud
• Web scale discovery
• Sector specific case studies – we are interested in case studies from a range of settings including academic libraries, public libraries, corporate settings, government libraries, health/medical libraries, law libraries, and non-traditional information settings