Annual Conference 2024
We are pleased to announce the call for papers and posters is now open for the 2024 Annual Conference of the M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries.
The conference will be held online and takes place on: Thursday 6th June 2024 from 10.00 to 15.30. Please save the date.
Your paper, lightning talk or poster could detail a particular project or transformation (large or small) your library service is leading on, planning to do, or took place in the last five years – and could consider how well the transformation has worked and whether the rapid pace of change means that already you are reviewing the use of space or technology.
Whether looking to the recent past or future, we want to offer a conference that enables delegates to return to their institutions with practical ideas to follow up and consider implementing in their own service. The conference is attended by a wide range of library staff, from library assistants to directors of library services. The type of libraries they represent reflect the diversity of the M25 Consortium membership: there will be HE libraries represented alongside national, museum and special research collection libraries.
Conference title: Libraries Transformed and Transforming: technology, space, people
Conference themes including (but not limited to):
- Library space and/or services in the new digitally transformed era
- Digital transformation – space
- Digital transformation – library teams – how are staff affected?
- Digital transformation – collections
- How are students/ users using Library Space / Independent Study
- Other space uses – experimentation, research, digital humanities, maker-spaces
- New modes of hybrid working (for staff/for researchers/for users/for students)
- When is a library not a library?
- Increases in student/user numbers – and how library space is affected/ challenged
- Fresh look at SCONUL’s scenarios for Libraries of the Future – how has the changing technological landscape affected the scenarios
- AI and library services/staff/content
- How are Special Collections and Archives transforming and transformed
- Virtual services developed in the pandemic and now absorbed into business as usual
The main paper sessions will be 20-25 mins long, plus Q&A.
Lightning talks will be no longer than 10 mins long.
We would also like at least one session to have a degree of interaction or audience participation. Please indicate if you are applying with this in mind.
In submitting your abstract you should consider the diverse audience your paper or poster will have and please include whether your submission is for a paper (20-25 mins), a lightning talk (10 minutes) or a poster..
Posters will need to be presented in an accessible format using MS PowerPoint or MS Word and authors will have 2-5 minutes to present to the audience (timing dependent on the number of posters accepted for the conference).
Applicants must currently work for an M25 Member library. Jointly-authored submissions are acceptable (maximum two persons per paper or poster). We particularly encourage submissions from those working outside the Higher Education sector, to reflect the diversity of M25 membership. Successful applicants will be eligible for discounted attendance to the conference.
Abstracts of not more than 250 words should be submitted to:
Laura Scullion, email: m25libadmin@london.ac.uk.
Please submit your abstract as a Word file (not in the text body of an email), which is saved with your surname and ‘M25 Conference 2024’ in the filename and title. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Sunday 21st April 2024 at 9pm. All applicants will be notified of the outcome in the following weeks.
For an example of a previous poster please see this example from last year’s conference.