SLA 2008: Breaking Rules -- Building Bridges

SLA Contributed Papers: An opportunity to share your knowledge!

Have you broken the rules of the status quo to make improvements in your workplace? Have you reached out and "built bridges" to another organization to improve your service? Have you learned valuable lessons that could help other information professionals? If so, here is your opportunity to engage in scholarship and share that knowledge with your peers.

SLA is now accepting proposals for papers to be presented at its Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO 15-18 June 2008, in Seattle, with the theme "Breaking Rules -- Building Bridges." Accepted papers will also be published on the SLA Web site.

Every SLA member is eligible to apply. The proposals will be evaluated by a panel of SLA members in a blind review, with the strongest selected for development into full papers due 1 May 2008. In addition, this year, the paper that best demonstrates the theme of the conference will receive an award at the annual business meeting.

Topics of the papers should be related to library science, information management, research or other issues related to customer service, technology, or administration in special libraries. Proposals will be judged on their relevance to the conference theme Breaking Rules -- Building Bridges or to the SLA tag line Connecting People and Information, as well on the strength of the idea, quality of writing, and potential member interest.

Minimum Requirements for Acceptance

In addition to the quality and relevance of the proposed paper, it must meet these requirements:

• At least one author is a member of SLA. (Not a member of SLA? Join here.)
• At least one author commits to present the paper at the annual conference.
• The proposal has been received by the deadline.
• The paper has not been published in or submitted to any other publication or conference planning group.
• The author (and any co-authors) must be willing to sign a copyright assignment that will permit SLA to use the paper in various formats.

See examples of papers from SLA's 2007 Annual Conference in Denver. Go here for full guidelines, including formatting instructions.

Deadlines

15 December 2007 -- Submit an abstract of your paper via e-mail to brandy.king@childrens.harvard.edu. Abstracts should be 250-300 words in length, or roughly one page in 12-point text.

31 January 2008 -- Notification. Twelve to 15 proposals will be chosen and all applicants will be notified of a decision.

1 May 2008 -- Paper due. Authors submit their completed paper and copyright assignment to SLA.

15 -18 June 2008 -- Conference presentation. Authors will deliver a 15-minute presentation of their papers (along with
three to four other authors) during a 90-minute Contributed Papers Session.

We look forward to your submissions and to hearing how you have broken the rules and built bridges in the information profession!

More Information
For more information about the contributed papers, see the cover story of the August 2007 issue of Information Outlook®.

If you have questions, please contact Brandy King, Chair of the Contributed Papers Selection Committee, at brandy.king@childrens.harvard.edu.