The Southeastern Michigan League of Libraries, SEMLOL, is seeking presentations and speakers for the Fall membership meeting around the topic of intellectual freedom, book banning, and access to information.The Fall 2022 SEMLOL meeting will take place Friday, November 18th, 2022 from 2-4PM on Zoom.
In this session we would really like to dig into what it means to allow and facilitate access to the broadest possible range of information in a higher educational setting. How do publishers, students, faculty, local community members, administration, and even available technology impact your collection development and challenged book policies? What have you done to protect yourselves, your library, your faculty, and your students from limited viewpoints? This could be an entry point for talks on community outreach, stakeholder education, DEI, OER, policy development, technological solutions, copyright, etc.
We know our colleagues in public libraries, and primary & secondary schools have stories to tell in this area and we would love to hear from you too! What have been your pain points on this topic, your successes, how have you formed your policies to offer protection for your organization and your readers?
We are looking for a few 15-30 minute topical talks as well as a longer keynote speaker who can help set the frame for the conversation. Live or pre-recorded content is acceptable, however we would like someone who knows the presentation to attend the meeting for Q&A.
Proposal Submission Deadline Is October 7th, 2022.
To submit a proposal, please send the title, name of speaker(s), and an abstract of no more than 250 words to semlol.board@gmail.com by Friday, October 7th, 2022. Accepted proposals will be notified by Monday, October 17th, 2022.
People working in related fields such as Education, IT, Publishing, Law, or Marketing as well as Public and Special Librarians and LIS students are encouraged to submit proposals based on their experiences, jobs, or internships.
We look forward to your submissions!
SEMLOL Executive Board
Amy Seipke - Chair, Executive Board
P.S. SEMLOL is still looking for another Executive Board member. If you or anyone you know are a librarian working for an academic institution in Southeastern Michigan and are looking for an opportunity to get involved in the field or take on a leadership role, please consider joining us. The time commitment is small but the help you can provide is big! Contact our current Board at this email address with a short, informal synopsis of your experience in the field, if you are interested.
