CFP: 2026 Library Publishing Forum: CFP now open and two scholarships available (Seattle, Washington - June 17-18, 2026)

 

We are excited to present two announcements: The call for proposals for the 2026 Library Publishing Forum is now open We are offering two scholarships to attend the Forum About the Library Publishing Forum The Library Publishing Forum is an annual conference bringing together representatives from libraries engaged in (or considering) publishing initiatives to define and address major questions and challenges; to identify and document collaborative opportunities; and to strengthen and promote this community of practice. The Forum includes representatives from a broad, international spectrum of academic library backgrounds, as well as groups that collaborate with libraries to publish scholarly works, including publishing vendors, university presses, and scholars. The Forum is sponsored by the Library Publishing Coalition, but you do not need to be a member of LPC to attend.

2026 Library Publishing Forum Call for Proposals

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is now accepting in-person and a limited number remote proposals for the 2026 Library Publishing Forum! We are thrilled to offer an in-person conference at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, on June 17 and 18, 2026, with active remote engagement also planned.  Proposals may address any topic of interest to the library publishing community. The proposal deadline is December 12, 2025. Proposal submissions are welcome from LPC members and nonmembers, including library employees, university press employees, scholars, students, and other scholarly communication and publishing professionals. Again, we welcome proposals from first-time presenters and representatives of small and emerging publishing programs. We are committed to expanding the diversity of perspectives we hear from at the Library Publishing Forum. Working towards some of the “Continuing Initiatives” from the LPC Roadmap for Anti-Racist Practice, we ask all proposals to explicitly address how they are inclusive of multiple perspectives, address DEI, or incorporate anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches. Presentations about specific communities should include members of that community in their speaker list, and for sessions with multiple speakers, we seek to avoid demographically homogeneous panels. Everyone submitting a presentation will also have an opportunity to complete a brief, anonymous demographic survey so we can better understand who is submitting proposals to LPF. Learn more and submit a proposal.

Call for Applications for the 2026 Library Publishing Forum Scholarships

About the Forum scholarships The Library Publishing Coalition is offering scholarships to offset travel costs for first-time Forum attendees from the United States and Canada, with a focus on individuals who will bring new and diverse perspectives to the community. There are two scholarships available, each of which will cover up to $2,500 USD in travel-related expenses, including airfare, hotel, and meals. Scholarship awardees will have Forum registration fees waived and will be paired with a community mentor to help introduce them to the conference and the community. For awardees from non-member institutions, the award includes guest access to the LPC community for the year following the in-person Forum. This would include access to the listserv and service opportunities, and the opportunity to participate in the peer mentorship program. All recipients will also receive a waived registration to the virtual Forum planned for May 2027. Eligibility This round of the scholarship program will only be open to applicants from the United States and Canada.  Applications will be accepted from individuals at both Library Publishing Coalition member and non-member institutions.  Anyone who has not attended a previous in-person Library Publishing Forum is eligible to apply. (Anyone who has -only- attended the Library Publishing Forum virtually is encouraged to apply for this scholarship for travel funding to the 2026 in-person Forum.) Applicants new to their librarianship career (first 3–5 years), new to the field of library publishing, and/or who identify as members of a group (or groups) underrepresented among library and publishing practitioners will be given preference.  These groups include – but are not limited to – members of a racial/ethnic minority, first-generation college graduates, immigrants and refugees, persons with a disability, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.  Applications from people who could contribute to the diversity of perspectives at the Forum in other ways are also warmly welcomed. How to apply for a scholarship To apply for a scholarship, please fill out the application form. Applications are due by December 12, 2025. The Library Publishing Coalition’s Forum Scholarship Committee will review applications and notify applicants by Early February 2026. Questions? Email contact@librarypublishing.org.

CFP: The Reference Librarian Special Issue on Staffing

The Reference Librarian is planning a special issue addressing how instruction librarians manage their information literacy and liaison programs while adapting to budget cuts and changes in organizational structures. How do you effectively deliver information literacy instruction while maintaining other critical services and adhering to professional standards when changes in budgeting and staffing make it difficult or impossible to specialize?

We are seeking case studies or research articles from libraries that are experiencing challenges including, but not limited to:

• The staff is too small for a liaison program to match subject experts with academic departments
• The library has lost a significant number of staff including instruction librarians, liaison librarians, or other staff positions
• Requiring librarians to fill multiple roles outside their area of expertise

Questions you might answer include:

• How have you used alternative staff models such as well-trained peer tutors, interns, or staff support to deliver instruction?
• How have you used a shared repository that any librarian or other staff members can use to teach?
• In what ways do you rely on online teaching resources rather than in-person delivery?
• How have you implemented a "train the trainer" model, e.g., by training faculty to teach information literacy?
• Or do you have another innovative model for delivering information literacy that can be adapted by other libraries experiencing similar challenges?

How do you make it work and still fulfill accreditation and other professional standards? Tell us about it!

Use the Call for Special Issue on Staffing (https://harrisburgu.libwizard.com/f/_wrefSP2526) link  to submit a 500-word proposal to by December 19, 2025.

The Reference Librarian uses the APA style, 7th ed.

Questions can be directed to co-editors Lauri Rebar (Lrebar@fau.edu) and Christine Bombaro (cbomb22@gmail.com).

All manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review. An invitation to submit an article does not guarantee publication in the final issue. For more information about the journal, see The Reference Librarian's website at: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/wref20.

Call for CLIPP Survey Participation: Student Advisory Groups

 NOTE: Bit off topic - but for a good cause.

Please help me learn more about student advisory groups at small to medium-sized college and university libraries by completing this survey by Friday, December 19, 2025.

The survey should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. Your willingness to participate is appreciated, and thanks to a faculty research grant from the College of Charleston (my current institution), the first 100 respondents to complete the survey will receive a $15 gift card.

This survey will contribute to an ACRL College Library Information on Policy and Practice (CLIPP) series book. In addition to basic questions about your institution, the survey contains questions about recruitment, membership, meetings, funding, time investment, and events/projects involving student advisory boards, committees, councils, and other student-centered and -run groups that are supervised, facilitated, or advised by faculty and staff.

Like all CLIPP surveys, it will allow you to upload electronic copies of documentation that you think would be helpful to other libraries. If you have created or revised example documents relevant to this topic in the last five years, I strongly encourage you to share them via the survey or send them by email (as attachments or stable URLs) to acrlclipp49@gmail.com. 

I am also interested in speaking with student advisory groups and the library faculty and staff who supervise, facilitate, or advise them. If you or others directly involved in this work are interested in an interview, please indicate that at the end of the survey or send an email to acrlclipp49@gmail.com. 

Thank you for your consideration of this survey; your participation is essential to the success of the CLIPP program!

Sincerely,

Amanda Kraft

UX & Engagement Coordinator

College of Charleston Libraries

CFP: Propose a Topic for an ITAL column: "From the Field" or “ITAL &”

Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL), the quarterly open-access journal published by ALA’s Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures division, is looking for contributions to two of its regular, non-peer-reviewed columns: ”From the Field” and “ITAL &” for volume 45 (2026). Proposals are due by December 1, 2025, and authors will be notified by December 31, 2025.

The two columns are intended to be practitioner-focused, and editors will happily entertain submissions from folks who have expertise in libraries and technology but who may not work in a traditional “library” environment or role. We are also happy to work with first-time authors and folks based outside of North America, though columns must be submitted in English.

Columns are generally in the 1,000-1,500 word range and may include illustrations. These will not be peer-reviewed research articles but are meant to share practical experience with technology development or uses within the library. The September 2026 issue of ITAL will likely be a special issue about AI, so we will be looking for AI-themed topics to coincide with that publication. Topics for the other three projected ITAL issues in 2026 will include a broader variety of subject areas, as outlined for each column below.

Please note: there is more information about each column below, and there are different submission forms for each column. You are welcome to submit proposals to one or both, but please avoid submitting the exact same proposal to both columns, and please ensure you are using the correct form for your submission.

From the Field:

“From the Field” highlights a technology-based project, practice, or innovation from any library in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) community. The focus should be on the use of specific technologies to improve, provide access to, preserve, or evaluate the impact of library resources and services.

Recent “From the Field” columns highlighted innovative technology projects in small and large libraries and archives ranging from using visualization technology to make more effective use of library budgets to using ChatGPT to identify and highlight the work of early modern women printers. Sample future columns could include implementations around management of research data; implementation of new open source products; preservation of digitized or born-digital objects; uses or development of AI tools; support of open science/open education, etc.

Those who are interested in being an author for “From the Field” should submit a brief proposal / abstract that outlines the topic to be covered. Proposals should be no more than 250 words. Please submit your proposals via this form no later than December 1, 2025.

ITAL &:

“ITAL &” is a featured column that focuses on ways in which the library’s role continues to expand and develop in the information technology landscape. The emphasis will be on emerging ideas and issues, with a particular aim to recruit new-to-the-profession columnists.

Recent “ITAL &” columns have discussed accessibility requirements for web-based content, critical thinking about and usage of emerging generative AI tools, a review of a practitioner’s first year as a new systems librarian, issues surrounding knowledge access in the prison industrial complex, and a comparison of free graphic design software platforms commonly used by library workers. Future topics could include, but are not limited to: disability and accessibility, cybersecurity and privacy, the open movement / open pedagogy, linked data and metadata, digital humanities / digital praxis, digitization efforts, programming and workshops, the overlap between library technology and other library departments (acquisitions, readers advisory, information literacy and instruction, scholarly communications), or other emerging technologies and their implications for library work.

Those who are interested in being an author for this column should submit a brief proposal / abstract that outlines the topic to be covered. Proposals should be no more than 250 words. Please submit your proposals via this form no later than December 1, 2025.

____

Since these are both non-peer-reviewed columns, there is also an opportunity to engage in new or different formats, so creative submissions will also be considered. (Examples: comics, zines, videos, autoethnography, case studies, white papers, policy documents, interviews, reports, or other things commonly referred to as "grey literature.") If you would like your column to be in a format that differs from a standard editorial essay, please explain in your proposal.

Contact Cindi Blyberg at cindi@blyberg.net (From the Field) or Shanna Hollich at shollich@gmail.com (ITAL &) with any questions. Please forward to any colleagues who may be interested. Thank you!

CFP: Automation to Artificial Intelligence: Smart Knowledge Environments With Disruptive Technologies in Libraries

Call for Chapters: Automation to Artificial Intelligence: Smart Knowledge Environments With Disruptive Technologies in Libraries

We are seeking proposals for chapters in an upcoming edited book. Libraries are undergoing a huge transformation. Technologies are increasingly being integrated like AI, Blockchain, loT, and robotics creating smart knowledge environments. This edited book is seeking scholars, practitioners and technologists to contribute their chapter that explores the future of libraries and information centers through interdisciplinary lenses.The publisher is Springer Nature. Proposals have been extended to November 28, 2025.

Barbara Holland
barland1@gmail.com

Topics of Interest include but not limited to

• Artificial Intelligence
• AI and Libraries
• Blockchain and Libraries
• Information Retrieval Hybrid Search Models
• Metadata and AI
• Datascience
• ioT
• Information Technology
• Ethics
• Smart libraries & Emerging TechAI and automation
• AI and cataloging or metadata
• Machine learning in library recommender systems
• Natural language processing (NLP) in Information Retrieval:
• Voice-based Information Retrieval in libraries:
• AI into library reference services: Can chatbots and virtual assistants enhance patron support?
• Bias in library recommender systems
• Automated metadata generation using NLP:
• User Experience in Library and Information Science

CFP: Inclusive Practices: Advancing Access and Belonging in Academic Libraries (Book Chapters) #ACRL

Call for Proposals

Inclusive Practices: Advancing Access and Belonging in Academic Libraries

We are pleased to invite chapter proposals for the forthcoming ACRL publication Inclusive Practices: Advancing Access and Belonging in Academic Libraries. This book will center on how academic libraries can navigate today’s challenging political landscape while still advancing inclusion, equity, and access.

Contributions are welcome from librarians, educators, administrators, and researchers who are advancing equity and inclusion through their work. (Authors are welcome to remain anonymous in the published version of the book if they prefer.) This publication aims to share practical insights, evidence-based approaches, and personal narratives that inspire a more inclusive and equitable future for academic libraries:

• Provide practical, real-world strategies for advancing inclusivity in academic libraries amidst anti-DEI legislation and backlash 

• Center the historical and ethical role of libraries as inclusive institutions 

• Offer guidance for both administrators at all levels and librarians leading from the middle on leading with integrity in politically charged climates 

• Equip libraries to influence broader institutional culture and resilience through action, not rhetoric 

Topics could include:

Section I: Library Leaders Creating Cultures of Inclusivity

• Getting Started: Introducing an Inclusive Culture to Your Library

• Best Practices for Inclusive Management in Academic Libraries

• Helping Early Career Librarians Support Inclusivity from the Beginning

• Working with Resistant Colleagues

Section II: Learning about Inclusivity

• Lifelong Learning of Inclusivity

• Beginning Inclusivity Training: Where Can You Learn the Basics?

• Advanced Inclusivity Training: When You’ve Learned the Basics, Where Can You Learn More?

Section III: Librarians Leading and Practicing Inclusivity

• How Can Librarians Lead Inclusive Practice from the Middle?

• Coaching Colleagues in Inclusivity

• Culture of Humility in Workplace/Academic/Community Contexts

• Tools for Assessing Inclusivity and Climate on Campus

Section IV: Inclusivity in Specific Areas of Work

• Inclusivity in Instruction

• Inclusivity in Reference/Research Consultancy

• Inclusivity in Special Collection & Archives

• Inclusivity in Collection Management & Cataloging

• Inclusivity in Library Human Resources

Section V: Academic Libraries Serving as Models of Inclusivity for their Institutions

• How Academic Libraries Can Lead the Way for Inclusivity across their Institutions

• How Academic Libraries Can Support Faculty Across Campus in Inclusive Teaching

Closing Words: A Vision for the Future

Submission Details

Please submit a proposal including author names, job titles, emails, and institutional affiliations. Also include a working chapter title, an abstract up to 500 words, and a link to a current CV or list of publications. 

• Proposal deadline: November 24, 2025

• Notification of acceptance: December 22, 2025

• Chapter drafts due: May 1, 2026

• Chapter drafts returned to authors for revisions: July 15, 2026

• Chapter length: [e.g., 4,000–6,000 words]
  
  

• Submission contact: inclusive.practices.2027@gmail.com

We encourage diverse perspectives and welcome contributions from both emerging and experienced voices in the profession. We also welcome proposals for additional topics that align with the themes outlined in this call.

CFP: Open Repositories 2026 - Online Conference - June 8-11, 2026

The 21st International Conference on Open Repositories (OR2026) will be held online June 8-11, 2026.

 

The theme for the OR2026 conference is: Open to All? Repositories at the Intersection of People, Practice, and Emerging Technologies

Exploring how repositories sustain open knowledge exchange while advancing FAIR principles, preservation, community building, and responding to the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies.

Our last online conference, OR2021, was held with “Open for All” as the theme. As we look back over the past five years, what has changed in the broader landscape of repositories? What new challenges are open repositories facing? How are repositories responding and addressing these challenges, and what opportunities are they embracing? As we embark on a fully online conference in 2026, we ask, are open repositories Open to All? 

We particularly welcome proposals aligned to the overall theme, but also on other administrative, organizational, or practical topics related to open digital repositories. We are interested in the following sub-themes:

• Sustaining open knowledge exchange: How do we balance commitments to openness with long-term resilience and sustainability through our practices and partnerships?
• FAIR principles: How are we ensuring that repository content is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reuseable and how are we addressing the ability of machines to automatically find and use digital assets?
• Preservation: How are financial and resource impacts addressed in our work to ensure that repositories and their digital content are preserved into the future?
• Community building: How do we strengthen and continue to build an open community of practice?
• Responding to challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies: New technologies have the potential to offer both opportunities and challenges to repositories and scholarly communication infrastructure. How are we taking advantage of opportunities and mitigating potential threats?

 

Submission categories include workshops, panels, roundtable discussions, presentations, and pre-recorded lightning talks.

 

Please visit the Call for Proposals page to learn more about the submission categories including a full list of submission templates that can be downloaded, recording and dissemination information for accepted proposals, and key dates. Note that all submissions must be made in ConfTool, our conference management tool. 

 

The deadline for submissions is January 11, 2026.

Please note: This is a firm deadline for submissions and there will not be an extension.

 

We are thrilled about the opportunities an online conference provides and only plan to charge a small registration fee to attendees from “high income” countries to cover the online platform costs. Registration for all other attendees will be free. 

 

Program Co-Chairs:

Joseph Kraus, Colorado School of Mines

Ianthe Sutherland, University of Edinburgh

Paul Walk, Antleaf Ltd.

Maureen P. Walsh, The Ohio State University Libraries

 

Contact: or26-program-chairs@googlegroups.com

 

For the Open Repositories Steering Committee:

Liz Krznarich and Ilkay Holt

Website: https://or2026.openrepositories.org/ 

CFP: Information Literacy Collab #InfoLit #OpenAccess

The Information Literacy Collab (ILC) seeks authors and peer-reviewers for the journal's second issue. We are a diamond open-access journal seeking to foster critical conversations about reflective and ethical information practices across a variety of learning environments.

We are a student-run journal, with an emphasis on publishing work from graduate students and early-career professionals. The ILC is a space to develop skills in scholarly communications and open access publishing. We encourage a variety of submissions, including but not limited to information studies, instructional lesson plans, traditional academic papers, case studies, book reviews, editorials, and literature reviews.

Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis up until March 1, 2026. ILC reserves the right to close submissions for the journal once we reach capacity. Papers submitted before December 16, 2025, will be given priority consideration.

If you are interested in contributing to the upcoming issue as an author or peer reviewer, please fill out our interest form. For more information regarding submitting to the ILC, check our Submission Information page, and take a look at our first issue to learn more about the journal and the kind of work we publish.

Feel free to reach out to our editorial staff at ilcollab@syr.edu with any questions. We look forward to working with you!


The IL Collab Team

About the Journal (https://surface.syr.edu/ilcollab/about.html)

The Information Literacy Collab(ILC) is a diamond open access publication by and for students and early career professionals that fosters critical conversations about reflective and ethical information practices within a variety of learning environments. The ILC is a space to develop skills in scholarly communications and open access publishing. We encourage a variety of submissions, including but not limited to, informational studies, instructional lessons, traditional academic papers, case studies, book reviews, editorials, and literature reviews.

CFP: FORCE2026 in Singapore — Call for Proposals now open (extended 9 Nov 2025)

 

FORCE11’s annual conference, FORCE2026 , will take place 3–5 June 2026 at Singapore Management University under the theme “To Go Far, Go Together: Advancing Scholarly Communication Across Boundaries and Disruptions.”

Call for proposals are open ! We welcome proposals that showcase collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and practical approaches to improving research communication. Submissions have been extended to 9 Nov 2025.

Illustrative themes include

• Open science and research assessment

• AI in scholarly communication and integrity

• FAIR data, PIDs, and metadata/discovery

• Open infrastructure and community governance

• Peer review, preprints, and reproducibility

• Equity, inclusion, and multilingual/global perspectives

• Preservation and research software.

• See website for the full brief and submission details .

Learn more about the conference or submit your proposal

https://aarontay.substack.com/p/force2026-in-singapore-call-for-proposals

CFP: Special Issue on Change Management in Technical Services (Library Resources & Technical Services) #ALA

CFP: Special Issue on Change Management in Technical Services

 

The editors of Library Resources & Technical Services, an ALA Core Division journal, invite submissions and expressions of interest on the topic of change management in technical services. Library Resources & Technical Services publishes high-quality research, case studies, and professional communications open access at no cost to authors or readers.

 

Library and information professionals working with resources encounter change on a daily basis–both internally-initiated and externally-imposed. We therefore have ample opportunity to consider how we plan for, implement, and assess these changes. Although there are a variety of models and frameworks for change management, it typically involves making the case for a change, planning the change, implementing the change, followed by ongoing evaluation and improvement after the change. There is no expectation of an explicit framework for change management–the editors appreciate the responsive nature of imposed change.

 

A variety of topics could fall within scope of the special issue, including but not limited to:

 

• Change management frameworks viable in Technical Services
• Changes in workflow arising from the use of AI tools within technical services 
• Cultural changes related to technical services staffing, reporting, organization, and employment
• Economics of change and budgetary implications
• Implementation of new standards or projects 
• Legislative and policy changes related to access, equity, and opportunity
• Response to vendor changes (e.g., acquisitions models, vendor mergers, product closures)  
• System migrations, implementations, or platform changes

 

The issue is tentatively scheduled for January 2027. Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis; however, to ensure that your manuscript is considered for the special issue, it must be received no later than May 1, 2026. Features (research articles) and Notes on Operations (case studies) will go through peer review as outlined in the Editorial Policies. Communications on Practice (shorter or more informal pieces) will be reviewed by the editors. Please consult the Author Guidelines when preparing your manuscript. 

 

Please reach out with ideas, questions, or expressions of interest to special issue guest editors Meg Mering (mmering1@nebraska.edu) and Melissa Zilic (mzilic@depaul.edu). 

CFP: Biographies Area of the 2026 Popular Culture Association Conference (PCA) Conference, Atlanta, Georgia

The Biographies Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA)  is soliciting papers for the 2026 conference that examine the connections between biography and popular culture. Papers and full panel presentations regarding any aspect of popular culture and biography are encouraged. Potential topics might include:

• Biography and entertainment, art, music, theater

• Biography and film

• Biography and criminal justice

• Television programs about biography

• Biography and urban legends

• Biography and folklore

• Biography and literature

• Scholarly Biography

• Controversial Biography

• Psychoanalysis and Biography

• Historical Biography

• Political Biography

• Autobiography

The conference will be held April 8-11, 2026 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, 265 Peachtree Center Ave NE.  Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers per standard session.  Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes.

Below are some recent titles of presentations in the Biographies Area panels:

• Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll: Celebrity Biography through the Lens of Autopsy
• Will Rogers: American Folk Hero or Elitist Fraud
• Manufacturing “Soupy Sales:” Biographical Insights in the Emergence of a Comic Entertainer

Please see this link for details and guidelines on submitting to the conference:
https://pcaaca.org/general/custom.asp?page=submissionguidelines

If interested in submitting for the conference, please provide the title and abstract of your presentation.  

Deadline for Paper Proposals: November 30, 2025.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact Biographies Chair:
Susie Skarl
Associate Professor/Urban Affairs Librarian
susie.skarl@unlv.edu
702-895-2141