Call for Chapters: Humanities at the Center: Reimagining Arts and Humanities Librarianship in the Contemporary Academic Library (#ACRL Publication)

Humanities at the Center: Reimagining Arts and Humanities Librarianship in the Contemporary Academic Library

Editor
Carol Ng-He, MA, MLIS

Publisher
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

Book Summary
Content Overview

Humanities at the Center: Reimagining Arts and Humanities Librarianship in the Contemporary Academic Library is an edited volume exploring how academic libraries are reimagining arts and humanities librarianship in response to major transformations in higher education, scholarly communication, technology, and institutional priorities.

Academic libraries are increasingly operating within institutional environments characterized by budgetary pressures, technological transformation, declining humanities enrollments, workforce restructuring, and heightened expectations for measurable institutional impact. Within these contexts, arts and humanities librarianship is frequently required to demonstrate its relevance while simultaneously adapting to changing modes of scholarship, teaching, and research support. Arts and humanities librarians continue to play critical roles in critical information literacy; teaching and learning; cultural stewardship; student and community engagement; and interdisciplinary collaboration.

While there is substantial literature on digital humanities, liaison librarianship, scholarly communication, and critical librarianship, there is currently no comprehensive volume examining the future of arts and humanities librarianship through integrated administrative, pedagogical, technological, cultural, and organizational perspectives. This volume will fill that gap by providing:

• Practical strategies for supporting arts and humanities teaching and research;
• Sustainable approaches to arts and humanities initiatives;
• Models for campus and community collaboration;
• Frameworks for equitable collections and archival work; and
• Adaptable leadership and staffing approaches.

The volume will combine scholarly analysis, practical case studies, and transferable implementation strategies. Contributors will emphasize actionable recommendations, scalable models, assessment approaches, lessons learned, and adaptable practices applicable across institution types.

Designed for academic librarians developing or reimagining humanities services, as well as library administrators seeking sustainable support models, this volume will be especially valuable to information professionals working in the arts and humanities in higher education, digital humanities practitioners, archives and special collections professionals, library administrators, and Library and Information Science faculty and graduate students.

Proposed Sections
The volume will include five sections, in addition to the editor’s introduction and conclusion on the landscape of leadership and organizational change in academic libraries.

1. Collections and Archives: This section will focus on creative and community-informed approaches to collection development, special collections, archival, and cultural heritage stewardship, including efforts to address historical gaps and cultural biases.
2. Critical, Creative, and Inclusive Pedagogies: Contributions may address humanities-based teaching practices, information and visual literacy instruction, as well as student engagement strategies grounded in critical, inclusive, and equity-centered frameworks.
3. Liaison and Subject Librarianship: This area will consider evolving models of liaison work, including interdisciplinary collaboration, faculty partnerships, and shifting expectations for subject specialists in academic libraries. It will also examine the role of arts and humanities librarianship in fostering and sustaining these partnerships.
4. Digital Scholarship and Emerging Technologies: This section will explore the intersections of arts and humanities, digital scholarship, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies, with attention to implications for research support and library practice.
5. Campus and Community Collaborations: This section will highlight partnerships between academic libraries, campus units, and community organizations, with an emphasis on public humanities, health humanities, civic engagement, and knowledge co-creation. For case studies, contributors should include specific evaluation metrics and assessment tools to quantify institutional impact. Explicit details on ethical standards and compliance, including IRB approval and consent protocols, are strongly encouraged.

Submission Guideline
To submit a proposal, please complete the Chapter Proposal Form by December 1, 2026, at 11:59 PM Central Time. The form will require:

• Author name(s)
• Job title(s), institutional affiliation(s)
• Email(s)
• Section selection
• Content type (e.g. case studies, scholarly analysis, and reflective essay on transferable implementation strategies)
• A working chapter title
• An abstract up to 500 words
• Current CV
• Link to website or LinkedIn profile (optional)

Timelines/Deadlines

• Proposal due: December 1, 2026
• Authors notified: January 15, 2027
• First drafts due: April 1, 2027
• Revised chapters due: July 1, 2027

Additional Information
The full chapter length for accepted proposals should be 3,000–4,000 words, excluding references. Specifications will be provided to contributors upon acceptance notification.

Contact Information
Questions? humanitiesatthecenter@gmail.com

Best regards,
Carol Ng-He, MA, MLIS

Associate Director of Boxer Library, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science; Adjunct Lecturer, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

CFP: LOEX 2027 (A Signature Blend: Brewing Better Information Literacy) - May 11-14, 2027 - Online

LOEX 2027: Call for Breakout Session Proposals

A Signature Blend: Brewing Better Information Literacy

55th Annual LOEX Conference
May 11-14, 2027
Online

Just like your local coffee shop's menu, we are regularly trying to develop new signature blends of information literacy instruction, along with offering our tried & true, to serve our wide-ranging student and faculty communities. A Signature Blend: Brewing Better Information Literacy explores how we successfully use practice, pedagogy, assessment, and research to create a robust instructional mix and how we are always looking to improve. We invite you to step into our online "third space" to share what is currently brewing at your institution and discover fresh ideas to invigorate your teaching.

This year's LOEX proposal tracks are:

• Becoming the Best Barista: Mastering Skills & Techniques
• Creating a New Blend: Innovation, Technology and Scholarship
• Coffeehouse Culture: Collaboration & Outreach
• Running the Shop: Leading and Managing
• Taste Test: Checking for Quality Ingredients & Satisfied Customers
• The Third Space: Community & Care
• The Secret Menu: Proposals That Don’t Fit Elsewhere on the List

Proposals for 50-minute long presentations can be submitted only through the online submission form and must be received by Monday, November 30, 2026.

For more details, please visit https://loexconference.org/proposals/breakout-proposals/

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For more information on LOEX's annual conference location/modality plan for 2027 & beyond, see our April announcement.

CFP: Spring Forward 2027: LibraryLand's Wild Rides (Virtual Conference - March 8-19, 2027)

I volunteer for Forward Libraries and every March we host the Spring Forward Annual Virtual Conference https://www.forwardlibraries.org/initiatives/conference. It's an actually fun conference where instead of spending several hours in a Zoom room back-to-back, it's spread out over the course of a couple weeks and includes interactive workshops, roundtables, and asynchronous content like podcasts and articles so attendees can choose how and when they engage. The Call for Proposals https://www.forwardlibraries.org/initiatives/conference/call-for-proposals is up until October 16. I highly recommend submitting something if it suits your vibe! Otherwise, keep an eye out for registration and join us when the fun begins in March.

Come one, come all! Do YOU have what it takes to ride the most thrilling bureaucratic roller coasters? Can you find your way through the funhouse of classification horrors? Try the tilt-a-whirl, also known as “other duties as assigned,” where your head never stops spinning! There’s something for everyone in Library Land! After all, the best amusement parks offer a variety of rides, games, food, and adventures...every park visitor gets to choose the right ride or activity for them!

Spring Forward 2027 invites you to share the ways you’ve built your own library amusement park. Have you tried something new lately? Where have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) pushed boundaries? What’s brought you joy in the library world lately? We want to hear about it and celebrate the LibraryCoaster Tycoon we know you are. Join us while we survive the ups and downs while screaming for joy!

Submit your proposal by October 16th! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJH3eTVbqGgqyf3sGf9XVJuD7P2qv4rSUSXZZMpgEYHf1DCw/viewform?usp=header

Bridget Rowan Wipf, MLIS

Entrepreneurship Librarian

West Virginia University Libraries

CFP: 2027 Library Publishing Forum (Virtual event - May 10-13, 2027)

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) is now accepting proposals for the 2027 Virtual Library Publishing Forum to be held May 10-13, 2027! The proposal deadline is November 6, 2026.

Who Should Submit?

Proposal submissions are welcome from LPC members and nonmembers including first-time presenters and representatives of small and emerging publishing programs.

About the Forum

 

The Library Publishing Forum is an annual conference bringing together representatives from libraries and collaborators engaged in publishing initiatives. The Forum is sponsored by the Library Publishing Coalition, but you do not need to be a member to present or attend.

Commitment to DEIA

We are committed to expanding the diversity of perspectives we hear from at the Forum. We ask all proposals to explicitly address how they are inclusive of multiple perspectives, address DEIA, 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 encourage organizers to consider demographic and perspective diversity. Proposal submitters will have an opportunity to complete a brief, anonymous demographic survey for data collection purposes only.

Suggested Proposal Topics

We welcome proposals on topics including, but not limited to: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), decolonial approaches to library publishing, intersections of library publishing with broader social issues, university presses, society and association partnerships, funding and sustainability models, copyright, accessibility, AI in library publishing, and all things open (open access publishing, open science, open data, and open educational resources). 

Session Types 

 

TYPE	LENGTH	MODE	DESCRIPTION
Panel	60 minutes	Live	Multi-institution panel presentation
Active	60 minutes	Live	Interactive presentations
Birds-of-a-feather	30 minutes	Live/Breakout	Guided conversations around a specific topic with breakout discussion
Individual	15 minutes	Prerecorded with live Q&A	Brief, single topic presentation
Lightning	5 minutes	Pre-recorded with live Q&A	Virtual poster sessions

 

LPC Program Committee

• Stefanie Buck, Oregon State University (co-chair)
• Christine Cata, University of Miami (co-chair)
• Ginelle Baskin, Middle Tennessee State University
• Jason Boczar, University of South Florida
• Bailey Lake, Eastern Kentucky University
• Leesa Love, University of Idaho
• Olivia Oestreich, University of Louisville
• Angel Peterson, Penn State University
• Ari Romero, University of North Texas  

Call for Column Editor - Public Services Quarterly - Best of the Literature Column

 Call for Column Editor

Public Services Quarterly seeks an editor for its Best of the Literature column. Published four times a year, the column is intended to keep librarians, administrators and staff up to date with the most recent, relevant, and useful literature of the field. Columns may focus on a specific topic or be a review of significant resources published within the past few years. Columns generally begin with a brief introduction to the theme of the column and include references and annotations for 6 to 10 different resources.  Readers are invited to suggest themes, topics, or resources to the editor. 

Your role as editor of this non-peer reviewed column will be to recruit and work with authors to produce four pieces a year. Columns are some of PSQ's most accessed content and bring visibility both to editors and authors. We are open to solo editors or a duo team. Please send letters of interest and questions to editor-in-chief Kim Mitchell (mitchelk@union.edu).

Call for Contributions - "ITAL &" column - Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL)

Information Technology and Libraries Journal (ITAL), an open-access journal of ALA's Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures division, is seeking authors for its ongoing "ITAL &" column.

The "ITAL &" column is a non-peer-reviewed, 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.

This column is intended to be practitioner-focused, and we 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 need to be submitted in English.

Since this is a non-peer-reviewed column, there is also an opportunity to engage in new ways 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.

Future topics could include, but are not limited to: artificial intelligence, 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. An index of past columns can be found at ital.corejournals.org/index.php/ital/ital-and-column.

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 to this Submission Form no later than October 30, 2026.

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by November 30, 2026, with the submission deadline for our quarterly issues on the first of February, May, August, and November. Completed column submissions should be roughly 1500-2000 words.

Please contact column editor Katy Miller (katy.miller@ucf.edu) with any questions. Please forward this call to any colleagues who may be interested. Thank you!

Call for Chapter Proposals: “Reimagining Scholarly Communication: Frameworks and Trajectories"

Melissa Cantrell and Lauren Collister (editors) are excited to share the Call for Proposals for an upcoming edited volume, Reimagining Scholarly Communication: Frameworks and Trajectories. We are seeking chapters that approach the thorny issues of scholarly communication from an interdisciplinary lens, drawing on frameworks, theories, and concepts from disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, economics, linguistics, history, political science, and more. 

The goal of this book is to provide new perspectives on the persistent crises of academic publishing and knowledge sharing, using interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks to interrogate the seemingly intractable problems of scholarly communication, including exploitative publishing models, flawed metrics systems, infrastructure sustainability, and access inequities. Building on the literature that describes these problems and their impacts, this collection asks a more fundamental question: Why do these problems persist despite widespread recognition of their harms, and what conceptual tools might help us chart genuinely transformative paths forward?

We are seeking authors for chapters that pair theoretical exposition with practical application, introducing readers to frameworks from disciplines beyond library and information science, then demonstrating how these lenses illuminate specific challenges in scholarly publishing, open access, open science, research data management, impact metrics, and open educational resources.

Proposals are due by November 16, 2026. The submission form is simple, requiring some information about you and a short abstract (fewer than 500 words) describing your idea. Additional information about requirements is in the Call for Proposals part of our website. Chapters would be due on or before June 1, 2027.  

This volume has been accepted for publication (open access, with authors retaining copyright to their chapters) with ACRL. You can read more about the volume and the timeline at our website for the book: https://reimaginingsc.hcommons.org/ 

Interested but want to learn more or talk about your idea? Please register for our virtual office hour – Friday October 23, 2026, at 1pm Eastern Time – US, or send an email to reimaginingscholcomm@gmail.com. 

Melissa H. Cantrell & Lauren B. Collister, co-editors, Reimagining Scholarly Communication: Frameworks and Trajectories

Submit or Nominate an Online Learning Object for FOLO! (Featured Online Learning Objects) #ACRL

Submit or Nominate an Online Learning Object for FOLO!

FOLO URL: https://acrl.ala.org/IS/is-committees-2/committees-task-forces/folo/

(Thank you for your patience with cross-posting as we try to spread the message far and wide!)

 

The ACRL Instruction Section Featured Online Learning Objects (FOLO) Committee aims to feature several excellent learning objects each year. 

 

We invite you to submit or nominate a learning object for review by October 30, 2026 to be considered for feature during the 2027 cycle.

 

Learning objects (LOs) may include online modules/tutorials, videos, podcasts, or other relevant media created or substantially updated within the past five years. Please see the linked form for additional submission/nomination and scoring criteria.

 

Reach out to Committee Co-Chairs, Aimee Gee and Emily Bush, with any questions.

 

We look forward to showcasing your excellent work!

ACRL IS FOLO Committee

CFP: 2027 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference–Biographies Area: Boston, MA (March 24-27, 2027)

CFP: 2027 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference–Biographies Area: Boston, MA (March 24-27, 2027)

Submission Deadline: 10/31/26

The Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual conference will be held on Wednesday March 24 through Saturday March 27, 2027 in Boston, Massachusetts at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Scholars from a wide variety of disciplines will meet to share their Popular Culture research and interests.  

The Biographies Area is soliciting papers 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

Please Note: The 2027 PCA conference theme is “Revolutions & Revisions in Popular Culture.” Presenters in the Biographies Area are invited to consider how their work might engage with questions of transformation, reinterpretation, innovation, resistance, adaptation, or cultural change. Theme-related proposals are welcome but not required, and all submissions relevant to the area will receive full consideration.

Sessions are scheduled in 1½ hour slots, typically with four papers or speakers per standard session.  Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. The deadline is October 31, 2026.

Proposals must be submitted on the conference website: https://pcaaca.org/page/submissionguidelines

Thank you for your interest!

Please direct any queries to the Biographies Area chair:

Susie Skarl

Associate Professor/Urban Affairs Librarian

UNLV Libraries

Las Vegas, NV 89154

susie.skarl@unlv.edu OR susieskarl@gmail.com