Call for Papers - Open session of the Asia & Oceania Regional Section
Session theme: ‘Access to information for sustainable communities.’
In keeping with the conference’s overall theme, ‘Connections, Collaboration, Community’, the Asia and Oceania Open Session will focus on how libraries across our region are dealing with challenges to their traditional ways of working, and experimenting with new ways to continue serving the people of their diverse communities, whether in densely populated cities, remote rural communities, or in scattered island communities.
We seek contributions that illustrate the different ways in which library services in Asia and Oceania will need to reposition themselves to enhance their effectiveness in contributing to the social, educational and economic development of the communities they serve.
A.We are seeking a keynote paper for the session, on a topic relating to the session theme, which relates it to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We suggest the topic: “Mega-cities and micro-villages: challenges in access to information” (the precise wording of the topic will be agreed with the chosen keynote speaker).
B.We are seeking 4 session papers, and we encourage professionals across the Asia-Pacific region to submit proposals for papers on a topic relating to the session theme. Possible topics are:
· Promotion of digital literacies or information literacy
· Equitable access to information in multicultural communities
· Indigenous knowledge supporting sustainable communities
· Access to information for life-long learning, e-health and e-agriculture
· Citizens’ access to government information
· Changing skills and/or roles required to manage changing services
· Workforce planning to reposition libraries
· Inclusion of library services in national information policies
While our suggested topics are similar to others which will be discussed at the Conference, our approach as a Section is to look at these topics from a broad Asia-Oceania regional perspective. Authors who submit papers on specific local or national initiatives must indicate how their conclusions or lessons learned could be generalised/applied elsewhere in the region.
Members of other IFLA Sections are welcome to propose papers demonstrating how work in their professional field could be applied across the Asia-Oceania region, provided that there is a clear link with the theme of our open session.
Submissions
1.The deadline for submitting a detailed abstract (500 words) and full author details is Sunday 31 January 2016. Selection of papers is based on the abstract, and presenters will be notified whether they have been successful by mid-March 2016.
2.Note: the selection criteria which the committee will apply can be found here:
http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/asia-and-oceania/Handbook/assessing_abs...
3.The full paper is due on 31 May 2016 and must be an original submission not presented or published elsewhere.
4.Both abstracts and full papers should be submitted as a MS Word file by e-mail.
5.Papers should be no more than 4,000 words, single spaced in Times New Roman 12 point.
6.Papers and abstracts should be in English.
7.The author(s) should include their full contact details and a brief biographical note.
Content of abstracts
Informative abstracts (500 words) should be prepared following the template provided below. Each abstract will be blind reviewed by members of the Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania. Abbreviated abstracts or late submissions will not be considered.
Purpose of this paper：What are the reason(s) for writing the paper (or the aims of the research)?
Theme：How does it relate to the theme of the session?
Design, methodology, approach：
How are the objectives achieved? Include the main method(s) used for the study.
What is the approach to the topic, and what is the theoretical or subject scope of the paper?
Findings：What was found in the course of the work? This will refer to analysis, discussion, or results.
Research limitations and implications (if applicable)：
If the paper reports on research, this section must be completed. It should include suggestions for future research and any identified limitations in the research process.
Practical implications (if applicable)：
What outcomes and implications for practice, applications and consequences are identified? All papers should have practical applications. What changes to practice might be made as a result of this research/paper?
Originality：What is new in the paper? State the value of the paper and to whom.
Presentation of accepted papers:
1.The presenter (who need not be the author) must be fluent in English: there will be no interpretation service at this open session.
2.15 minutes will be allowed in the session for a summary delivery of the paper, with time for questions; the full written paper is not to be read.
Deadline: please send your abstract by Sunday 31 January 2016 to these 3 persons:
· Mr Sanjay Bihani, RSCAO Secretary - email: sanjaykbihani@gmail.com
· Mr Winston Roberts, RSCAO Programme sub-committee convenor - Email: Winston.roberts@dia.govt.nz
· Ms Jayshree Mamtora, RSCAO Chair - email: Jayshree.mamtora@cdu.edu.au