Where do we go from here? Best Practices & Trends in Academic Libraries

The Florida Chapter of ACRL (FACRL) is currently seeking proposals for presentations and poster sessions for the 2023 FACRL Virtual Annual Conference, held online on Friday, October 20, 2023. This year's call for proposals encourages librarians and library staff to share projects, plans, strategies, and prospects that highlight best practices and trends in academic libraries. The Center for the Future of Libraries maintains a collection of 42 trends relevant to librarians and librarianship. Which trend(s) have you had to tackle of late, and what best practices emerged?  What best practices have you updated due to emerging technologies and their challenges or how we gather and communicate? How have we changed in terms of collections, services, spaces, and operations? Book bans? Attacks to academic freedom while maintaining academic integrity? What evaluative tools and subsequent data have we used to make informed decisions and implement new or revisit current policies? Multiple trends can comprise a topic. For example, advocacy and activism trends could influence a campaign for pay equity in your library or campuswide. Investigations into AI could provide new strategies in addressing information literacy instruction and reference across campus.

Have an idea for a timely topic outside of this year’s theme? Please feel free to submit it for consideration! Don’t see a trend of interest but have best practices to share? No problem. Submit your proposal anyway. 

We welcome submissions from library staff, students, and faculty.

Topics might include but are not limited to:

Proposals for presentations, posters, and lightning round presentations can be submitted beginning April 21, 2023, using the online submission form. Rolling reviews and decisions will occur as proposals are received. The final deadline to submit is August 1, 2023. Presenters will receive free registration to the virtual conference. 

Presentations should be 45 minutes in length, including the time provided for questions. Posters will be shared during a virtual poster session at the conference. Lightning round presentations are 5 minutes in length. Please follow this link to the rubric used to score all proposals. Acceptance emails will be sent on or before August 22, 2023. 

Presentations and posters of superior quality may be considered for future publication in The Reference Librarian, a major refereed journal published by Taylor and Francis. Consider reviewing the Instructions for Authors to learn about the expectations of content and writing for this peer-reviewed journal, which utilizes APA 7th edition style. Please contact editor Lauri Rebar (lrebar@fau.edu) with any questions. New and established authors are welcome!

Inquiries may be sent to the FACRL Conference Program Committee Chair, Ana Diamand (diamanda@lssc.edu) or Clarissa West-White (whitec@cookman.edu).

Online Submission Form