(via Dr. Linda Miles, Hostos Community College)
The organizers of the ACRL/NY (The Greater New York Metropolitan Area Chapter of ACRL) 2023 Annual Symposium seek program proposals. This year’s meeting, with the theme “Embracing Slow Librarianship”, will take place on Friday, December 1, at the Vertical Campus of Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY) in New York City. There will also be an option to watch the presentations via livestream.
In response to the growing fetishization of productivity in academia’s increasingly corporatized climate, writer and librarian Julia Glassman suggests that library communities might benefit from an approach that incorporates principles from “slow” movements (slow food, slow technology, etc.). She describes slow librarianship as addressing the needs and interests of library communities through the “commitment to prioritizing reflection and meaningful practices over chains of impressive-sounding achievements”, which, in turn, presents the possibility of opening up “alternative avenues for professional development and recognition”. For this year’s ACRL/NY Symposium, we are seeking proposals for presentations, lightning talks, panels, and posters that address the theoretical and practical applications of slow librarianship in academic libraries.
Potential topics include (but are not limited to):
- Implications for theory and praxis: How does or how might the concept of slow librarianship benefit from specific theoretical approaches, and how might this in turn impact the practical application of slow librarianship as conceptualized through these theoretical lenses?
- Implications for supporting DEI: How might slow librarianship inform our approaches to enhancing diversity in our libraries and advocating for underrepresented groups at all levels in the academic library, including staff, professionals, students, and administration?
- Implications for work within and across specific library units: How might slow librarianship inform the procurement, curation, discovery, preservation, and/or promotion of library collections? How might slow librarianship inform the development, execution, and evaluation of reference and instruction initiatives? How might slow librarianship inform critical considerations regarding the adoption and use of new forms of technology and data in libraries and archives?
- Implications for the library ecosystem and sustainable future: How might slow librarianship inform the development of physical, virtual, and hybrid library spaces that resist the reproduction of toxic productivity, the imperative to do-more-with-less, vocational awe, etc.? How might slow librarianship inform efforts to support solidarity, collaboration, and the idea of staff and patrons as whole people? How might slow
- librarianship inform our ability to examine and challenge traditional hierarchies, imbalances in labor relations, and barriers to professional development?
- Implications for libraries and the climate crisis and sustainable futures: How can library workers foster a more secure future and social justice within their communities at a time of unprecedented climate risk?
Proposals should be 250-500 words in length, with a submission deadline of Thursday, June 15. Please submit proposals using this form. People whose proposals are accepted will receive notification by Saturday, July 15.
Questions regarding submitting or about the Symposium in general can be sent to acrlnysymposiumchair@gmail.com.