CFP: IASSIST Conference 2027

Sea Change: Transforming Data Practices

Call for Proposals

The International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) invites you to join us in-person in Vancouver, Canada for IASSIST 2027, our annual conference, on May 25-28, 2027.

Nestled between the Burrard Inlet and the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia), Vancouver is the largest city in British Columbia. With a population of just over 660,000, Vancouver enjoys two research universities (Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia) along with several comprehensive universities and colleges. It is a beautiful and vibrant city with both cultural and outdoor attractions.

We welcome submissions for papers, individual presentations, panels, posters or demonstrations, lightning talks, or workshops that embrace our conference theme, Sea Change: Transforming Data Practices. We want to hear from data and data services professionals about how their data practices are adapting or changing in the current environment of Artificial Intelligence, budget and funding challenges, climate considerations, and the rapidly changing realities faced by academic and research institutions.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Reproducibility and the integrity of the data record
  • Data reference, consultation, and collaboration
  • Data discovery in a shifting landscape
  • Ethics, governance, and data sovereignty and community-led approaches
  • Data management under pressure
  • Teaching and data literacy
  • The changing data profession
  • Partnerships across boundaries
  • Data rescue and advocacy
  • Data documentation and metadata
  • Technology, platforms, and tools

We request that submitters limit themselves to one proposal per format type.

The deadline for submissions is November 13, 2026.

Decisions regarding submissions will be sent out in early January 2027.

See below for information about different presentation formats. Questions about presentation submissions may be sent to the Program Co-Chairs (Meryl Brodsky and Sandra Sawchuk) at programme [ at ] lists.iassistdata.org.

Financial Support for Attending the Conference

The IASSIST Fellows Program supports data professionals from countries with emerging economies and underrepresented regions who are developing information infrastructures regarding the use and preservation of public and private data, implementing information policy decisions, and providing data services at their home institutions.

The IASSIST Early Professional Fellows Program supports data professionals from under-resourced institutions. It recognizes the value of new and innovative ideas from graduates and professionals new to data in the social sciences, who may not otherwise have the funding to travel.

Applications will close on November 2, 2026. Please address questions about the Fellows Program to Fellows Committee Co-Chairs (Florio Arguillas and Robert Buwule) at fellows [ at ] iassistdata.org.

Submit your fellowship application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_UZN2M7qBK71ucv1A3Vb0WdivmgVwD0_1-nQ7aN96bimOBA/viewform

For information about traveling to Vancouver, check out the conference website.

Presentation Formats

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for the following formats:

  • Individual Presentation: This format is a 15-minute talk. It can be accompanied by a written paper, but it is not required. If your proposal is accepted, you will be grouped into an appropriate session with similar presentations.
  • Paper Competition: Paper writers are required to submit an original research paper in advance of the conference by April 15, 2027. You need not be present or attend the conference to submit a paper for the competition. A winning paper will be selected based on this rubric. The paper selected as “Best Paper” will win a prize of one free registration for a future IASSIST conference. All papers will be eligible for publication consideration in IASSIST Quarterly.
  • Panel: You may propose an entire session (90-120 minutes) with a minimum of three speakers to “deep dive” into a specific resource or concept. The session can take a variety of forms, e.g., a set of three to four presentations, a discussion panel, a tutorial (with less substance than a pre-conference workshop), a discussion with the audience, etc. If accepted, the person who proposed the session becomes the session organizer and is responsible for securing speakers and a Chair. Please note: the names of all speakers and the moderator must be included in the proposal.
  • Poster or Demonstration: Proposals in this category should be clear about the message being conveyed in the poster or demonstration.
  • Lightning Talks: A lightning talk is a short, highly visual presentation. Presentations in this category are timed, and each speaker is restricted to 5 minutes. Presentations may have a maximum of 15 slides, but there is no restriction on how many minutes you stay on each slide or the exact format of the presentation as long as you stay within the strict time limit. These are not your typical conference presentations. They tend to be “lighter” either in the topic or delivery.
  • Workshops: Successful workshop proposals will blend lecture and active learning techniques. The conference planning committee will provide classroom space and, possibly, computing supplies for workshops. Proposals should outline needed computer hardware and software, if any, or specify if participants should bring their own. Workshops are typically half-day with 2-hour and 3-hour options. PLEASE NOTE: All workshop leaders are required to register and pay the registration fee for the conference; registration for individual days will be available.
  • Other Formats: Session formats are not limited to the ideas above; session organizers are welcome to suggest other formats. We will consider interactive formats that encourage audience participation.

NOTE: When submitting you will be required to select one of the proposal formats above, but it is possible that your submission may be accepted on the condition of adapting it to another format (e.g., an individual presentation proposal might be accepted if you are willing to adapt it to a poster or a Lightning Talk). If this is the case, you will be given the choice to accept this format change or to decline being in the conference program when notified of its acceptance.

Submitting a Presentation Proposal

Please use the online submission form on Openconf to submit your presentation proposal (below).

Submit your proposal: https://www.openconf.org/iassist27/openconf.php

All submissions should include the proposed title and an abstract. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words and written for a general audience. NOTE: Abstracts longer than 300 words will be returned to be shortened before being considered. Also, if the reviewers can’t understand what a proposal is about, it will be rejected.

About IASSIST

The International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) is an international organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching.

CFP: NAGARA 2027

NAGARA’s strength is the collective knowledge of its members, and we want to learn from you. If your work has solved a hard problem, tested a new approach, or taught you something the hard way, we invite you to submit a proposal for NAGARA’s 2027 professional development lineup.

You choose which program or programs your proposal is for, and it is considered only for those, so each session lands in the setting it was designed for. Pre-conference workshops have their own proposal form, so they are reviewed separately from general sessions.

  • The most-requested training topics have barely changed in four years: long-term preservation of electronic records, data governance, shared drives, email, records systems, retention schedules, and training the people who create records. Project management tops the program administration list every year.
  • Most attendees work in local or state government and identify as records managers, usually in a small unit inside a large organization.
  • Attendees want the “how”: case studies from people who did the work, including what went wrong; panels and discussions; hands-on demonstrations; and templates, checklists, and policies they can take home.
  • Sessions should say who they are for. Attendees asked for content labeled by experience level and audience, with real depth for experienced practitioners and clear fundamentals for people new to the job.
  • Archivists asked for more sessions on processing, digital accessioning, preservation, and conservation.
  • Because so many members learn virtually, Online Forum and webinar proposals matter as much as conference sessions. The best-attended NAGARA webinars of the last three years were on retention schedules, disposition, records audits, disaster preparedness, standard operating procedures, and email.

See full call for proposals.

Reading Discussion: Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies Reading Group

Free Event | Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Join New England Archivists for a discussion and Q&A with the author of “Factors Associated with the Implementation of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials: An Exploratory Study.” The paper highlights results from a 2023 survey of archivists and memory workers at non-Tribal institutions with collections related to Indigenous communities, and discusses the factors affecting the implementation of PNAAM. Anyone interested in ethical stewardship, culturally responsive care of Indigenous collections, and best practices is welcome to attend.     

Attendees are invited to join in an open discussion of the article, where they can hear more from the author, pose questions to the group, and discuss how the article reflects or informs their own work. 

Article link: Factors Associated with the Implementation of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials: An Exploratory Study
Protocols link: Protocols for Native American Archival Materials

This event will not be recorded so please plan to attend live.

For questions about the event please contact education@newenglandarchivists.org. Questions about registration? Please contact NEA’s Registrar, Becky White at registrar@newenglandarchivists.org.

ACCESSIBILITY & CODE OF CONDUCT
New England Archivists is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all of our events. For questions or concerns about accessibility, interpretive services, religious observance, or any other accommodations that would make the meeting more accessible for you, please contact NEA’s Inclusion and Diversity Committee at diversity@newenglandarchivists.org. 

All participants including presenters, instructors, vendors, or others involved in the event are required to abide by the NEA Code of Conduct, which can be found here: https://www.newenglandarchivists.org/Code-of-Conduct

CFP: Archives and Resistance: A Virtual Symposium on Digital Preservation and Publication in the Context of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies

Archives and Resistance: A Virtual Symposium on Digital Preservation and Publication in the Context of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies

Call for Proposals

We invite proposals for a virtual symposium on February 19–20, 2027, focused on archival preservation, digital publication, and community collaboration in projects that relate to African, African American, and Diaspora studies. We seek proposals for individual 15-minute presentations or panels consisting of 3–4 presentations (15 minutes each) that focus on ways that researchers, archivists, students, community members, and others are using digital tools and methodologies to recover archival materials and make them available and accessible to expand our understanding of the past and reclaim and promote histories that have been overlooked, suppressed, or erased. Through this event, we hope to highlight innovative work being carried out in the context of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, and to create opportunities for scholars to connect and build community. This symposium is co-sponsored by the Association for Documentary Editing, the Society for Textual Scholarship, Mapping the Black Digital and Public Humanities, African American Digital & Experimental Humanities (AADHum), and eLaboratories.

Submission information:

  • For individual presentations: please submit a title and abstract (250 words max.) and a short bio (2–3 sentences) for each presenter.
  • For panel presentations: please submit a panel title and description (150–250 words), a title and abstract for each presentation (250 words max.) and a short bio (2–3 sentences) for each presenter.

All proposals should be submitted by November 20, 2026, by completing this survey. 

If you have questions, contact Clayton McCarl, clayton.mccarl@unf.edu.

CFP: MATTER & MEMORY: The Preservation of Cultural and Material Heritage

SESSION CALL:

MATTER & MEMORY: The Preservation of Cultural and Material Heritage

PORTO 

Conference: Heritages 2027

Dates: 16-18, June, 2027

Abstracts due: 10 Dec, 2026

https://amps-research.com/porto-ipca-themes/

SESSION CALL

Cultural heritage is continually interpreted, preserved and transformed through changing historical, social and artistic contexts. This session builds on this and examines how societies construct, transmit and reassess cultural memory through objects, monuments, artworks, archives and historic environments. We argue that within history and art history, such processes raise important questions about authenticity, authorship, representation and the changing meanings attached to cultural artefacts and sites. 

Contributions might consider contemporary interventions in historic buildings, restoration and reconstruction, digital technologies, museum practices, or new approaches to documenting and interpreting the past. 

The broader strand also invites examination of contested heritage, colonial and postcolonial histories, changing approaches to monuments and memorials, conservation ethics, provenance and restitution, and the relationship between tangible and intangible heritage.

Together, we hope that these debates will encourage reflection on how acts of preservation and reinterpretation shape historical narratives, cultural identities and understandings of the past for present and future communities.

Part of the University of Porto, AMPS & IPCA Conference: Critical Heritages, 2027

Abstracts due: 10 Dec, 2026

https://amps-research.com/porto-ipca-themes/

Contact Information

May Thorpe, Lígia Lopes, Claudia Lima, Raj Kumar

Contact Email

program@amps-research.com

URL https://amps-research.com/porto-ipca-themes/

New Issue: IFLA Journal

IFLA Journal- Volume: 52, Number: 3 (October 2026)
(partial open access)

Essays

The resistance and resilience of Ukrainian public librarians
Ulia Gosart, Sara Clair and Abbie Swanson

Original Articles

Media portrayals of libraries in Indonesia: A large-language-model-assisted content analysis
Radhitya Purnama, Edwin Rizal, Herlina Agustin and Wina Erwina

AI implementation and Middle East librarians’ anxiety: A survey
Amr Fatouh and Ahmed Shehata

Impact of library anxiety on user comfort with services and technology
Md. Jahangir Alam, Rozifa Akhtar and Muhammad Mezbah-ul-Islam

Metaverse ethics in libraries: Insights from global library professionals
A Subaveerapandiyan

Knowledge democratization and accessibility in the Fifth Industrial Revolution: A qualitative study of sustainability in Nigerian public libraries
Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani, Oluwaseun Omowumi Akin-Fakorede, Racheal Daniel Ama-Abasi, Ayotola Olubunmi Onanuga, Nkechi Margaret Amaechi, Ibrahim Biodun Ayegun, Gombe Ahmed Baba, Bolaji David Oladokun and Sadiya Abubakar

Content analysis of the future of Filipiniana collection access via controlled digital lending
Lady Catherine R. de Leon

Data-driven analysis of library-ambassador success factors in library campaigns in Indonesia
Irhamni Ali, Nelwaty Sikumbang, Regina Lisa Firstia, Siti Fatimatuz Zahra, Fredy Ilafi, Alfa Husna, Andika Setiana Putra, Hartoyo Dharmawan, Awan Kurniadi, Rizki A Gumilar and Amara Putri

Innovative library management for lifelong learning
Liu Hu, Chanita Rukspollmuang and Pongsin Viseshsiri

Integrating educational robotics technologies in the library programs of Zanzibar’s innovation hubs: Opportunities and challenges
Abbas Mohamed Omar, Grace Msoffe and Edda Tandi Lwoga

Growth of private reading spaces in Lucknow, India: A case study
Vinit Kumar, Aman Kumar Kushwaha, Abhishek Shekhar Nigam and B Preedip Balaji

Assessing disability inclusivity in UAE university libraries: A regulatory and empirical perspective
Zafar Imam Khan

Australian public library mission statements and the IFLA–UNESCO Public Library Manifesto
Philip Hider and Mary Coe

Transforming academic libraries through Internet of Things integration: Evidence from United Arab Emirates universities
Zafar Imam Khan and Mahammad Gulam Ghouse Pasha

Assessment of researchers’ criteria for identifying predatory publishers in Tanzania
Sevelina Selestine Moshi, Frankwell Dulle and Ronard Bernard Tarimo

Demographic and technological influences on students’ search self-efficacy and skills
Manisha Saha and SM Zabed Ahmed

Can generative artificial intelligence detect common errors in library survey design?
Margaret K Merga and Zakir Hossain

Review Articles

Opening the ‘black box’ of AI for credible IRS: A rapid review
Magnus Osahon Igbinovia

A systematic literature study on organizational communication in libraries
Arief Wicaksono, Atwar Bajari, Ninis Agustini Damayani and Ute Lies Siti Khadijah

Impact of green librarianship in academic settings: A systematic literature review of impact-factor articles and conference papers from 2015 to 2025
Khurram Shahzad, Muhammad Tariq, Mukhtar Ahmmad and Abid Iqbal

Corrigendum

Corrigendum to “Beyond uniform standards: Rethinking libraries for marginalised regions in the Global South”

Announcing RBM open board meetings for 2026/2027

The editorial board for RBMS’ flagship journal, RBM: a Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage will gather for four open business meetings. All are welcome to attend!

The meetings times/dates are as follows:

Weds October 21, 3-4:30 Eastern (1st quarter),
Weds Jan 13, 3-430 Eastern (midyear), 
Weds Apr 21, 3-430 Eastern (third quarter), 
Weds June 16, 3-430 Eastern (annual)

For information on how to join us virtually, please contact Editor Diane Dias De Fazio at diane.diasdefazio@gmail.com. 

RBM is always looking for individuals to join our team of peer reviewers! Complete the form at https://bit.ly/RBMPeerReview

Interested in writing a book or media review? Complete our form at https://bit.ly/RBM_Reviews_Reviewer

Suggest a title or website to review at https://bit.ly/RBM_SuggestReview

Thanks for your time and consideration! On behalf of the Board, we hope you’ll join us for an upcoming meeting.

New Issue: Oral History Review

The Oral History Review, Volume 53, Issue 2 (2026)
(subscription)

Special Issue: Indigenous Oral History

Introduction
Listening Forward: An Introduction to the Oral History Review’s Special Issue on Indigenous Oral History
Sara Sinclair

Research Articles

Mi’kmaw Oral History as Law: Narrative Authority and Indigenous Legal Sovereignty
Pamela Palmater

Aunt Helen and Navajo Code Talkers: Oral Histories with Diné Warriors
Farina King

Fichi Ukiin and Kuleana: Ancestors, Genealogy, and Island Responsibilities in Oral History
Micah Mizukami

Amazonian Storytelling as Co-Learning Within the Land of More-Than-Human Beings and Environmental History from Indigenous Perspectives
Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Sidney da Silva Facundes, Francisco Apurinã & Vesa Matteo Piludu

“All of Us, We Are Relatives”: The Hudum Framework in Conducting Chakma Oral History and Indigenizing Colonial Narratives
Dinalo Chakma

Oral Histories of Displacement: The Mizo Diaspora in Happy Valley, Shillong
Karen L. Donoghue & Donskobar Junisha Khongwir

Theorizing Indigenous Feminist Oral Histories: A Methodological Intervention in Indigenous Oral Histories from an Indigenous Feminist
Lindsey Willow Smith

uqaalaiharlutit uqaruk (say it slowly)
Norma Jean Dunning

Teaching and Learning with Indigenous Oral History: Intergenerational Truthtelling of Boarding Schools in Oklahoma
Rene Kemble, Tandra Morris & Erin Dyke

Reconciling a Sovereign Debt: The FWP Slave Narratives and the History of Chickasaw Slaveholding
Rozanne Gooding Silverwood

From the Archives: Preserving the Past, Empowering the Present Through the Doris Duke Native American Oral History Revitalization Project
Molly Stothert-Maurer & Jolene Dezbah Manus

Əstą: Reflections on a Community-Based Indigenous Oral History Research Trip in ’Iihts’ii nùtsudawit’į̀į̀h (March) 2012
Daniel Sims

Book Reviews

Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition). By Deborah A. Miranda. Heyday Books, 2022.
Fanny García

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. By Robin Wall Kimmerer. Milkweed Editions, 2015.
Savannah Apedaile

Indigenous Oral History Manual: Canada and the United States. By Winona Wheeler, Charles E. Trimble, Mary Kay Quinlan, and Barbara W. Sommer. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2024.
Nina Knight

Nishga. By Jordan Abel. McClelland and Stewart, 2021.
Hilary Seeley

We Survived the Night. By Julian Brave NoiseCat. Alfred A. Knopf, 2025.
Hannah Conway

Book Review: Classics Revisited

Storyteller. By Leslie Marmon Silko. 3rd ed. Penguin Group, 2012.
Lindsey Willow Smith

Media Reviews

Mukurtu CMS
Christopher Mario Pandza

Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness
Clarissa A. Shane

New Issue: Journal of Digital Media Management

Volume 15 / Number 1 / Autumn/Fall 2026
(subscription)

Editorial
Beckett, Simon

Articles
Enhancing user experience in digital asset management implementations: Assessing systems and streamlining processes
Paterson, Grant

Balancing broadcast demands and long-term preservation
Appelgren, David; Skoglund, Micaela

Reparative description with ones and zeroes: A programmatic workflow for inserting content notices in digital collections
Berger, Theresa; Lawan, Scott

Automated sign language digitisation: Leveraging computer vision and archived broadcast footage for accessible avatar generation
Koyano, Takashi

Last chance to play: A case study of sustaining national video digitisation capacity
Goos, Arnoud

Practice Paper
Designing and delivering modern digital asset management: Integrating workflow logic and metadata for practical impact
Byrne, Geoff

Case Studies
Using Alma/Primo VE for digital collection discovery and access
Bennett, J.J.; Cofield, Melanie; Kim, Misu

Case study: Reprioritising what to digitise to highlight new narratives of leadership within the L’Arche Collections
Wong, Teresa

CFP: Travelling Cultural Heritage. Circulation and Digital Afterlives

Romania

Travelling Cultural Heritage

Circulation and Digital Afterlives

Call for Papers

Cultural Heritage Lab International Conference

4th edition

Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania

December 10-11, 2026

Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, as part of the FORTHEM Alliance, invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners to submit proposals for the 4th edition of the Cultural Heritage Lab International Conference, dedicated to exploring cultural heritage as a dynamic process of circulation across cultural, geographical, institutional, and historical boundaries.

The 2026 edition focuses on Travelling Cultural Heritage (TCH): an approach that understands heritage not as a fixed repository, but as a process through which cultural forms, practices, ideas, and meanings move, encounter different contexts, and are transformed along the way. Drawing on Edward Said’s concept of “travelling theory”, Mieke Bal’s “travelling concepts”, and scholarship on cultural circulation, TCH shifts attention from mobile objects to the processes through which heritage is transmitted, adapted, appropriated, reinterpreted, and re-signified.

Heritage travels through migration, exchange, conquest, education, trade, tourism, collecting, translation, transmedial transfer, and institutional networks. Migrants adapt cultural practices acquired abroad to their home contexts; travelling elites import fashions, recipes, and other cultural products; artistic styles acquire regional forms as they circulate; and networks of institutions, scholars, dealers, and historical circumstances determine how artefacts enter major collections. Such movements involve adaptation and transformation, but also appropriation, exclusion, and unequal centre–periphery relations.

Circulation may allow heritage to acquire new meanings, but it may also entail loss. The large-scale purchase, digitisation, and destruction of books for AI training suggests a future in which physical heritage disappears while its digital avatars survive—an extreme form of travel across media and material states, combining virtual preservation with material destruction. More optimistically, AI, data science, interoperable infrastructures, and spatial visualisation can trace cultural circulation, compare contexts, and recover seemingly lost artefacts, including previously unreadable ancient manuscripts.

We welcome contributions that engage with Travelling Cultural Heritage from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, including cultural and heritage studies, anthropology, archaeology, sociology, history, linguistics and literary studies, political science, art history, architecture, digital humanities, economics, media studies, religious studies, drama, film, the performing arts, museum studies, memory studies, and food studies.

Contributors are invited to submit abstracts on, but not limited to, the following themes:

  • Travelling Cultural Heritage: theories, concepts, and methodologies;
  • Cultural circulation, transmission, adaptation, and re-signification;
  • Heritage: migration, displacement, and diaspora;
  • Museums, collections, objects, routes, networks, intermediaries, and infrastructures of cultural circulation;
  • The movement of architectural forms, artistic practices, rituals, and cultural traditions;
  • Colonial, postcolonial, and decolonial circulations of cultural heritage;
  • Digital heritage, digital infrastructures, AI, platforms and computational approaches to cultural circulation;
  • Heritage in translation: what changes when cultural forms travel between languages and the production of new heritage meanings
  • Local content, foreign forms: adaptation and naturalisation across literatures;
  • World Cultural Heritage: comparative approaches to heritage beyond national frameworks;
  • Archaeological evidence for mobility, exchange, and cultural contacts;
  • Memory and heritage: overlappings and differences;
  • Case studies of cultural forms, practices, objects, ideas, or meanings that have travelled across contexts.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit an abstract of 250–300 words, along with a short biographical note (max. 100 words), to Ovio Olaru (ovio.olaru@ulbsibiu.ro) and Daniela Stanciu-Păscărița (daniela.stanciu@ulbsibiu.ro) by November 1, 2026.

The organisers’ decision regarding submissions will be communicated by November 15.

For effectiveness, please include “Cultural Heritage Lab conference submission” in the subject line of your email.

The conference will be held in English, German, and French, and will take place exclusively on-site.

We look forward to your contributions!

Kind regards,

The organisers

Contact Information

Junior Lecturer Ovio Olaru // ovio.olaru@ulbsibiu.ro

Junior Lecturer Daniela Stanciu // daniela.stanciu@ulbsibiu.ro

Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Contact Email

ovio.olaru@ulbsibiu.ro

URL: https://grants.ulbsibiu.ro/elabchrom/cultural-heritage-lab/