The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the University of Washington Libraries, and the Conference Steering Committee invite paper and poster proposals for the 2018 Library Assessment Conference: Building Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment. This seventh biennial conference will be held in Houston, Texas, December 5–7, 2018, and is co-hosted by the University of Houston Libraries and Texas A&M Libraries.

The conference goal is to build and further a vibrant library assessment community by bringing together interested practitioners and researchers who have responsibility or interest in the broad field of library assessment. The event provides a mix of invited speakers, contributed papers, posters, and pre-conference workshops that stimulate discussion and provide workable ideas for effective, sustainable, and practical library assessment.

Proposal Topics

Paper and poster proposals that cover any aspect of library assessment in any type of library are invited. The conference steering committee especially encourages assessment-related proposals in the following areas:

· Collaborative assessments

· Data management and visualization

· Digital libraries and repositories

· Diversity, equity, and inclusion

· Measurement and measures/indicators

· Methods and tools

· Organizational issues

· Research and scholarly life cycle

· Services, collections (including specialized collections), and programs

· Space and facilities planning and use

· Teaching and learning

· Usability

· User experience

· User needs

· Value and impact

Presentation Formats

Proposals are invited as papers and posters. Brief descriptions of the various formats are provided on the conference website. Proposals are required to include a title, author names, format, and abstract (maximum 500 words) describing the paper or poster.

Papers will be included in the conference proceedings and are due by January 15, 2019.

Proposal Submission, Evaluation, Notification, Publication

To submit a proposal, please visit the proposal submission site. The primary author will be required to create a profile. One author will complete the form submission and enter co-author information. Proposal submissions are due by Monday, May 7, 2018, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific daylight time.

Presenters who are not able to attend in-person due to a prohibition on using state travel funds to Texas will be able to present their papers virtually.

The Library Assessment Conference Steering Committee will evaluate proposals based on:

· Relevance to effective, sustainable, and practical library assessment

· Significance of contribution to the body of work associated with library assessment

· Clarity of expression

· Status of research (For paper proposals, are the results in hand? When appropriate, please include the timeline for completion of research.)

· Results/findings that can be used to enact change

Those submitting proposals will be notified of their status in June 2018. Drafts of papers will be due by November 1 and final papers for the proceedings will be due by January 15, 2019.

Each accepted presenter will be guaranteed a conference registration place and will be expected to pay the registration fee by September 1, 2018. Additional registration information will be available in June 2018.

Papers will be published in the conference proceedings, which will be freely and openly available via the conference website. Poster abstracts and PDF versions of posters will also be available on the conference website. Authors retain the copyright to their original work and are encouraged to publish their work in other established venues and professional journals.

More Information

For additional information, visit the Library Assessment Conference website or send email to LAConf@arl.org.

About the Association of Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.

About the University of Washington Libraries

The University of Washington (UW) Libraries, located in Seattle, is the largest library in the Pacific Northwest. The UW Libraries is well-known for its innovative programs and services in assessment, organizational development, user spaces, and institutional collaboration. Its print and digital collections support world-class research and scholarship in such areas as health sciences, environmental sciences, area and language studies, and the Pacific Northwest.

UW Libraries is on the web at www.lib.washington.edu.

About the University of Houston Libraries

The University of Houston Libraries advances student success, knowledge creation and preservation, and globally competitive research. UH Libraries comprises the MD Anderson Library, the William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, the Weston A. Pettey Optometry Library, and the Music Library, providing high-impact collections, spaces, and tools that spark opportunities for transformational learning, discovery, and scholarship.

About the Texas A&M University Libraries

The Texas A&M University Libraries, located in College Station, serve 67,000 students, 3,700 instructional faculty, and 19 colleges and schools. The Libraries are driven by: information literacy programs to support University strategic missions, digitization and conservation efforts to protect collections, scholarly communications programs to enhance scholarly visibility, open access projects to reduce student costs, and re-imagining of library spaces to invite collaboration.