For immediate release:
November 17, 2008

For more information, contact:
Joan Lippincott
Coalition for Networked Information
202-296-5098
joan@cni.org

M-Libraries Conference: Call for Papers & Posters by December 15, 2008

Share Library Services & Resources Aimed at Mobile-Device Users

Washington DC—The Second International m-libraries Conference, to be held in Vancouver, June 23-24, 2009, is seeking papers and posters. The submission deadline is December 15, 2008.

The conference will explore and share work carried out in libraries around the world to deliver services and resources to users "on the move" via mobile or handheld devices, including mobile phones and smartphones, PDAs, portable gaming devices, MP3 players, and e-book readers. Researchers, technical developers, managers, and library practitioners will come together to exchange experience and expertise and generate ideas for future developments.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) will host the conference in collaboration with Athabasca University, the Open University (UK), and Thompson Rivers University. The conference will be held at the UBC campus in Vancouver. Situated on Canada's west coast, Vancouver is a popular travel destination and is a host city for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Conference themes will include:

• service models for library services delivered to mobiles

• cost and sustainability factors for m-library service development

• the changing relationships between libraries and users resulting from innovation in ubiquitous computing

• partnership projects for developing integrated services to mobiles

• implications of mobile technologies on library space planning

• reconfiguring library collection development to enhance ubiquitous access to resources

• exploring methodologies for evaluating the impact of mobile and ubiquitous computing on library service development

Papers or Presentations

Papers may include research reports, demonstrations of technical developments, practical case studies, or reviews.

Papers or presentations should last no longer than 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion.

Poster Sessions

Posters will be displayed throughout the conference and time will be allocated in the program for poster viewing.

A prize will be awarded to the best poster.

Conference proceedings will be published online.

To Submit Abstracts

If you would like to be involved in the conference, submit your abstracts (up to 300 words) to m-libraries-conference@open.ac.uk by December 15th, 2008. Abstracts will be subject to peer review and authors will be notified by mid-January.

For More Information

Conference Web site: http://library.open.ac.uk/mLibraries/
Information about Vancouver: http://hellobc.com/en-CA/RegionsCities/Vancouver.htm
Join the m-libraries Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7719700810

E-mail inquiries to Joan Lippincott, CNI Associate Executive Director and member of the Conference Organizing Committee, joan@cni.org.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its 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, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is a coalition of some 200 institutions dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity. The Coalition, which is sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE, is headquartered in Washington DC. CNI is on the Web at http://www.cni.org/.