Help us crowdsource the agenda! Libraries and Research Forum at the 2016 MLA Convention
The Crystal Ball | Flickr CC BY-ND
Attending the 2016 MLA Convention in Austin, Texas? If so, then please join us at the Libraries and Research Forum for its first themed open meeting, described in this post – read on! Anyone with an interest in libraries and research in language and literature is invited to this open meeting.
We’re seeking a few individuals to crowdsource the agenda and inform the discussion. Submission details are below. The deadline is November 20, 2015.
The Libraries and Research Forum of the MLA will hold an open meeting, Session 632, at the 2016 convention in Austin, TX, where we will encourage debate and discussion on this topic, “What Was, Is, and Shall Be an Academic Library–and Who Will Work There?” This session will be held on Saturday, January 9, 3:30-4:45 PM.
The provocation of the title is intentional, and we seek participants who would relish speaking to it. Libraries are not cheap. Appropriated dollars for higher education are in decline. So are library budgets. Tuition is up and so is student debt, driving a bottom line mentality that prizes efficiency and cost cutting. That means you. Personnel costs are the largest expense item on any institution’s audit. Automation seems like one answer. Will libraries and archives become as automated as automobile factories? (Perhaps they already are.)
If so, where will humanist librarians be? How do we tap dance on the bottom line? How do we escape from talking about ourselves as costs? Who will use a library, and for what? As library and information science programs drop “library” from their names, what is a library anymore? Does information now subsume library?
We invite you to help shape the discussion at this open meeting. Anyone – librarians, technologists, faculty, independent scholars, graduate students, etc. – with an interest in the future of academic libraries is encouraged to submit a proposal for a short statement, question, or additional relevant provocation to start the discussion. Five people will have five minutes apiece on the soapbox, after which the audience, organizers, and presenters will discuss and debate questions and responses. An underlying goal of our discussion is to elicit suggestions for panel sessions that the Libraries and Research Forum might propose and collaborate on for MLA 2017. To submit a statement, please email William Thompson (wat100.thompson@gmail.com) or Amanda Watson (amanda.watson@nyu.edu) with a few sentences (no more than 10) by November 20, 2015.
The idea of crowd sourcing ideas for the 2017 Convention is one I hope the membership will embrace. It would be a useful way to introduce new ideas, and new persons, to the leadership. We want to encourage people to run for the committee and to run with their ideas as well.
As a literary scholar working in an academic library, I would love to participate in this but I live in Australia and I think it most unlikely I would be funded to come along. It would be wonderful if this discussion could be conducted at least in part online so those who can’t attend can take part.
Dear Gillian: I do wish we could accommodate MLA members unable to attend in person and be able to provide real-time virtual participation. We’ll make sure to take community notes to document the discussion as best as possible. But the conversation can – and should – continue via the Libraries and Research Forum space in MLA Commons, here: https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/libraries-and-research/. I’ll try to make sure we post a recap in our Commons space that also links out to the notes from the discussion. So glad you and others are interested and really wanting to be engaged in this topic! Cheers, Patricia.
Agreed with Gillian, would love to go but as I’m from England I highly doubt that would be possible!
Dear Emma: Please see my reply to Gillian – it would be great if the conversation could continue online in the Libraries and Research Forum space in MLA Commons.
ARGH
This forum is the exact same time as my presentation.
As a librarian working in a federal library (that has a LOT of non-librarian employees), I would have loved to attend and participate.
Best wishes!
(If some librarians and librarian-friendly MLA attendees would like to get together outside of this session, I am game. Send me a tweet or DM @EmilyMarshPhD)
Hi Emily: Please see my responses below to Gillian and Emma – we’ll try to keep good community notes via Google Doc and encourage continuation of the discussion in our Libraries and Research Forum space in MLA Commons, https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/libraries-and-research/. Cheers, Patricia.
I’ll be there! And you know you can count on me to be outspoken and maybe even provocative! I’ll send a note to William and Amanda.
Rebecca, that’s great! I’m glad you’ll be able to join us – looking forward to a rich discussion, even debate!