In addition to the overarching theme, Embracing the Past, Building the Future, the ALCTS Exchange Working Group requests proposal topics relevant to the daily themes listed below.
Theme for Day 1: New Roles, New Workflows
Theme for Day 2: Creative Problem Solving
Theme for Day 3: Creating Connections with User Communities
Theme for Day 4: Building Skills to Prepare for the Future
Further, proposal submitters should also consider the ALCTS Exchange audience as well as opportunities for attendees to learn new information, skills and tools during the session. Attendees will be both ALCTS members and non-members, and have a wide range of experience and background in acquisitions, collection development and management, cataloging and metadata, and preservation. Attendees will be a combination of experienced managers and leaders in the field, early career librarians, and students just finishing their graduate studies, as well as everything in between. As part of the proposal submission form, submitters will be asked to identify one to three learning objectives. The objectives should be concrete and make use of active verbs, and clearly identify what attendees can expect to learn. Submitters should consider the length and scope of the session when developing learning objectives. It may be helpful to write learning objectives using the phrase “By the end of the session, attendees will be able to …”
The virtual environment presents opportunities for innovation. Proposal submitters should keep the virtual platform in mind and look for opportunities to creatively engage with the audience. The ALCTS Exchange Working Group and LearningTimes technical support intend to work with presenters to fold audience interactivity into each session. If a proposal submitter has an idea for audience engagement, especially one that fits with the presentation, he or she should include that information in the submission.
The ALCTS Exchange Working Group encourages proposals that address diversity and inclusion in collections and technical services. Presentation topics could address how libraries are incorporating the ideas of diversity and inclusion in their collections and technical services practices. Presentation topics could also relate to how libraries are recruiting and retaining librarians from underrepresented communities in the areas of collections and technical services. The ALCTS Exchange Working Group strongly encourages proposals from people who belong to communities that are underrepresented in librarianship and in the conversation about librarianship.