Monday, December 16, 2013

CALL FOR RESEARCH PAPERS AND POSTERS: Science and Technology Section of ACRL at ALA Annual, Las Vegas 2014

CALL FOR RESEARCH PAPERS AND POSTERS: Science and Technology Section of ACRL at ALA Annual, Las Vegas 2014

The Research Committee of the ACRL Science and Technology Section is hosting its Annual Research Forum and its Poster Session at the 2014 American Library Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV, June 26 - July 1, 2014.

The Research Forum and Poster Session provide an excellent opportunity to share a wide range of research endeavors and methodologies relevant to science and technology librarianship. The Committee adheres to mentoring principles and utilizes a “blind” review process to select proposals.

Submissions for the paper and poster presentations are selected based on the abstract and significant progress by June 2014. Writing style is critical and should be clear, concise, and organized. Abstracts should include some aspects of the research process.  Some examples are:
·         Hypothesis
·         Problem or purpose – research question or thesis – stated in one sentence.
·         Literature review in its simplest form – where your project fits with scholarly community.
·         Target group: people, animals, things etc. and relevant characteristics.
·         Methodology with essential components
·         Basic findings, including statistical limitations such as confidence intervals
·         Conclusions, implications, or applications
·         Contribute to the advancement of science and technology librarianship.
·         Demonstrate innovative and original research.
·         Contribute ideas for positioning librarians to be leaders both on and off campus.

Abstracts.  Abstracts should total no more than 250 words while addressing the aforementioned criteria.  Abstracts should indicate presentation category: Featured, Short Paper, or Poster Session.  Be sure to include your name, institution, phone, and e-mail address of all participants (not part of word count).  Please indicate whether or not the project was submitted to other conferences, for publication in a journal, published or presented before.

Featured Paper Presentations.    Our Featured Paper Presentation will be 20 minutes in length and followed by a thoughtful 10 minute critique from a guest commentator, who offers suggestions on how to prepare the paper for publication.  Proposals should reflect research that has been completed or initiatives that have already been implemented. At a minimum, significant progress should have been made toward completion or implementation.

Short Paper Presentations.  Short Papers are 10 minutes in length and may reflect research or initiatives that have been completed or are currently in progress. Short papers may also solicit feedback (5 minutes) on research ideas that are being formulated, outlining possible approaches and asking attendees and the guest commentator for their response.

Poster Presentations.  Submissions for the poster session are selected from two categories – STS Theme and Open Session.  The STS Theme for 2014 is "How can librarians assist with student diversity and retention in the STEM and health science fields at their institutions?"  The Open category is for research endeavors or practitioner projects outside the Theme that enhance science and technology librarianship.  Proposals should provide useful and practical findings, and opportunities for discussion.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: Galileo's 450th Birthday, Saturday, February 15, 2014.  Submissions are selected by the STS Research Committee. Acceptance of proposals reflects a commitment by the author(s) to present at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.  Abstracts should be submitted via e-mail to Jack Maness, jack.maness@colorado.edu, and Greg Nelson, greg_nelson@byu.edu, Co-Chairs of the STS Research Committee.