About the SOCHE Library Conference

Our Futures in Times of Change: The Academic Library in the 21st Century

Academic libraries are facing issues of flexibility, form, and function involving everything from the expectation of their users to the resources and services they offer. Assuring that libraries remain essential and central to the academic enterprise demands vision, planning, and building relationships. How can academic libraries in the 21st century increase their flexibility, re-shape their form and re-tool their function to better contribute to overall student success? We will explore steps and strategies to help academic libraries advance their traditional roles as gatekeepers to their rich lodes of information and knowledge while continuing to transition to the resource needs of their users in the 21st century.

Call For Papers

The SOCHE Library Council calls on librarians, faculty, staff, administrators, and graduate students to submit proposals for the May conference that create opportunities for deep discussion and to showcase best practices from Ohio and beyond. The committee will be looking for proposals that fit within the overall theme of the conference. We are particularly interested in proposals that include both librarians and other campus partners. Suggested concurrent session topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Library partnerships with faculty and student support units
• Research data management services in libraries
• The function of the library as publisher through its institutional repository
• Creating a user-centric academic library by using the User Experience (UX) to rethink and redefine library services and spaces
• Evolving nature of the scholarly record
• Providing the means to educate students about digital literacy
• Approaches to library liaison positions that provide for organizational and workforce flexibility
• Collaborating and sharing space with other units inside the library
• Librarian outreach both within and beyond the academy
• Open educational resources (OERs) and affordable textbooks
• Patrons as Creators: Makerspaces, 3D Printers, and Natural User Interfaces
• Library’s role in student success
• Library space as an important “resource” for students
• Marketing library resources and services effectively and creatively
• Research assistance models in the 21st century

All Concurrent session proposals must be submitted online by the due date of Friday, January 19, 2018, via this form. Late and or incomplete submissions will not be considered.