The submission site for contributed papers and immersion sessions for MLA ’20 is now open.
Like last year, the call for contributions is divided in two. The first call is for contributed papers and immersion sessions, with a submission deadline of October 23, 2019, and acceptance notices will be sent in early December. The second call for posters and lightning talks will be in December, and acceptance notices will be sent in late February.
Contributed papers are fifteen-minute presentations that fall into two broad categories:
- A program description describes the creation and improvement of products, programs, technologies, administrative practices, or services.
- A research project reports on designing, conducting, or analyzing a library-based research project.
Immersion sessions are ninety-minute “deep dives” into a single topic. The format may include several invited papers, a panel presentation, group discussion, audience engagement, or other appropriate activities.
Dividing up the calls in two allows reviewers to provide feedback to authors and gives those whose submissions were not accepted in the first round the opportunity to reconfigure their proposals as posters or lightning talks.
Using the submission form, authors will categorize their papers, immersion sessions, posters, or lightning talks according to the seven MLA Areas of Practice: Clinical Support, Education, Global Health & Health Equity, Information Management, Information Services, Innovation & Research Practice, and Professionalism & Leadership. The 2020 National Program Committee and meeting planners will then use these categories to organize and schedule meeting content, with the goal of making incidents of “Both sessions I wanted to attend were at the same time” less prevalent.
Find additional information in the MLA ’20 FAQ: Papers, Posters, Lightning Talks, and Immersion Sessions.