Russian School Library Association (RUSLA) is happy to invite you to the 43rd Annual International Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), incorporating the 18th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship, to be held in Moscow, Russia on August 25 – 30, 2014. Registration will be open on 12 March 2014, for more information, please, visit the Conference website: http://www.iasl2014.org
The theme for the conference is “School Library in the knowledge society: use of cognitive technologies, form creative person.”
We look forward to your reports and presentations, which should clearly relate to one or more of the Conference sub-themes:
• School library as a cognitive resource for the development of education
• New brands of school library: information culture and e-environment in the context of cognitive sciences development
• School library on the map of cognitive future
• School library in a rapidly changing world
• School library as a forming center of personal information culture
• The world of school libraries’ worlds: searching for harmony, intelligence, technology, culture
• School librarian – an agent of change in modern educational approaches to teaching
• New approaches in the all-life learning system of teacher-librarians
Proposals are invited from librarians, principals, teachers, educators, researchers, and others directly involved with the development or management of school libraries. Others who share an interest in advancing the field of school librarianship, including publishers, vendors, authors, illustrators, architects, psychologists, economists, and journalists, are also welcome to submit proposals.
Proposals for presentation should be one of the four types:
· Workshops (90 minutes or 180 minutes) on a focused topic related to the conference theme, where participants are actively involved in the learning process. They may comprise small or large group discussions, collaborative activities and exercises, or opportunities to practice applying the concepts that are presented. Workshops are not intended to be extended lectures, but are hands-on learning opportunities.
· Professional presentations (20 minutes each) on a topic related to the theme of the conference, which represent descriptions of programs, projects, activities, and/or innovations that are of relevance to a diverse audience and contribute to their professional development.
· Research presentations (20 minutes each) on a topic related to the theme of the conference, which represent findings from investigations (either complete or in-progress, but not proposals) that would be of interest to an international audience.
· Posters (a designated time will be set for presenters to display and meet viewers) of projects or research on a topic related to the theme of the conference.
At the Conference you will find interesting cultural program, warm welcome of Russian school librarians, school visits, trade exhibition of Russian and international literature for children and youth as well as media production.
In addition, we would like to know what kind of themes of Pre-conference workshops would be most interesting for you. Please, let us know if you have any idea and requests regarding these workshops. You can send your messages to rusla@rusla.ru or iasl2014@rusla.ru. We would to make the Conference program more interesting for our guests, therefore we promise to take into account all your wishes.
Moreover, in the context of this event RUSLA is glad to offer you a new initiative. We invite to the Conference the best school librarians from all over the world to take part in our event “School librarian of the year”. They could be current winners of your competitions for the best school librarian, or bright leaders of the school of librarianship in your country. At the Conference they’ll participate in the award ceremony and receive a decoration, stating they rank among the best school librarian of the world. Please note that we are waiting for only one candidate from each country.
In the framework of this event we would like to organize the exhibition of the best school librarians’ banners. All banners should be in English and demonstrate the candidates’ innovative projects and best practice. Each candidate prepares the digital model of the banner and sends it to us before 01 June 2014. We’ll print and hung all your banners in the Conference venue. It would be appreciated if you also could provide us short video about the banner’s content.
Besides, in the context of preparation for the Conference, RUSLA in partnership with Dr.Luisa Marquardt, Director Europe for IASL, would like to hold joint International Round Table for development of conception of European delegation’s participation in IASL Conference -2014 . This meeting will take place in Rome this spring and we would be glad to see all of you in the lineup for this event.
In any case, we are looking forward to your answer and would be very glad to receive your creative suggestions for the IASL Conference interesting realization.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Tatiana Zhukova
President of Russian School Library Association