The Pacific Northwest Library Association invites proposals for its Virtual Poster Session, to be held August 4-7, 2020. Proposals are due June 12, June 22, 2020.
This online event will be free to all participants and attendees, and presentations will be given asynchronously.
Presenter names will be entered into a drawing to receive a free one-year PNLA membership. Up to 5 names will be drawn.
What is a Virtual Poster Session?
A virtual poster session is similar to a traditional conference poster session. For the PNLA virtual poster session, presenters will submit a presentation of their work (see format guidelines for details). Posters will be uploaded to the PNLA website. Each poster will have its own page and will be open for public comment. Presenters will monitor their poster page and reply to incoming comments on the page. Presenters will be available from August 4-7 to answer incoming comments. After the poster session week has concluded, poster pages will remain on the PNLA website indefinitely.
Conference Theme
COVID-19 immediately reshaped the way libraries deliver services and promote literacy, with little warning as to how to navigate this uncharted territory. This pandemic will likely lead to long-term or permanent changes to our employment and institutions. In particular, these events have created new leadership opportunities – both formal and informal – for many library employees. Additionally, while many library services are already online, libraries are faced with creating innovative ways to connect with patrons; not only how to connect them to the materials, services, and information that they need, but also how to recreate a sense of community that the library often provides. We are accepting proposals from all types of libraries in the Pacific Northwest that discuss the ways that you and your institutions are responding to these challenges, but are particularly interested in proposals that address the following:
- How is your library demonstrating compassion and empathy from a distance?
- How is your library recreating a sense of community through virtual channels or services that support distancing?
- What types of outreach to youth are you engaging in to maintain literacy levels (virtual storytime, book delivery, etc.)?
- What leadership skills have you drawn on to create or continue projects and services during this time, and what leadership skills are you currently developing (and how)?
Timeline
- June 12 22: Deadline for submitting proposals.
- June 22: Notification of acceptance will be sent to presenters.
- July 17: Presentations are due and should be emailed to imkingsley@alaska.edu. Please use the subject line: PNLA Virtual Poster Session
- July 21-24: Posters will be uploaded to the PNLA site and presenters notified of the URL for their page.
- August 4-7: PNLA Virtual Poster session goes live! Presenters will be available to answer comments posted to their page.
Poster Format Guidelines
Posters for the PNLA Virtual Poster Session will be presented in an asynchronous format. We suggest posters be created in one of the following formats:
- Text (less than 500 words)
- Image (.png, .jpeg, .gif) / Infograph (Canva, Piktochart, Venngage, etc.)
- Video (less than 5 minutes) (.mp4) (hosted on YouTube or Vimeo).
- Presentation (Google Slides, Powerpoint, Sway, etc.)
When creating posters, please keep accessibility in mind. Video should include captions or a transcript.
For examples, have a look at ACRL’s Distance Library Instruction Virtual Poster Session (2020). If the ACRL 2020 site is down, try looking at the 2019 poster sessions on the WayBack Machine.
How to Submit
Submit proposals using the presenter proposal form. The deadline for submissions is Friday, June 12 Monday, June 22.
Questions?
Please contact Ilana Kingsley (imkingsley@alaska.edu) or Erin Hvizdak (erin.hvizdak@wsu.edu), conference co-chairs.