Call for Proposals: Session at IFLA World Library & Information Congress

The IFLA Law Libraries Section seeks proposals for papers to be presented at a session of the IFLA World Library & Information Congress, held this year in Athens, Greece, August 24-30. The session’s theme is “Access to the Law of the Countries of the World for Vulnerable Communities.” The call further reads:

“The program intends to discuss not only the barriers that vulnerable communities may face to having access to the law and legal information, but also efforts to ensure that marginalized communities have access to legal information, through a variety of means. An important component of the program will be to consider how libraries and other memory institutions can assist in efforts to ensure that vulnerable or at-risk communities have access to the law. Vulnerable communities can include a number of different groups, including refugees, women, indigenous communities, the poor, citizens in developing countries, and pro se litigants, among many others.

We invite papers that:

  • Discuss barriers to access to the laws in a particular country, or group of countries, discussing how these barriers particularly affect some vulnerable or marginalized group
  • Describe efforts to remove barriers to access to the law for a particular vulnerable or marginalized group
  • Document larger efforts to remove barriers to access to the law and its particular effect on a marginalized or vulnerable group
  • Demonstrate how libraries or other memory institutions assist in the effort to ensure access to the law of the countries of the world, with particular regard to communities in special need of support or protection.

Papers should reflect the conference theme, “Libraries in Dialogue for Change” and represent the various types of law libraries such as academic, law firm, court, government etc.

Language of the session: Papers should be in one of the seven IFLA official languages: ArabicChineseEnglishFrenchGermanRussian and Spanish, however, abstracts should be in English. The Presentation for this session must be done in English, as no interpretation services will be available for this session.”

Proposals should include a title, abstract of 300 words or less, the name and position of the presenter(s), affiliated institution, contact information, and a short bio.

Proposals are due Feb. 22, 2019, and can be sent to Leslie Street, leslie.street@gmail.com.

About the author

Assistant Director for Public Services, Jerome Hall Law Library, Indiana University Maurer School of Law