[Asis-l] CAIS/ACSI 2017 Conference: Call for Proposals (May 31- June 2, 2017)

[Deborah Hicks]

Final Call for Proposals: CAIS/ACSI 2017 Conference 
Conference Theme:  The Warp & Weft of Knowledge: Information Threads Connecting Disciplines, Identities and Perspectives
Location: Toronto, Ontario (May 31 – June 2, 2017)
Deadline for Submission: January 27, 2017
(The French and English CFPs are available here: http://cais-acsi.ca <http://cais-acsi.ca/>)

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The Warp & Weft of Knowledge: Information Threads Connecting Disciplines, Identities, and Perspectives 

The conference theme The Warp & Weft of Knowledge: Information Threads Connecting Disciplines, Identities and Perspectives reflects the broad cross-disciplinary nature of information science. Information science research focuses on how information is structured, represented, organized, disseminated, and accessed. More than this, it examines how information is embedded in our communities, institutions, and social lives.  Information itself is all pervasive. It touches a myriad of disciplines, identities, and perspectives. As such, those of us who trace the “red thread of information” within and across disciplinary boundaries are uniquely situated to observe how disciplinary and methodological terrains connect, overlap, contradict, and diverge as well as how various perspectives and paradigms are shaped and formed by information. Indeed, as noted by Marcia Bates in her well known 1999 article, The Invisible Substrate of Information, “we always follow the information”.

This year we are picking up on the Congress theme “From Far and Wide: The Next 150” to emphasize not only the length and breadth of information studies throughout the years but also the places, far and wide, across which information science has travelled and from which we draw.  The weaving metaphor relates to the red threads of information that not only connect various disciplines, identities, and perspectives but brings to light new ideas and approaches.  Along with Canada’s 150th anniversary we also celebrate our past accomplishments and our hopes for the future.  We want CAIS/ASCI 2017 to explore the interdisciplinarity of information studies, build on past research, and forge new paths for the future.

We invite papers and proposals representing diverse themes and methods related (but not limited) to the above theme.  Consider the following ideas:

Collaboration and independence: Within IS contexts and beyond
Differentiation and integration: Among groups, professionals, or on personal levels 
Papers representing methods drawn from other disciplines or mixed methods approaches
New and innovative approaches to IS research
Papers reflecting on the development and future of IS research
Papers from a variety of perspectives: Institutional, social, and ethical
Historical examinations of IS as a discipline 
We are also pleased to announce that Marcia Bates will give the opening keynote presentation on May 31, 2016. Dr. Bates has published widely in the areas of information system search strategy, user-centered design of information retrieval systems, organization of knowledge, information seeking behavior, and the nature of the information professions.

We welcome proposals that explore or are directly influenced by Dr. Bates’s work.

Call for proposals

Proposals may be submitted in English or French. The conference committee strongly encourages submissions from professional and academic researchers. Types of submissions include:

CAIS Papers: 20-minute oral presentations of completed or well-developed projects on topics suitable for publication in scholarly journals. Proposals that report on completed or ongoing research will be given preference. Diverse perspectives (theoretical and applied) and methodologies are welcomed.  Proposals should be in the form of an extended abstract (approximately 1000-1500 words excluding references), reporting on research projects, theoretical developments or innovative practical applications.

CAIS Posters: Visual presentations of completed or well-developed projects on topics suitable for publication in scholarly journals. Proposals that report on completed or ongoing research will be given preference. Diverse perspectives (theoretical and applied) and methodologies are welcomed.  Proposals should be in the form of a short abstract (with a limit of 750 words excluding references), reporting on research projects, theoretical developments or innovative practical applications.  

Student- to-CAIS/ACSI and Practitioner Awards: Paper submissions by graduate students and practitioners will be considered for these awards. The Student-to-CAIS/ACSI award includes a monetary prize, and both awardees will have the opportunity to publish the full manuscript in the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science / La Revue Canadienne des Sciences de L’information et de Bibliothéconomie.  If you would like to be considered for the award please indicate if you are a student or practitioner in your CAIS/ACSI abstract submission. Winners will be selected based on the submission of their abstract to the conference. Details of the award, including previous winners, can be found at the CAIS/ACSI website at www.cais-acsi.ca <http://www.cais-acsi.ca/>.

Doctoral Forum

We are pleased to invite students to this year’s inaugural Doctoral Forum. The goal is to provide students with an opportunity to present and discuss their research project, get feedback, and to meet with other researchers. Feel free to join us, regardless of the current stage of your doctoral project.

Format: 10 minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of discussion

Submission: 250 to 500 words abstract describing your research project

To participate, please fill the following submission form <https://goo.gl/forms/dPjqBaYHfIKubdQc2>.

Doctoral students interested in attending the Doctoral Forum are also encouraged to submit completed or ongoing research projects for consideration as part of the CAIS conference.

Please note that you have to register to the CAIS conference to attend the Doctoral Forum.

Submission Deadline for all proposals is January 27, 2017.

Submissions will be reviewed using the online EasyChair system: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cais2017 <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cais2017>.

Authors will be notified of the decision no later than February 27th, 2017.  All presenters must register for the conference. Abstracts will be published on the CAIS/ACSI Website once registration has taken place. Final versions must be submitted no later than April 28th, 2017. Participants are also encouraged to submit full papers to the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science / La revue canadienne des sciences de l’information et de bibliothéconomie.

Registration: The conference will take place as part of the 2017 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario (May 31-June 2, 2017). Registration will be available online through the Congress website (http://congress2017.ca/register <http://congress2017.ca/register>).

For further information, please contact the CAIS/ACSI 2017 Conference Co-chairs.

Danielle Allard

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Women’s and Gender Studies Program/ Master’s of Archival Studies Program

University of Manitoba

danielle.allard at umanitoba.ca <mailto:danielle.allard at umanitoba.ca>	
Deborah Hicks

Lecturer

The iSchool @ UBC

University of British Columbia

deborah.hicks at ubc.ca <mailto:deborah.hicks at ubc.ca>	
Catherine Johnson

Associate Professor

Faculty of Information & 

Media Studies

University of Western Ontario

cjohn24 at uwo.ca <mailto:cjohn24 at uwo.ca>

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Deborah Hicks
Lecturer
SLAIS, the iSchool @ UBC
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
Email: deborah.hicks at ubc.ca