Annual Meeting

Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) Annual Meeting, Oct. 8, 2013, New Orleans, LA.

Call for Papers

Outreach: Engaging our Communities

The academic communities and broader publics that we serve are more than ever in need of the reliable information sources and culture spaces that our libraries can offer. This year's MELA conference theme will be Outreach: Engaging our Communities. The changing dynamics of libraries encourages us to alter, transform, promote, synthesize and engage our communities in new and innovative ways. The conference will focus on various aspects of outreach, emphasising practical strategies and methods for serving our communities. MELA seeks paper proposals for presentations that discuss new and unique ways in which you engage your community. Paper topics may include but are not limited to:

• integrating with the community in which you serve
• instruction/information literacy
• web-guides and making use of the plethora of available digital resources including digital humanities projects
• collections development/analysis
• exhibitions and curation
• cataloguing
• (special) program development or projects
• research activities
• assessment of services and community needs

Background:

MELA 2013 will take place on Oct. 8-10 in New Orleans, LA. Loyola University, Monroe Library has generously agreed to host this year's conference.

Submission guidelines

• Proposals should be a maximum of 500 words.
• Please send your proposals to: vice-president@mela.us or any MELA Officer (http://www.mela.us/officers.html) in a word document.
• Proposals will be reviewed by the Program Committee.
• Proposals must include a title and clearly demonstrate relevancy to this yea's them, Outreach: Engaging our Communities.
• Submission deadline is July 31, 2013.
• Session format is a 30 minute presentation (20 minute presentation with 10 minutes for questions). Notification
• All submitters will be notified by August 25, 2013.
• All presenters will be asked to submit a brief biography (max 100 words), a photograph, and an abbreviated abstract to be published in the program and posted on the MELA website.
• All presenters will be asked to make their presentation available on the conference website. While MELA is not in a position to pay honoraria or provide financial support for travel and lodging, we will waive program registration fees for presenters. Presenters are expected to be full paid MELA members.

The annual meeting of the Association is usually held two days preceding the Middle East Studies Association of North America's annual meeting. The 2013 MESA Meeting will be held in The Big Easy New Orleans, LA (Sheraton New Orleans).

Location and practical information

Parking

To locate both MELA & MESA annual meetings: map

A preliminary program for the 2013 Meeting will be available soon

Registration

Meeting registration is not open at this time.

Watch this space for further updates. The program and other details are subject to change.

Vendor Showcase

Details forthcoming.

It is the purpose of the Middle East Librarians' Association to facilitate communication among members through meetings and publications; to improve the quality of area librarianship through the development of standards for the profession and education of Middle East library specialists; to compile and disseminate information concerning Middle East libraries and collections and to represent the judgment of the members in matters affecting them; to encourage cooperation among members and Middle East libraries, especially in the acquisition of materials and the development of bibliographic control; to cooperate with other library and area organizations in projects of mutual concern and benefit; to promote research in and development of indexing and automated techniques as applied to Middle East materials.

Anyone who is employed by an institution to service Middle East library materials in a professional capacity (selection, acquisition, cataloging, indexing, reference work, administration, and/or preparation of research tools), as well as any other person who has an interest in these aspects of Middle East library materials, is eligible for membership in our Association.

Future Meetings:

(Dates are for the accompanying MESA Meeting)

October 2013, New Orleans, LA (Sheraton New Orleans)

November 2014, Washington, DC (Marriott Wardman Park)

November 2015, Denver, CO (Sheraton Denver Hotel)

November 2016, Boston, MA (Marriott Copley Place)

November 2017, Washington, DC (Marriott Wardman Park)

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