Around the World live-streamed conference returns to explore Libraries, Archives and Public Life

Around the World 2016 live-streamed conference on Libraries, Archives, and Public Life

KIAS & the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta are helping bring together a conversation on Libraries, Archives, and Public Life from universities around the world, including speakers from Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Malta, Scotland and the United States:

• Paul Arthur, Professor, Digital Humanities, School of Humanities & Comm Arts, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
• Guylaine Beaudry, University Librarian, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Michael Carroll, Director, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Washington College of Law, American University, Washington DC, USA
• Richard J. Cox, Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
• Alice Crawford, Digital Humanities Research Librarian, University of St. Andrews Library, St. Andrews, Scotland
• Brendan Edwards, Head, Library & Archives, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Mario Hibert, Lecturer, Department of Comparative Literature and Librarianship, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Marc Kosciejew, Head of Department and Lecturer of Library Information and Archive Science, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
• Konstantina Martzoukou, Course Leader, MSc Information & Library Studies, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland
• Ingrid Mason, eResearch Analyst at Intersect Australia Pty Ltd, Communications Manager for the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities, Sydney, Australia
• Nigel A Raab, Associate Professor of History, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Seamus Ross, Interim Director, Coach House Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Frank Tough, Associate Dean (Academic) and Professor, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• and others, including graduate students from the MLIS program at the University of Alberta

In the digital age libraries and archives, arguably more vital than ever, are contested entities and commodities. Technologies can be great boons or severe limitations. The world of information is enlarged or shrunk depending on the availability, scope and distribution of services. Just as influential are geo-political location and a funding climate. Not all sectors and, in fact, not all populations enjoy equal influence and benefits. Concerns about access, sustainability and preservation affect and often determine the content, media and technology housed within libraries and archives. The social construction of knowledge and information behaviour emerge as key ways of understanding the changing roles of libraries and archives as meeting, creating and thinking spaces. The internet conference will explore these suggestive themes by attending to a central question: what are the implications for public life?

Background
The Around the World forum, organized for the fourth time this year, is an experiment that brings together scholars from around the globe to talk about digital culture without the environmental cost of traditional conferences. Institutes and researchers are invited to participate either through presenting or by joining in the discussion. The conference is live-streamed world-wide and archived after the event.

For further information about the speakers and their papers please see: http://aroundtheworld.ualberta.ca/