Proposal Tracks

Proposals should reflect elements of one of the following six tracks:

• Teaching: Spicing Up Our Strategies and Spaces     

Teaching can be both a highly active and reflective practice. How have you kept your teaching strategies fresh? Share your reflections on how the pandemic, new trends, critical and anti-racist pedagogies, and objectives prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility have impacted your teaching practices. How have you adapted your physical and virtual learning spaces to reflect new teaching modes, technologies, priorities, and learner goals? Tell us about it!

• Research: Infusing Our Practice With Scholarship   

As library workers and educators, many of us identify as lifelong learners. We spend time reading academic literature, attending professional development events, and discussing best practices with colleagues.  We also set out as explorers into the unknown, studying the art and science of teaching and learning. What questions have you recently asked about pedagogical approaches, library research, or student engagement? Have you engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning in ways that have expanded your knowledge and transformed professional practice? Come share what you’ve learned with us!

• Engagement: Recipes For Student Success         

While we work toward a broader vision for our libraries and institutions, it is essential that we consider new ways to foster a sense of belonging for our students and community. How does the outreach we provide connect with all of our students? Are there ways we can evolve our approaches so that we meet students where they are, as opposed to asking them to come to us? What strategies can we use to measure and define success in our outreach efforts? We want to hear about how you assess what is working and what we might need to move off of our plates.

• Advocacy: Savoring The Opportunity to Influence     

Strong leadership is critical for our teaching, learning, outreach, and engagement programs–and not all leaders have management positions and responsibilities. How do you lead in your institution? What does inclusive leadership look like for you? Have you advocated successfully for a program, initiative, resource, or priority? Do you coordinate programs, amplify colleagues’ voices, boost ideas of marginalized populations in your community, and influence policies? How do you assess initiatives and use evidence and data to make decisions? Share your leadership initiatives and assessments with us!  

• Teamwork: Finding The Perfect Flavor Combination

Collaboration within and beyond the library remains a key ingredient to the success of our programs, initiatives, and goals. Tell us about your essential relationships and what defines successful and sustained partnerships for your program. What projects or initiatives would not have come to fruition without your collaborations? How have your professional relationships contributed to your institutions’ priorities, values, and goals? In what ways have you partnered in order to support equitable outcomes and achievements for your students? How do you assess the value, success, and future of a partnership?

• Revitalization: Nourishing Our Teaching, Our Organizations, And Ourselves

A lot has changed over the past several years, and our old strategies for teaching, leading, planning, and partnering may no longer be serving us or our communities. In order to truly transform our work and our organizations, we must create space to rest, reflect, and care for ourselves and each other.  How are you creating the space to identify and make meaningful change? How are you prioritizing health and well-being for yourself, your colleagues, and your community during these times of change and disruption?

Submission Information

  ***The deadline for proposal submissions was November 28, 2022; proposals are no longer being accepted.*** 

Proposals can be submitted only through the online submission form and must be received by Monday, November 28, 2022. The primary contact for the proposal will receive an automated email indicating receipt of the proposal when it is submitted and will be notified if the proposal has been accepted for presentation by Monday, January 16, 2023.

If your proposal is accepted, then up to three presenters will be automatically registered for the conference and required to pay registration in full by the due date in April. Presenters are encouraged to submit a full paper version of their presentation (see due dates below) for inclusion in the LOEX Conference Proceedings.

All proposals must include the following:

• Session title (limit 20 words)
• Short description of the session (limit 100 words)
• Long description of the session (limit 500 words)
• List of 1-3 learning outcomes (visit Tips on Writing Learning Outcomes from the University Library at UIUC for guidance)
• Type of audience(s) for which the session is intended

You do not need to be a LOEX member to submit a conference proposal. We accept the best proposals, regardless of institution or membership. LOEX membership only matters for general registration, which begins Friday, February 10, 2023.

Note: Failure to pay the registration fee will result in the cancellation of presentation and conference registration. All presenters are responsible for paying their own travel and lodging expenses.  

Proposal Timeline

• Monday, November 28, 2022: Deadline to submit proposals
• Monday, January 16, 2023: Notification of acceptance of proposal
• Thursday, May 11 - Saturday, May 13, 2023: 51st Annual LOEX Conference
• Friday, May 5, 2023:  Deadline for all Presentation presenters to submit full papers (up to 2500 words) for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings  
• Friday, May 26, 2023:  Deadline for all Interactive Workshop presenters to submit full papers (up to 2500 words) for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings  

Proposal Selection Criteria

Successful proposals will showcase effective and innovative library instruction & information literacy practices, provide valuable information that participants can utilize at their libraries, support collaboration, and be applicable to the broad variety of academic institutions.

The committee will be using a rubric to score the proposals. Along with the criteria listed under the session format descriptions, the rubric scores each proposal on:

• Content and objectives of presentation
• Relevance to the selected conference theme and track and to the field of library instruction
• Originality and creativity
• Demonstrated expertise of the presenter(s) on the topic
• Methods used to inform and also engage the audience

In addition, the rubric scores Presentation proposals on how well they utilize a variety of presentation modes; Interactive Workshop proposals are scored on the degree and type of audience participation.

All committee members participate in the review process.  Each proposal will undergo double-blind peer review by two committee members and be scored based on our rubric. Upon receiving the recommendations of the reviewers, the LOEX Director and conference co-chairs will conduct an equity check to ensure diversity in presenters, institution types, and topics

Presenter Benefits

The solid reputation of the LOEX Conference ensures that presenters benefit as much as their audience. Presenters can expect to:

• Contribute to the field of library instruction and information literacy
• Receive professional recognition at the conference
• Highlight their institution's accomplishments
• Publish a full paper on the presentation topic in the LOEX Conference Proceedings
• Obtain valuable feedback from colleagues
• Receive up to three registration spots set aside, per session, for presenters at the LOEX Conference