This CIDLIS theme— Everyone Counts: Civic Engagement Among Vulnerable Communities—encourages all who are involved or interested in LIS to contemplate the ways in which we can champion civic engagement among marginalized groups. Everyone deserves to be included. The hope is to distill ideas for encouraging census and voter participation among those with disabilities, households experiencing e-inequality, people of color, foreign-born groups, LGBTQIA+ communities, and those re-entering society or detaching themselves from incarceration.
The deadline for submissions was Sept. 6
Given the controversial upcoming 2020 election and decennial census count, both of which pose important implications for our organizations, the topic of civic engagement necessitates dedicated attention. At stake is the social inclusion of disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities. We ask, “What is the role of information centers in facilitating civic participation?” Dr. Clara Chu, Director and Mortenson Center for International Library Programs Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will deliver the keynote address.
We invite abstracts from LIS professionals, students, academics and allies on topics such as:
- ethical frameworks for encouraging civic engagement among hard-to-reach groups
- recommendations for addressing technical and training needs for the 2020 census
- methods of improving civic knowledge among LIS professionals OR demographic data-collection in the LIS field
- critical, ethical or theory-based analyses of approaches to civic engagement in LIS
- examinations of linkages between information policy and civic engagement
- LIS pedagogy pertaining to civic engagement
- first-person narratives that address civic engagement, human rights, and social justice
- case studies of programming and services centered around census or election participation
Please direct conference-related questions and concerns to the conference organizers, Dr. Renee Hill and Dr. Ana Ndumu, at cidlis.umd@gmail.com