World Library and Information Congress: 74th IFLA General Conference and Council

"Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding"

10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

Call for Papers

IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section

Theme: Expanding Frontiers of Knowledge: Documents of Exploration, Discovery, and Travel

The IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section invites librarians, researchers and others involved in this area of work to express their interest in making presentations at the Section's programme in Québec.

As the boundaries of the known world expand with explorations of land, sea, space, and parallel scientific experimentation, likewise institutional collections that document voyages, discoveries, scientific initiatives, and collected materials are developing and changing. This session is intended to complement the RBM Preconference on Maps which will be held at the Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Papers at the RBMS session in Québec should focus on records of explorations, diverse types of travel literature, and related documents of discoveries, including new media and electronic records. Materials and collections presented may be in any format (manuscripts, diaries, archives, prints, books, photographs (but excluding maps). They may date from any period, but should constitute a coherent and substantial group, either relating to discoveries made by individual explorers and their teams or from particular regions or periods. Collections may be preserved in a single instutition or distributed over several collections. Discussions of a range of different holding institutions, including museums and archives as well as libraries, are encouraged.

Materials presented should be placed in a broader cultural-historical context in order to demonstrate their relevance to a wide range of (academic) subjects and users, taking up the theme of IFLA president Claudia Lux for 2007-9: "Libraries on the Agenda" and the conference theme "Libraries without borders: Navigating towards global understanding". Papers therefore should not only introduce audiences to surviving materials and potentially under-represented collections, but also describe innovative and appropriate methods by which they are made accessible, for example by catalogues, preferably in electronic form (databases, websites) or through digitization projects. Provisions for access should not focus exclusively on historians and other scholars, but also comprise outreach programmes (exhibitions, educational activities) by which a wider group of users can enhance their knowledge of old and new worlds.

Send an abstract (c. 300 words) of the proposed paper and relevant biographical information of author(s)/presenter(s) and their institutional affiliation by 31 December 2007 via email to:

Dr. Bettina Wagner
Abteilung für Handschriften und Alte Drucke Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Ludwigstr. 16
D-80539 Muenchen
Germany
email: bettina.wagner@bsb-muenchen.de
Fax. +49-89/28638-12982 or 2266