iSchool@UBC Research Day 2014

INFORMATION AND RIGHTS

Friday, February 28th, 2014

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The iSchool@UBC, invites UBC faculty and students to share their research endeavors. The iSchool’s 4th Annual Research Day will be held on Friday, February 28th, 2014 at the iSchool’s facilities, 407 – Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. This event will showcase the contributions of iSchool students and faculty working at the intersections of archival, information, library and children’s literature studies.

iSchool scholars focus on issues related to the creation, collection, organization, preservation and ongoing use of physical and virtual cultural materials. It is increasingly common for these interactions to highlight questions of human rights & information. The relationship between information and rights can be approached from a plurality of perspectives. Information can be viewed as a resource that is necessary for individuals, communities, organizations and nation-states to access rights (i.e. civil, political, economic, social, cultural rights, etc.) and to ensure the protection of those rights. The State becomes a calculation center that captures, processes, and analyzes information about its citizens and their status with respect to State-granted rights and to educate its citizenry in the kind of entitlements they have the right to claim. Citizens, on the other hand, are required to provide basic information about themselves in censuses, surveys, elections, tax forms, etc. and hold the responsibility to be informed about their rights.

Another perspective treats information as a right in itself. Unrestricted access to public information, preservation and extension of the information commons, freedom of speech, censorship controls, universal access to technologies that become entry points to information, confidentiality and consent in medical issues, intellectual property rights, fair dealing, etc. are examples of this approach.

We invite contributions that seek to address (but are not limited) to the broad area of inquiry into Information & rights.

Example sub-topics include but are not limited to:

• Rights related to the creation, sharing, and stewardship of physical and virtual cultural materials

• Children’s rights to information

• The interaction of information and rights on individuals and communities

• Democratic and participatory design of information systems

• Information work and the protection of vulnerable communities

• Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, and its impact on libraries, archives, and museums

• Information and the rights of visible and invisible minorities

• Information and the rights of non-human actors

• Universal access to information

• Rights to information & Information rights

• Intersectionality

While the theme of our gathering is Information and Rights, we welcome submissions on any topic related to children’s media, library, archival and information studies from iSchool students and/or faculty. Students are specially invited to submit products from their own research related activities, independent inquiries, or course-related projects.

SUBMISSION TYPES

Presentations: Talks and Posters

The presentation category is divided into short talks and posters. The majority of submissions will be accepted as posters, with a select few asked to provide short talks. When submitting to this category, please indicate whether you would like your submission to be considered for a short talk.

The interactive nature of the poster session is intended to encourage discussion and debate. People presenting posters will also participate in a 2-Minute Madness session. This is an exciting format for participants to present the core ideas of their research in a succinct, two-minute presentation.

Demonstrations

Demonstrations may consist of digital tutorials, search interfaces, or other digital files or applications that you wish to share with the community.

YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are interested in participating in the iSchool’s Research Day, please submit an extended abstract, 1-2 double-spaced pages in length (~400-500 words), in PDF format to ischool.researchday@ubc.ca.

Extended abstracts should include:

• The motivation for the work,

• An introduction to the idea and its context in the professional/academic literature,

• Method or approach proposed/taken,

• Actual or anticipated results or outcomes (if applicable), and

• Contributions of the work.

DEADLINES

Submissions will be reviewed and confirmation/feedback will be sent during the first week of February.

• Extended abstracts are due: Friday, January 17th, 2014, midnight PST.

• Confirmation and feedback sent to authors: Friday, February, 7th, 2014

Questions about Research Day can be directed to:

Dr. Richard Arias Hernandez, rarias@mail.ubc.ca Dr. Lisa Nathan, lisa.nathan@ubc.ca

Website information for Research Day available at: bit.ly/1bmDnez