Dear colleagues,

The ELAG (European Library Automation Group) conference is Europe's premier conference on the application of information technology in libraries.  For over thirty years, the ELAG Conference has provided library and IT professionals with the opportunity to discuss new technologies, to review on-going developments and to exchange best practice.

The title of ELAG 2011<http://www.elag.org/homepage.htm> "It's the context, stupid!<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwired%2Farchive%2F2.03%2Fcontext.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEzc_LxGePED6lfs99i93p1QxZgwBSg>" is taken from the title of a 1994 article by Paul Saffo in Wired magazine. In the article, Saffo wrote "it is not content but context that will matter most a decade or so from now. The scarce resource will not be stuff, but point of view."  More than fifteen years later, context has never been so important in providing information to library users.

Context is critical in many aspects of library services. Libraries serve different kinds of organisations and users with different needs and capabilities. How do we know what information to supply, in what format and with what relevancy ranking without identifying and adapting to ever-changing contexts? Even the technical environment -- service-oriented architecture, cloud computing and linked data -- provides a context essential to decisions about current and future services.

 To help us make ELAG 2011 happen, we are inviting proposals for:

*Pre-Conference Bootcamps: http://www.elag.org/callbc.htm

Half or full-day hands-on, fast-paced workshops prior to the conference

*Conference Presentations: http://www.elag.org/callp.htm

25 minute presentations with 5 minutes for questions from the audience

*Conference Workshops: http://www.elag.org/callw.htm

4 - 5 hour workshops (split into 2 sessions) with a plenary report on the final day of the conference

We would like to receive proposals on the following sub-themes:

*       Individual information needs: providing services for specific user contexts

*       Serving users in specific library contexts

*       Context sensitive relevance ranking

*       Blending the Library Management System

*       Library services in the cloud

*       Libraries and Linked Data

*       Product specifics: Sharing your implementation experiences

Further information about these sub-themes is available at: http://www.elag.org/subthemes.htm

Perhaps you have another library technology topic that you would love to tell us about, but it doesn't fall neatly into one of the sub-themes.  Don't be shy; tell us anyway!

The deadline for proposals is Monday 31st January 2011.

The results of the review process will be sent by Friday 18th February 2011.

If you have any questions concerning the Call for Proposals, please contact:

Peter van Boheemen ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)

Chair of the ELAG 2011 Programme Committee

We look forward to receiving your proposals!

With best wishes

Peter van Boheemen

On behalf of the ELAG Programme Committee 2011

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