Submit a proposal
Thank you for your interest in submitting a proposal for the online LOEX Fall Focus 2025 Conference!
The topic areas we chose for Fall Focus 2025 are "Artificial Intelligence", "Archives & Special Collections", and "Sense of Belonging" as we believe each of them addresses different aspects of the zeitgeist. Artificial intelligence is a technology that is increasingly prevalent in more & more parts of both our work and personal life—at certain institutions, its use is now (or soon will be) a requirement and customized tools are expected to be a core part of a student’s college experience. At a minimum, we owe it to our students and faculty to be literate on its capabilities, benefits and pitfalls. In the face of this huge technological change, some librarians have reached back to decades / centuries-old materials and examined how the use and recontextualization of a library’s special collections or archives can inspire students to connect more deeply and authentically to their history, community, and institution. Improving our use, interpretation, and access to these collections may even be facilitated by AI in some cases, but there are also a wide-variety of other tools and techniques, some old and new, that are available. All of our work is underpinned by a need to belong—whether someone is utilizing the latest LLM or reading a missive from the early 1800s, students and faculty want to feel it all means something, which comes from when they are able to identify themselves as part of something bigger, and that they are part of a supportive community. We invite you to submit a proposal on any one of these three focuses and share how you are making the best of the current state of the world and moving forward.
LOEX is committed to creating the most broad-based community that we possibly can, and seeks participants and presenters from all types of institutions, positions, backgrounds, and experience.
Presentation Sessions
- Traditional-length (50 minutes) presentations by one to three presenters. As in previous years, these sessions will make up the large majority of the conference program. Presentation proposals are due September 5, 2025. [deadline has passed]
Lightning Talks
- Short (seven minutes maximum) presentations by one presenter; four or five lightning talks are grouped together so they can be given during a single time slot. There likely will only be a few handfuls of these talks as they are intended to be an energizing, but relatively small, part of the conference. Lightning Talk proposals are due September 5, 2025. [deadline has passed]