Call for Papers — Open Sessions
Law Libraries Section
- 22 March 2022, 15:14
Theme: "Confronting and Overcoming Legal Restrictions on Access to Law: Librarian Engagement to Free the Law"
The IFLA Law Libraries Section is seeking proposals for papers to be presented at a session to be held at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Dublin, Ireland 26-29 July 2022.
Session Theme
In spite of the advancement of freely available online legal information, considerable tension still exists between the governments of the countries of the world and commercial publishers when it comes to the need to provide the laws of the countries of the world freely to all people. The public has a fundamental right to the law in all democratic countries, and yet, in many instances, the law remains locked behind paywalls, terms of use, and even copyright assertions that restrict the public’s and libraries’ rights to use and preserve the law. In many ways, the Internet has not freed the law but offered publishers the opportunity to explore more pernicious practices when contracting with governments and courts to publish legal information. Some publishers restrict the ability to access and use the law through copyright restrictions, restrictive terms of use, and fee for use services. In some instances, these practices limit a library’s ability to provide primary legal material to all users and to preserve the law. This program will explore how restrictive use policies (copyright, terms of use, pay for access) affect the public’s ability to publicly access the law and libraries’ abilities to share law and preserve it.
We invite papers that:
- Discuss how libraries have encountered restrictions on access to legal information, including how libraries have responded to these restrictions to make law more accessible for their users.
- Discuss the role of libraries/librarians in advocating for access to the law, including successful advocacy efforts in any country to expand access to the law.
- Discuss legal restrictions to free access to the law in a particular country (examples can include copyright, terms of use restrictions, etc.) and how those restrictions affect people’s rights to access the law and libraries’ in their ability to help them.
- Discuss perspectives or offers expertise outside of a North American or European perspective.
Papers should reflect the conference theme, “Inspire, Engage, Enable, Connect”.
Language of the session:
Papers should be in one of the seven IFLA’s official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian and Spanish, however, abstracts should be in English. The Presentation for this session must be done in English, as no interpretation services will be available for this session.
Important dates and submission guidelines
Deadline to submit proposals/abstracts: 20 April 2022
Proposals should include:
- Title of the proposed presentation
- Abstract of the proposed paper (no more than 300 words)
- Name of presenter plus position and/or title
- Employer / affiliated institution
- Contact information including e-mail address, telephone number
- Short biographical statement of the presenter
Send proposals via email to:
Leslie Street, email: lstreet@wm.edu
Please note:
At least one of the paper’s authors must be present to deliver a summary of the paper during the program in Dublin. Abstracts should only be submitted with the understanding that the expenses of attending the conference will be the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.
All papers that are presented at the WLIC 2020 will be made available online via the IFLA Repository under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Authors of accepted papers must complete the IFLA Authors’ Permission Form.
All expenses, including registration for the conference, travel, accommodation etc., are the responsibility of the authors/presenters. No financial support can be provided by IFLA, but a special invitation letter can be issued to the author(s)/presenter(s) of accepted papers.