ELAG is Europe’s premier conference on the application of information technology in libraries and other cultural heritage organizations. For over forty years, the ELAG (European Library Automation Group) conference has provided library and IT professionals with the opportunity to discuss new technologies, to review on-going developments, and to exchange best practices.

The next ELAG conference will take place in Riga, Latvia from 07 to 10 June 2022.

“What a year it has been!”, this alas we need to write for a second year in a row during this global COVID-19 pandemic. But, our ELAG team is still very enthusiastic to organise our next event in the beautiful town of Riga, with conference rooms, workshops, dinners and a drink in the local pubs. Yes, we don’t know what will happen next year, but we set a deadline to make a decision by March 1, 2022. By this date we will decide if the next ELAG take place in person or a virtually (like we did in 2020 and 2021). Rest assured, whatever the plans or the situation is in 2022: there will be a next ELAG. And, we need your help with presentations, workshops and ideas for bootcamps.

How you can contribute!

You can contribute to the ELAG conference in several ways, by submitting:

• A presentation proposal:  These are the core of the ELAG programme. Presentations allow you to present your work in 25 minutes in a plenary session. After which there are 5 minutes for questions.
• A workshop proposal: Workshops are run throughout the main ELAG programme and are used for group discussions on a selected topic. The workshop leader acts as the moderator of these discussions. Workshops are split into 2 sessions on 2 days of 1.5 hours each. On the last day the participants of the workshop need to present a short 10-15 minute summary about the results of the workshop during the plenary session.
• A bootcamp proposal: Bootcamp take place on the day before the conference. They typically provide hands-on training on software, tools relevant to the community. Bootcamps can be short (2-3 hours) or take a whole day (6 hours).

Some ideas and previous topics for workshops and bootcamps: DevOps & infrastructure bootcamp, Fail4Lib (history of fails in your software projects), deep learning in libraries, a deep dive into tools like Ansible, Apache Nifi, and Catmandu; or other!

Guidelines for conference presentations, workshops and bootcamps are available at: https://wp.me/P5cYg0-s

To submit a presentation, workshop, or bootcamp proposal, please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/uhuQfj2XusTsKZqc9

The deadline for proposals is February 14, 2022. All proposals will be reviewed by the ELAG 2022 Programme Committee, and the results of the review process will be sent by March 11, 2022.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Peter van Boheemen, Chair of the ELAG Programme Committee, at peter.vanboheemen@wur.nl