DLF FORUM + COVID-19

July 23, 2020

When we opened our original call for proposals, the world was a very different place. CLIR’s Digital Library Federation Forum is and always has been a meeting place, a marketplace, and a congress for digital library practitioners from DLF member institutions and the broader community. Now that our event must be virtual, we look forward to bringing our meeting place, marketplace, and congress online—as always, with community at the center. 

Indeed, our guiding focus for this year’s Forum is building community while apart, chosen as a top priority by respondents to our recent DLF community surveyAs one step to this end, all of our 2020 events will be free of charge, and resources will be made widely available after our events. Later this summer we’ll share information about how to register for our events.

The explicit reckoning of the Black Lives Matter movement shows that pervasive racism persists and contributes to wrenching inequalities in the United States, especially among our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. CLIR/DLF has long recognized this inequity; diversity, social justice, and ungated access to cultural heritage have been integral to our mission. We reaffirm our commitment to continue pursuing greater equity and justice throughout the DLF Forum, working for and with our community to strive for inclusivity that prizes the chorus of diverse voices needed for a lasting equality.

CLIR/DLF is therefore pleased to open a new call for proposals (CFP) for our online DLF Forum, which will take place alongside DLF-affiliated events during the week of November 9. While we welcome proposals from anyone with interesting work to share, the planning committee will prioritize submissions from BIPOC people and people working at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other BIPOC-centered libraries, archives, and museums, in alignment with our commitment to do more to ensure marginalized voices have better and more central representation. To do so, we have self-identification options in the proposal submission form.

May 20, 2020

Based on the overwhelming responses to our community survey, the number and distribution of proposals for all CFPs, and CLIR’s ongoing monitoring of the pandemic situation, it has become clear to us that for the health and safety of our attendees and presenters, we must transition all of our fall events to a virtual format. We are sorry we won’t be able to explore Baltimore in 2020, but we’re already making arrangements to hold our 2022 events there, so we’ll just have to wait a bit longer to enjoy time together in Charm City.

What does this mean for 2020? We are not entirely sure yet, but we would love your input. We are happy to share this second community survey about virtual events in which we ask for your thoughts on what you’d like to see from a virtual CLIR/DLF event or series of events this fall. We would appreciate your input by Monday, June 1.

We understand that you may have questions, and while we may not have the answers just yet, we welcome the dialogue with you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at forum@diglib.org, and thank you so much for your understanding and patience during this unprecedented time. Stay healthy and safe, and we’ll be in touch with more soon.

April 29, 2020

Take our community survey and share your feedback with CLIR/DLF on the upcoming DLF Forum and affiliated events, Learn@DLF, NDSA’s Digital Preservation, and CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium. These events are currently scheduled to take place in Baltimore November 8-12. We sincerely appreciate it.

Responses are encouraged by May 11, 2020, though this form will remain open after that date.

March 26, 2020

We hope you and your families are staying healthy and safe during these unusual times. We write with some updates regarding planning for the 2020 DLF Forum and affiliated events.

Our current intention is to hold the DLF Forum and affiliated events as scheduled in Baltimore this November. CLIR is monitoring the science and current CDC guidelines about COVID-19 and, at this point, it appears that restrictions on large gatherings will be in effect at least through late spring. If these measures have the intended effect of containing the virus and “flattening the curve” so that the situation improves over the summer, we are optimistic that we’ll be able to proceed with the Forum as planned this fall.

We’ll be in ongoing communication with you over the coming months, and we hope you’ll be in communication with us, too. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome, on the DLF-Announce listserv, on Twitter @CLIRDLF, or directly to Aliya and the Forum planning team at forum@diglib.org. Please get in touch if you have questions, concerns, or ideas for new ways we could energize our community for mutual support.

We know that many of you may be adjusting to working from home, caring for family members, or concerned about changes in your income, healthcare, or other personal assets, not to mention feeling the weight of the uncertainty each day brings. We know it may be challenging to think ahead to a conference taking place in November. On our end, the planning must continue to be sure we are ready for a great event later this year, but in watching this unfolding situation, we are committed to being as flexible with our deadlines as possible. To that end, we are extending the Call for Proposals deadline for all of our events by two weeks, to Monday, May 11.

We also want to reassure all of you that, if circumstances change so that the Forum cannot be safely held in person as planned, we will be in touch as early as we can. Additionally, going forward we’ll share with you monthly updates on conference planning milestones, as well as any Covid-19-related changes.

Again, if you have any questions or if you just want to talk, please reach out to us. We wish you and your families safety and health, and, as always and especially in times like these, we are grateful for this wonderful DLF community.

Warmly,
Aliya and the CLIR/DLF Team