January 23-25, 2013
From Collections to Connections: Turning Libraries “Inside-Out”
(1st call for papers)

The “21st BOBCATSSS Conference”, will take place in Ankara, Turkey, from 23-25 January 2013.

As it is known BOBCATSSS is an annual conference series that is traditionally organized by students from European universities. At its 21st anniversary in January 2013, BOBCATSSS is organized by students from two universities, being Department of Information Management of Hacettepe University, Turkey and The Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark.

From Collections to Connections: Turning Libraries “Inside-out” being the main theme, BOBCATSSS 2013 aims to bring together students, professors and specialists in the field of library and information science. Today, the world of libraries and librarians is, more than ever, set for change. The focus is shifting towards creating connections between people and developing online resources, rather than static collections focused on th e physical book. Part of information specialist’s role is to facilitate and help the users navigate through this jungle, and in due course find our own place in this ever changing world: How will the role of the librarians develop in the future? What will happen with the classic libraries and librarians in the future? Will the physical library disappear and only exist in the digital world? In the light of these challenges, BOBCATSSS 2013 will be a meeting place between the professionals of tomorrow, and researchers and teachers of today.

Conference Theme(s)
Main topics of the conference include (but are not limited to) the following:


Serving Society in a Digital Age
The world is changing faster than we know it and everybody has a say in the matter. People are creating and sharing online in a way never experienced before. They tweet, make Facebook updates and they want to make an impression. How can we be sure that both new and old is preserved; what is important to keep and what are the demands of the digital population?

Information Professionals as Change-Agents
Challenges demand creative thinking, entrepreneurship and innovation. One of the digital challenges for the users is to be able to navigate through the digital jungle of information. A part of being information professional is to help people become e-literate. How do we meet the cha llenges in our profession and how can we influence the agenda?

Designing New Library Spaces
Today it’s not enough for a library to be able to store collections. The space itself has to be engaging and inspiring to facilitate the users need for information, experiences and cultural inspiration. A plethora of libraries being built today are not only new icons but are also trying to reach the above mentioned goals in new ways. How can we the information professionals encourage this trend?

Mobile Information Services
We live in a world of hand held devices, and information has to be instantly accessible. More and more information is being digitized, and the volume alone is staggering. One of the tasks of the information professional is to create accessible designs, not compromising the content. Ideas can come from unlikely sources however. Are we capable of listening outside our own ranks?

Developing New Competencies
Lifelong learning is a term easy to use, but hard to master. Which competencies do we expect the users to need, and what can they expect from us? Are we, as information specialists, sufficiently prepared to guide them? Are we able to combine the need-to-have with the nice-to-have skills the patrons want to a satisfying degree and how do we keep improving?

Submission of Papers
In addition to papers, short papers (pecha-kucha), posters and workshops on conference topics and general papers on information management are also welcome. Student papers and posters are very welcome. Please use the extended format guide available on the Symposium web site to prepare your contributions and proposals, and send them to us using the Conference Management Software (conftool) at https://www.conftool.pro/bobcatsss2013

Requirements for Abstracts
An extended abstract is required. The abstract has to be in Word format (i.e. doc or docx). There should be an author description (first name, surname, department, degree, university, city, country, e-mail), a title, three to six keywords. It should only contain plain text (no figures and no tables), and the extended abstract should be between 500-700 words in Times New Roman, font size 10. Also, please include your references and your citations using APA style. Please see detailed information on http://www.bobcatsss.net.


Important Dates
First call: March 15th 2012
Second call: May 15th 2012
Third call: July 24th 2012

Deadline for abstracts: September 24th 2012
Author’s notification: October 24th 2012
Final paper submi ssion: November 24th 2012

Conference: January 23rd – 25th 2013

With kind regards,
The Bobcatsss 2013 student team and

Yaşar Tonta
Serap Kurbanoğlu
Hacettepe University
Department of Information Management
06800 Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey
Tel: +90312 297 80 00
Fax: +90312 299 20 14


Jack Andersen
Nanna Kann-Christensen
Royal School of Library and Information Science
Birketinget 6
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
T +45 32 58 60 66
D +45 32 34 13 04