Call for Proposals
Submission Deadline: August 14, 2023
Expected Acceptance Notice: August 31, 2023
The submission deadline has closed
Event Details
The ai4lam community is organizing its annual international conference, Fantastic Futures 2023, to be held at the Internet Archive Canada, Vancouver, Canada, on November 15-17 2023. The event will feature on-site presentations, panels, short talks, workshops, and an unconference.
We are bringing together a diverse audience of professionals from libraries, archives, museums (LAMs), heritage organizations, as well as industry, advocacy, and policy groups, interested in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the work of libraries, memory organizations, scholarship, arts and culture, and information preservation and access. The conference will be an opportunity to share current knowledge, practices, issues, and practical-oriented experiences of AI-based work, and to engage with a diverse community of colleagues from peer institutions and a broader set of stakeholders.
To promote a diverse community of participants, we welcome submissions from an international set of applicants representing a range of different organizations, collections, and levels of institutional experience with regards to considering or conducting AI-based work. We encourage proposals that enable learning, share knowledge, and foster discussion.
Proposal Types
We are looking for these types of proposals:
- Workshops: Workshops of any length. We have two available workshop classrooms at Simon Fraser University downtown campus (near the conference venue) reserved on the first day, November 15.
- Unconference: We will have an unconference at the conference venue on the first day, November 15.
- Panels: Panels will be one hour sessions and should have a minimum of three participants.
- Presentations: Traditional 15 minute conference presentations. Accepted proposals will be grouped by topic into sessions.
- Short Talks: Short 5-7 minute presentations will be grouped into sessions.
Possible Topics
We encourage submissions on a wide range of topics related to AI and its applications within libraries, archives, and museums. Topics included but are not limited to:
- For workshops:
- Introductions to workflows, methods, and procedures for the application of AI in LAMs
- Use cases and specific tutorials on AI tools and technologies
- Workshops on the development of AI-related policies and procedures
- For panels and presentations:
- Experiences with exploration and implementation of AI work in LAMs
- Using AI approaches to enhance the discovery and search of collections
- The role of AI in information retrieval and recommendation engines
- Promoting equitable access to AI infrastructure and services
- Computer vision and image-based AI approaches for LAM materials
- The use of AI in digital preservation and long-term digital content stewardship
- Ethical considerations related to AI for LAMs including accessibility, biases, climate impact, data privacy, and information security
- Building teams and staff competencies for AI work in LAMs
- Teaching and learning experiences and how to democratize the use of AI
- Sources, creation, and sharing issues related to datasets and models for AI in LAMs
- Archiving and preservation of AI models and tools
Submission and Reviews
Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words through the Easychair platform by the deadline of August 14, 2023. Each submission will be considered for inclusion in the conference programme by at least 3 independent reviewers who are part of the programme committee. Fantastic Futures 2023 is primarily an in-person conference (though talks will be recorded and released openly after the event) so preference will be given to proposals that will be presented in-person at the event.
Timeline and Confirmations
The submission deadline for proposals is August 14, 2023. We expect to send notifications of acceptance by August 31, 2023. Accepted presenters will be expected to register for and attend the event.
Additional Information
- We hope to offer a very limited amount of travel assistance funding, depending on overall event funding available. If you are likely to require travel assistance in order to attend, please indicate so in your proposal.
- The event is guided by the ai4lam code of conduct.
- Please send any inquiries to ff2023@archive.org or the #ff2023 event channel in the ai4lam Slack.