Role of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Achieving Civic Engagement and Social Justice in Smart Cities

Mohamed Taher Announcement
Location
Pennsylvania, United States
Subject Fields
Archival Science, Educational Technology, Library and Information Science, Peace History / Studies, Teaching and Learning

Currently, I am in the process of editing a forthcoming book entitled, Role of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Achieving Civic Engagement and Social Justice in Smart Cities, to be published by IGI Global, an international publisher of progressive academic research.

CFP URL: https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/5071

Important Dates

February 23, 2021: Proposal Submission Deadline
March 9, 2021: Notification of Acceptance
May 8, 2021: Full Chapter Submission
June 21, 2021: Review Results Returned
August 2, 2021: Final Acceptance Notification
August 16, 2021: Final Chapter Submission

About the Book (a quick glance):

The focus of the book is on two themes, civic engagement, and social justice. This brings in two perspectives that become the value of this book. First, it is to illustrate that librarians are not just stamping books, and libraries are not just lending books. Libraries and librarians are actively engaged in social goals and encourage community-led partnerships. Second, it presents evidence that library-led engagement does facilitate in bridging the digital divide and therefore a social good. The lessons and best practices in the book will include, among others, digital literacy skills with a focus Social inclusion and civic participation, as a social role of Libraries, Archives and Museums (LAM), have been dealt with individually (e.g., social justice in libraries, 9). The book presents a holistic approach to understanding implications of the collective work of LAM, as it evolves today.

Little of the existing research has identified the requirements of community leaders and experts (they are not even included in PEW's Digital Age survey, 1.) with regard to social inclusion or community engagement. Furthermore, the voices of LAM have not been heard collectively--presenting the other side of the coin.

Here are a few suggested areas of research:

General areas:

e. Conduct a survey, focus group or interview with LAM leaders, and ask: If communities are creating an atmosphere for engagement, such as civic interfaith literacy programs will LAM's be interested in being collaborators?

example. ["Forum is From Interfaith Encounter to Engagement:, Stories of Interfaith Dialogue; Tackling Prejudices; Learning from Differences; Engaging a Racialized Society, and The Life Cycle of Dialogue."(2)]

Specific areas of research:

1. LAMs, Community organizations (schools, academia, NGO, non-profits) and Information Studies (LIS) are, hypothetically, mutually dependent and therefore well connected? Need evidence based studies.

2. Digital literacy services, (e.g., media bias, fake news, civic interfaith orientation) can be more attractive, only when libraries market their services as more reliable than oral sources, deceptive sites, digital dividers, hidden Web, etc.

Objective

a. Identify plans for the next five to ten years for better social inclusion or community engagement: The book aims to bring new voices from the community and LAM- - two sides of the coin. Community leaders & experts will bring their expectations, experiences and insights (with this data, LAM community leaders and experts will bring their voices, enabling both sides to work closely, benefitting the readers, in many ways).

b. Identify projects that are short term and long term, for a better role of LAM's services in the digital age: The book will present the lessons learned from digital literacy to reduce social isolation,, and enhance civic engagement (empowering to detect channels of discrimination, hate, violence, etc.).

c. Highlight measurable outcomes for increasing satisfaction of the community: Provide current issues, trends and challenges faced by LAM's in service delivery/customer feedback, first in increasing civic engagement and second in restoring social justice.

d. Assess the accomplishments: Present the state-of-the-art review of community engagement and social justice models in practice and in curriculum.

Target Audience

Community organizations

Educational leaders and faculty in Schools

Information management leaders and professionals

Social and community specialists in smart city design

Front line workers in all public and private sectors

Policy makers engaged in training and HR in diversity

Researchers, and developers of digital tools

Recommended Topics

Part I: Digital Literacy Framework (social and civic)

1. Big data literacy 2. Civic engagement literacy 3. Cultural competency literacy 4. Cyber crime literacy 5. Digital scams literacy 6. Eco-Spiritual literacy 7. Fake news literacy 8. Gender literacy 9. Hate crimes literacy 10. Religious literacy (Averting Violent Extremism)

 

Part II: Social Justice/Civic Engagement Framework 1. Acceptance 2. Advocacy 3. Civic-minded 4. Collaboration 5. Compassionate 6. Diversity 7. Respect

 

Part III: Interfaith Literacy for Civic Engagement, Strands: 1. Dialogue Dimension; 2. Dialogue of Life; 3. Dialogue of social involvement; 4. Theological dialogue; 5. Dialogue of Experience Part

Part IV: Emerging Trends

• Community (organizations, leaders, experts, planners, methodologists, consultants, stakeholders, participants)

1. Partnership with LAM &/or Information Studies programs: What works?

2. Social justice and civic engagement: policies, programs, process: Best practices

3. Civic Interfaith and other literacies: Lessons learned

• Information Studies Programs (organizations, faculty, researches, students, alumni, leaders, experts, planners, methodologists, consultants, stakeholders)

1. Partnership with LAM &/or Community programs: What works?

2. Digital Literacy Instruction: Models for LAM

3. Social justice and civic engagement: Train the trainer program

4. Civic Interfaith and other literacies: Hands on experience, critically evaluated success stories

• LAM (organizations, leaders, experts, planners, methodologists, consultants, stakeholders, participants)

1. Partnership with Community Organizations &/or Information Studies programs: What works?

2. LAMs partnership: Public,/Private. Local, Global: What work's

3. LAM-led community activities: Lessons learned

4. Community-led activities: Success reports

5. Evaluating tools (e.g., LibQUAL) and Techniques: Best practices.

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before February 23, 2021, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by March 9, 2021 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by May 8, 2021, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/.../contribu.../before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Role of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Achieving Civic Engagement and Social Justice in Smart Cities. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery® online submission manager.

Note: Cited references are available on request..

Contact Information

Dr. Mohamed Taher, MLISc. (Mysore U., 1978); Ph.D., Library Science (Calicut U, 1989); D.Litt., History, (B. R. Ambedkar U, 1999). At present serving since 2002 as Chief Information Officer, Canadian Multifaith Federation, Toronto. A former Fulbright Scholar (Rutgers Univ, NJ.,, USA., 1989-90),  a Faculty, Seneca College, Library Information Technician Program (2005-),, Director,  American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad, India (1983-1997). and Information Scientist, KASCT (1997-2000)

IHis publcations include, Libraries in India - National Developmental Perspectives: A saga of Fifty years since independence. (New Delhi , Concept Publishing, 2001); Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives (Scarecrow, 2006); Job Search The Canadian Way: What Works, What Doesn't, (Akbani Informatics, 2011); Practicum in Digital Literacy Programs (work  in progress);' Interfaith Literacy Resources in the Index Islamicus: A. Bibliometric  analysis (lib conf., 2011);  'Faculty-Librarian Collaboration: Emerging Convergence or Potential Divergence of Paths in Changing Context of Libraries? in  Khare, V. P., In Singh, S., et al. (2019). Emerging trends for smart libraries: A festschrift in honour of Professor V.P. Khare. (New Delhi :Shree Publishers & Distributors, 2019)..  He is also the editor of: Multifaith Information Manual, (Canadian Multifaith Federation, 2010); and Multifaith Perspectives in Spiritual & Religious Care (Canadian Multifaith Federation, 2020) 

 

Contact Email
mt@akbani.info