Call for Proposals: USAIN 2012. Due November 30

The United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN) Contributed Papers and Posters Committee is now soliciting proposals for contributed papers, posters, and panel discussions for the 13th Biennial USAIN Conference, Minneapolis, MN on April 29-May 2, 2012.

The theme of the conference is, “Soil, Water, Food and Energy: Agriculture in an Era of Global Climate Change.” Please consider submitting a proposal, tied to this theme, in one of the following tracks:

● Technology Track - Technologies at Lightning Speed

● Just in Time, Just in Case: Collection Development, Management, and Preservation

● Collaborative Research and Learning Environments for Physical and Digital Spaces

● Managing and Supporting Data and Publications: Innovative Curation

● Curriculum and Instruction for Twenty-first Century Learning

● Extended Education and Outreach to Nontraditional and Community Customers

For detailed descriptions of the program tracks, please visit http://plant.lib.umn.edu/USAIN2012/program.php.

There will also be a poster session, suitable for sharing preliminary research or short project reports.

To submit a proposal, please use the form: http://abstracts.cce.umn.edu/conferences/submit.aspx?conference=109&type=abstract. The proposal should be a maximum of 350 words, in .DOC format, and will be submitted in the “Upload Attachment” section.

Paper and panel submissions should indicate the program track of choice.  Poster submissions should be so indicated. Proposal deadline is November 30, 2011.  Notification of proposal acceptance will occur in January 2012. 

Criteria for proposal review are: relevance to the conference theme; contribution to the knowledge of the field; and appropriateness to presentation format. While preference is given to USAIN members, non-members are welcome to submit a proposal. Upon proposal acceptance, the author/presenter must register for the USAIN 2012 conference.

Presenters will be invited to submit their papers for post-conference publication in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Information (JAFI). Information about the journal, as well as instructions for authors, can be found at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1049-6505.

For more information about proposal submissions, please contact committee chair Elizabeth Berman (elizabeth.berman@uvm.edu; 802-656-8130).