The International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) invites submissions for paper presentations, panel discussions, poster/demonstration sessions, and workshops for its 26th annual conference to be held in the Chicago metropolitan area at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois on June 7-10, 2000.

IASSIST conferences bring together data professionals, data producers, and data analysts from around the world who are engaged in the creation, acquisition, processing, maintenance, distribution, preservation, and use of numeric social science data for research and instruction.

CONFERENCE THEMES

Over the last four decades, data archives and data libraries have managed, preserved and provided access to "digital collections" of numeric data. We are at a historic crossroad in the development of standards, technological capability, and innovation in data delivery. This year's theme emphasizes this rich past and looks at innovation in data services operations and current digital library and archive initiatives that will shape access and services in the 21st century. The conference is an opportunity to explore service models for data, government information and mapping.

Invited plenary speakers include Kenneth Prewitt, director, U.S. Bureau of the Census; William Kruskal, emeritus professor of statistics, University of Chicago; and a plenary panel organized by Diane Garner, Librarian for the Social Sciences, Harvard University.

Proposals for papers and poster/demonstration sessions in the following areas are particularly welcome:

Innovative Services and the Effective Use of Technology

• Administering and providing data services in an academic library
• Innovations in data delivery and access methods
• Implications of Web-based data distribution and access models
• Integrating GIS and spatial data in the digital library
• Bringing numeric and spatial data into the classroom
• Expanding and preserving multi-media resources
• Developing support services for qualitative analysis
• Promoting statistical literacy
• Data warehousing

Promoting Preservation and Standards

• Preserving our (numeric) digital heritage
• Archival challenges of the digital government
• Promoting metadata and documentation standards for data
• Exploring XML, RDF, GILS, FGDC, and Dublin Core applications for data
• Data quality and authentication

PROPOSALS DUE BY JANUARY 14, 2000

The deadline for paper and poster/demonstration proposals is January 14, 2000. The Conference Program Committee will send notifications of the acceptance of proposals by February 1, 2000. There is no mandatory length of proposals/abstracts, but please provide enough information so the Program Committee can adequately review your proposal. Abstracts from last year's IASSIST Conference can be found at http://www.yorku.ca/org/iassist/asbstracts-ft.htm Please send submissions, including proposed title and abstract, to: ia2000@src.uchicago.edu

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For the most current information check the IASSIST 2000 conference website at: http://www.src.uchicago.edu/datalib/ia2000 or contact:

Fay Booker, Data Librarian
Social Science Research Computing, University of Chicago
booke@src.uchicago.edu
(773) 834-0150/FAX (773) 702-2101

Diane Geraci, Data Services Librarian
University Libraries, Binghamton University
dgeraci@binghamton.edu
(607) 777-2181/FAX (607) 777-4848

Ann Janda, Data Consultant
University Library, Northwestern University
a-janda@nwu.edu
(847) 491-4090/FAX (847)491-8306

IMPORTANT DATES
January 14, 2000 Deadline for conference proposals
January 14, 2000 Deadline for Poster Session pPoposals
February 1, 2000 Notification of proposal acceptance
May 8, 2000 Registration deadline
June 7-10, 2000 IASSIST 2000