Call for Papers
Analog meets Algorithm

The 114.BiblioCon will take place from 19 to 22 May 2026 at the ESTREL Berlin.
The event is organised by the Berufsverband Information Bibliothek e.V. (BIB) and the VDB – Verein Deutscher Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare e.V. (Association of German Librarians).
view submitted abstract

Topics

Presentations can be submitted until 30 November 2025.

As organisers, we invite you, our colleagues who are experts from academic and public libraries, information institutions and representatives of relevant associations, to submit proposals for presentations, labs and panel discussions on the following topics.

Here: AI, manipulation techniques, authenticity of generated content, quality management, promotion and acquisition of necessary skills, data sovereignty, disclosure of data sovereignty through contracts, transparency requirements, socio-political contexts

Here: Open Science, project results, networking, classification of content, research data management, research software, library software, metadata, standard data, LinkedOpenData

Here: Construction, services, working conditions, learning locations, places of residence, research locations, workflows

Here: career changers, library expertise, qualifications, requirements management, personnel recruitment, further education, training, staff retention, personnel development

Here: Regulations, book preservation, grandfathering, colonialism, publishing, library control, management

Here: citizen participation, citizen science, democracy, politics, engagement, volunteering, diversity, influence

The #Freiraum26 space in the exhibition is ideal for presenting current topics. Planning for #Freiraum2026 will be possible at short notice, allowing for the inclusion of contributions that can be planned at short notice.

General information

Submissions can only be made online; other methods of submission will not be considered, nor will incomplete submissions. Each submission must include an abstract, details of the panellists and moderator, all speakers, as well as details of the target audience and time/space requirements.

Please always link your submission to the names of all persons involved. Only these names can be checked for scheduling conflicts during the programme planning process. Unfortunately, subsequent programme changes are not possible.

BiblioCon would like to increasingly incorporate ideas and best practices from an international context and enable colleagues from non-German-speaking libraries and other fields to access discussions and developments. We therefore expressly welcome submissions in English. When submitting your contribution, please indicate whether you plan to give your presentation in English or are flexible in your choice of language.

BiblioCon thrives on the commitment of its participants, which is why lecture fees and travel expense reimbursements are not provided. The programme committee reserves the right to make individual decisions on requests from associations and committees.

Presentations by company representatives are part of the fee-based company programme. If company products are discussed in presentations by professional colleagues, it must be ensured that the focus is on service aspects; otherwise, the submitted contribution will be treated as a company presentation.

Individual colleagues who are not (or no longer) employed full-time in libraries and who earn their main living from consulting and training activities are welcome to submit contributions. However, these contributions will be treated as company presentations and subject to a lower fee. This applies primarily to ‘solo self-employed’ individuals and not to employees of companies (see Company Presentation).

We are seeking proposals for events in the form of an abstract of no more than 2,000 characters (including spaces). The title must not exceed 100 characters, and the organisers reserve the right to edit titles. Please provide a short biography of no more than 300 characters, preferably with a link to the content of the abstract submitted. Please also list the expected space requirements and target audience for your events. Please remember not to overload the presentations and prepare your presentation in a legible and concise manner.

We will evaluate the submissions based on the following criteria:

Quality of content
Practical relevance
Topicality and innovation potential
Internationality and international connectivity
(Project) results
Conference contributions from commissions of the organising associations can be submitted as fully curated sessions. The session will be evaluated as a whole by the programme commission.

Publication of presentations

By registering their contribution, speakers agree that the abstracts of accepted presentations will be made available on the online publication server (BIB-OPUS, https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bib-info) until the start of the 114th BiblioCon.

Speakers may also submit the full version of their presentation online in good time before their presentation – media submissions will still be accepted on site. Details will be communicated to speakers upon acceptance of their presentation.

Selected presentations will be published after BiblioCon either in the VDB’s open access journal ‘o-bib’, in the printed conference proceedings published by o-bib, in the BIB’s journal ‘BuB – Forum Bibliothek Information’ (online and print) or on the BIB-OPUS server. Speakers whose presentations are selected for publication will be asked by the respective editorial team to submit their manuscripts to the editors shortly after the end of the conference. Further details will be communicated to speakers upon acceptance of their presentations.

Information about the Different Types of Event

If you have any special requirements regarding room furnishings, these must be specified when submitting your application. As renovations are expensive and labour-intensive, we are planning a medium-sized room with the option of customisation. Tables can be moved to the edges or brought into the centre, and chair circles and open spaces can be arranged.

Please note: With the exception of the general meetings of BIB, VDB and dbv, access to the working sessions at the congress venue is only possible for registered congress visitors.

Registration for general meetings is carried out by the responsible committee.

Other working sessions submitted will be assigned to the regular review process by the programme committee. Please note that working sessions with multiple speakers and content focuses must be submitted as content-related sessions for the main programme in the form of individual presentations. Allocation will be based on availability criteria; rooms outside the conference venue may have to be used if necessary.

In order to allow sufficient time for discussion, individual presentations are limited to a maximum of 20 minutes. Only individual presentations may be submitted, not blocks of presentations. If there is a thematic connection between several presentations, please indicate this in the comments field when submitting your proposal.
Due to the limited speaking time, a maximum of two speakers per presentation can be considered. Both will be listed in the list of speakers (online and in print). All other authors and/or speakers can only be listed directly in the abstract and will not be included in the review of time overlaps (see above).

If a moderator is proposed for one or more presentations, please name them. Speakers receive free admission. If several people are presenting, only one person will receive this benefit.

Panel discussions are intended to be controversial debates on a given topic. Each participant pursues a thesis, which they briefly present at the beginning of the discussion. The audience participates in the course of the discussion.

Panels with more than five participants plus a moderator are not permitted.

Between 90 minutes and two hours are available for panel discussions. Please state the (controversial) theses in the abstract, as well as the participants (if applicable, also in status; ‘requested’) and the moderator of the discussion. The moderator of each discussion receives free admission.

Panel participants who are not from the BID context and who bring an external perspective to the discussion can be granted free admission via a free day ticket (by emailing registrierung@bibliocon.de). There is no entitlement to this benefit. The speakers at BiblioCon are volunteers and are not paid a fee. This also applies to moderators.

Hands-on labs will once again be held at BiblioCon. Hands-on labs focus on a topic, software tool or service from a practical perspective and aim to encourage active participation from attendees. Hands-on labs consisting of a series of presentations will not be accepted. The organiser of the hands-on lab will receive free admission (one person).

Conference contributions from committees of the organising associations may be submitted as fully curated sessions. Individual presentations must be submitted as usual. However, it may be indicated that they are part of a planned session. The session will be evaluated as a whole by the programme committee.

Companies are invited to present their products in the company exhibition and at company presentations, where they can engage in conversation with customers. Company presentations, exhibition space and sponsorship services can be booked via the online booking system ‘Exhibition and Sponsoring Ordering System (ESOS™)’. Ms Alexandra Krohn from K.I.T. Group is available as your contact person at ausstellung@bibliocon.de. Further information and the relevant terms and conditions can be found in the exhibitor and sponsor handbook under the heading ‘Company Presentations’.

Posters on current and innovative issues and topics may be submitted. A separate call for submissions will be issued in January 2026.

Dates and Contact

Dates
Submissions will be accepted from 1 September to 30 November 2025.
Authors will be notified by the end of February 2026.

Posters may be submitted from 12 January to 20 March 2026.
A separate call for posters will follow.

Submissions for contributions to #Freiraum26 will be accepted from 12 January 2026.
A separate call for #Freiraum26 will follow.

Contact
For further information, please contact Ms Janine Kutsche from K.I.T. Group at abstract@bibliocon.de.