Tag: conference posters

Anecdotes from a Film-Loving Health Science & STEM Librarian

3 months into my first academic librarian job, these last couple weeks have been by far the busiest, but most exciting! From getting posters accepted into conferences, planning a forum (Check out the upcoming student journal forum 2026! ), continuing to teach and do consultations, I have been feeling quite occupied and positively stressed. I decided to be share some of my personal projects and celebrate the week of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA2025) Conference in Baltimore and how it fits into my work as an early-career academic librarian. Seemingly unrelated at first, I continue to be amazed at the different intersections at which film and librarianship continue to meet. Although fundamentally and theoretically very different, the practice of archiving and librarianship hold many of the same important values and ways of providing access to information, building community, and promoting educational engagement across all domains.  

Originally from Calgary (a.k.a. cowtown), one of the most exciting things about moving to Toronto for grad school was its proximity and availability of so much culture, and events like the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Film festivals were one of the best ways to not only watch films, but to share oral histories, learn about local diasporic communities, and become introduced to film archives and libraries in the city. This seemingly small interest of mine led me to take a course called “Introduction to Archiving Audiovisual Materials,” then “Film Preservation” where I learned to handle and preserve various film materials. Then I made a map of various Toronto diaspora film festivals because I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t missing any films or screenings around the city. It happened quite often  that I would find about an anticipated screening or a festival after the event had passed, since there was no consolidated resource. It was something I wanted to make for myself but definitely thought it would have more potential as a collaborative community resource. Thanks to the support of a graduate fellowship from U of T’s School of Cities and supportive mentors, this was the project I ended up presenting in Baltimore this week.  

Another project I was able to explore was the last one that I completed as a Graduate Student Library Assistant at the Gerstein Science Information Centre at U of T. This project will be presented at the Ontario Library Association conference in January and I am super excited to share the different methods in which health sciences education and cinema share a symbiotic relationship. One aspect of the project I was passionate about was the interaction with students, the idea of receiving input and participation, even as a stand-alone library display. Just having the space to talk about alternative ways of learning can be a beneficial opportunity to learn more about different ways to approach the same material outside of traditional text and articles. There is definitely a lot of potential for film archives and libraries to explore this area of medical humanities, as already seen in the many graphic medicine collections around the world.  

My first AMIA conference!

I also continue to be interested in libraries and librarian representation in mainstream culture and on screen. From the idea of library as a “third space” to the notion of a helpful librarian, I hope to do more research on these various topics and really understand how they came about and continue to have an effect on those looking into entering the profession, those interacting with librarians and libraries, and the impact it has on librarians and information professionals.  
I had thought that this “film phase” would fade out after high school, but as I moved around cities and travelled more, this hobby of mine allowed me to grow as an individual and engage with the world in another way. The various opportunities that I’ve had related to film and librarianship, even over just the last 2.5 years have been so unexpected, but wholeheartedly rewarding. 

Attending the Telluride Film Festival’s student symposium program in 2024!

I hope to continue refining my research skills and expand my horizons as a new information professional while continuing to fuel my passions in librarianship and film. I am also so curious if there are other academic librarian film enthusiasts out there or other ways librarians have brought their passions into their jobs. I have found quite a few film blogs and papers on the topic and would love to learn more (my personal favourite: https://reel-librarians.com/). Finally, I have to mention this Letterboxd list (https://boxd.it/tgNBu) that I continue to update whenever I notice a librarian in a movie?   

Paper Or Poster Session At ACRL: Making The Choice

Given a choice between preparing and submitting a proposal for a contributed paper or a poster session at ACRL’s 2011(15th) national conference, which do you think most academic librarians would choose. I need less than 2 seconds to think about this one. It’s the paper.

When it comes to ACRL’s national conference my take is that most academic librarians will prefer to submit a proposal for a contributed paper. This post is inspired by two things. First, like me, you’ve probably been thinking about the 2011 conference and potential ideas to turn into proposals. That means considering whether the idea works best as a paper or panel, or perhaps a Cyber Zed Shed presentation – or even a poster. Second, I enjoyed reading Female Science Professor’s Chronicle essay about the pros and cons of paper presentations and posters for scientists. I’m hardly familiar with scientific conferences, but I gather from the essay that papers and posters are thought of quite differently from the ACRL conference. For the scientist it seems that paper and poster are on near equal footing. For academic librarians, the posters are akin to a runner-up prize. I’d like to see that change.

Having had papers, panels and one poster accepted at ACRL here are some thoughts on the relative merits and challenges of each, using FSP’s framework for the comparison.

Stress Level:This one goes to the contributed paper. If you are fortunate enough to get it accepted (and more will this year because each session will now have three – not two – paper presentations – but each gets less time), then you need to write up a paper on a deadline. Presenting a poster is fairly informal; little preparation for the actual poster session is needed. The same cannot be said for a formal paper presentation.

Work Level: Once you have the basic idea for the poster worked out, and you know what’s going on it, the poster presents a reasonable amount of work – and let’s face it – you can put as much or as little effort into it as you like. We’ve all seen some pretty ratty posters. Then again, I’ve seen some posters where the reaction is “Damn, how did they do that?”. It’s that good. I took the middle road, and used PosterSession.com to create my poster. That made it even less work – and they shipped the thing right to my hotel. You don’t even have to schlep a poster through the airport anymore. You can’t really fake the paper. Not only do you have to write it, but if you haven’t put the work into it you’ll look like an ass at the presentation. No librarian wants to look like an ass. This round goes to the paper.

DIfficulty Level: Putting together a good poster is not easy. Compared to a paper the constraints are much greater. With limited space, what do you choose to include and omit. That’s the hard part – and getting it to fit and look good. Sure, the paper presents some of the same challenges, but we all know few folks are ever going to read the paper. If you slack a bit on it no ones going to raise a fuss. But a lot is riding on the poster’s organization and appearance. If it’s lousy you can pretty much forget anyone coming over to talk to you. I’m going with the poster on this one.

Prestige Level: Hands down – the paper. Just consider the acceptance rate as a factor. Most of the posters are the rejected papers being recycled as poster presentations. But you can be different. Make the poster session your first choice.

Fun Level: Hands down – the poster. At ACRL 15th each paper presenter will get all of 12 minutes to present – and then 8 minutes for Q & A. All the hard work will be over in a flash, but you will be able to add a nice notch to your CV. With a poster you get the hold the floor for nearly an hour. Paper sessions can be pretty stodgy and formal. Over in the poster session area it’s a good time with lots of informal conversation. People are walking around doing their people watching. Yes, you can add the poster session to your CV, but it just won’t carry the same weight. I’m not saying that’s right. It’s just the way it is.

Let me just throw out an idea here. What if ACRL offered a version of early admissions for the conference. That is, you could submit a poster session proposal that would be given priority consideration, and by doing so you would agree not to submit the same proposal as a contributed paper. That would probably reduce the number of paper proposals and perhaps increase the quality of what is contributed because only those who felt they had a very strong shot would be likely to submit while those less certain of their chances would go for the more sure thing – the poster session. But does that then relegate the poster to lower status. Well, I think it already is lower status at our conference because the general deal is that many rejected papers become the posters. The only way we could boost the status of the poster session would be to reduce the number accepted. If there were only 50 slots for posters instead of 150, the acceptance rate would be far lower and it would be considered more on par with getting a paper accepted. Without data I can’t say for sure, but perhaps that is the case with science conferences.

So what will it be? A contributed paper or a poster session? Personally, I prefer the panel session. I think it offer a nice balance between the paper and the poster in terms of prestige, pressure, difficulty (not so much if you choose the right people) and fun. Whichever option you choose, good luck with your proposal.