We are glad to share that CALM will be back in 2024! The Conference schedule is now available. General registration will open on April 17 at 3 PM Eastern time. Please join our listserv through the conference website, and follow us on Twitter and Bluesky for the latest news.

Welcome to CALM

The Conference on Academic Library Management (CALM) strives to fill a gap in the academic library professional development landscape by focusing on practical management skills and concrete practices. There is a significant focus in academic libraries on “leadership;” this conference is interested in the practical skills of management that impact the day-to-day work of departments and units within academic libraries.

We see the practice of management as a set of skills and dispositions developing over time through ongoing education, community sharing, and critical reflection. CALM offers a venue to collaborate with library managers across various academic institutions to imagine solutions to local problems.

We acknowledge that our profession has a varied history with diversity, equity, and inclusion. CALM seeks to be an inclusive and welcoming space which encourages diversity of ideas and thought. We invite participation from individuals of all ethnicities, countries of origin, gender identities and expressions, ages, abilities, religions, sexual orientations, physical appearances, body sizes, economic backgrounds, scholarly or professional backgrounds, employment, and other differences.

This conference is for current middle managers, administrators, coordinators, and those that aspire to take on those roles. We will focus on person-centered management practices that aim toward creating more just and inclusive workplaces.

We recognize that there is a tension in talking about lessons learned in management and sharing details of those who are managed. We affirm that privacy for personnel issues must be maintained at our conference. We stand in solidarity with all people, both managers and managed, and especially those who hold marginalized identities. However, it is not possible for us to grow as managers in our field without talking about our experiences; and we ask our presenters not to share anything that would identify an individual they supervise(d), especially in a negative context.

You can also share all of our recorded videos with colleagues on YouTube and visit our repository on OSF Meetings.

Land Acknowledgement

In previous years of the Conference on Academic Library Management (CALM), conference organizers offered a land acknowledgment statement to recognize the lands we collectively occupy and the Indigenous people from whom these lands were forcibly taken.

Now in our third year, we have further reflected upon the practice of land acknowledgements and instead would like to reexamine what has become an increasingly common occurrence at conferences and other large gatherings. Please visit our Land Acknowledgement page to learn more about our approach this year, and our partnership with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.