AMICAL Full and Affiliate members: AMICAL’s Small Grants program for training, staff exchanges and projects is now open for a new application cycle with a deadline of 2 June. We’ve made a few changes to the Small Grants guidelines, so potential applicants, as well as AMICAL Representatives, should definitely read on! The Small Grants guidelines have been revised to reopen Project applications but also to clarify and emphasize the strategic goals of the program – to explain what kind of activities we’re aiming to support, ideally, in order to maximize the consortium-wide impact of this program. (Big thanks to Committee members Nikolina Ivanova-Bell, Evi Tramantza, Fatmeh Charafeddine and Maha Bali for their help with revisions!) The guidelines are admittedly long and detailed, but reading them up front can mean time and frustration saved later from having to rethink and revise applications that the Grant Review Committee felt were not well aligned with the framework of the program. As this is a long post, here’s a list of what’s covered below: What’s new in the guidelines: aim, scope and review criteria What’s new in the guidelines: reporting AMICAL Representatives: your role in the Small Grants program Upcoming deadlines for applications How to find out more: Q&A sessions What’s new in the guidelines: aim, scope and review criteria We’ve given clearer focus to the aim and scope of the program. Aimed at individuals or small groups at member institutions, the Small Grants program can provide funding of €500 to €4000 for the following categories of activity: Professional Development (externally organized training and events) Staff Exchanges/Consultation (site visits by AMICAL peers or external experts) Projects (course-integrated projects, or initiatives with some level of campus-wide reach) We revised one of the review criteria to make it clear that we’re hoping applications will align with the profiles, breadth of impact, and strategic priorities targeted by AMICAL’s current Mellon grant (ideally, applications should demonstrate all of the following, but they may still be considered if one of these elements is missing): individuals who are local leaders in direct or indirect ways activities expected to have significant impact beyond the individual, reaching other peers at their institution or across the consortium activities that support one of the following:innovative & effective library & technology leadership information & digital literacies locally grounded and collaborative forms of digital liberal arts other consortially shared goals identified by AMICAL’s member structures such as committees or interest groups We introduced a criterion to recognize member institutions’ investment in the proposed activity – expressions of their priorities by providing financial or other forms of support. We look, therefore, at whether the application demonstrates any of the following (these are not required, but can strengthen the application): partial financial support from the institution endorsement by a direct manager or academic officer engagement or interest by local peers in the project/goals Nonetheless, we also made it clearer that we are open to funding initiatives at all different stages of institutional support: Initiatives that already have local administrative support but need financial support to get started or to move to a new level Initiatives that need to demonstrate viability and value before they can acquire local administrative support Initiatives that are experimental or exploratory in nature, which may or may not have a chance of winning institutional support but which are valuable for encouraging innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. What’s new in the guidelines: reporting If you’re awarded with a “Project” Small Grant, you’ll be expected to provide links to project outputs and report on the impact of AMICAL resources on the project. In sharing the project outcomes, you’ll also need to provide reference AMICAL’s support for the project, and ensure that there is a basic English description of the resource and contextual information about its significance. Any course materials produced should be made as widely available as possible (e.g. with an open license, as OER). If you’re awarded with a Small Grant for a leadership development activity, you’ll be asked to wait at least 6 months to report (to allow adequate time to apply training to leadership functions). You’ll then be asked to provide concrete information about the impact of the activity on your planning work, or on your work with your institution’s leadership or governance structures. AMICAL Representatives: your role in the Small Grants program Representatives’ roles are outlined in the Operational Guidelines for the consortium, but here are a few responsibilities that these imply specifically for Small Grants: identifying colleagues at your institution who may be interested and eligible to apply for the Small Grants program (given the program’s scope), and sharing information about the program with them ensuring that potential applicants from your institution understand the program's scope and expectations ensuring that applicants from your institution have prepared an application that is viable according to the Small Grant guidelines Upcoming deadlines for applications Here are the deadlines: 2 June 8 September 3 November We’ll keep to roughly 2-month application cycles after that, with exact dates to be announced this fall. Responses are sent back by 2 weeks after the deadlines. How to find out more: Q&A sessions If you’ve read the guidelines but still have questions, we’ll be holding two office-hour (or half-hour...) sessions where you can ask questions of AMICAL Administration: Wednesday 22 May, 11:00–11:30 (Paris time, local time) Tuesday 28 May, 10:00–10:30 (Paris time, local time) Jeff and Alex will be on hand to answer questions, listen to your feedback, provide advice for preparing your applications, etc. No need to sign up, just follow the meeting link that will be posted a few days beforehand on our website.

Are you interested in the Digital Humanities Institute - Beirut, but you did not have a team and project to propose for the AMICAL cohort to DHI-B? Given the large number of applications we’ve received from project teams, we are unable to accept applications for the cohort from individuals. However, there are still some ways in which AMICAL may be able to help you attend DHI-B or other digital humanities events over the coming year. (AMICAL Representatives: please share this information right away with any local colleagues who might be interested.) Apply for a micro-grant to DHI-B A limited number of €500 micro-grants will be made available on a competitive basis to AMICAL colleagues wishing to participate in DHI-B. No more than 5 DHI-B micro-grants in total will be awarded, and no more than one DHI-B micro-grant will be awarded to any one institution. To apply for a DHI-B micro-grant: Review the Small Grant guidelines and the application form (for Professional Development). Ensure that you or your institution would be able to cover any costs for you participation that go beyond €500. Draft your micro-grant application according to the review criteria. Under “Describe how the activity clearly aligns with and supports your role”, be sure to answer this in terms of the specific short workshop and long workshop that you wish to attend. If there is an appropriate second choice, explain this as well, in case your first choice is canceled. Submit your Small Grant application form no later than 24 March, selecting “Professional Development” as category and indicating no more than €500 for the “Total requested amount”. You will be notified by 25 March whether your micro-grant application has been accepted. All responses will be definitive, and no revisions of applications will be possible. If your micro-grant is approved, you will need to register for the DHI-B event as an attendee by 26 March. Side note: our Small Grant guidelines normally do not allow applications related to AMICAL-sponsored events, which have their own travel support programs. However, AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee officers decided to make an exception for DHI-B, because of the strong interest in DHI-B, but also because our program to fund a DHI-B cohort provides year-long team-based project support, which makes it fundamentally different from the micro-grants proposed here for individual DHI-B attendance for training. Other forms of AMICAL support for DH projects and training Aside from DHI-B, AMICAL maintains a list of Recommended professional development events, many of which are focused on the digital humanities. If you are seeking training related to digital humanities, you may want to apply for Small Grant support to attend one of these events. If you need financial support for a digital humanities project that fits the scope of our Small Grants program, you’ll be able to apply for a Small Grant for that after the application cycle ending 7 April. AMICAL will be organizing a series of DH-themed webinars throughout the year, beginning this April. These will be open to all AMICAL members, and you’re welcome at any time to send us a suggestion for a webinar speaker, a topic, or a question or challenge to address. As part of the “Capacity-building programs for the digital liberal arts” built into our current grant from the Mellon Foundation, AMICAL will also be organizing other forms of DH-themed training, consultation and project support over the coming 2 years. More information about these opportunities will be posted on our website and in particular on AMICAL Connect (AMICAL members can create a Connect account here if you don’t have one already).

Update 15 March 2019: n earlier version of this post misidentified the awarded Small Grants. This has now been corrected. Recent Small Grants awarded AMICAL’s grant committee recently reviewed and accepted 3 Small Grant applications (including 1 revision of an earlier request): Title Applicant Institution Category ACRL Immersion Program 2019 Joyce Aways American University of Beirut Professional development ACRL Conference 2019 Moqueet Afzaal Forman Christian College Professional development Library Juice Academy Program Assia Essalih Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane Professional development Reopening now for Prof Dev & Staff Exchanges, later for Projects The Small Grants application form was unavailable for a period, but the program is now officially open for new applications for the activity categories of Professional Development and Staff Exchanges. Note that the form and review criteria are slightly different for each of these different categories. If you were hoping to apply for Small Grant funding to support a project, please note that we are still revising the guidelines for the Projects category of Small Grants. We expect to reopen for project-based applications with the June application cycle. In the meantime, if you would like to request AMICAL’s support for a project idea that you think fits into the scope of our Small Grants support framework (see the review criteria), you may send us an email at contact@amicalnet.org to let us know. We can’t promise specific kinds of support, but we can at least let you know what may be possible from AMICAL and perhaps connect you with relevant colleagues or resources. Next deadline for applications: 7 April The next round of applications will close at midnight on 7 April. A final round for this academic year (including Project applications) will close on 2 June. Responses are generally sent out within the 2 weeks that follow the deadline. For support to attend scheduled events or other date-sensitive applications, remember to apply with sufficient lead time, and draw our attention to any such time constraints with a follow-up email after you submit your applications form. Find out more Full information, including the criteria we use in evaluating applications, can be found in our Small Grants guidelines, and note that applicants must be from Full or Affiliate member institutions.

As part of AMICAL’s 2018-2021 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for “Building Leadership and Capacity for Digital Liberal Arts across AMICAL”, a cohort of approximately 15 colleagues from member institutions will be given project support over a period of months centered around group-coordinated participation in the Digital Humanities Institute - Beirut (DHI-B) 2019. We invite you to consider applying for the cohort, if possible as a team with one or two other colleagues from your institution. The cohort program follows a model similar to last year’s successful AMICAL cohort to DHSI 2018 and seeks in particular teams that: are leading projects or initiatives in digital humanities, or digital interdisciplinary scholarship or pedagogy, in liberal arts environments are composed of faculty, librarians, technologists and/or academic administrators have formed around a project that would clearly be served by participation in DHI-B See “Who should apply”, below, for categories of projects and other information about what we’re looking for. The cohort of teams will attend DHI-B with financial support from AMICAL, but they will also participate in pre-event and post-event webinars, discussions, and consultations organized by AMICAL. The pre- and post-event activities are designed to maximize the impact of cohort participation on the team’s projects, on their institution, and on AMICAL as a collaborative network. See Cohort activities & post-cohort opportunities for more detail, including a variety of AMICAL-funded programs supporting digital humanities projects that the cohort will have access to. The Chief Academic Officer of your institution will be receiving shortly a similar announcement, encouraging them to identify one or more local teams to endorse. If you have a team or project that aligns well with this cohort, get in touch with your provost or dean to let them know you’re thinking about applying. The application itself will need to be forwarded to AMICAL by the provost/dean, as explained below. Build your team and apply Here’s what you can do to get a team from your institution into the AMICAL cohort to DHI-B: Share this message with faculty, librarians, technologists and/or deans who might be interested in joining the cohort as a project-based team. Read carefully Who should apply, Expectations of participants, and the application criteria. Define your project and team. Notify your institution’s AMICAL representative that you are preparing your application. Discuss your team and project with your provost/dean. Review the DHI-B workshop offerings and the Cohort-focused elements of DHI-B. Preview the application form and draft your responses. Send your application to your provost/dean, asking them to endorse and forward your application to contact@amicalnet.org by midnight 3 March (deadline for teams; deadline for individuals will be posted later if space is available). See How to apply for a more complete guide to preparing a cohort application. Limits for cohort numbers and support Endorsement by your provost/dean does not guarantee your application will be accepted for the cohort, since our grant resources limit the numbers we can support, and since our application criteria may give higher priority to certain kinds of team or project. For applications accepted from Full and Affiliate member institutions, however, AMICAL would fully cover airfare and accommodations. The DHI-B registration fee is covered for all participants by the event sponsors. See What's covered for more information. Keep in mind that no more than 4 individuals may be included in the applications endorsed and submitted from any one institution, and teams are limited to 3 people. Not all applicants can be accepted, but we hope to have as many AMICAL teams as possible joining the cohort. Detailed information about the target profiles for applicants is shown below. Complete information about the cohort program is posted on the AMICAL cohort to DHI-B website, but any questions can be sent to contact@amicalnet.org.

Openness in teaching and research: Broadeing our horizons for the digital future Registration for AMICAL 2019, the consortium's 16th annual meeting and conference, has officially opened. The Conference will take place 29 March – 1 April at the beautiful campus of the American University in Cairo (AUC), which is marking its centennial. 🎯 What's in the program? The AMICAL Conference grapples critically with issues relevant to international liberal arts institutions. This year's program focuses on openness in all its expressions – from open access publishing, to open educational resources and practices, to openness as a liberal arts value. Anita Walz – Open Education, Copyright & Scholarly Communication Librarian at Virginia Tech – and Robin DeRosa – Director of Interdisciplinary Studies at Plymouth State University – will offer keynotes addressing open education from librarian and faculty perspectives, respectively. Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams – Associate Professor, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town – will offer two workshops focusing on Open Educational Resources. As always, the majority of the program is member-contributed. We used a two-round proposal process which allowed the Program Committee to offer more substantial feedback this year, making for stronger proposals, well-aligned with the Conference's theme. Sessions proposed by AMICAL colleagues will address openness but also a variety of other topics, including: information and digital literacies; assessment and transparency; digital pedagogy and scholarship; innovations in libraries, technology, and teaching; and much more. Eschewing the traditional presentation model, most of the Conference program focuses on dynamic sessions – such as Birds of a Feather discussions, hands-on workshops, and the Community Idea Exchange, which showcases innovative local projects and initiatives. You may view the tentative schedule and list of speakers for more information about the program. 👩‍🏫 Who should attend? We encourage the staff and faculty of AMICAL institutions to attend if they are interested in the Conference theme or, more broadly, AMICAL's mission of working together on libraries, technology and learning. Attendees include a broad cross-section of doers from member institutions, including: librarians (especially library directors and teaching librarians), faculty developers, disciplinary faculty, program chairs and coordinators, instructional technologists and designers, IT directors, and academic leadership. We enjoy seeing old friends at AMICAL, but we love seeing fresh faces. So share this announcement with your colleagues! 🌟 Financial support If you're an AMICAL member, review the financial support page on the website to find out if you are eligible. Hotel room sharing is a requirement for some categories of support, but even if you're not in that category, we strongly encourage you to share a hotel room with an AMICAL colleague. Room sharing supports the sustainability of our annual conferences and allows more people to participate. 🏨 Hotel accommodation During registration, Conference attendees may use the registration form to book their hotel room. More information about accommodation is available on the site. 🛠️ Full workshops For the first time, we folded the full workshops we hold during the year into the event itself, in the form of a pre-conference day (29 March): "Collaboratively designing creative solutions to challenges within AMICAL" will be offered by AUC's Center for Learning and Teaching as a spiritual successor to the event they offered last year on teaching and learning innovation (TALIX). "Information literacy in practice: Leadership, communication, teaching" will be offered by a cohort of AMICAL members who recently attended ACRL's Immersion Program together and combine their expertise with know-how from that program. More details about these workshops and the form to apply will be made available next week. If you wish to attend a full workshop, do not register for the Conference until you have applied for the workshop and been accepted. If you indicate on your Conference registration form that you're attending a March 29 full workshop, but you have not been accepted for the workshop, your registration and any financial support for that day will be considered invalid. ✉️ Clarify your visa requirements Before registering, check if you need a visa and what the process of acquiring one is for your nationality. Most attendees will need a visa. If your visa application requires an invitation letter from the organizers, you can request one: In the registration form Before registering (for AMICAL members who are applying to a full workshop) by sending a request to contact@amialnet.org with your name exactly as it appears on your passport. 👍 Register by February 10 The deadline for registration is February 10. That's less than a month away, so make sure you register in time. We say this every year – but it's true. This will be the best AMICAL yet! Register for AMICAL 2019 Note that the this event is open to AMICAL members and individuals invited by the organizers. On behalf of the Joint Organizing and Program Committees, Alex Armstrong, Program & Technology Officer, AMICAL

What do “digital literacies” mean in your institution-level conversations about student learning outcomes? What kind of human resources are in place at your institution to work toward digital literacy-related outcomes? AMICAL invites member institutions to participate in a survey that will gather, analyze, and share back with members information about how these questions are being answered at our 29 different member institutions. AMICAL Representatives and other relevant colleagues have received instructions for participating in this “AMICAL inventory of institutional statements & human resources supporting digital literacies.” Digital literacies are a key challenge for higher ed AMICAL’s member institutions share the goal of offering an international liberal arts education that prepares students to be critically thinking learners, scholars and citizens of an increasingly digital world. Digital literacies can be seen as a basic requirement for enabling such outcomes, and they are increasingly recognized as an essential issue for higher education generally. “Improving Digital Literacy” was recognized in this year’s New Media Consortium Horizon Report as one of the “Significant Challenges Impeding Higher Education Technology Adoption,” while “Digital and Information Literacies” was among the top 5 Key Issues in Teaching and Learning for 2019 spotted by EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Goals of this survey Our study aims to find out how AMICAL institutions are responding to these challenges by adopting digital literacies as an institutional goal, and to help members learn from the approaches their peers are taking. Ultimately we hope to identify opportunities for strategic consortial actions or resources that will advance digital literacy initiatives across AMICAL institutions. What we’ll do with the data Responses will be shared with other AMICAL members, and possibly with a broader audience through presentations or publications. If you would not like certain information or documents to be shared outside of AMICAL, however, just tell us so in your response. Who may need to be involved Your institution’s AMICAL Representative should complete the form or coordinate with a relevant colleague to complete it. In preparing responses, reach out to local colleagues most relevant to each question, for example: persons with responsibility for gen ed or first year experience programs or their curricula assessment officers directors of centers for teaching and learning library directors deans/provosts Deadline: 20 January If you will not able to obtain all requested information by our deadline, let us know as soon as possible to see if we can accommodate a later submission. Participate! If you’re the AMICAL Representative at your institution, you should have received instructions and a link. If you’re not the Representative, contact your AMICAL Representative for more information on how to contribute to this survey.

New Small Grants program guidelines have now been posted, launching the training-focused piece of this program. Applications are now open for these Small Grants for Professional Development (externally organized / staff exchanges / peer training) . The last day to apply for the first application cycle is 18 November. Application cycles will reopen every 2-3 months throughout the year, but note that budgets of €500 or less are treated as Micro-grants and can be submitted at any time. We expect to make another announcement in November when we open applications for Small Grants for Projects. Small Grants overview "Strategic Professional Development: Small Grants" is one of several programs funded by our new 3-year Mellon Foundation grant for "Building Leadership and Capacity for Digital Liberal Arts across AMICAL". The Small Grants program – including both the Professional Development and the Projects pieces – aims to fund smaller, member-initiated activities that support AMICAL's mission, in particular in the following areas: Strengthening innovative & effective leadership among librarians and technologists, in light of their changing and collaborative roles within evolving liberal arts institutions Raising the effectiveness of members' programs for information and digital literacies Helping members to develop localized and collaborative forms of digital liberal arts Small Grants can support initiatives of individual AMICAL colleagues, either from a single member institution or from a small number of member institutions in partnership. Larger initiatives, for example workshops open to colleagues from all AMICAL institutions, should be proposed to the Coordinating Committee as an AMICAL-sponsored event or project, not through the Small Grants program. Small Grants cannot be used to support participation in the AMICAL Conference or other AMICAL-sponsored events, which have their own procedures for requesting support. Coordinating Committee officers' revision of the guidelines The new guidelines were revised by the Coordinating Committee officers (Nikolina Ivanova-Bell, Evi Tramantza, Fatme Charafeddine, Maha Bali and myself). Aside from aligning the guidelines with the new Mellon Foundation grant, here are some of the other key changes we introduced: specific recommendations are made for strengthening team applications (several colleagues coordinating their participation in an event together), to take full advantage of the potential for increased local and consortial impact the earlier guidelines' preference for applications from individuals "who are engaging with the consortium for the first time, or who have a history of active engagement" has been removed, in order not to discriminate against those just who are just starting to increase their activity in the consortium. Many thanks to the other officers for helping to ensure that the program not only reflects the goals of the new grant, but also broadly represents members' interests and aims for fair and equitable support. See the Small Grants guidelines for more information, including how to apply.

July brought to a close the third and final year of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s $800,000 2015-2018 grant to the American University of Paris on behalf of AMICAL: “Promoting AMICAL Library Leadership, Faculty Collaboration and Digital Initiatives to Strengthen Liberal Arts Abroad.” AMICAL’s Administration, its committees and its members have been hard at work this past year, advancing the goals in that grant, and pushing forward other projects that raise the quality of library, technology and curricular resources across our member institutions. In this first news item for the new academic year, I’d like to highlight some of your accomplishments, as a consortium, over the past year. We’ll be sharing news about the upcoming year shortly, but I think it’s important to look at past successes as we think about how to direct our energies as a group going forward. Here’s what I’d like to highlight in particular: Consortial discounts on library resources AMICAL cohort to the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) Onsite event: Teaching and Learning Innovation Exchange (TALIX) Online events: info lit, digital pedagogy and digital humanities Small Grants AMICAL 2018: Our annual Conference Recognizing exceptional consortial work: Elisabetta Morani New member institutions Increasing self-sustainability Looking forward: 2018-2021 I mention below some of the colleagues who have been moving these initiatives, but there are many I didn’t have space to list. Thanks to all members who have been participating in these initiatives, since their value comes from the interest and direction you give them. Consortial discounts on library resources Elisabetta Morani (John Cabot University) and other members of AMICAL’s E-Resources Committee worked this past year to expand the number and value of AMICAL’s discounts on databases and other licensed resources. According to figures gathered for 2017, members benefited last year from an average of $13,000/institution in total discounts through AMICAL, with a maximum of $72,000/institution. Our E-Resources Committee has also been leading initiatives for member libraries to experiment with new models of access to scholarly resources. In addition to our ongoing pilot with JSTOR to provide demand-driven selection of ebooks, AMICAL members participated in Knowledge Unlatched’s successful 2017 drive to turn 300 HSS academic titles and 15 journals into open access titles. AMICAL continues to work with OCLC as well to bring latest-generation, cooperative library systems to members at discounted prices. AMICAL cohort to the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) AMICAL launched this year an initiative intended to strengthen members’ collective ability to engage in digital humanities teaching and scholarship. The AMICAL cohort gathered institution-based teams and coordinated their participation in the June 2018 Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria. The cohort included 21 faculty, librarians, instructional technologists and deans with local curriculum-related DH projects at the following institutions: American College of Greece American College of Thessaloniki American University of Beirut American University in Cairo American University of Central Asia American University of Paris AMICAL arranged expert consultation and peer feedback for the cohort, helping them prepare for effective participation at DHSI. Two webinars were organized, on mapping in the digital liberal arts and on digital project-course integration, with presentations (open to all members) followed by small-group consultations (just for the DHSI cohort). An online group space was created for the cohort on AMICAL Connect, where cohort members shared their projects and challenges they’re facing with them. AMICAL provided most of the cohort’s essential funding to attend this 2-week event, recognized throughout the DH community as one of the best sources for learning about DH at any level. As a DHSI partner organization, AMICAL was able to secure discounted rates for all member participants. At the event, cohort members participated in 1-2 weeks of intensive workshops on a range of both theoretical and practical topics related to their projects. At several points they met face to face as a cohort as well, the last of which included a a well-received workshop by Hoda Mostafa (American University in Cairo) on design thinking in the context of the cohort’s digital projects. As they left Victoria, the cohort was asked to revise their project plans in light of DHSI and their cohort participation, using a digital project plan template developed by Alex Armstrong (AMICAL). As part of our follow-up planning, we ran a survey of all AMICAL members to gather suggestions for future DH training needs, and we’re currently using that in planning upcoming webinars and other events. After DHSI, the cohort will now form part of the core of a growing community of AMICAL colleagues interested in innovative digital approaches to humanities teaching and research. More on all of this in a coming newsletter! Many thanks to Alex, and to Najla Jarkas (American University of Beirut), for their leading roles in organizing the DHSI cohort initiative Onsite event: Teaching and Learning Innovation Exchange (TALIX) In February, the American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted the first edition of TALIX, the Teaching and Learning Innovation Exchange for AMICAL members, as part of its own anniversary event marking 15 years of its Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT). The primary goal of TALIX was to connect AMICAL colleagues and help them grow ideas for projects related to innovation in teaching and learning. The event brought together 21 visiting AMICAL colleagues and dozens of AUC colleagues, including faculty developers, disciplinary faculty, instructional technologists and librarians. One goal was to inspire and assist members’ work on the development of centers for teaching and learning. AUC’s successful Center for Learning & Teaching provided an onsite source of expertise and consultation during the event. The event also led to the creation of a vibrant interest group of faculty development center coordinators across AMICAL, and colleagues are already benefiting there from discussion, feedback on plans, and ideas for future collaboration. A number of other collaborative projects were proposed at TALIX, including an inventory of institutional statements & human resources supporting digital literacies at AMICAL institutions, currently under development. Special thanks to Hoda Mostafa (now Director at AUC’s CLT), Maha Bali and Nadine Aboulmagd, who played leading roles in organizing TALIX, and to Aziza Ellozy (Founding Director of CLT). In addition to showcasing AUC’s CLT for colleagues at TALIX, Aziza has generously shared with AMICAL members on many other occasions her experience, wisdom and irrepressible enthusiasm for improving students’ learning experiences. We wish her luck in her new role as AUC’s Associate Provost for Transformative Learning and Teaching. Online events: info lit, digital pedagogy and digital humanities AMICAL organized 13 scheduled online events in the past year and supported many other informal online member meetings. The events were largely organized by member groups, and among the most active of those were AMICAL’s information literacy librarians. Highlights of AMICAL’s information literacy initiatives include: Virtual Forum online discussions of recent information literacy topics, and follow-up meetings with librarian and faculty participants from the 2017 Co-Design information literacy workshop (coordinated by Michael Stoepel of the American University of Paris) Information Literacy Journal Club events: online, real-time events encouraging librarians to read the current professional literature and discuss its implications for their work at AMICAL institutions (coordinated by Kathryn Vanderboll and Vanessa Lawrence, both of American University in Cairo) Other member groups have organized events on current topics in digital pedagogy, digital literacies and digital humanities, with recent topics including: Backward design for digital project-course integration The intersections of digital pedagogy and information literacy Strategies for teaching about fake news Mapping in the digital liberal arts Faculty outreach for information literacy librarians E-portfolios Small Grants Recognizing that we needed to give more attention to the planning, monitoring and support of our Small Grants-funded projects, we revised our Small Grant guidelines last year in ways that strengthen applicants’ commitments to clear timelines and reporting of milestones, ensure that the necessary expertise for projects’ success is in place or being developed, and make staff exchanges more effective by establishing clearer host-institution support and planning for activities and outcomes. Our Small Grants program awards up to €4,000 for professional development, staff exchanges and local projects that relate to AMICAL’s mission. We awarded 18 grants in support of: 12 professional development opportunities 5 local projects 1 staff exchange between AMICAL members Highlights of last year’s grants include our support for: The attendance of a cohort of six librarians from five institutions to ACRL’s Information Literacy Immersion Program. The leadership development of mid-career librarians at three institutions (Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians; Online Certificate in Library Management; engaging a library organizational change consultant). Travel support to conferences where staff had been accepted as speakers. A team from American University of Central Asia to Open Education Global Conference, to support their institutional shift to using OER. Projects involving the collection, transcription/description and analysis of oral histories or narratives at three member institutions (American College of Thessaloniki, American University in Cairo, American University of Central Asia). One Small Grant funded the participation of Rayane Fayed and Rana Al Ghazzi in an EDUCAUSE workshop on developing mentoring programs for technology professionals. Rayane and Rana then developed a proposal for a more general mentoring program for AMICAL members; this year we’ll be drawing on their work and consulting with them as we make plans for supporting mentoring across our consortium. All Small Grant applications were reviewed by AMICAL’s Grant Review Committee, whose members are the officers of our Coordinating Committee. In addition to myself (Jeff Gima, American University of Paris), this includes: Nikolina Ivanova-Bell (American University in Bulgaria) Evi Tramantza (American College of Thessaloniki) Fatme Charafeddine (American University of Beirut) Maha Bali (American University in Cairo) This group reviewed, discussed, and responded to dozens of applications over the past year. They work with criteria that they helped develop, and that are a bit complex, but intended to ensure equitable support and fruitful outcomes. It’s time consuming, but I think their efforts have contributed to the increasing value and impact of the outcomes of our Small Grants program. AMICAL 2018: Our annual Conference In May, the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) hosted our most recent AMICAL Conference. The AMICAL Conference brings together staff and faculty who are passionate about improving the learning experience of their students through innovative and effective use of libraries, information and technology. This year there were over 100 attendees from 24 member institutions, including: 47% from libraries & archives 34% faculty or faculty developers 14% instructional designers/technologists or IT managers/staff 5% administrators & other roles The conference theme was “International liberal arts in a digital era: reimagining a shared vision for libraries, technology and learning.” The program was built from member proposals and addressed topics such as: Information & digital literacies Rethinking teaching and learning Reimagining libraries Strategic use and development of technology in higher ed Professional/leadership development in higher ed Growing the AMICAL collaboration network The event blended the host institution’s strengths and character with expertise from both consortial and international colleagues. Here are some highlights: Keynotes on digital literacies from Gina Siesing (CIO & Director of Libraries, Bryn Mawr College) and John Traxler (Professor of Digital Learning, University of Wolverhampton), and follow-up sessions with the speakers A 1.5 day member-led workshop on low-barrier open source tools for digital humanities pedagogy and scholarship Member-led workshops on: Resource sharing in the digital age; Research data management; Frameworks for building teaching expertise; Creating narrative non-fiction podcasts in the classroom Panels on: Librarian-faculty collaborations using the ACRL information literacy framework in course design; Learning space design projects at AMICAL institutions 35 Community Idea Exchange presentations presented over 3 sessions, sharing local innovations, lessons learned from challenges and pilot projects, and ideas proposed for future consortial collaborations Local culture infused the event in myriad, memorable ways, from Henry Myerberg’s sources of inspiration for AUCA’s architecture, to AUCA students’ talent showcase, to the lunchtime yurt-building demonstration with a Kyrgyz storyteller performing the Epic of Manas. AMICAL 2018 will not be soon forgotten, thanks in particular to lead AUCA organizers Anguelina Popova and Ekaterina Kombarova. The event was remarkable for our invited speakers (see Gina Siesing’s blog post about it) as well as for attendees, one of whom noted this: "The demographic of institutions and representatives is unlike anything I have seen at a conference before. This rich blend of disciplines and cultural contexts generated some fantastic, if sometimes difficult, conversations. The interdisciplinary character of the conference and sessions led to me coming away from this conference with more ideas and plans for the immediate future than any other conference or workshop I have ever attended." Recognizing exceptional consortial work: Elisabetta Morani At our recent conference, AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee officers bestowed the consortium’s first Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service to Elisabetta Morani (JCU) for exceptional and sustained efforts she has made in support of consortial goals. She was recognized in particular for her foundational work as Chair of the E-Resources Committee, and her longstanding commitment to building a consortium that combines innovation with responsiveness to members’ current needs. Brava Elisabetta! New member institutions I’m pleased to announce two new institutions that were approved as members by AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee this Spring: Effat University (Affiliate Member) and Habib University (Network Member). This brings us to 29 member institutions, representing 22 different countries! It was a pleasure to have colleagues from Effat and Habib with us at AMICAL 201, and we’re looking forward to their participation in future events and initiatives. Increasing self-sustainability Though AMICAL has benefited from critical support from the Mellon Foundation, it’s important to note that last year member institutions raised their own financial contributions to AMICAL’s operating costs to a total of €45,000. With this financial participation, our institutions help sustain consortial programs valued by members. They also demonstrate, importantly, institutions’ commitment to the grant’s goals, institutions’ recognition of the value of AMICAL membership, and institutions’ confidence in the future value of our collaborative efforts. Plans for 2018-2021 We announced last January a new $1.1 million, 3-year grant to AU Paris for “Building Leadership and Capacity for Digital Liberal Arts across AMICAL”, and we’re excited to be embarking on this and other projects this fall. The linked blog post provides an overview of the new grant, and in the next few weeks we’ll be sharing more news and plans for the current year. Join our community to make sure you get the news!

It might sound trite to declare it, but it’s absolutely true that my world has expanded through participating in AMICAL 2018. Kyrgyzstan and all the places between Philadelphia and Bishkek are now on my enhanced mental map, and I’m now happily aware of this phenomenal network of international liberal arts colleges across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. What a gift to join this generous, creative, welcoming community of “amicos” for days of exploration – of digital literacy models, of continuous evolution for liberal arts curricula and learning spaces, and of the Land of Forty Tribes and its history, culture, and terrain. Angie Popova, the organizing committee, and all of the people who helped to host us at the American University of Central Asia were thoughtful about every aspect of our visit, from ensuring smooth transportation and comfortable lodging for us to introducing us to the arts and traditions of Kyrgyzstan to setting up tours and trekking opportunities to offering hospitality at every turn. The campus building at AUCA sits elegantly facing and mirroring the Ala-Too mountain range. The interior space is elegantly designed to bring the community into connection and to accommodate the full spectrum of curricular and co-curricular activities for the institution. Art infuses the building – from the multi-lingual mural in the area where we met each day for refreshment breaks, to the ropes reminiscent of yurt straps that criss-cross the stairwell to the sculpture representing traditional Kyrgyz shoes out front, to the string art representing the building itself in the conference room, to the exhibit on chewing gum that transformed a typical blight of any school into creative output. Henry Myerberg, architect of AUCA and also of Bryn Mawr College’s Carpenter Library, was on the program and with us for the conference, and it was a joy to meet him in Central Asia. The conference days at AMICAL were well-designed to allow for robust sharing of ideas and information, active learning and reflection, and even connection with colleagues around the world who were interested in highlights from the meeting, but unable to attend in person. This commitment to Virtually Connecting was an impressive element of the conference, facilitated on site by Nadine Aboulmagd. The days and evenings were also infused with fantastic experiences unique to Kyrgyzstan, including the construction of the yurt in the campus courtyard, the chance to hear a manashi perform a portion of the Epic of Manas, the Kyrgyz and Russian dancing and singing at the Ethno-Complex Supara, the Osh Bazaar and the Museum of Fine Arts tour, and so much more packed into the visit. I loved the Birds of a Feather sessions, including the one on monuments and graffiti across international contexts convened by Evelina Kelbecheva, after which we spontaneously decided to make a trip to the Ata-Beyit Memorial Complex in Chong-Tash, organized in agile form for us by Angie. This was a special experience in that we had the opportunity to learn about several layers of Kyrgyz history from 1916 to 1938 to 2010, and we also enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon in the sunshine, soaking in this moving set of memorials and also seeing new parts of the world from new perspectives. As we drove out to Ata-Beyit, we stumbled across a buzkashi match in progress and piled out of the van to see this sport we had read about in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. A fierce player on horseback galloped over to us in intimidating fashion, and we understood through Angie’s translation that we were not, as we feared, encroaching on their cultural practice, but rather watching from the wrong side of the pitch since the paying tourists were sitting on the other side. We retreated to our van, but not before seeing the players score a goal by placing the sheep’s body on a circular clay or concrete platform with tires around the circumference. The day trip to Burana Tower and the Kegety Gorge was a perfect way to spend a final day in Kyrgyzstan with wonderful new colleagues and friends, among the burial markers with enchanting character and the mountains that are home to horses and snow leopards, wildflowers and waterfalls. I’m deeply grateful to Jeff Gima and Alex Armstrong and the AMICAL 2018 program committee for inviting me to this year’s conference and very happy to have connected with this community, where the conversations went deep, and the joy in sharing common goals and interests among a group with richly diverse backgrounds was completely inspiring. And this was the perfect sign that greeted me when I landed at the airport back in Washington, DC….

Attending the Digital Humanities Summer Institute this month? The AMICAL Consortium will be there too, and we may be interested in talking with you as a potential partner for our future initiatives related to the digital humanities. We’re looking for colleagues who might be interested in partnering with us in the context of a 3-year grant that we recently received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The grant aims to use digital scholarship and pedagogy as a focal point for bringing librarians, faculty and technologists to work together on their shared teaching and learning missions. In particular, we plan to: Raise faculty and staff capacities for localized digital liberal arts education Identify and plan sustainable consortial models for supporting the digital liberal arts We’re looking in particular for colleagues interested in the following roles: A 2-year position as AMICAL’s Mellon Digital Liberal Arts Fellow, helping to develop our programs and provide training and consultation Occasional instructors for online or face-to-face training events related to the digital liberal arts, digital humanities, digital pedagogy, etc. The fellowship in particular is a key part of our capacity-building programs for digital liberal arts, helping to guide four specific activities: Consulting visits by the fellow to member institutions Consortial support and virtual collaboration structures for the digital liberal arts Coordinated participation by AMICAL cohorts in digital humanities summer schools Course-integrated digital collaborations Get in touch with AMICAL’s leadership if you’re interested in discussing any of the partnership roles described above. We’ll be available to meet at DHSI until the afternoon of June 10 and online thereafter. In addition to the consortium leadership, there’s a good chance that you'll run into members of our AMICAL cohort to DHSI. The AMICAL cohort brings to DHSI institution-based teams of faculty, deans, librarians and technologists, all working together on digital humanities projects at their campuses: American College of Greece American College of Thessaloniki American University of Beirut American University of Cairo American University of Central Asia American University of Paris American University of Sharjah If you have a chance to meet some of them, they can give you an idea of a few of AMICAL's diverse institutional environments. Looking forward to meeting some potential new partners over the next few weeks!