Now that the summer is finally upon us, we’d like to take a look back over the previous year to highlight just some of the recent events and projects supported by AMICAL. Their success reflects the increasing breadth and enthusiasm of participation across the faculty, librarians and technologists of our consortium. Our programs are shaped around the following strategic focus areas: curriculum-integrated digital initiatives information literacy leadership of libraries and technology services cooperative acquisition of library resources building faculty & staff communities of practice We work on those areas primarily through our faculty & staff development events, through our Small Grants, and through our online community platforms and collaboration tools. The fruits of these efforts provide some of the material and inspiration for the AMICAL Conference, the annual gathering of our members. Curriculum-integrated digital initiatives DHI-B: Digital Humanities Institute – Beirut 2017 This three-day series of workshops and mini-courses provided hands-on digital humanities training with a regional focus. The Institute was founded on the principles of co-learning and co-teaching among a community of faculty, librarians and instructional design staff. The event helped participants coalesce around a consortial community of practice in digital scholarship. Other outcomes include a panel session at AMICAL 2017 and plans to nurture this nascent community by the Digital Scholarship Committee, which organized this event. Small grants for projects & staff exchanges Seven small grants were awarded to five institutions working on digital projects. They ranged from digitization projects of various stripes, including text encoding, to student audio storytelling, and more. AUCA digital collections (American University of Central Asia) Creating a corpus of multilingual TEI XML transcriptions from the Linguistic Landscapes of Beirut Project (American University of Beirut) Digital Radioactive Security (American University of Central Asia) Digital humanities workshops & consulting at AUP (American University of Paris) Digitizing Perestroika in Kyrgyzstan (American University of Central Asia) Podcasting Life 101: AUC Centennial (American University in Cairo) Thesis repository for the Bissell Library (American College of Thessaloniki) Information literacy Co-design: Integrating information literacy into your disciplinary course In this two-day workshop, Samantha Godbey and Xan Goodman (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) led disciplinary faculty and librarians to collaboratively design course-embedded information literacy activities. Using ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, participants developed a course to be taught in the fall of 2017. Organized by the Information Literacy Committee, this event also generated a panel session and a mini-workshop at AMICAL 2017. Small grants for professional development Two teaching librarians were awarded small grants to attend ACRL’s Immersion Program, bringing back know-how they can share with colleagues at their institution and across the consortium (American University of Paris & American University of Nigeria). Leadership of libraries and technology services Assessing and communicating library contributions to institutional priorities A two-day intensive workshop for library directors on strategic and sustainable library assessment for academic libraries, led by Kara Malenfant (ACRL) and Karen Brown (Dominican University). This event was organized by the Institutional Research & Assessment Committee, who developed out of it a benchmarking template for AMICAL libraries to benchmark and compare with one another, as well as a mini-workshop for AMICAL 2017. Small grants A new library director was awarded a small grant to attend Harvard’s Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians, allowing them to acquire tools and insight for in their new role (American University in Bulgaria). Cooperative acquisition of library resources The E-Resources Committee created a new working group, the Library Resources Buyers Group, to allow institutions interested in participating in consortial deals to shape the consortium’s e-resources strategy. One outcome to come from this group was a deal with JSTOR to provide ebooks under a demand-driven acquisition model to participating members with a substantial discount. Building faculty & staff communities of practice Small grants funded four staff exchanges among five institutions to establish library collections collaboration, provide digital humanities workshops and consulting, and support faculty development through the work of the teaching and learning centers. AUC-AUB-LAU library collections collaboration meeting (American University in Cairo, American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University) Digital humanities workshops & consulting at AUP (American University of Paris) Support between learning centers to help establish teaching excellence certification and faculty learning communities (American University of Central Asia, American University in Cairo) Faculty development and community media (American University of Central Asia) Our annual Conference AMICAL 2017, our most recent annual meeting and conference, was held 17–20 May at the American College of Thessaloniki. The theme was “Centering on learning: Partnerships and professional development among librarians, faculty and technologists,” and the balance of campus roles among registered attendees reflected that interest in partnership: 48% libraries & archives 33% faculty or faculty developers 19% instructional designers/technologists or IT managers/staff The annual AMICAL Conference never fails to generate praise from members. Our favorite this year was from Anguelina Popova, who succinctly summarised what it’s all about: The AMICAL Conference is a highlight event of the year for me. It’s the place to meet like-minded people with similar academic interests, and exchange on the projects and experiences we have had through the year. It is also an excellent event to start new projects. The Conference included keynotes on partnerships for information literacy (Christine Susan Bruce) and digital innovation in higher education (Kristen Eshleman). Recordings of the keynotes and other sessions are now available. Sessions with slides (or other resources) available are noted on the conference schedule with an icon – just click through to access the files. Session reports and other discussions are happening in our members-only forum. A summary of the event in selected tweets is on Storify (courtesy of Dimitris Tzouris). More information Photos from our events are available on Flickr. AMICAL members can also read the committee annual reports, which detail their accomplishments for the past year and future goals. Note: Parts of this blog post were reported earlier in “Program Highlights · Spring 2017”.

Representatives from Full (voting) Member institutions should have received today an email with the link they must use to cast one ballot on behalf of their institution. It’s a unique URL, which can only be used to submit one ballot, so it’s important not to forward that link to anyone. (The message will come from “invitations@app.electionbuddy.com”, and the platform we’re using is electionbuddy, a widely used platform for secure and anonymous online elections.) Anyone may view the list of candidates to read their statements and bios. The Full Member reps themselves can also click the ballot link they’ve received to view the candidate information, and they may open the link again later as long as they have not yet submitted their ballot on the electionbuddy platform. The candidates were presented with “The role of the Coordinating Committee” below and asked to state, in 100 words or less: why you are qualified to provide this form of leadership for AMICAL in what ways you would contribute to the advancement of the Coordinating Committee’s work, and toward AMICAL’s mission and goals mentioned below Before casting their vote for the 4 candidates of their choice, Full Member reps should discuss the candidates and their merits with local colleagues, including any librarians, technologists, faculty, or administrators that may have a stake in AMICAL’s activities. “The Local AMICAL Representative plays a pivotal role in advancing AMICAL’s mission, and promoting the consortium and its spirit of collaboration as a group, by representing the member institution’s stakeholders, be they librarians, technologists, faculty, or administrators.” (from Article IV, AMICAL Consortium Operational Guidelines) Thanks to the Elections Committee (Elisabetta Morani, Asma Al-Kanan, Cendrella Habre) for shepherding this process, to Alex Armstrong for rolling out the communications and election mechanisms, and to all of the candidates for agreeing to stand. AMICAL Full Members: mark your calendars for the voting deadline of 31 August! The role of the Coordinating Committee Coordinating Committee officers are charged with financial and operational oversight, approving policies and directions for the consortium’s activities. The guiding principles for this work come from AMICAL’s mission (described on our website) our grant-funded goals (outlined for the current period under “AMICAL’s 2015-2018 Mellon grant” in this blog post from 2015) other long-term goals that the Coordinating Committee or Members Council have identified Practically speaking, the work of Coordinating Committee officers often includes organization and documentation of periodic meetings, discussions and decisions assisting AMICAL Administration with the development of policies for grant-supported programs (types and distribution of funding for the annual conference, criteria for vetting applications, etc.) reviewing applications for our competitive grant-funded programs (Small Grants, Workshop Grants, etc.) gathering ideas for, and feedback on, new grant development developing or clarifying long-term member-funded goals reviewing and acting on applications for membership in the consortium reviewing, and deciding on appropriate actions for, short to medium-term (not more than 2-year level) strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the consortium participating in temporary, ad hoc committees relevant to their expertise to accomplish specific short-term projects

As announced at the AMICAL 2017 Members Council, this summer we’re electing officers for AMICAL's Coordinating Committee. What exactly is the Coordinating Committee? The role of the Coordinating Committee is to provide financial and operational oversight, approving policies and directions for the consortium's activities. The committee is comprised of five officers, four of which are elected and the other being the Consortium Director, as well as the chair of each Standing Committee. The five officers are voting members, while the chairs serve in an ex-officio advisory capacity. How can I nominate someone? We are currently in the process of nominating fellow AMICAL members, who will stand for election later this summer, to determine the four elected officers of the next Coordinating Committee. The only restriction for candidates is that they must be affiliated with a Full Member institution. Nominees will be submitted by each institution’s AMICAL representative. (They have already received instructions for how to do so.) If you have someone you’d like to nominate, you must request from an AMICAL representative to submit them on your behalf. Note that you must confirm with candidates that they are willing to stand for election before nominating them. The deadline for nominations is June 30. When will the elections take place? On July 3, the 2017 Election Committee will collate all the nominees and check with AMICAL representatives to make sure there are no errors or omissions. They will then ask nominees to provide them with brief bios and statements. Once these are gathered, the committee will send out a voting link to eligible representatives, with a deadline of August 31. The Operational Guidelines describe the election process as follows: Each Full Member shall vote for one person for each of the elected seats on the Coordinating Committee. … The candidates with the greatest number of votes shall be elected. In the event of a tie, a new ballot will be held for the tied candidates. The new officers will assign themselves the charges. But for now, there’s still a week to nominate fellow colleagues to this important role! Posted on behalf of the 2017 Election Committee Asma Al-Kanan (American University of Kuwait) Cendrella Habre (American University of Beirut) Elisabetta Morani (John Cabot University)

Responses were recently sent out for the latest group of applications for AMICAL’s Small Grant Program. Of the 7 applications received, the Grant Review Committee accepted the following 5: Name Job title AMICAL institution Small Grant title Nikolina Ivanova-Bell Library Director American University in Bulgaria 2017 Harvard’s Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians Najla Jarkas Senior Lecturer American University of Beirut Stylometry Workshop at the 8th European Summer University in Digital Humanities, July 18-28, 2017, Leipzig. Zheenbek Kulenbekov Program Coordinator American University of Central Asia Digital Radioactive Security Toshka Borisova Head of Access/Reference American University in Bulgaria 12th International Conference on Performance Measurement in Libraries, 31 July – 3 August 2017 at Keble College, Oxford Anguelina Popova Assistant professor American University of Central Asia Faculty development and community media The Grant Review Committee is composed of the voting members of AMICAL’s Coordinating Committee. In cases where the Small Grant applicant is from the same institution as a member of the Grant Review Committee, the Committee member recuses themselves from discussion and evaluation of that application. Next deadline for applications: 2 July The next round of applications will close at midnight on 2 July. Applicants must be from Full or Affiliate member institutions. Find out more Full information, including the criteria we use in evaluating applications, can be found in our Small Grant Program guidelines.

AMICAL members, invited speakers and other guests are converging in Thessaloniki this week for AMICAL 2017, our consortium’s annual Conference. We’ve been planning this event for months, and we’re proud of the program we’ve put together. But what if you aren’t able to attend? Don’t fret! More than any previous AMICAL Conference, we’ve made sure to provide a terrific program for those who want to participate online. There are plenty of ways for you to join us from wherever you happen to be. The online program for AMICAL 2017 is open to everyone – not only AMICAL members, but also to colleagues around the world. As an online participant you can: Watch selected sessions live Join our keynote speakers at an online-only breakout session Participate in the online conversation Watch selected sessions live This year we’ll be live streaming over eight hours of sessions. The online program will include both keynotes, featuring invited speakers Christine Susan Bruce and Kristen Eshelman, as well as five panel presentations, including more than twenty AMICAL peers. Online participants will be able to ask questions via the chat that, time permitting, the speakers will be able to address. Live streaming schedule & links → Join our keynote speakers at an online-only breakout session We’re partnering with Virtually Connecting again this year to bring online participants together with both keynote speakers for an informal discussion. To join this session, leave a comment on the Virtual Connecting blog or send a Direct Message on Twitter to @vconnecting. More info about Virtually Connecting → Participate in the online conversation We’ll be tweeting with the #amicalnet hashtag. Follow along and tweet with us. AMICAL members will also be able to join the real-time discussions on AMICAL’s Slack (on channel #amical2017). More in-depth discussions and follow-up after the conference will take place on AMICAL Connect. Looking forward to see you all online!

The Digital Humanities Institute – Beirut (DHI-B) 2017 is starting tomorrow. There is a large cohort of AMICAL members participating in this event, but if you aren't able to attend in person, you can still watch the two keynotes live. Friday, 10 March, 9:30–11:00 (see local time) Digital Humanities in the Arab World: Current Context and Future Perspectives David Joseph Wrisley, Associate Professor of English (AUB) and Visiting Associate Professor of Digital Humanities (NYU Abu Dhabi) Saturday, 10 March, 9:30–11:00 (see local time) Automatic Recognition of Proper Nouns in Arabic? التعرف الآلي على أسماء العلم باللغة العربية؟ Ghassan Mourad, Professor of Computational Linguistics (Lebanese University) Note that the Friday keynote will be in English, while the one on Saturday will be in Arabic with simultaneous English interpretation. The link to watch livestream is http://www.aub.edu.lb/live

Centering on learning: Partnerships and professional development among librarians, faculty and technologists Student learning, and students’ critical engagement with their objects of study and research, are a core part of AMICAL member institutions’ educational missions. This year the AMICAL Conference brings together faculty, librarians and technologists from these American international liberal arts institutions to envision how we can work together in more substantive ways to support that student learning. The AMICAL Conference is always about intersections of faculty, libraries, and technology. This year, however, we’re giving special emphasis to the spaces and programs where that intersection is made most concrete. Centers for teaching and learning, writing centers, faculty development programs, digital humanities initiatives, first-year-experience programs… such learning-focused programs and resources, increasingly common across AMICAL institutions, bring multiple stakeholders across campus into the same space, or at least the same conversation. That conversation is focused on how to improve teaching, how to improve learning, and how to better integrate libraries and technologies into our students’ learning experience. In those spaces, librarians speak about information literacy and digital curation, technologists speak about digital literacy and student engagement, faculty speak about critical thinking and critical pedagogy. What ties those conversations together is our shared interest in how we engage with information in its various forms, and our shared goal of providing a critical -- and exceptional -- learning experience. If you’re a faculty or staff member at an AMICAL member institution, and those conversations strike a chord with you, join us for AMICAL 2017, this May at the American College of Thessaloniki! Check out the program This is the first of AMICAL’s 14 annual conferences so far where faculty outnumber librarians and technologists as the primary speakers on the program. It’s intentional. There are many librarians and technologists co-presenting with those faculty speakers, but the Program Committee has been aiming for topics that speak as equally as possible to faculty, librarians and technologists. From “Evolution of teaching and learning centers within AMICAL institutions”, to “Podcasting Life 101”, to “Interdisciplinarity, co-teaching, and information literacy”, we think we’ve succeeded with that. Check out the provisional schedule to see if you agree. You may notice that the first day (Wednesday 17 May) is only for committee meetings. If you’re on one of those committees, your job now is to plan for a great, productive meeting. If you’re not, then skip that day and come for the main program running Thursday through Saturday. Register by 16 March Interested? You’ve only got 2 weeks to register, so mark your calendar: 16 March is the last day to register. Register Financial support has been expanded The local organizers at ACT are working hard to make the conference a great experience for you. AMICAL, meanwhile is doing everything it can to enable as many of you to come. We’ve expanded our hotel support program so that all Full and Affiliate members now have a way to benefit in some way from hotel support -- you just need to be either in an active conference role or willing to share a room. Full, Affiliate and Network members all benefit from some level of registration fee coverage as well. See Financial support to see what you’re eligible for, and how to benefit. Cost-saving suggestions Not eligible for financial support? Looking for ways to participate without breaking the bank? Here are some suggestions: Share! Coordinate with colleagues to share a hotel room and any ground transportation you may be taking. Get a free ride from the airport. Take advantage of the free grouped shuttle pick-ups from airport to hotel on arrival (provided by ACT -- see Transportation from the airport to the hotel) Find cheaper accommodations. We’re encouraging members to stay at the Met Hotel, as it was selected by the organizers to provide the best experience for conference attendees as a group, and frankly it will make the logistics of managing the group easier. But we understand that it may not be possible for all attendees, so feel free to explore these recommended alternatives. Join a tour Our hosts at ACT have organized several optional tours to help you discover the rich culture and geography of Thessaloniki and its surroundings. Welcome to Thessaloniki (6pm Wednesday): A free tour of the old and new city of Thessaloniki, led by Lamprou Daphne, Art History instructor at ACT. Vergina and Mount Olympus (9am-6pm Sunday): A day-long excursion combining culture, nature and Greek gastronomy. Find out more about these under Sightseeing tours. Stay updated For the latest news on the event, keep an eye on the conference site, follow us on Twitter, and (for members) check out AMICAL Connect regularly.

You know that you could participate in parts of AMICAL 2017 online, but you want to get more involved than that: you want to participate in person and be one of the people that are making the Conference happen. If that sounds like you, then AMICAL has 3 financial support programs that may be able to help cover the costs of your participation: travel support, hotel support, and registration waivers. Full information about those programs is on the conference site, but I want to draw your attention to the travel support program, open for applications only through this week. Travel support (apply by 19 February) AMICAL can provide support for about 20 participants’ airfare to attend the Conference. These will be reviewed competitively, so if you apply, be sure to follow the guidelines carefully. Eligibility and conditions Before you apply for travel support, make sure all of the following are true for you: You’re from a Full or Affiliate member institution Your institution has committed to funding at least one other colleague You yourself have filed a request for local funding already You’re willing to volunteer to help out onsite with things like session convening Application review criteria We’re looking to support people who will contribute in very active and meaningful ways to the quality of the conference. This could be a speaker in the scheduled program, but it could also be a committee chair, someone with an idea for a collaborative project to propose to other members, or some other kind of active role. We’re also looking to support people who will balance out the group of participants across member institutions and across roles (faculty/librarian/technologist/etc.). How to apply Follow the steps outlined on the Financial support page, and submit your application by 19 February at the latest. No late applications will be considered. That may sound like quite an obstacle course of requirements, and it’s true that AMICAL’s travel support program is not going to be accessible to everyone who would like to attend. But the goal here is one I think all members can get behind: making sure that our conference is as good as we can make it, enriched by diverse participation, in spite of difficulties of local travel funding. And the good news is that the form itself is not long… Go to the Financial support instructions & form Hotel support & registration waivers The hotel support and registration waiver programs open 24 February as part of the registration form, and they can support a much larger number of member attendees than the travel support program. You will not be able to request these forms of support before then, but you can find a full explanation of these programs – including who is eligible for which type of support – on the Financial support page.

AMICAL members, the call for proposals for AMICAL 2017 is finally open! Some of you have already been asking about it, including some AMICAL members who’ve never proposed a program session before. We seem to have tapped into something powerful this year by framing the Conference around this theme: Centering on learning: Partnerships and professional development among librarians, faculty and technologists The Program Committee is busy lining up amazing invited speakers and shaping the conference program. We’ll have more details to share with you early in 2017. But this is your moment. What topics can I propose? The theme chosen for AMICAL 2017 provides a backdrop for exploring a range of questions related to librarians, faculty, technologists, and how those roles connect in meaningful ways around a common mission of student learning. We’re seeking proposals for conference sessions that address our theme in some way, or that address one of the topical areas which form part of AMICAL’s current organizational focus. (More details are available on the website.) Who can propose a session? You can. The AMICAL Conference program is built almost entirely out of contributions from consortium members. We’re counting on you to make this a great event by digging into your local experience, research and expertise, and proposing your best to share with your peers. Tell your colleagues The AMICAL Conference has a fierce following among many librarians at members institutions. But we’re less well-known among faculty and technologists. Given this year’s theme, we’d like all of you to help us spread news of this event. Forward this email to colleagues who may not have received it, such as faculty and technologists. Let colleagues know in person, when you meet them in the hall or over lunch. We want this to be the most diverse AMICAL Conference ever! Propose a session We’ve opened the call for proposals earlier than usual, to give you a chance to mull over ideas during the holiday season. We hope this will also give you more time to envision more complex sessions, such as mini-workshops and panels. But we are also looking for a hearty selection of posters and tech showcases for the Community Idea Exchange, as well as lightning talks and facilitated discussions (“Birds of a feather”). The deadline for submitting a proposal is 29 January 2017.

AMICAL’s Grant Review Committee vetted proposals for our Mellon Foundation-funded Consortial Training & Workshop Grants program last month, and three great workshops have been approved for sponsorship for this year, 2016-2017. If you’re a faculty member, technologist or librarian at an AMICAL member institution, you may find at least one of these events to be an opportunity you won’t find elsewhere for working on a timely issue with colleagues from similar institutional environments. AMICAL will cover the costs for a limited number of participants, but each event will have an application process for this. Save the dates and watch AMICAL Connect for announcements about the event programs and how to apply as a funded participant. Library assessment workshop: Assessing and Communicating Library Contributions to Institutional Priorities 26-27 January 2017 | American University of Kuwait Event website A 2-day intensive workshop on strategic and sustainable library assessment, led by: Kara Malenfant (Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives, Association of College and Research Libraries) Karen Brown (Professor, Dominican University, Graduate School of Library and Information Science) Workshop Grant Coordinator: Asma Al-Kanan (AU Kuwait), Institutional Research & Assessment Committee Digital Humanities Institute - Beirut: Shaping Digital Humanities Communities: Local, Regional and Consortial 10-12 March 2017 | American University of Beirut Event website A 3-day series of presentations, workshops, and mini-courses for for expanding awareness of, and experience with, digital humanities research and methods. Open to participants beyond AMICAL, but for the cohort of AMICAL participants, this will be a chance to: Grow AMICAL’s DH community: humanities scholars engaged in digital projects in our international liberal arts environments Showcase and support AMICAL’s digital initiatives programs. Help AMICAL members to develop their own faculty learning communities for engaging in DH work. Workshop Grant Coordinator: David Wrisley (AU Beirut), Digital Scholarship Committee Information literacy workshop: Information & Research @ Your Institution 31 March - 1 April 2017 | American University of Paris Event website A 2-day workshop, for disciplinary faculty and librarians, on the collaborative design of course-embedded information literacy activities. ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education will be used as the backdrop for designing or redesigning a course to be taught in Fall 2017. Workshop Grant Coordinator: Michael Stoepel (AU Paris), Information Literacy Committee Funding for the three workshops comes from a consortium-level grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, “Promoting AMICAL library leadership, faculty collaboration and digital initiatives to strengthen liberal arts abroad”. Members can propose workshops for next year (2017-2018) by following the Workshop Grant guidelines. Thanks to the AMICAL members involved -- organizers and host institutions -- for proposing these events and making them possible!