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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 institutionYour institution has committed to funding at least one other colleagueYou yourself have filed a request for local funding alreadyYou’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 environmentsShowcase 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!

Here’s one of the things I like most of all to see AMICAL supporting: professional development events that are created on members’ own initiative and for the benefit of the entire consortium. The AMICAL Conference is largely built out of member contributions as well, but it’s gratifying in a different way to see a specific issue, timely and relevant to member institutions, developed with focus and intensity by member-organizers for a targeted group of member-participants. AMICAL has a grant-funded program specifically to support this: our Consortial Training & Workshop Grants program (“Workshop Grants” for short). With the help of our Coordinating Committee, we just finalized the guidelines for Workshop Grants aimed at those interested in proposing a funded event. The guidelines are pretty detailed, so below is an abbreviated version — plus an alternative suggestion! Workshop Grants vs. Small Grants What’s the difference? Workshop Grants provide financial support for the organization and delivery of thematic professional development events targeting participation by multiple member institutions. Looking to fund a professional development event for folks at a single member institution? Wrong program — see the Small Grant Program instead. Participants & topics The primary target audience for Workshop Grants must be from AMICAL member institutions, and events should be open to any interested member. Participants should include some mix of AMICAL’s usual suspects: librarians, faculty, faculty developers, instructional designers, instructional technologists, IT directors and other relevant technology staff. Topics for funded events should help AMICAL members advance in some way the strategic priority areas targeted by our current Mellon grant: Leadership of library and information services Information literacy Curriculum-integrated digital initiatives (digital scholarship, digital pedagogy, digital collections) AMICAL’s collaboration network Face-to-face or online events…and their budgets Proposals can be for face-to-face or online events, with the following budget limits. Normal budget limits: Face-to-face events: €13,000 Online events: €1,000 In exceptional cases, budgets of up to the following limits may be accepted: Face-to-face events: €26,000 Online events: €2,000 If you want to go over the normal limit, get your arguments ready. We’ll want good ones! Timing & deadlines Don’t plan your event in July or August. Don’t plan your event in the middle of a major religious observance. Don’t even dare schedule your event near the AMICAL Conference. (Come ON, people! We want you all with us at the Conference!) Basically: check with us before you start committing to dates. Do get in touch with us as early as possible for feedback on developing your proposal. And do respect these deadlines: Online events: same deadlines as for Small Grants (next deadline: 6 November) Face-to-face events between now and July 2017: Submit statement of intent by 9 October 2016 Submit proposal by 16 October 2016 Face-to-face events between August 2017 and July 2018: Submit proposal by 30 June 2017 How to propose a Workshop Grant Read carefully the full guidelines for Workshop Grants. Get in touch with us, and with any relevant committee chair, as early as possible as you develop your idea. We’ll help make sure your plans fit with the scope of the program and are coordinated with related initiatives that may be in the works. And use AMICAL Connect as a tool, to see what issues members are already discussing, and to bounce your own ideas off other AMICAL colleagues. Previously funded workshops To give you an idea of the type of workshops we’re aiming for, here are examples of AMICAL-funded workshops that align with the scope of the current grant program: Digital Pedagogy Lab Cairo (American University in Cairo - March 2016) Evidence-based planning & decision-making in academic libraries (John Cabot University - January 2016) Engage students in creative multimedia content production (American University in Kosovo - 2014) Collaborative Learning Technologies (American University in Cairo - 2012) These are only examples and do not represent the full range of topics that can be funded. Alternative: organize a free online event Who needs a grant! Member-organized webinars, virtual round table discussions, and other online events may not have any direct costs. Online events enable wide participation across the consortium and are strongly encouraged as a choice for organizing AMICAL events. The Professional Development Committee helps integrate such events into AMICAL’s year-level event planning, and AMICAL Administration can assist with the marketing, communications, and web meeting technology. To propose a no-cost online event, ask the AMICAL committee most relevant to your topic for feedback on your idea, then share that with the Professional Development Committee and AMICAL Administration. Members: whatever event you might be imagining — in person or online — that relates to AMICAL’s mission, your ideas help us see further and keep us grounded at the same time. I look forward to your proposals!

Latest funded activities Responses were sent out Monday to the latest group of applications for AMICAL’s Small Grant Program. Of the three applications received, we accepted the following two: Actively Engaged by Design: Visual Literacy for University Faculty and Academic Library Professionals (AUBG) March 2017 ACRL Immersion Teaching with Technology Program (AUP) Next deadline for applications: 6 November The next round of applications will close on 6 November, at midnight in whatever time zone you happen to find yourself in. You may submit your application from (American) Samoa if this helps you meet the deadline, but you do need to be from a Full or Affiliate member institution. The Review Committee’s responses will be sent to applicants by 20 November. Small Grant application cycles are roughly every two months, and the dates for this year are posted on our Small Grant pages. New list of recommended professional development events Are you thinking about applying for Small Grant to support a professional development activity? Have a look at our new list of recommended events. These are programs that AMICAL has previously partnered with, events which our members have participated in and found valuable, and other recommendations by AMICAL’s committees. We welcome Small Grant applications for participation in other reputable events, as well as peer and staff exchanges among AMICAL institutions, but we suggest at least considering events from this list. Reminder: Pay close attention to the review criteria This year we’ve opened up the Small Grant program to a larger range of eligible activities than in the past — beyond just professional development — and we’re receiving a larger number of applications. We’ve also created more thorough guidelines with more demanding criteria for applications. If you’re seeking a Small Grant, there’s no getting around this: make sure that the activity description in your application responds adequately to as many of the review criteria points as possible. Note that we may revise the criteria slightly over the course of the year. If we do so, we’ll announce this at least a few weeks in advance of the next deadline.

This post was edited to reflect the change of event dates to 17-20 May 2017. I’m excited to share the news that our next annual meeting and conference, AMICAL 2017, will be held 17-20 May at the American College of Thessaloniki. Our theme will be “Centering on learning: Partnerships and professional development among librarians, faculty and technologists”. The first day, 17 May, will be open only to committees with meetings scheduled that day. The open program of presentations, workshops and discussions will run over the three days of 18-20 May. We’ve just launched the AMICAL 2017 page with basic information and a beautiful view of the locale awaiting us! (Evi Tramantza, library director at ACT and local organizer, assures us that it will be even more beautiful, with lovely weather, when we arrive.) Save that link, since it’s where we’ll build out the full conference site in the coming months, and use the social media links to stay connected for conference news. About the Conference Through AMICAL, our member institutions collaborate on the development of library, technology and curricular resources. The AMICAL Conference is where the vision for this work takes shape — and where the foundations for this work are laid. Our conference brings together faculty, librarians, technologists and others who are passionate about improving the learning experience of their students. Given the geographical spread of AMICAL members, this is the only moment in the year when we’re able to meet face to face as a group, and the quality of the program is therefore critical. The program must also respond to the unique challenges and rich opportunities of AMICAL members: institutions with highly international student and staff populations, adapting the American liberal arts curricular model to diverse regional environments. Centering on learning: Partnerships & professional development among librarians, faculty & technologists Evi and the ACT organizing team wanted to give special focus at the Conference to librarian-faculty collaborations around professional development. At the same time, AMICAL as an organization has been developing an increasing focus on faculty development, in particular as it relates to digital pedagogy, information literacy, first-year-experience programs, and collaborations in general of faculty with librarians and technologists. More and more instructional designers, faculty developers, and leaders of centers for teaching, learning, or writing are getting involved with AMICAL. We wanted the program to accommodate all kinds of cooperation connecting faculty development to AMICAL’s mission, including spaces (like centers for learning and teaching) but also programs and resources. We hope that members will find an inspiring opportunity within our theme, both to share what they know, and to acquire and develop new ideas to put into action at their institutions. Shaping the conference program The Program Committee includes representatives from ACT, AMICAL Administration, and each of the four committees most closely related to the theme: Digital Pedagogy Digital Scholarship Information Literacy Professional Development These folks are responsible for selecting invited speakers, framing the call for proposals, reviewing proposals, and scheduling the program. All AMICAL committees will be solicited for input on the program, however, not only those represented directly on the Program Committee. Although the theme will steer the development of the program, other topics related to AMICAL’s mission and of broad interest to our members will also be included. And to make strategic use of the Conference for moving forward AMICAL’s collaborative work, we’ll also give ample time to our committees for developing and advancing their goals. We’re paying special attention this year, however, to the daily rhythm of the program, since AMICAL is an intense event where attendees participate continuously for three or four days. We’ll be making sure there’s enough downtime and informal meeting time to allow everyone to re-energize and engage as actively as possible with scheduled sessions. What’s next? Send us your ideas! The Program Committee will be working over the next few months on the general shape of the program, the selection of invited speakers, and the call for proposals to go out in the late fall. We’d love to have suggestions from members as we work on these. Any of the following input would be welcome: Suggestions for invited speakers: Do you know someone who can speak effectively, engagingly and with expertise related to our conference theme? Send us some information about them, including links to professional bios and recent recordings of speaking engagements. Suggestions for shaping the program: If you’re an AMICAL member and have a suggestion related to the conference program, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Post your ideas under the “Suggest ideas” topic in AMICAL Connect and the Program Committee will consider them. If you’re not an AMICAL member, you can make suggestions through our contact form. Finally: Block the dates, AMICAL members — in person or online, you won’t want to miss this event!

We’re happy to announce that we’ve unified the logins across the main AMICAL site and AMICAL Connect, our community forum. Up until now, each system required a separate login. Now, when AMICAL members login to this site, they’ll be granted access to AMICAL Connect as well. We hope that this change will make accessing both sites much simpler. This feature has been requested for a long time and it’s finally here! Behind the scenes, there were a lot of changes required to make this work. We’d like to outline some of the most important things you’re likely to notice: Your login is now your email address You will now login with your email address and your existing password. Your AMICAL Connect username is still being used, as that is how people @mention you, but it’s not used to login to the site. What happens to my existing accounts? It’s all good: If you had an AMICAL account already, just login with your email.If you didn’t have an AMICAL account before, and you’re an AMICAL member, now is a great time to sign up for one. Your AMICAL account will automatically link up with your existing AMICAL Connect account, if you had one, or a new one will be created for you. If you’re new to AMICAL Connect you’ll receive an email with helpful tips. Make sure to also read the first steps topic, which gives some suggestions about things to do. Improved security In order to bolster security, we now require all accounts to confirm their email. Until you verify your email you won’t have full access to the site. If you haven’t verified your account, there will be instructions in your account dashboard about how to do so. We have also sent an email with instructions to all existing account holders. Finally, we’ve enabled HTTPS on both sites, meaning that your connection will be encrypted and any information you send or receive will be secure and private. Great! When does this happen? It already has. By the time you read this blog post, the two websites will be linked. If you have any trouble accessing your account, contact us and we’ll help you out.

AMICAL 2016, our annual conference, wrapped up almost three months ago. Since then many of the participants have been busy writing blog posts and gathering other material from the event. Here is a thorough collection: Blog posts Invited workshop leader Laurie Allen posted Tips for Learning Tools for Librarians as well as a reflection on AMICAL 2016. Jim Groom posted a reflection on his keynote Small is Beautiful: A Study of Ed-Tech as if People Mattered. With Maha Bali, Jim co-wrote a post about the session they presented together, Does EdTech have an ethos? And why should I care? Jim also posted a follow-up. Rrezarta Xhaferi responded to this session with Should Education Have a Soul? Maha wrote about her one-day whirlwind attendance, Rome in a Day, as well as a post on Preparing Audience-Sensitive Presentations and Workshops, derived partly from her experiences at AMICAL. Titia van der Werf reflected on her own attendance through a story about the spirituality of libraries. While Jeff Gima, the consortium’s director, adapted his opening remarks as The AMICAL 2016 program: the library, the digital, and the human. Everything else Recordings to the keynotes and selected sessions are available on YouTube. Reports from the event have found their way onto AMICAL Connect, our members-only forum. Several attendees posted session and unconference reports. Committee chairs wrote up committee reports, based on their 5+5 presentations during the conference’s closing session. Photos from the event are available on Flickr. Finally, Dimitris Tzouris has woved a number of this material in a Storify. Thanks to everyone who has contributed by reflecting in writing or helping to gather material from the event. If I’ve missed anything, let me know. I hope to see you all at our next conference which will be hosted by the American College of Thessaloniki. In the meantime, there are a lot of programs and initiatives led by AMICAL’s committees to keep us engaged in libraries, technology and teaching.