IARLA, the International Alliance of Research Library Associations, invites colleagues from across the world to join us on 25 October 2022 for an international sprint relay symposium on Creating a community-driven toolkit for the development and delivery of Virtual Reading Room services.
This event is free to attend and is open to all colleagues with a professional interest in, or experience of, developing and delivering virtual reading room services.
Virtual Reading Rooms (VRRs) provide human mediated, real time consultations primarily for unique and distinctive collections which are not loanable or digitised. Via visualisers and online video conferencing platforms, VRRs provide a surrogate research experience, initial scoping of collections prior to digitisation or an in person visit, or a means of co-locating joint research for distributed collaborators.
This international symposium will span the globe through a series of three connected, sequential, and iterative seminars. There will be talks, discussions, and interactive breakout sessions that will all directly inform and shape the contents of a practical toolkit for the development and delivery of Virtual Reading Room services amongst collection-holding institutions.
Our sprint relay will commence in Australia and New Zealand
- 10:00 – 14:00 AWST
- 13:00 – 17:00 AEDT
- 15:00 – 19:00 NZDT
Before the baton is passed to Europe:
- 09:00 -13:00 BST, WEST
- 10:00 – 14:00 CEST
- 11:00 – 15:00 EEST
And we will finish the relay in the US and Canada
- 11:00 -15:00 EDT
- 08:00 – 12:00 PDT
This international relay symposium will:
- Showcase the international experience around the development and delivery of VRRs
- Produce a toolkit which genuinely reflects the experiences of the community and our wider stakeholders
This event has been organised by members of an international working group, convened by the International Alliance of Research Library Associations (IARLA), have been meeting since November 2021 to explore the development and delivery of virtual reading rooms. The working group includes representatives of research and academic libraries from Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.