21 August 2020
Back in March we made the decision to cancel our annual conference due to the pandemic. This obviously had a catastrophic effect on our finances for the year, and left us with a large shortfall in our expected revenues for running the organisation and supporting all of our outreach (You can see a video explaining this from our AGM this year).
At the time we had no idea how long the situation would go on for, but later in Spring we took the decision to aim for all of our Autumn/Fall/Winter events to be digital, rather than in person. This is a new way of working for us, even though we have been running a highly popular free webinar series for a number of years. So far, it looks as though we are attracting a much more international audience and people like the fact that they can register and dip in and out of the presentations as it suits them. We’re particularly excited about our November conference: From Transition to Transformation: providing scholarly content and services in tumultuous times (here) where we have gathered a great line up of speakers to talk about how to deal with the seismic changes we have faced and will continue to face into 2021.
So much of what UKSG has always been about is in the networking, providing a platform for discussion whichever part of the industry you are in, and top-quality content. We won’t be skimping on any of those anytime soon.
Anyway, we want to hear from you for our 2021 Conference! Submit your proposals for plenary sessions, lightning talks and breakouts here. In particular we want to reach out to under-represented communities and encourage you to submit – either a plenary on the main stage, a shorter lightning talk or one of our popular breakout sessions. We’re here to help.
Finally, eNews will be taking a break at the end of August, and we will see you again on the 18th September. If you have been sent this newsletter by a colleague please do sign up for your own copy, direct into your inbox: https://www.uksg.org/publications/enews
In the meantime, you might also want to sign up to the @EARLL_UK weekly newsletter – a mix of library news, events and lighter pieces. EARLL is a project for early career academic and research librarians based in the South East of England that UKSG was proud to fund with one of our innovation grants in 2019. Congratulations to Hannah Boroudjou and Claire Delahunty for keeping it moving when all of the 2020 plans had to be parked. You can follow them on twitter – @EarllUK
Thank you all for your continued support – it has been wonderful: from the donations, payment roll-overs to the kind words and reminiscences on what UKSG means to you, all of it has meant so much to us.
Onwards!
Bev