BOBCATSSS 2023: A New Era - Exploring the Possibilities and Expanding the Boundaries

• Sustainability
• Participation & participatory practice
• Meeting places and arenas for discussion
• LAM collaboration and convergence 
• Literary and cultural mediation
• Children’s libraries 
• Shared Reading
• Interaction design and user experience
• Community resilience 
• Open access
• Scholarly communication
• Knowledge organization
• Knowledge management
• Universal design
• User communities 
• Gaming
• Information architecture
• Information behavior and practices​​​​

BOBCATSSS is an international annual symposium which addresses hot topics for librarians and information professionals in a fast-changing environment. It is created by and for students, teachers, researchers, and professionals in the information field. BOBCATSSS is held under the auspices of BOBCATSSS Association (bobcatsss.info).

It is a tradition which has been passed on from one European country to another since 1993, providing a rich professional conference, accompanied by numerous opportunities for networking, personal exchanges, discussions, and learning.

Already 30 years the symposium BOBCATSSS is a prestigious and unique in its character European initiative of students in Library and Information Sciences (LIS), which encourages the academic and intercultural communication, influences the exchange of good practices and interaction between traditional and innovative forms of university education and motivates the future professionals.

Call for papers: 

• First call for papers: April 4th, 2022
• Second call for papers: July 18th, 2022
• Third call for papers: September 5th, 2022
• Submission deadline for abstracts: September 30th, 2022 
• Authors’ notification on final decision on abstract category: October 10th, 2022 

 Paper submission:  

• Deadline: November 14th, 2022 
• Notification of acceptance for papers: December 12th, 2022 
• Deadline for submitting final versions of papers: January 4th, 2023 

 Conference Dates: January 25 – 27 2023. 

The bachelor-level course International Project Collaboration: BOBCATSSS offered by OsloMet will provide students with a theoretical understanding and the relevant skills for planning and carrying out a collaborative international project based on planning and organizing a major academic conference. 

Emphasis is placed on intercultural competence, scholarly communication, and the practical aspects of carrying out an international conference. The course will be hybrid and open to international students. Students can choose to take the course on campus or online for 10 ECTS credits. The course runs from September 2022 to January 2023 and the language of instruction is English.

The deadline to nominate students is April 1, 2022 and April 15, 2022 for applications. 

The student’s home university must establish an exchange partnership with OsloMet for ECTS credits to be awarded. The course is free of charge for students whose universities/departments have entered into an exchange agreement with OsloMet/ABI. Please contact the International Coordinator concerning the establishment of exchange partnerships: 

Master’s, PhD students and post docs 

Master’s, PhD students and post docs are encouraged to take the course for professional development purposes. This course offers students at all levels an opportunity to gain relevant job skills and experience and develop their professional networks. 

• BOBCATSSS Newsletter (bobcatsss.info)
• Presentation of BOBCATSSS conference and course (6 min) (mediasite.com)

University College London

Alison Hicks, Department of Information Studies (ucl.ac.uk)

University of Borås

Thomas Nyström, Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås (hb.se)