BOBCATSSS 2024: UC hosts symposium to explore emerging trends in Library and Information Science

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC) is the host of BOBCATSSS 2024, a long-standing conference on Information Science in Europe, held since 1993. "Information Profession and Sustainable Development" is the theme chosen for the 32nd edition, taking place from the 23rd to the 25th of January 2024, which will bring together over two hundred students, teachers, researchers and Information Science professionals.

Over the past three decades, the BOBCATSSS meetings have confirmed their status as a key platform for bringing together researchers, educators and emerging talents in the field of Information Science, fostering intergenerational interactions. These meetings have consistently provided a platform for networking, meaningful exchanges, lively debates and valuable learning experiences.

The Coimbra edition will have 258 participants, 112 speakers and around 90 presentations by authors from 25 different countries. Among the speakers are Gobinda Chowdhury from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Julien Roche, President of LIBER - Association of European Research Libraries, Serap Kurbanoglu from Hacettepe University in Ankara and Mia H. Mathiasson from Syddansk Universitet in Denmark.

Information professionals - librarians, archivists, documentation specialists, information managers and others, play an essential role in promoting sustainable development and acting as agents of change.

Through their commitment to the dissemination of knowledge, social justice and innovation, information professionals are agents of positive change, contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive world.

This is the 32nd edition of BOBCATSSS, which stands for the names of the cities of the Information Science schools that founded the European Association for Library & Information Education & Research) (EUCLID) in the early 1990s: Budapest, Oslo, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Tampere, Sheffield, Stuttgart and Szombathely.

The meeting is organised by the Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and by CEIS 20 – Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, of the University of Coimbra, in collaboration with the State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Brazil, and the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT), Sofia, Bulgaria.

The full programme is available at bobcatsss2024-uc.marilia.unesp.br.