TCDL 2021 Opening Plenary & Keynote

Texas Digital Library welcomes you to the 2021 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries! Join TDL for a warm conference welcome, followed by the TDL Awards Ceremony and the keynote address from Dr. Suzanne Schadl, Chief of the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress.

KEYNOTE ABSTRACT from Dr. Suzanne Schadl:

Title: Libre-tech-aria: Making Space on the Digital Library Stage

Word play aside, imagine for a moment a free or open, technologically assisted aria or atmosphere, in which thousands of operatic solos are performed in concert from differing spaces. For some, this could be noisy, frenetic, or confusing. Others might find it interesting and provocative, something to explore. The seemingly endless expanse of the digital landscape does make space for differing arias on multiple public stages, big and small. Does this provision of space lend to greater inclusion or better communication? In this talk, I present some of the digital initiatives underway at the Library of Congress to set the stage for a collective exploration of community scaffolding for the big stages in digital libraries. Building on Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal’s concept of “spect-actors” and “legislative theatre,” I focus on the impact our audiences can make when they create and preserve their voices on our platforms. I hope there are a couple of “spect-actors” or Libre-tech-arias in the TCDL audience!