Thank you for your interest in TCDL 2026. The Call for Proposals is now closed. If you have any questions regarding a submitted proposal or the program, please email us at info@tdl.org.
2026 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries
Commons Learning Center, Austin, Texas
10100 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78758
Dates: June 2-4, 2026
Theme: Finding Joy! Playful Innovation and Community in Action
In the constantly evolving digital landscape, our community faces both complex challenges and unique opportunities. The Texas Digital Library (TDL) and the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL) believe that embracing joy, playfulness, and experimentation is a powerful way to honor our core values of collaboration, openness, and service.
“Play” in our professional context isn’t about mere diversion; it is an active approach to fostering creativity, exploring new ideas in a low-risk environment, and building strong, supportive connections within our community. It is the spirit of intellectual curiosity and flexibility that drives innovation in how we manage, preserve, and provide equitable access to digital content of enduring value.
TCDL is a gathering place to explore how we can infuse a playful mindset into our daily work:
- Playful Innovation: We invite you to share how experimentation with open source technologies, creative problem-solving in metadata or preservation, or agile approaches to project management have led to breakthroughs and new ways of working. This includes imaginative approaches to existing services (such as repositories, ETDs, or research data management) or piloting new initiatives that enhance user engagement and access. We also encourage proposals that explore how playful elements can be used in teaching, services, or as tools for professional development and team building.
- Community in Action: TCDL thrives on the mutual support and shared expertise of its members, from repository managers to faculty, students, and technical staff. We will celebrate how our collaborative spirit, our “community in action”, turns individual creativity into collective solutions that build a practical, usable, and sustainable model for digital libraries across Texas and beyond. We will also explore how a shared sense of play can help us build a resilient and mutually supportive community.
Join us as we explore how a playful approach can transform our work, spark new collaborations, and, most importantly, help us find joy while serving our communities and advancing the future of digital libraries.
Topic Ideas
Topics of interest to people working in digital libraries are welcome at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries. Our conference is open to all who work in, use, and promote digital scholarship and digital collections.
Use the following list of topic ideas to inspire your TCDL proposal:
- Creative, playful, or gamified approaches to digital librarianship, preservation, and archives
- Supporting campus or consortial initiatives using institutional repositories or other digital library systems
- Cross-institutional partnerships: successes, challenges, and next steps in creative or experimental collaborations
- Sustaining impact through engaging multiple stakeholders or communities in new and imaginative ways.
- Asset-based digital growth: drawing upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future
- Cultivating partnerships in the library, campus community, and wider community to leverage shared expertise
- Documenting success, showcasing research, and inspiring new conversations to build enthusiasm about what comes next and spark creative engagement
- Assessing and improving accessibility in digital libraries and archives
- Promoting and supporting Open Access, Open Education, or other Open initiatives
- Projects and workflows for digitization, digital archives, and preservation
- Equitable labor and leadership practices that cultivate professional growth
- Spotlighting impact that enriches the evolving and creative community of digital librarianship, preservation, and archives
- Innovative promotion and outreach for digital collections or open publishing initiatives through playful or participatory engagement
- Developing professional skills and fostering career growth with a consideration toward self-care, creativity, exploration, discovery, and meaningful work
- Investigations in shortcomings and surprises, and/or lessons learned from failures, challenges, and successes
If you have a question or suggestion, please contact TDL at info@tdl.org.
Presentation & Session Types
TCDL 2026 will occur in person at the Commons Conference Center in Austin, Texas. All sessions except member group meetings will be moderated by a member of the TCDL Planning Committee.
NEW – Short Paper (Beta)
- Description: TCDL will be offering a short paper option for presentations, panels, lightning talks, and posters this year. Presenters have the opportunity to submit a short, formatted paper based on their presentation content. Papers will be peer-reviewed and published digitally in the TCDL 2026 Conference Proceedings.
- Format: No more than 2,500 words; about 4-5 pages. A document template will be provided (more info to come).
- Structure: Abstract due at TCDL proposal deadline. Full papers due for anonymous peer review on Monday, April 27, 2026. Final revisions will be due shortly after the conference.
- Papers are an optional addition to presenting at the conference. Submitting a short paper is not required for any presentation type at TCDL.
- Editors reserve the right to reject submitted papers. Papers should not have been previously published.
Presentation
- Description: Share practical work, theoretical or speculative issues, or ongoing or completed research.
- Duration: 15-20 minutes, plus time for Q&A.
- Format: Live in-person presentation, followed by Q&A.
- Structure: Presentations are typically grouped by topic or theme, with two or three presentations per session.
Panel
- Description: Facilitate a discussion on a specific topic among a selected group of experts (approximately 3-5) who offer differing perspectives.
- Duration: 45 minutes, plus time for Q&A.
- Format: Live in-person discussion, followed by Q&A.
- Structure: 60-minute stand-alone session.
Lightning Talk
- Description: Give a short, concise talk on practical work, theoretical or speculative issues, or ongoing or completed research.
- Duration: 7 minutes per talk.
- Format: In-person presentation, with a moderated Q&A at the end of the session after the last lightning talk.
- Structure: Lightning Talks will be grouped by topic or theme for a single session.
Poster
- Description: Exhibit a printed poster in the main hall with a timed, “elevator pitch” explanation.
- Duration: 1 minute for the in-person “elevator pitch” of your poster, delivered during the “Poster Pitch” session.
- Format: Printed poster for exhibition and pitch slide(s).
- Structure: The poster will be displayed from the evening reception through the remainder of the conference.
- Presenter Resources: See the Poster Presenters support page (coming soon!) for more information.
Workshop
- Description: Provide in-depth instruction on relevant topics or demonstration(s)/tutorial(s) of useful tools and technologies. Workshops should have a strong interactive component.
- Duration: Can range from 1 to 4 hours.
- Format: In-person workshop.
- Structure: A single, stand-alone session, taking place on Day 1 of the conference.
- Proposals should include: Learning objectives/outcomes; target audience, including prerequisite knowledge and level of experience; tech requirements; time expectation; and proposed agenda or outline.
- Scheduling Note: Longer workshops/demonstrations are ideal for more complex topics.
- Important Details: Presenters for workshops receive complimentary registration for the conference. Proposals for workshops/demonstrations receive priority review. You will be notified of acceptance on a rolling basis ahead of the deadline.
Birds-of-a-Feather
- Description: Host a roundtable discussion on a particular topic.
- Duration: 60 minutes.
- Format: In-person gathering.
- Structure: A single, stand-alone session.
- Proposals should include: Topic for discussion, intended audience, and agenda for the meeting.
Idea Lab
- Description: Create short, engaging conversations focused on collaboration, taking risks, sharing ideas, and planning next steps. Presenters bring a specific problem or issue to the table via a brief presentation, followed by a structured discussion. “Show and Fail” idea labs are also welcome, where presenters share new projects or initiatives that didn’t go well to get insights from attendees. The issue presented should be relevant to digital library and archives work.
- Duration: 20 minutes (10–15 minutes for presentations, 5–10 minutes for discussion).
- Format: Presentation and roundtable discussion.
- Structure: Labs will be paired by topic or theme, with two or three presentations per hour-long session.
- Proposals should include: Problem/issue or project to be discussed, target audience, tech requirements, prerequisite knowledge or experience, and keywords.
- Past Examples: See examples of past Idea Labs on Email Archiving, Mapping OER, and Open Access.
Member Group Meeting
- Description: An opportunity for TDL User Groups, Working Groups, Committees, and Interest Groups to hold their regular business meetings and share updates and progress with the conference community.
- Duration: Can range from 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- Format: This is an in-person working session intended for discussion, planning, and conducting group business. It is not intended for formal presentations, panels, or lectures. For those formats, please submit a proposal under the Birds-of-a-Feather session type.
- Structure: A single, stand-alone session.
- Proposals should include: Group’s name, topic(s) to be discussed, target audience, tech requirements, and keywords.
- Closed Meetings: If the proposal is for a closed meeting, this must be indicated during submission and coordinated with TDL staff.
- Scheduling Note: TDL staff will work with group leaders to schedule these sessions appropriately during the conference.
Support Information
Review the resources below to learn more about speakers and particular presentation type support.
Ready to Submit Your Proposal?
Here is the information you will need to submit your proposal:
- Submitter name and contact information
- Co-presenter(s) contact information, if applicable
- Note: Co-presenters will need to register for the conference.
- Proposal title
- Presentation type
- Abstract (250 words or less)
- Co-author(s) name and institution
- Note: Only the co-authors who are also co-presenters will need to register for the conference.
- Prerequisite knowledge or experience for attendees (e.g., beginner, intermediate, advanced)
- Beginner: Session is for attendees who are new to the topic. It will cover fundamental concepts and foundational knowledge. No prior experience or familiarity with the subject is required.
- Intermediate: Session is designed for attendees who have a basic understanding of the topic and some prior experience. It will build on core concepts and introduce more complex applications.
- Advanced: Session is for experienced attendees with a strong grasp of the topic. It will explore high-level concepts, complex scenarios, or in-depth technical details.
- All audiences: Session is structured to be valuable to everyone, regardless of prior knowledge or experience with the topic.
- Co-author(s) name and institution
- Keywords / themes: Please list up to five keywords that describe your presentation.
- Opt-in to publishing presentation materials with Texas Digital Library.
- Agree to TCDL’s Code of Conduct.
Important Dates
- CFP Opens | Friday, November 7, 2025
- CFP Info Session | Monday, December 15, 2025 | Register for the info session.
- CFP Closes | Monday, February 9, 2026 (extended deadline)
- Acceptance Notifications | Mid March 2026
- Short Paper Due | Monday, April 27, 2026
- Conference Dates | Tuesday, June 2-Thursday, June 4, 2026
Rating Rubric
Proposals are evaluated according to three (3) criteria: Relevance, Value, and Clarity and Organization.
Relevance
- How relevant is the proposal to this year’s theme of Finding Joy! Playful Innovation and Community in Action?
- Does the proposal feel relevant to or inspired by any of the topic ideas listed in the Call for Proposals?
- How relevant is the proposal to the mission of TDL (i.e. “Open Access to and long-term preservation of digital materials of value to research, instruction, cultural heritage, and institutional memory”)?
Value
- How significant is the proposal in terms of the advancement of our society and/or our field?
- How important, timely, and vital is the topic?
- How engaging do you feel the content of this proposal will be to the TCDL audience (or a significant subset of the TCDL audience)?
Clarity and Organization
- Is the description of the presentation clear and well-defined?
- Is the purpose of the presentation stated clearly and concisely?
- Is the proposed audience/experience level appropriate for the content?
- Have the submitters included sufficient detail to have a sense of what the presentation will be like?