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Last modified: May 14 11:15:30 CEST 2012


LISA Manual

Publicity

Publicity includes various aspects of public information about forthcoming and/or past conferences:

  • preliminary, first and second announcements
  • call for papers
  • conference poster
  • conference website
  • pre- and post-conference reports in journals and newsletters
  • other publicity items

During the early stages of conference preparation, POC will be in charge of distributing (preliminary) information, later SOC and LOC take over. SOC is mostly responsible for the content, while LOC typically distributes announcements, either in electronic format and/or by snail mail.

Announcements
Who sends out announcements and what should they contain? How are they sent, when and to whom?

Who POC, SOC and LOC collaborate closely on the announcements. Generally, the tasks of writing and sending conference announcements are divided as follows:

Preliminary announcement:

  • written by POC in cooperation with LOC
  • sent by POC

First announcement:

  • written by SOC and LOC
  • sent by LOC

Second announcement:

  • like first announcement
How The easiest and cheapest way of distributing announcements is by e-mail. Larger documents (brochures, preliminary program) can be made available in electronic format on the conference website. However, for special items, e.g. the conference poster, snail mail may be needed.
When This will largely depend on the available time. If the planning starts sufficiently early, the following times may serve as guidelines.

Preliminary announcement:

  • 10 months prior to event

First announcement:

  • 7 months prior to event

Second announcement:

  • 3 months prior to event
To whom

Announcements are posted on astronomy librarians' mailing lists (Astrolib, SLAPAM-L, EGAL, PAM-APF etc.) In addition, they should be sent to attendees of previous LISA conferences. (For email addresses: see participants lists in the proceedings, but note that Astrolib includes all previous LISA attendees as of April 2004.)

Announcements and pre-conference reports in journals and newsletters may be considered to draw the attention of colleagues from other subject areas.
What
Announcements should include (at least) the following information:

Preliminary Announcement:

  • meeting name
  • place
  • dates
  • conference theme and broad outline of the meeting
  • rationale
  • URL of LISA homepage (http://www.eso.org/libraries/lisa.html; this will help colleagues who are not familiar with LISA conferences to get a first overview.)

First Announcement:

  • meeting name
  • place (city as well as exact meeting venue)
  • dates
  • conference theme, meeting outline
  • registration information
  • conference fee
  • lodging information
  • conference dinner
  • social events
  • field trips
  • URL of conference website

Second Announcement:

Like first announcement plus:
  • preliminary programme (including session topics, schedule outline, possibly names of speakers)
  • deadline for abstract submission for the program booklet
  • information on proceedings
  • instructions for authors
  • conference poster

Sample documents:

LISA I

LISA II

LISA III

LISA IV

LISA V

LISA VI

 

Call for Papers
Depending on the available time, the Call for Papers can be distributed as a separate document or together with the First Announcement. Its purpose is to invite contributions for oral as well as poster presentations. The Call for Papers must state clearly

  • the submission procedure and
  • the submission deadline

Information on the procedure includes notes regarding availability of abstract templates, email or ftp addresses for abstract submission (in the case of ftp perhaps some remarks on typical commands), contact persons for questions, explanations on the planned timeline (e.g., when authors can expect a notification regarding acceptance/rejection of their contribution.)

The submission deadline (like all deadlines) should be enforced quite strictly in order to avoid delay in program planning.

Based on invited speakers and contributions received from the community, the SOC develops the conference program.

Sample documents:

Poster
The conference poster is designed, printed, and distributed by the LOC (unless it is outsourced to a contracted company which will result in additional costs. See: Funding.) If possible, it should reflect the conference theme and be 'catchy' to attract attention. Examples are:

Website
The Local Organizing Committee designs, maintains and updates the conference web pages. They contain all information available to date, including

  • general conference information (see Second Announcement above)
  • registration form
  • lodging info
  • field trip info
  • preliminary and later final program
  • links to local tourist info
  • information on how to get from the airport / train station to the conference hotels / dorms and from the hotels to the conference venue
  • information for authors including access to the abstract template and macro for article preparation

To reflect the current state of the planning, it is important that the website is updated regularly.

After the conference has been held, the organizers may decide to link Powerpoint slideshows or other summaries of presentations to the program schedule at the conference website. This will not replace the final proceedings, but bridge the time until they are published.

Sample web pages:

Pre- and post-conference reports in journals and newsletters
Articles describing a forthcoming LISA conference increase the meeting's visibility and extend information beyond the typical circle of attendees. As astronomy libraries often are technologically advanced, LISA conferences may well be of interest to colleagues from other subject areas.

LISA II

Library and Information Services in Astronomy II (LISA-II), The ESO Messenger, no. 81, 1995, 27-28

Library and Information Services in Astronomy II provides wealth of practical information. Special Libraries, Fall 1995, 304-307

Astronomiebibliotheken: internationale Konferenz. Bibliotheksdienst, vol. 29, no. 9, 1477-1479 (in German)

LISA III

SLA Europea pre-conference article (pdf file, see page 2)

LISA IV

Report to IAU Commission 46, Astronomy Education and Development. Newsletter no. 57, October 2002

Other publicity items
Other publicity items can help to increase the visibility of the planned (or past) event.

Examples:

LISA II bag

LISA II mousepad