CALC in Cambs

CALC in Cambs will take place on Tuesday 18th April 2023, 12.30 - 17.00.

The venue for this event is The University of Cambridge Student Services Centre, Bene't Street, New Museums Site, CB2 3PT.  The main entrance to the building is located off of Bene't Street. 

Details of the building's accessibility information can be found on their AccessAble pages. 

A map for the venue can be found on the University of Cambridge map and a video showing how to locate the building.

A multi-faith prayer room is available for all building users and can be found in the reception foyer. 

An additional breakout room has been booked and will be set up as a quiet room.

The main event space has an integrated AV system including microphones.

12.30 - 12.45 Event start and attendee registration

12.45 - 13.00 Welcome and housekeeping

13.00 - 13.45 Speaker 1

13.45 - 14.00 Break

14.00 - 14.45 Speaker 2

14.45 - 15.00 Break

15.00 - 15.45 Speaker 3

15.45 - 16.00 Closing remarks

16.00 - 17.00 Networking and social time

19.00 - Optional evening social event (not included in ticket price)

The event programme may be subject change without notice.

Sessions will be presented live and will not be recorded or live-streamed.  

Dr Rebecca Noone (she/her) - Location, Location, Location: Google Maps and the Politics of Placemaking.

Theme: Digital Humanities

Digital maps like have become deeply embroiled in our daily life— from finding route directions to checking reviews of restaurants. Popular critiques of digital maps often follow the tune of: ‘they are ruining our sense of direction!’ or ‘no one can read a map anymore!’ Moving away from these lamentations of individual failure, Noone focuses on the politics of placemaking undergirding digital mapping infrastructures with a critical data analysis of Google Maps and its drive to create a universal mapping platform. Looking at two American cities, Oakland, CA and Buffalo, New York, Noone walks through Google Maps methods of mapping (ominously titled Project Ground Truth) to critically evaluate how Google classifies and values spatial information. Through this process, Noone illustrates how Google Maps replicates and amplifies hegemonic geographies which then circulate to other information platforms.  

Helen Rimmer (she/her) -  Something Intangible - An introduction to the Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Library work.

Theme: Critical Workplaces

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, recognize, and manage one's own emotions as well as the emotions of others. This includes being able to identify and manage emotions, being able to motivate oneself and others, and having the ability to recognize and respond to the emotions of others.

In libraries and library work, the ability to recognize and respond to the emotions of others is especially important. This is because libraries and library colleagues serve a wide range of users, many of whom may have vastly different needs and expectations. By being able to recognize and respond to the emotions of others, we can better understand and meet the needs of patrons, and provide a more effective and efficient service.

This session will introduce Emotional Intelligence and an activity that will help library colleagues gain a better understanding of the importance of emotional intelligence in library work, as well as develop strategies for responding to user’s needs.

Naomi Smith (she/her) - The Need for Librarians to Adopt Critical Approaches to Technology

Theme: Critical Technology

This session will highlight the gap in Critical Librarianship scholarship and Library ‘Decolonisation’ initiaitives currently within UK Academic Libraries to critically discus or address the usage, perpespective and ethics of Technology and consequently will call for Library sectoral and scholarly silence about the links between Technology and Inequity to end. 

Naomi will detail the inequitable Technological issues she experiences in her job as a subject librarian buying e-resources and will also share her research she undertook for her UCL MA in Library and Information Studies regarding the problematic policy-making  and theorisation of technological issues such as ‘digital inequality’ within Academic Librarianship. The session aims to not only draw attention to the inequitable structures that Academic Librarians are trapped in but more importantly, begin to facilitate radical discussion and  solutions to the issues that are posed within this session.

Tickets for this event are £30. This includes venue access and three speaker sessions. This is an uncatered event but refreshments are included (hot drinks, juice, snacks).

Booking for CALC in Cambs is now closed.

Bursary places for CALC in Cambs have now been allocated. Thank you to everyone that applied. We will be offering bursary tickets for our main conference in May 2023 in due course.

CALC recognises that all formal guidance on COVID protections has been removed in England and we acknowledge that while the global pandemic continues there are risks associated with attending an indoor event. We also acknowledge that those risks are not evenly distributed and that some attendees may be more at risk and/or anxious than others. In order to make the event more accessible and comfortable for potentially vulnerable attendees, we are putting in place the following additional measures:

CALC in Cambs will be a masked event. 

• This means we will ask everyone attending to wear a mask when inside the venue during the main part of our event (between 12.30-5pm). 

• We will provide masks for people, should you forget to bring one.

• Speakers may remove their masks whilst presenting. We will ask speakers to take a COVID test before attending, and encourage attendees to do so as well.

• We will provide hand sanitiser and encourage attendees to regularly wash their hands according to the NHS guidance. 

• This excludes our evening social event, which is an optional indoor dinner.

We strongly encourage people who have been recently diagnosed with COVID-19, have recently had direct contact with an individual diagnosed with or suspected to have COVID-19, or are displaying symptoms commonly associated with COVID-19 to stay at home.

• We reserve the right to refuse entry to, or ask people to leave the event if they are showing obvious signs of illness, particularly signs of COVID.

• We will refund your ticket price if you are unable to attend because of COVID illness. 

We will liaise with the venue regarding their approach to COVID, with a specific focus on ventilation/air purification in the event space. 

• If possible we will be providing the refreshments in an outdoor space and encourage attendees to take their refreshments outside [weather dependent].

If you test positive for COVID following the event, we encourage you to contact us so we can notify other attendees. We will not identify you in this message, it will only communicate that someone at the event had a positive COVID test. 

Persistent non-compliance with safety measures at the event without [good reasons] may result in you being asked to leave the event without refund. 

If you have any questions or would like to comment on our policy, please email calcconference@gmail.com 

Our catering supplier for this event is Origin8, a local company that aims to use locally grown, seasonally appropriate ingredients.

They will be supplying us with the following:

Tea and coffee selection

Mixed local juices

Vegan and gluten free flapjack platter

Fruit platter

We will supplement this order with a selection of biscuits plus any requests from attendees.