SOUCABL Conference
2027 Call for Proposals
Are you an academic librarian with liaison responsibilities in business, finance, hospitality, sports management, or entrepreneurship? If so, the Southern University and College Academic Business Librarians Conference (SOUCABL) is for you! SOUCABL is a great opportunity to meet fellow information professionals, expand your regional network of colleagues, share ideas, and brainstorm solutions.We are now accepting proposals!
https://forms.gle/UoBAp22YgHgrHNgDA
Timeline
Proposals are due Friday, January 15, 2027
Proposals confirmed no later than Friday, January 29, 2027
We especially encourage submissions from librarians at smaller institutions, early-career practitioners or those for whom business support is just one part of a multi-faceted role.
Priority will be given to participants from the District of Columbia and 14 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
About the Conference
What: The SOUCABL Conference: Chapter 8 - Collections and Connections: Cultivating What Matters
When: Wednesday, May 19 - Thursday, May 20, 2027
Where: Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Cost: No registration fee.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided
There will be a welcome reception on Wednesday and closing reception on Thursday
Speakers and all other attendees are responsible for covering their own travel and lodging
Pre-Conference Literacy Lab
The pre-conference literacy lab will explore practical strategies for teaching a range of business information literacies within the context of today's evolving landscape of resources, technologies, and ethical questions. Sessions should emphasize collaborative approaches for maximizing the impact of available resources and highlighting creative methods of instruction.
The aim of the pre-conference lab is to inspire attendees with fresh ideas and equip them with practical tools to apply these ideas in their own workplace. Tell us how your workshop might help our community build connections and enhance our teaching in meaningful and conscientious ways.
Collections and Connections: Cultivating What Matters
The theme of the 2027 conference is “Collections and Connections: Cultivating What Matters." We invite business librarians to explore how we build, curate, leverage, and measure both information resources and human networks to create lasting value for our campus communities. Whether you have revitalized specialized collections, forged strong partnerships with faculty or local entrepreneurs, or built sustainable collaborative networks across institutions, we want to hear your story. Proposals should highlight how prioritizing deep connections amplifies the impact of our libraries well beyond the physical and digital stacks.
Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to the following:
Campus & Cross-Disciplinary Alliances: How have you built partnerships with business faculty, career centers, or campus entrepreneurship hubs?
Community & Regional Partnerships: What external collaborations, with local chambers of commerce, small business development centers (SBDCs), or industry groups, have extended your library's reach?
Peer-to-Peer & Inter-Institutional Networks: How are you cultivating collaborative networks with fellow librarians to pool expertise, co-create resources, or share mentoring opportunities?
Vendor - Librarian Collaborations: How have you worked together to solve persistent problems in new ways and create solutions for your schools and libraries?
Curating for Impact: How have you tailored or reimagined your business collections to directly address emerging campus, research, or community needs?
Measuring Relationship Impact: How do you evaluate, demonstrate, and communicate the value of relationship-building and relational capital to campus leadership?
Formats
Pre-conference Workshop: 55 minutes including all interactive elements (must include an activity)
Lightning talk: 10 minutes (includes any Q&A), limited to 5 slides maximum
Roundtable: 45 minutes, should include specific topic or set of topics and how discussions will be facilitated
We welcome flexible and innovative formats! A lightning talk may be invited to expand into a workshop, or a workshop idea condensed into a lightning talk. We seek engaging sessions that deliver high impact and immediate value. If you have a unique presentation style or modality request, we would love to hear your ideas.
Please contact Trip Wyckoff for suggestions for the program or proposals.
Please contact H.D. McKay for any questions about travel and hospitality related to the conference.