CFP: 2026 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge (May 17-20, 2026 – On Mt. Hood Oregon)

CFP: 2026 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge (May 17-20, 2026 – On Mt. Hood Oregon)

Call for Proposals: 2026 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge
Proposals due December 30, 2025
2026 Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge
Sunday, May 17 – Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Timberline Lodge
One hour east of Portland, Oregon on the slope of Mt. Hood
http://www.acquisitionsinstitute.org
Greetings!
We’re excited to announce the call for proposals for AITL 2026: our small, informal, and stimulating gathering in a convivial and glorious Pacific Northwest setting, focused on the methods and innovation of building and managing library collections.
What is The Acquisitions Institute?
Since 2000, the pre-eminent conference located in Western North America on acquisitions and collection development, held at Timberline Lodge.
A three-day conference focusing on the methods and innovation of building and managing library collections.
A small (capped at 80 attendees), informal and stimulating gathering in a convivial and glorious Pacific Northwest setting.
What topics are we looking for?
The planning committee is seeking submissions on all aspects of library acquisitions and collection management. Presenters are encouraged to engage the audience in discussion, whether the presentation leans more toward the practical «here’s what we did» sessions or toward the more abstract «here’s what we think» sessions. The committee may also seek to achieve balance in the program by bringing individual proposals together to form panels, or by recommending that a proposal be converted to a table talk. We invite you to indicate whether or not you’d be interested in these opportunities on the submission proposal form.
Topics we and/or prior year’s attendees are interested in include (in no particular order):
Assessment tools, methods, and projects (e.g., linking collections with learning outcomes; usage studies)
Collection strategies including new models for selection and managing liaison programs
Government, special, and academic library perspectives in acquisitions and collection development
Sustainable models for publishing/pricing
Effective management of collections with constrained resources
Vendor and publisher evaluation, including business skills to determine financial viability
Diversity, inclusion, representation, and social justice in acquisitions and collections
Negotiation skills and how to use them, including during library-vendor and library-publisher meetings
Innovative vendor-librarian relationships and/or partnerships
Staffing, training and development, and recruiting issues, challenges, successes (e.g., onboarding new acquisitions and/or collections staff)
Using data visualization techniques to tell our stories (e.g., budget, collections, staff successes, etc.)
Impacts of Open initiatives on acquisitions and collection development
Data curation, including Big Data, and management and other new roles for subject and technical services librarians
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