The DLF Forum is a multi-day experience for learning, networking, and skill building

Join us at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, USA, July 29-31 and virtually October 22-23, 2024.

In-Person DLF Forum,
July 29-31

We’re excited to partner with member organization Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries and the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) to host DLF Forum’s in person summer event happening July 29-31, 2024.

Virtual DLF Forum,
October 22-23

The DLF community has expressed a desire for a virtual event and we’re excited to deliver this year. Offering a virtual conference in the fall will enhance flexibility, accessibility, affordability, and a reduced environmental impact. Join us online October 22-23, 2024.

Virtual Forum Featured Speaker

Andrea Jackson Gavin

Andrea Jackson Gavin, Program Director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust will join the Virtual DLF Forum as our Featured Speaker. Don’t miss her talk, “Advancing the HBCU Digital Library Trust through Relationship-Building on October 22.

In-Person DLF Forum

Watch the Opening and Closing Plenaries

Kathleen Fitzpatrick opened the in-person event at Michigan State University and Germaine Halegoua closed the event.

KATHLEEN FITZPATRICK

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Director of Digital Humanities Professor of English, and director of the MESH Research Lab at Michigan State University, will present "Open Matters," which will explore what our dependence on corporate communications infrastructures may mean for the future of scholarly communication, as well as ways that academic institutions might become better able to take control of their own infrastructural needs.

GERMAINE HALEGOUA

Germaine Halegoua, John D. Evans Development Professor & Associate Professor of Communication and Media and co-founder of the Urban Tech Collective at the University of Michigan, will present "After 'after access': Emerging issues for digital inclusion and digital equity," which will explore the ways in which “after access” issues have evolved, what this evolution means for digital inclusion and equity interventions, and how infrastructures of repair may be used to confront our current conditions and move beyond harm reduction toward more equitable digital futures.

Thank you to our 2024 sponsors!

Partner with us to connect your brand to a multi-disciplinary cross-sector audience of professionals in the digital library, museum, archives, and cultural heritage fields, from project managers, technologists, and developers to administrators, archivists, and service providers.

About our event

Defining tomorrow's frontiers

The DLF Forum welcomes digital library, archives, and museum practitioners from member institutions and beyond—for whom it serves as a meeting place, marketplace, and congress. Here, the DLF community celebrates successes, learns from mistakes, sets grassroots agendas, and organizes for action.

Interactive

Forum presenters typically actively engage with the audience in a two-way communication or participation.

Creative

Presenters have the freedom to utilize unconventional and imaginative methods to capture the audience's attention and communicate key information.

Practical

An overwhelming amount of attendees prefer practical sessions that focus on providing useful, actionable information that attendees can apply in their professional lives.

Inventive

We encourage inventive sessions, where presentations aim to captivate the audience through originality, out-of-the-box thinking, and a fresh perspective, including methods such as creativity in content delivery.

Participant feedback

Hear from community members

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As a first-time attendee, I found DLF to be a welcoming environment and filled with relevant information for my work. It’s the most comfortable I’ve ever felt at a professional conference, and I think the focus on inclusion and accessibility is a large part of that. The conference culture is excellent -- people were attentive in sessions, asked good questions, and seemed overall supportive rather than competitive or critical of each other’s work. I really appreciated that.

Hearing how other people tackled the task of migrating repository platforms was very helpful. Also just meeting new people in the field and learning about what they do. It’s very easy to feel like you don’t really know if you’re doing enough, or doing too much, or not doing the work correctly, and so these once-a-year (or more) opportunities to meet up with other professionals and be reminded that you’re all basically in the same boat is very reassuring.

This was my first DLF and honestly it helped me feel so much more confident in my new role. It felt like I wasn’t the only person with questions or hesitations about some of the issues we are having. A lot of the programming directly spoke to projects or initiatives I am working on day-to-day so it was very practical.

It’s great to see what everyone is working on, and this conference has a really wide range of presentations from theory to execution and different types of skills for different interests...DLF is by far my favorite conference, partly because I feel so cared for by the way the planning committee clearly focuses on fitting everyone’s diverse needs and partly because the sessions are always so good!