Conference Agenda (All times are shown in Eastern Daylight Time)

Recent policy changes and sweeping cuts to federal agencies in the United States (US) pose a significant threat to information scholars and practitioners in the US and elsewhere who benefit from the funding, services, programming, and support made possible by federal agencies like the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The termination of research grants, the deletion of public federal data sets, and mass layoffs across the federal sector in the US have left many early career scholars concerned about disruptions to their research and scholarly productivity. These disruptions have the potential to impact scholars around the world who, for example, rely on data that is under threat, or who collaborate with researchers based at institutions in the US. This panel will discuss future considerations for these actions' impact on information scholars, practitioners, and their communities. We will present strategies for fostering scholarly productivity through scholarly collaboration, data sharing and reuse, and information resilience. We aim to foster an open discussion with panelists and audience members to explore additional avenues and strategies that early career information scholars may pursue to navigate these challenges.

This alternative event is the inaugural convening of the AI Agnostics reading group. Using recently published texts from interdisciplinary fields, six participants will engage conference attendees in a rousing discussion of critical issues in artificial intelligence. Together, the reading group and conference attendees will unpack, reflect on, and wrestle with the myriad domains in which our lives are affected by AI and related ethical issues, policy concerns, and agency in use of non-use of AI in research and teaching. Using literature as a springboard, we will consider the costs of uncritical acceptance of artificial intelligence. We will gain insights into what information science scholars and practitioners can do to respond to the current moment for the good of society.