Digital libraries are essential guardians of global knowledge and culture, preserving humanity’s collective memory and fueling innovative research, learning, and discovery. In an era of unprecedented data growth and transformative AI, JCDL continues to be the premier international forum for the multidisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners in digital libraries and allied fields.

To support broad international participation while fostering live interaction, JCDL 2026 will be held as a hybrid event, combining in-person attendance with virtual participation. Authors of accepted papers will be expected to present their work during scheduled sessions.

We invite original research that advances the state-of-the-art in managing, accessing, analyzing, and curating digital collections. JCDL 2026 welcomes contributions across computer science, information science, library science, social science, and cultural heritage domains. We particularly encourage submissions that leverage cutting-edge approaches, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, large language models, data science, knowledge graphs, generative models, recommendation systems, and information retrieval.

Topics of Interest

JCDL 2026 topics include, but are not limited to:

Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Analytics for Digital Libraries

    Machine learning and deep learning methods for digital libraries
    Large language models, generative AI, agent-based systems, and foundation models in information access
    Data mining, data analytics, and visualization of library collections
    Knowledge graphs, semantic web, ontologies, and graph-based knowledge representation
    Natural language processing, information extraction, and semantic search
    Predictive analytics, neural retrieval, and data-driven innovation

Search, Retrieval, and Recommendation Systems

    Information retrieval, indexing, and ranking for large-scale digital collections
    Personalized search, user modeling, and recommender systems
    Semantic search, question answering, and conversational interfaces
    Navigational and exploratory search, interactive retrieval, query understanding, and multimodal retrieval (text, images, audio, video)
    Knowledge discovery, entity-centric retrieval, and cross-lingual retrieval

Human Interaction, Communities, and Collaboration

    User experience (UX) design, usability, and accessibility in digital library systems
    Collaborative and social information environments, including crowdsourcing and citizen science
    Social networks, social tagging, folksonomies, and community curation of content
    Human-centered design, interactive visualization, and user behavior analysis
    Community building, scholarly communication, and engagement with digital content

Content, Collections, and Digital Humanities

    Digitization, transcription, and analysis of cultural heritage and multimedia collections
    Digital humanities methods, computational social science, and arts-based informatics
    Metadata standards, linked data, semantic annotation, and interoperability in digital collections
    Document genres, scholarly content management, and digital exhibits
    Multilingual and multicultural digital libraries; inclusion of diverse voices and resources
    Domain-specific applications of digital libraries

Infrastructure, Preservation, and Data Management

    Digital preservation, long-term archiving, and sustainability of digital collections
    Data curation, stewardship, and repository infrastructure
    Linked open data, metadata integration, and semantic interoperability
    Cloud computing, distributed architectures, and scalable library systems
    Open science, open data initiatives, and reproducibility of digital library research

Policy, Ethics, and Societal Impact

    Intellectual property, copyright, and licensing issues in digital collections
    Privacy, security, and trust in digital library systems and AI applications
    Ethics of AI, algorithmic fairness, bias, and accountability in information access
    Accessibility, inclusion, and equitable access to knowledge for diverse communities
    Social, cultural, and legal implications of digital preservation and access