Since 2005, the Conference on Information and Research Science Connecting to Digital and Library Science (IRCDL) has been an annual event for researchers on Digital Libraries and related topics. IRCDL has become a key forum on digital libraries and associated issues. It covers various aspects, including new forms of information institutions, digital content management, and theoretical models of information media. The conference welcomes participants from academia, government, industry, and other sectors. It draws from diverse research areas such as computer science, digital humanities, information science, librarianship, archival science, museum studies, technology, social sciences, cultural heritage, and humanities.

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IRCDL 2026 features two distinct tracks, each with an associated special issue.

• 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝟭
Computer Science Foundations for Digital Libraries: Algorithms, Systems, and Applications

This track examines core computer science concepts essential for digital libraries. It covers algorithms for information retrieval and data management, system architectures for large-scale digital collections, and practical applications in areas such as academic research and cultural heritage preservation.

Special issue published in: International Journal on Digital Libraries


• 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝟮
Digital Humanities: The Science and Foundation of Modern Humanities Libraries

This track explores the intersection of digital technologies and humanities research. It examines computational methods for analyzing and preserving cultural artifacts, text mining techniques for large-scale literary analysis, and digital platforms for collaborative scholarship.

Special issue published in: Umanistica Digitale

Authors of selected papers from the two tracks will be invited to submit extended versions of their work to the related special issue indicated above. Additional details about the special issues will be available soon.

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Submissions are welcome on theory, architectures, data models, tools,
services, and infrastructures. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Open data
• Open science: models, practices, mandates, and policies
• Information retrieval and access
• Information extraction from tables and figures in scientific literature
• Machine learning and data mining for digital libraries
• Generative AI and foundation models for digital libraries
• Responsible and ethical AI in digital libraries
• Ontologies
• Knowledge discovery, representation, and reasoning in digital libraries
• Knowledge acquisition from scientific papers
• Document analysis (layout, text, images)
• Services for digital arts and humanities
• Cultural heritage access and analysis
• Metadata (definition, management, curation, integration)
• Digital manuscript analysis
• Data repositories and archives
• Data citation, provenance and pricing
• Data and information lifecycle (creation, store, share and reuse)
• Semantic web technologies and linked data for digital libraries
• Digital epigraphy
• Digital preservation and curation
• Quality and evaluation of digital libraries
• Digital scholarship
• Citation analysis and scientometrics
• Research infrastructures
• User participation
• Human-computer interaction and user experience
• Multimodal and multimedia information management
• Applications of digital libraries

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𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲

General Chairs:
• Lorenzo Baraldi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
• Marcella Cornia (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)

Program Chairs:
• Fabio Carrara (ISTI-CNR)
• Vittorio Cuculo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
• Marilena Daquino (University of Bologna)
• Stefano Marchesin (University of Padua)
• Marina Paolanti (University of Macerata)

Publication Chair:
• Sara Sarto (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)

Publicity Chairs:
• Emanuele Balloni (Università Politecnica delle Marche)
• Davide Caffagni (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
• Beatrice Portelli (University of Udine)

Local Organization Chairs:
• Davide Bucciarelli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia & University of Pisa)
• Evelyn Turri (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
• Leonardo Zini (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)

Special Issue Chairs:
• Gianmaria Silvello (University of Padua)
• Giorgio Maria Di Nunzio (University of Padua)