On August 1 - 5, 2020, the 27th ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) was hosted jointly by School of Information Management at Wuhan University and School of Public Administration at Northwest University in Wuhan, Hubei, China. This was the first time that JCDL has been held in Asia. 980 experts and scholars from 35 national digital libraries of 5 continents and related fields around the world submitted more than 380 papers. The number of submission to the conference was the highest among all previous years. The paper’s acceptance still maintained the strict standard of JCDL ever since. Although the participants were in different time zones, experts and scholars from various countries had great enthusiasm for the virtual conference. About 380 experts, scholars, industry personages and graduate students from nearly 140 universities, libraries and research institutions of more than 20 countries and communities around the world attended the conference online.

The conference lasted five days and was held virtually. The theme of JCDL 2020 wasSpeedier Innovation, Sustainable Development, Societal Transformation, and it invited participants to discuss innovation in Digital Library theory and practice, construction of sustainable ecosystems that help people create knowledge, and the promotion of societal transformation in a time of rapid change.

On August 1, opening ceremony of JCDL 2020 was held. Professor Qizhu Tang, Vice President of Wuhan University attended the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. Professor Xiaokang Lei, Dean of School of Public Administration, Northwest University, Dan Wu, JCDL 2020 General Chair, Professor at School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Daqing He, JCDL 2020 Program Chair, Professor at School of Computing and Information, University of Pittsburgh delivered speeches respectively. Professor Lihong Zhou, Associate Dean of School of Information Management, Wuhan University, presided over the opening ceremony.

The conference invited three well-known experts in the field of Digital Library theory and practice as keynote speakers. Professor Edward A. Fox, the proponent of "Digital Library",directorofthe Digital Library Research Laboratory andProfessor of Computer Scienceat Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI&SU or Virginia Tech),made the first keynote report entitledHow Should One Explore the Digital Library of the Future?Professor Gary Marchionini, Co-chair of JCDL 2020 and Dean of School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted the keynote speak. The other two keynote reports wereTowards a Sustainable Infrastructure for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Digital Scholarshipby Dr. Peter Zhou,Assistant University Librarian and Director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley, andNatural Language Technologies for Internet ApplicationsbyDr. Luo Si,Distinguished Engineer and Vice President of Alibaba Group Inc., and the Head of Language Tech Lab with Alibaba DAMO academy.

At the closing ceremony, Professor Gary Machionini summarized the highlights of the conference. He reviewed the development of JCDL, spoke highly of our university's contribution to the organization of the conference, and he believed it was an effective academic grand ceremony. The achievements and communication of scholars would have a profound influence on the development of Digital Library. Professor Feicheng Ma, Professor Chuanfu Chen, Professor Qing Fang, and Professor Wei Lu, Dean of our school, respectively presented certificates to the winners of The Vannevar Bush Best Paper Award, The Best Student Paper, The Best Poster / Demo, and The Best Practitioner, and Professor Jiang Wu,Associate Deanof our school, issued certificates to the conference volunteers. Professor Michael Nelson atOld Dominion University, Chairman of JCDL Steering Committee, and Professor Stephen Downie atUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, incomingPresident of JCDL Steering Committee, once again congratulated the successful holding of the conference in their concluding remarks, and expressed their gratitude to our university and school for the efforts in this conference. Professor Ruhua Huang of our school, Co-chair of JCDL 2020, presided over the closing ceremony.

The conference was in various forms of communication, such as long papers, short papers, posters and demonstrations, doctoralconsortium, tutorials, workshops, panels, andpractitioners. The topics involvedata science/analytics,data curation/stewardship,information behavior,information organization,information retrieval,information science,information service,human-computer interaction,hypertext (and Web/network science),multimedia,publishing, preservation,digital humanities,machine learning/AI,heritage/culture,health/medicine,policy,law,privacy/intellectual property,information scienceand etc.It provided a platform for experts and scholars from all over the world to present theoretical frontier of international information management research.

About JCDL

The ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) is a top international academic conference in the field of digital library and information retrieval, jointly sponsored by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 2001. Before 2000, the conference was hosted separately by ACM and IEEE.

The JCDL conference is held annually, usually in the USA though on occasion it has been held in Canada or conjoined with the TPDL (the former ECDL), or ICADL. JCDL, TPDL and ICADL are known as the three international academic conferences in the field of global digital library research. These three conferences help create stimulating and collegial forums for reporting significant digital library research and development activities.

The JCDL conference is a major international forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues. It encompasses the many meanings of the term “digital libraries”, including new forms of information institutions; operational information systems with all manner of digital content; new means of selecting, collecting, organizing, and distributing digital content; and theoretical models of information media, including document genres and electronic publishing.

The International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL) is the former European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL). TPDL is a well-established scientific and technical forum on the broad topic of digital libraries. It gathers together researchers, developers, content providers and users in digital libraries and digital content management.

The International Conference on Asia-Pacific Digital Libraries (ICADL) meetings invite researchers and professionals from library and information science, computer science, social science, information systems, law and policy, education and learning, and various other academic disciplines. Research topics range from digital library technologies and information systems to content management, service models, and cost and sustainability issues.

More information about JCDL 2020 can be found athttp://2020.jcdl.org/index.html.