Introduction of New Editors

Citation

Calvert, P., Gelfand, J. and Mariva Riggs, C. (2001), "Introduction of New Editors", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918caa.001

Introduction of New Editors

Philip CalvertIt's a great pleasure to introduce myself to readers of Library Hi-Tech News. This is an unusual journal in the Library Science discipline and one that is much needed by the profession. Julia Gelfand, Colby Riggs and myself hope to bring you a lively and informative combination of news, reviews, conference reports, diary dates, research in progress and much else besides.

Currently I am a member of the School of Communication and Information Management of Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. My main teaching areas are management and bibliographic organization in the Master of Library and Information Studies programme. You may not be too surprised to hear that I intend to start teaching a new course on Electronic Publishing later this year. My research interests range over such issues as service quality, performance measurement, the funding of public libraries, the impact of misinformation, and much else besides.

Editing is a great challenge, so I am glad to have plenty of experience at it already. For five years I was the Editor of New Zealand Libraries, our national LIS journal of record. I was Associate Editor of Asian Libraries for two years, and I have also been part of the editorial team on several other journals. Library Hi Tech News will be a particular challenge, however.

One reason I was invited to join the editorial team of this journal was to give it a wider international perceptive. I sometimes say that if you become a librarian you can see the world, so after working in my native England for a few years I then worked in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and currently New Zealand. It has given me a feeling for the richness and diversity of the library and information management profession around the world and the many fine people who are part of it. I am sure this will be a rewarding experience for me, and I hope we can produce a journal that excites you.

Julia GelfandNot exactly new to MCB readers, I was the founding editor of the International Journal on Grey Literature (IJGL), the journal ceased after one volume year and I wanted to continue my learning curve as an editor. The opportunity to work with other editors and contributors and retain my interest in journal editing was a real perk when there became turnover in the established publishing program of LHTN. For my real job, I am the Applied Sciences and Engineering Librarian at the University of California, Irvine where I have been a member of staff since 1981 and centrally involved in collection development and reference liaison activities supporting many subject areas. Active professionally in many societies and associations, ranging from the American Library Association (ALA), Society of Scholarly Publishing, map and GIS groups, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and others, I find great rewards from my affiliations and networking opportunities these memberships offer. Although US based, I have always had a wide international focus in my work having served as the US/UK Fulbright Librarian in 1992-1993 based at Imperial College, London. Half-way through my first four-year term as ALA's Science and Technology Representative to IFLA's Science & Technology Section, I have been involved in program planning for that group. I have lectured throughout the UK, in Sweden, Poland, Hong Kong and done consulting work in the Philippines on the Engineering Sciences Education Project for the Department of Science and Technology in its establishment of the first science library consortia. My independent research and publishing activities reflect interests in scholarly communication issues and changing developments in grey literature. I teach as an adjunct instructor in the School of Information Resources & Library Science at the University of Arizona, Tucson and am committed to sharing my enthusiasm for coursework in scholarly communication, digital libraries, collection development and academic libraries. I look forward to a more global reach for LHTN and links to how technology serves all segments of the library community from users to library staff.

Colby Mariva RiggsI am Colby Riggs, the third co-editor in this triad. I am a Systems Librarian at the University of California, Irvine and a colleague of Julia's. I have a strong background in Technical Services and have been a Systems Librarian since 1991. I participate in a variety of projects in the UCI Libraries such as project management, design of user interfaces, evaluation of software and hardware, training end-users in new technologies and special projects. I have participated in numerous statewide California Digital Library committees and projects. I have been professionally active in the Library and Information Technologies Association (LITA) of the American Library Association in a variety of positions such as Emerging Technologies Interest Group Chair, Interest Group Coordinator and Program Planning Committee Chair. Recently, I was elected to a three-year term to the LITA Board of Directors. My publications have been about new and emerging technologies, and my current interests are in information technology training and helping others use information technology to enhance their productivity. My main contributions to LHTN will be to bring to the attention of LHTN readers, the latest news in information technology products, issues and commentaries with a global emphasis.