Editorial

Citation

Broady-Preston, J. (2012), "Editorial", Library Review, Vol. 61 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2012.03561aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Library Review, Volume 61, Issue 1

A new year and a new team

A Happy New Year to all our authors and subscribers. This is the first issue of 2012 and the first issue produced by the new editorial team – we hope you like it!

As many of you will be aware, David McMenemy stepped down as Editor in 2011, with volume 60 issues 8 and 9 being his final issue. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to David. Under his editorship, Library Review further developed into a quality international journal, and one which became the journal of choice for those interested in reading the latest developments in “research you can use”. I am pleased to announce that David has agreed to continue his association with the journal as both a member of the Editorial Advisory Board, and as a reviewer, and I look forward to working closely with him in these new roles. As the incoming editor, I intend to build on David’s work and achievements to date and outline my vision for the journal below.

A new editor is not the only change to the editorial and publishing team for the journal. Two of the three Associate Editors, Alan Poulter and George MacGregor have also decided to move on, for a mixture of personal and professional reasons, and again, I should like to thank them both for their contribution and to wish them well in the future. Eileen Breen, whilst still remaining at Emerald, has also moved on to other duties within the company, and I would like to pay tribute to Eileen’s work and contribution to Library Review over many years; we shall miss her common sense and good humour, in addition to her knowledge and expertise.

But – we have two new Associate Editors and a new publisher to welcome, and I am very pleased to be working with them and to introduce them to you. In order of appointment, the first is Amanda Cossham, who is based in New Zealand. Amanda has a proven publication record working with a number of collaborators, with several papers published in previous issues of Library Review. Amanda brings a range of strengths to the role, including four years experience as an Editorial associate and copy editor on the Open Access journal Information Research. She and I first met electronically via email correspondence, which culminated in our jointly writing and agreeing to present a paper at IFLA without having met physically first! Almost a paradigm of the age, and possibly the shape of things to come in the profession and the discipline. The second new Associate Editor is Anoush Simon, based in the UK, and who again brings a range of strengths to her new role, including extensive experience of collaborating on applied research projects within the professional community in Wales. Last, but by no means least, I should also like to welcome the new Publisher, Virginia (Ginny) Chapman, who joined Emerald in the Autumn of 2011 following a career which has incorporated professional education and training as a LIS practitioner, together with previous experience as a web editor/publisher. Welcome to all three!

A new vision?

As outlined above, I intend to build upon the current strengths of the journal, whilst simultaneously refining and shaping several new directions for Library Review, which reflect global changes and trends. We now live in a Digital Age. Digital innovation and developments, social media, web 2.0 and beyond, the potential for an “infinite archive” and associated changes to the way people and organisations interact are opening up new opportunities and challenges for libraries, information services, museums and archives. There is huge potential to develop new ways of working to enhance access and creativity, but the digital age also raises complex questions of responsibility, identity, privacy, and data security which need to be addressed.

Traditionally with an authentic literary product or cultural artefact it was possible to identify and copyright an original version at a certain point in time. However, the development of digitisation raises issues of how to retain an archive when material is not in a fixed or permanent form and may indeed, be changed as a result of customer/user interaction with the material; the customer/s thus becoming in part the generators (or owners) of the material as well as recipients of content. This raises issues across the spectrum of creating and maintaining an archive, from authenticity through to access and retrieval.

A cross- and/or inter-disciplinary approach is essential if cultural organisations are to realise their full potential to transform the means of organising, interpreting and using knowledge. Therefore, there is enormous scope for a journal which addresses these issues across the cultural heritage sector – archives, libraries and museums – together with a wide range of partners from the creative and cultural industries such as theatre companies, national institutions, galleries, publishing, law, and media companies.

From an academic perspective, the disciplines with the ability to contribute cross or inter- disciplinary research of relevance, will include archival, library and information science, English, law, schools of art, management and marketing, to highlight a few. Inevitably, transformation of the means of exploiting and accessing knowledge in the digital age has managerial and marketing implications, in addition to those in relation to content organisation and retrieval. Similarly, researchers from more traditional disciplines such as English, Celtic Studies and European literature seek to explore the means by which documentary archives and material may be used and indeed, transformed by digital technology, together with the potential for new arts and humanities content and forms of expression which may emerge as a result of widening access to such materials.

A journal publishing papers which report research into these, and similar issues in relation to digital age and culture, should be of significant benefit and interest to individuals, policy makers, business, cultural organisations as well as researchers.

With this change in emphasis, the journal will be seeking and, we hope, also attract papers which address ethical issues arising from these developments, together with those in relation to the globalisation of the knowledge economy, and international and/or collaborative distance partnerships. Cross-sectoral and cross-domain working and the potential impact of inter-disciplinarity to transform academic disciplines and research are also themes of interest to the journal. Thus, Library Review will continue to bring you “research you can use” but increasingly, this will be research which is interdisciplinary, global, cross-sectoral and cross-domain, grounded in the new realities.

New roles

In order to realise the above vision for the journal, I plan to make greater use of the knowledge and expertise found amongst the Editorial Advisory Board members. In discussions with them, I envisage their taking a much more “hands-on” role within the journal, including peer reviewing papers and guest editing issues of the journal. This way, we maximise the benefit to the journal of having such experienced and eminent professionals and scholars as members of its Editorial Board.

Similarly, to achieve greater breadth and depth of coverage, and likewise to harness their skills and knowledge, each Associate Editor will be responsible for editing one issue of every volume of the journal. All the guest edited issues will be either special issues based on a call for papers on an identified theme, or will be selected from papers submitted by authors which have undergone successful peer review. We will, of course, continue to source papers from the IFLA conferences amongst others.

There are also some slight changes to the review system for the journal. Previously papers were reviewed by a member of the editorial team together with a blind review supplied by an external reviewer. Beginning with this issue, we have moved to a full double blind peer review system, with reviews sourced from reviewers selected from a panel of external experts, including members of the Advisory Board, but not the editorial team.

In this issue

The papers included in this first issue reflect our continuing commitment to publishing new trends and developments in the information world from around the globe, ranging from the Texas-based study of university students’ use of Kindles, to the Iranian study of web citations and including the use of web 2.0 and social media in facilitating and developing tertiary learning. I hope you enjoy!

In the next issue, I will report on developments from the 2011 Online Information Conference.

Judith Broady-Preston