Greetings to those of you following a link from Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics’ Circle. I’m honored to have been able to share my thoughts with you about the future of literary journals.
For those FRL readers who haven’t read that post, I think you’ll find it’s not easily definable. In one breath I argue that we shouldn’t help kill off small print-based literary journals (you can find many of them listed at the wonderful site, newpages.com). But I also point out that we librarians can play a role in moving print journals online, and I make a pitch for open access.
I think exception-handling distinguishes librarianship as a profession (versus simply a trade); our ability to understand when one size does not fit all — and why that is, and whether or not that square peg should be “fixed” or left alone, or the hole shaved to make it fit — sets us apart as information professionals. We wield a lot more power than we realize, and I’d like to see us use that power wisely.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Bank error in our favor... - 2006
- Karen and Sandy's Excellent Adventure - 2006
- No, Really, the Presentation URL - 2005
- Language Log and Gormangate - 2005
- Thursday's Talk: Slides, Brags, and Yes, It Went Well - 2005
Good stuff–and thanks for the link to newpages, which I hadn’t seen before.
Honestly, with newpages, I have pretty much stopped using the WritersMarket.com database. It’s good for finding online journals as well.
Thanks so much for that really thoughtful, inspired post. You got to the heart of a lot of issues we’re dealing with now.
My pleasure. I followed the link back to http://bookcritics.org and was reminded that NBCC has a terrific guide to getting started in reviews: http://bookcritics.org/?go=tips … I’ll share that in my one-day Writing for the Web class this fall.
Interestingly enough, there is a discussion going on on the ERIL-L list http://www.joanconger.net/ERIL/aboutus.html about a new LIS journal, Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, that is being started. Someone on the list raised the question of why this was being set up as a subscription journal through Haworth instead of open access. A good question and the editor had a forthright answer – she couldn’t pass up the help of those who actually had experience in setting a journal, especially the peer review and editing process. T. Scott has an interesting followup on his blog: http://tscott.typepad.com/tsp/2007/08/publishing-choi.html
While I can philosophically support the open access movement for publishing, and especially LIS publishing, I can also sympathize with the person who is starting the journal when they already have a full time job and need experienced help in setting the process so that it is a *good* journal. Is there help readily available in library land to provide this assistance? Or is open access free, like free kittens?
And I haven’t quite wrapped my mind around this relates, but for some reason the recent post by Lorcan Dempsey
comes to mind when we’re talking about quality in the LIS scholarship arena.
Ugh, Haworth Press!