Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Journal of Library Innovation: Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2010)

The inaugural issue of the Journal of Library Innovation (JOLI) was published in March 2010. Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2010) is the culmination of more than 2 years of work by a very dedicated Editorial Team of volunteer librarians from across Western New York. (My editorial provides more discussion.) This online only, open-access, peer-reviewed journal is published by the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC).

As Managing Editor since March 2008, much of my time over the past two years has been devoted to setting the journal up in the Public Knowledge Project's Open Journal Software (OJS), chairing meetings of the Editorial Team, developing timelines and worflows, learning about the process of publishing, and communicating with readers, authors and reviewers. My project management skills were really put to the test as I managed people working in various capacities all over the region. Everyone on the Editorial Team was very dedicated to our mission and made my job as Managing Editor doable.

Now that the first issue is online, we are working on getting the content indexed and planning for future issues. We have received enough submissions for the next issue and I have established a timeline to publish Vol. 1, Issue 2 in Fall 2010. The next few months will also be spent in developing a plan for sustaining the journal.

Working on JOLI has personally been very rewarding and interesting. I have been able to learn about the processes required to publish an online journal. The Team has very high expectations for the quality of the content and we have worked with the authors to deliver a journal that we hope is relevant and useful to our readers. I am confident that through my work on JOLI, I have contributed scholarly work to my profession.

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