Category: ITAL Editorial Board

ITAL Editorial Board – September 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Published the March and June quarterly issue of ITAL, the latter despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Reviewed Editorial Board membership and vacancies; we had only one current member who opted out of a second term, so decided with the Core vote on the horizon not to advertise for new ITAL editorial board members pending the outcome. We are comfortable with the moving forward with the remaining editorial board for the coming year as things become clear about journals under Core.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
Continued our work to understand the scope of topics that we publish in relation to short and long-term popularity (downloads and citations). Originally intended to more clearly define ITAL's niche in the library literature, this research and eventual reporting will be significant in understanding overlaps and distinctions between ITAL, LL&M, and LRTS.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Fourth Activity
The routine work of reviewing incoming submissions for broad fit with ITAL's scope, peer review of submissions, and generating journal content continues.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
The September 2020 issue's peer-reviewed content has been copyedited and will soon be sent to ALA Publication Services for proofreading. Columns receive only copy editing and are not due until late August. We have accepted 5 of 7 articles for the December issue and will soon begin populating March 2021.

I expect the ITAL Editorial Board will be deeply engaging with the recommendations of the Core Publications Working Group as we move to transition into one unified publication strategy.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
No

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 07/27/2020

ITAL Editorial Board – December 2019 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Published the December issue of the journal
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Drafted and nearly finalized a policy to make it clear that article authors may put a copy of their article in a local repository or elsewhere (they maintain copyright, so this is fully in their rights), but requesting that a note be added to such copies asking that the ITAL version be the one cited.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
Worked with Jenny Levine and HathiTrust to change status of back issues of ITAL to open access in HathiTrust to enable reading of full text of articles there. Previously, digitized issues of ITAL were "search only", not available for reading.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Finalizing the policy, working on the March issue, and minor updates to the template used to generate the PDFs for publication.

Additional comments or concerns:
I'm beginning to think about the post-Core plans and processes for ITAL, especially migrating the journal to the TDL platform used by Library Leadership & Management. I noticed that Library Leadership & Management runs version 2.X of the software, while ITAL is on version 3.X. I suspect a downgrade would be a challenge, as the recent upgrade from OJS 2 to 3 conducted by Boston College was not a straightforward one.

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 12/20/2019

ITAL Editorial Board – September 2019 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Reviewed, selected, and edited articles for the journal. Published the September issue of the journal — see https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/issue/view/1055 (a post for the LITA Blog has been submitted, but not yet published).
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Appointed new Editorial Board members, organized and conducted a new member orientation session that included how to use the journal's publishing platform, and trained new members on procedures.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
The board reviewed and revised the Editor's job description, and submitted it (via Tabby Farney) to the LITA Board for approval.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Fourth Activity
Continued planning for making the JOLA/ITAL back-file (those issues that were published commercially but are not yet available through the ITAL web site) available.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Continuing to work on making the JOLA/ITAL back-file available.

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 09/17/2019

ITAL Editorial Board – May 2019 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Reviewed, selected, and edited articles for the journal.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
Continued thinking about digitization of currently paper-only back issues of JOLA and ITAL; intend more active planning and work to begin over summer 2019.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
Issued a call for applications to the Editorial Board, to replace outgoing members and round out our peer review panel. Invitations to new members to be made in early June, for terms to begin on July 1.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
As noted above, planning for digitization of back issues (including call for volunteers to scan/OCR back issues, development of standards, and quality assurance). Routine work of the Editorial Board.

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 05/28/2019

ITAL Editorial Board – February 2019 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Publicized the new regular ITAL column, Public Libraries Leading the Way, and received 7 proposals. After reviewing them, we selected three to fill out 2019, and confirmed deadlines with those authors. We plan to do another round of publicity, and if we end up with sufficient contributions, will consider publishing more than one column per issue.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Published March 2019 issue of ITAL (3/18/19)
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Third Activity
Began planning to advertise for and select new members of the editorial board (for those whose terms are ending in June 2019). The call for volunteers will go out in April, with new members selected in May and appointed by the incoming LITA VP. (Note that ITAL's appointment process runs a bit differently from other LITA committees.)
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Filling out editorial board membership (for those stepping down or term-limited). Continuing review and solicitation of articles. Planning for a likely migration of ITAL from Boston College to a new OJS platform.

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 03/20/2019

ITAL Editorial Board – December 2018 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Published December issue of ITAL, ongoing review and editorial work for future issues.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
Investigated, approved, and launched a call for submissions for a new quarterly column, Public Libraries Leading the Way, focused on information technology and public libraries. Announced in the December issue, this column proposal form (https://goo.gl/forms/mCZ2KdLtiwYpsnQ43) will be publicized on the LITA Blog. The Editorial Board is excited to launch this new column as part of our desire to expand regular ITAL readership beyond our home division.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Third Activity
Rounded out our 50th anniversary observation — it’s been a busy year.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Publicity for the new public library-focused column, Public Libraries Leading the Way, and regular oversight of the journal. I am also hoping to resume scanning and publishing issues of ITAL to round out the online backfile.

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 01/07/2019

ITAL Editorial Board – September 2018 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Published the September issue of ITAL: https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/issue/view/1002
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Finalized job description for editorial board members (posted in ALA Connect: https://connect.ala.org/lita/viewdocument/job-description-for-ital-editorial)
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Ongoing work — reviewing articles and preparing issues of the journal

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 10/05/2018