Letter from the Editor: Reviewers Wanted


LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 

Reviewers Wanted 
Kenneth J. Varnum 

 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | MARCH 2021  
https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v40i1.13xxx 

Together with one of the other journals published by ALA’s Core division, Information Technology 
and Libraries (ITAL) and Library Leadership and Management (LL&M) invite applications for peer 
reviewers. Serving as a reviewer is a great opportunity for individuals from all types of libraries 
and with a wide variety of experience to contribute to scholarship within our chosen profession. 

We are seeking the broadest pool of reviewers possible. Reviewer responsibilities for both 
journals are to have an interest/experience with the journal’s topics, as described below. 
Reviewers should expect to review 2-4 articles a year and should provide thoughtful and 
actionable comments to authors and the editor. Reviewers will work with the editor, associate 
editor, and/or editorial board of the corresponding journal. See the job description for ITAL 
reviewers for more details about this new role.  

We welcome applications from individuals at libraries of all types, levels of experience, locations, 
perspectives, and voices, especially those from underrepresented groups. Reviewers will be 
selected to maximize the diversity of representation across these areas, so if you’re not sure if you 
should apply, please do!  

Increasing the pool of reviewers for Information Technology and Libraries is part of the Editorial 
Board’s desire to provide equitable treatment to submitted articles and will enable us to follow a 
more typical process for peer-reviewed journals: a two-reviewer double-blind process. That will 
be a welcome and, frankly, overdue change to ITAL’s current process, in which submitted articles 
are typically reviewed by one person. Expanding the number of reviewers across the breadth of 
subject areas our journal covers will foster a more rigorous yet more open review process. 

Should you be more interested more in the policy side of this journal, please watch out for a call 
for volunteers for the ITAL Editorial Board. That process will start in April. 

*          *          *          *          *          *          * 

As this issue of the journal goes online, COVID as a global health crisis has just entered its second 
year. I’m constantly reminded of the duality of our collective ability to show resilience and exhibit 
fragility as we continue to endure this period. When I wrote the Letter from the Editor a year ago, I 
focused on the imminent vote to establish a new ALA division, Core, as the most important 
question facing me. How quickly things changed! By the time the March 2020 issue was published, 
everything was different. 

Wherever you are, however you have adapted to the situation, I hope you are well and, like me, 
are turning from wondering when this period will end, to wondering what “normal” will be in the 
post-pandemic world. 

Kenneth J. Varnum, Editor 
varnum@umich.edu 
March 2021 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc7fxjjk6vWuTE5pWXWPU_UDxjrYgpAtKpqu4FzIb9lj08SNA/viewform?usp=sf_link
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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VTgQ8fCfM9UX2u0eLvhjrDlM6vxUt7YBU6CYTqw-nz4/edit?usp=sharing
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https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/about/editorialTeam
https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i1.12137
mailto:varnum@umich.edu