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Libraries: Culture, History, and Society

Publication analysis

About the publication

Title: Libraries: Culture, History, and Society

ISSN: 2473-0343 (Print) and 2473-036X (Online)1

Website: http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html

Purpose, objective, or mission: “Libraries: Culture, History, and Society aims to study libraries within their broader historical, humanistic, and social contexts.”2

Target audience: LHRT members and library historians (both professional historians and hobbyists)3

Publisher: The Pennsylvania State University Press4

Peer reviewed? Yes5

Type: LIS scholarly6

Medium: Print and online7

Content: “In addition to Library Science, the journal welcomes contributors from History, English, Literary Studies, Sociology, Education, Gender/Women’s Studies, Race/Ethnic Studies, Political Science, Architecture, Anthropology, Philosophy, Geography, Economics, and other disciplines. The only journal in the United States devoted to library history, LCHS positions library history as its own field of scholarship, while promoting innovative cross-disciplinary research on libraries’ relationships with their unique environments.”8

Frequency of publication: Twice a year9

About the publication’s submission guidelines

Location of submission guidelines: http://www.editorialmanager.com/LCHS/account/LCHS%20Author%20Submission%20Guidelines.pdf

Types of contributions accepted: “Libraries: Culture, History, and Society welcomes submissions of research papers. Manuscripts that offer interdisciplinary perspectives are strongly encouraged, as are authors from outside library science. LCHS also publishes evaluative reviews of books that complement our journal’s mission to situate libraries within their broader historical context.”10

Submission and review process: The Submission Guidelines page has a very detailed list of requirements for submissions. As is standard, the journal only accepts unpublished articles and articles that aren’t currently under review elsewhere.11 Authors are asked to create an account through Editorial Manager and submit their manuscripts there.

As for the review process, manuscripts undergo a double-blind peer review after passing the initial editorial screening.12

Editorial tone: Scholarly but very readable13

Style guide used: Chicago Manual of Style, notes system14

Conclusion: Evaluation of publication’s potential for LIS authors

Libraries: Culture, History, and Society is an excellent publication for LIS scholars interested in a wide variety of topics pertaining to LIS history. In addition to U.S. history, the journal’s third and fourth issues will cover libraries in the Jewish settlements of Argentina, 100 years of libraries and the library profession in Catalonia, and the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard a library user in Copenhagen.15 Additionally, the journal was just launched in 2017 16, providing LIS authors with a unique opportunity to guide the journal’s formative years.

Additionally, despite the journal’s youth, it’s the official journal of the Library History Round Table, a respected organization that dates back to 1947.17

Thus,  authors can take pride in the knowledge that they’re contributing to the mission of a well-established organization with a storied history.

Audience analysis

About the publication’s readers

Publication circulation: Circulation numbers are not available.

Audience location and language or cultural considerations: The journal is written using standard American spelling,18 and the majority of its editorial board members live in the U.S.19 Despite this majority, the editors are eager to receive contributions from authors all over the globe to show the enormous diversity in libraries.20

Reader characteristics: Readers are likely to be well-versed in LIS history. In keeping with the scholarly nature of this journal, readers will likely have a bachelor’s degree (at minimum). Additionally, they will be fluent in English.

Reader knowledge of LIS subject matter: Although readers should still be familiar with basic LIS terminology, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society is not as technical as, say, Journal of Library Metadata. This characteristic is largely influenced by the journal’s broad historical focus, meaning that its articles are more concerned with the broader sociological factors (e.g., fiscal crises)21 and how said factors shaped various libraries than the finer technical operations of libraries.

Conclusion: Analysis of reader characteristics and their potential impact on authors

Readers will expect authors to be well-versed in LIS history and ideally, have a background in sociology, history, etc. Furthermore, readers will appreciate readable, yet well-researched articles that define unfamiliar terms where necessary and favor facts over opinion.

Last updated: August 31, 2018

References

  1.   Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  2.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  3.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  4.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  5.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  6.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  7.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  8.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  9.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  10.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  11. “Manuscript Format for Articles,” Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.editorialmanager.com/LCHS/account/LCHS%20Author%20Submission%20Guidelines.pdf
  12.  “Manuscript Format for Articles,” Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.editorialmanager.com/LCHS/account/LCHS%20Author%20Submission%20Guidelines.pdf
  13.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  14. “Manuscript Format for Articles,” Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.editorialmanager.com/LCHS/account/LCHS%20Author%20Submission%20Guidelines.pdf
  15. Eric Novotny and Bernadette Lear, email message to author, August 31, 2018.
  16.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed July 21, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  17. “Library History Round Table (LHRT) The American Library Association Archives,” Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed August 2, 2018, https://archives.library.illinois.edu/alaarchon/?p=creators/creator&id=3499
  18. “Libraries: Culture, History, and Society Submission Guidelines for Authors,” Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed August 2, 2018, http://www.editorialmanager.com/LCHS/account/LCHS%20Author%20Submission%20Guidelines.pdf
  19.  Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, Library History Round Table of the American Library Association, accessed August 2, 2018, http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
  20.  Eric Novotny and Bernadette Lear, email message to author, August 31, 2018.
  21.  Jeffrey A. Kroessler, “One Staff, Two Branches: The Queens Borough Public Library and New York City’s Fiscal Crisis of the 1970s,” Libraries: Culture, History, and Society 2, no. 1 (2018): 72, accessed August 2, 2018, https://doi.org/10.5325/libraries.2.1.0072