Letter from the Editors (December 2022) LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Kenneth J. Varnum and Marisha C. Kelly INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | DECEMBER 2022 https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v41i4.16005 From the articles and communications in our December issue, the library technology profession has begun thinking through and reporting on the adaptations and changes wrought by the ongoing (some may say never-ending) COVID-19 pandemic. Four of the 5 articles in this issue relate to the many ways the pandemic altered how libraries do their work, both behind the scenes and in public. From the tools we use internally for project management to those we provide to our public service colleagues, it seems no aspect of library technology has been untouched. In particular, the seriousness of the challenges caused by interfaces with poor accessibility has been brought to the foreground. A critical component of libraries’ Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessiblity(DEIA) efforts, ensuring equitable access to all must be at top of mind. When the pandemic led libraries, and education in general, to adapt to largely virtual presentation models, the interactive tools we reached for—products such as Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere— became de rigeur for establishing two-way interactions with our communities. Yet little attention was paid, until now, to the accessibility of those tools. In this issue, “Tech Tools in Pandemic- Transformed Information Literacy Instruction: Pushing for Digital Accessibility” provides excellent qualitative data to help us understand how well, or poorly, these tools meet accessibility needs. Articles • Digitization of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in Russia / Heesop Kim and Nadezhda Maltceva • Tech Tools in Pandemic-Transformed Information Literacy Instruction: Pushing for Digital Accessibility / Amanda Rybin Koob, Kathia Salomé Ibacache Oliva, Michael Williamson, Marisha Lamont-Manfre, Addie Hugen, and Amelia Dickerson • Spatiotemporal Distribution Change of Online Reference During the Time of COVID-19 / Thomas Gerrish and Ningning Nicole Kong Communications • A Library Website Redesign in the Time of COVID: A Chronological Case Study / Erin Rushton and Bern Mulligan • A Library Website Migration: Project Planning in the Midst of a Pandemic / Isabel Vargas Ochoa As always, if you have lessons learned about technologies and their effect on our mission, we’d like to hear from you. Our Call for Submissions outlines the topics and process for submitting an article for review. If you have questions or wish to bounce ideas off the editor and assistant editor, please contact either of us at the email addresses below. We particularly welcome our public library colleagues to consider a column in our “Public Libraries Leading the Way” series; proposals for 2023 may be submitted through the PLLW Proposal form. With best wishes for 2023, Kenneth J. Varnum, Editor Marisha C. Kelly, Assistant Editor varnum@umich.edu marisha.librarian@gmail.com https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/view/13783 https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/view/15383 https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/view/15383 https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/view/15097 https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/view/15101 https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/view/14801 https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/call-for-submissions https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGdx926lHtFsrSdKEXAqzmX1ayFw7g2nY6J1IeGy-qt6lUbQ/viewform?usp=sf_link mailto:varnum@umich.edu mailto:marisha.librarian@gmail.com Articles Communications