Editorial: Introductions All Around

In Brief: Over the past year, the Editorial Board has experienced some changes (yay, growing pains!). In this group post, current board members introduce themselves and talk about the types of articles they’d love to see submitted in 2016. We also thank all of our emeritus board members for their hard work shaping In The Library With The Lead Pipe into what it is today.

By Editorial Board, Ian Beilin, Ellie Collier, Erin Dorney, Bethany Messersmith, Annie Pho, Ryan Randall, and Cecily Walker

Ian Beilin

Earlier this year I became the Humanities Research Services Librarian at Columbia University. Not long after that, I joined the Lead Pipe editorial board. I’m also a very part-time adjunct professor of modern European history. When not working, I’m usually parenting my toddler, which includes much time spent in Central Park’s playgrounds, fields, and woods (yes, woods!). And as much of my time as possible is spent listening to music (and seeing it performed, when I get the chance).

Not long before joining the board, I had the opportunity to publish an article in Lead Pipe. Working with the editors and experiencing the journal’s open peer review process made me want to make a more long-term contribution. I’m really proud to have joined a journal that has published so much important scholarship. I’ve observed how Lead Pipe‘s articles resonate in libraryland through Twitter, at conferences, in meetings at work, and in informal conversations. In particular, I think Lead Pipe has had a keen eye for publishing research that ties library issues to broader issues that affect all other aspects of our lives.

While several of us on the editorial board are academic librarians, and several articles since I’ve joined have tended to focus on the world of academic libraries, I’d like to see more non-academic librarians of all kinds submit articles, especially ones with a focus on social justice issues. Another group that I would like see submit more articles is catalogers and systems librarians (both academic and non-academic). Since I’ve begun interacting with catalogers on a daily basis, I’ve acquired a newfound appreciation and interest in the work that they do, both in their day-to-day work as catalogers, but also as scholars. I believe their perspectives are important for non-catalogers to have, and my own work as a subject, reference, and instruction librarian has been informed by their insights in many ways.

Ellie Collier

After almost ten years in reference and instruction in academic libraries I’ve made the jump vendor-side. I’m currently a Discovery Services Engineer for EBSCO along with former Lead Pipe board member Eric Frierson. It’s an amazing, supportive team of people with interesting and challenging work. I’m fairly ecstatic.

I’m still an avid board, card, and video gamer, though the avid has shrunk a bit with the addition of a toddler to my life. I’ve moved several times and have settled back in Pennsylvania, near family, but not near much of anything else, which does pain my city-girl heart just a bit.

I’ve been with Lead Pipe since its inception and it’s been ridiculously satisfying to see it grow and evolve over the years. My current interests, and thus what I’d love to see articles on, include: critical code studies, interesting approaches to or collaborations around digital collections, and approaches to information literacy that focus on students as individuals with their own goals and agency. I’d also love to see us publish more from public libraries, including topics like storytime and other programming for little ones or partnerships with other public services. And more from systems and cataloging library workers, including interesting workflow solutions, partnerships across their communities or within their libraries, or critiques of classification systems—maybe even an intro to/history of type of thing. Lastly, I’d love to see us publishing profiles of library workers who have inspired you, along the lines of a more in depth Wednesday Geek Woman.

Erin Dorney

Like Ellie, I too have made a jump away from working in academic libraries. This summer I moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota so that my partner could start grad school. I’m currently self employed as a freelance writer and editor (with a dash of web and social media thrown in), working from home or sometimes a local coworking space. It’s nice to have some distance from libraries, and I think that room has impacted my work on the Lead Pipe board. I find myself more drawn to the “publisher” aspects of our journal (soliciting and seeking out authors, admin tasks, formatting, our vision and presentation, etc.). I review articles with a different set of eyes now that I am a few steps removed from the inner-workings of things like ALA, office/organization politics, frameworks and standards, and patrons/users. I’m staying connected with the library community at large through my social media networks and by working with library-related groups like INFLUX, Library Juice Press, and Lead Pipe. But it’s definitely kind of fun to go into my local public library or my partner’s academic library and just use it.

Some of the topics I’d love to see submissions on include: stuff about library school/LIS education (pros, cons, exposés, a hypothetical program plan filled with class descriptions that would have been more relevant to your lived experience in the workforce), signage/wayfinding (audits, getting buy-in, rebranding, a minimalist approach), library renovations (love those before and after photos), interviews (two awesome people interviewing each other, a public services library worker interviewing a technical services library worker about “how the other half lives”, a library student interviewing a professor, a library worker interviewing an author or publisher), UX, writing (publishing for tenure, publishing for free, content creation plans for library websites, the state of library blogging 5 years later) and anything experimental or creative. Like many of my board members, I also want to see more diversity in the voices that we publish (so send us your ideas!).

Bethany Messersmith

I’m the Information Literacy Librarian at Southwest Baptist University. In my spare time, I drink exorbitant amounts of tea, thrift, and dabble in interior design. I joined the editorial board this spring because I believe in the journal and wanted to take on a new professional challenge.

Since I’m relatively new to Lead Pipe, I haven’t edited an article in its entirety yet. However, I’ve enjoyed reviewing submissions to our journal and being part of the monthly editorial board meetings. I’m looking forward to our upcoming web site renovation.

Some articles I’d love to see submitted to Lead Pipe in 2016 include: original thoughts on library marketing plans/follow-up assessment of the initiatives advanced in those plans, successful marketing to distance learners/graduate-level students, new and innovative ways to approach information literacy beyond the standard Framework discussion, and approaches to wayfinding in libraries (especially as it pertains to signage initiatives). I like that Lead Pipe receives submissions on diverse subjects and I think discussion of the topics above would allow us to branch out even more and therefore broaden our readership. So, let the submission process begin!

Annie Pho

I’m an Undergraduate Experience Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I keep myself pretty busy at work; but when I’m not in a library, I really enjoy riding my bike (even in winter), reading, and exploring. I’ve been on the board for about a year now and I have learned so much about the editing and writing process. This experience has been invaluable, especially as I am ramping up for a major research project next year.

The articles I’ve edited and reviewed in 2015 have been really diverse! From April Hathcock’s article White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS to Tom Keegan and Kelly McElroy’s Archives Alive!: librarian-faculty collaboration and an alternative to the five-page paper to the latest article by Margot Hanson and Lee Adams Say what? Exploring “The most interesting place in the city” – the comments section of online news articles, the topics have covered so many different aspects of the profession. It’s what I love the most about working on Lead Pipe, I get exposure to a variety of different projects and research. For the upcoming year, I’d love to see more articles related to critical/radical librarianship. Critical archival practices, critical pedagogy, feminist research, issues related to diversity in LIS—all of these topics are interesting to me and I’d be happy to work with any potential authors on these.

Ryan Randall

I’m the Instruction and Outreach Librarian at the College of Western Idaho, a community college serving the greater Boise area. Before librarianship, I was an adjunct instructor for a number of lower-division humanities and freshman writing courses. I’ve recently joined the Lead Pipe board and am excited about what our web site might look like after the upcoming renovations. Outside of libraries, I enjoy exploring cities, hiking trails, local record stores, coffee shops, and thrift stores.

The potential for Open Educational Resources matters deeply to community college students, so I particularly appreciated A Critical Take on OER Practices: Interrogating Commercialization, Colonialism, and Content. I’d like to see more articles that examine how LIS professionals and researchers make meaning, such as #DitchTheSurvey: Expanding Methodological Diversity in LIS Research. The virtual panel for Why Diversity Matters: A Roundtable Discussion on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Librarianship was an article I particularly enjoyed both because of its questions and recommendations for diversity as well as its alternative authorship model.

I’d also love to see more articles written by public librarians and systems librarians, as well as K-12 librarians and community college librarians. As far as topics go, how does what we do in libraries connect to larger social and cultural issues? How does what we do in libraries—from how we conduct outreach programs or makerspace tutorials to how we catalog our materials—promote particular understandings of the world? How can we encourage curiosity or forward the idea of libraries as spaces for change and development? I’d also look forward to more articles critically engaging with the history of libraries or LIS.

Cecily Walker

I’m the Systems Project Librarian at Vancouver Public Library in Vancouver, Canada. Before that, I served as the Assistant Manager for Community Digital Initiatives (Digital Humanities) and eLearning, and as the Assistant Manager for Websites and Online Engagement at the same institution. I joined the editorial board because I was excited about what seemed to me a groundswell of heartfelt, deeply thoughtful writing around LIS and social justice that I was seeing in the field. I thought that by volunteering to serve on the Editorial Board of Lead Pipe I’d be able to play a role in ensuring this kind of scholarship would always have a platform.

Some articles I’d like to see published in the coming year are “how the sausage gets made” articles, particularly those written by people who made the move into library technology from other LIS fields. I think that there is a greater opportunity for “non-technical” people to become involved in website and systems projects at many different levels. Having seen this first-hand, I’m excited about the avenues that could open up for librarians in more traditional fields who are interested in technology. I’d also like to see more articles about reshaping LIS study so that it moves us toward a more community-centered service model that features close collaboration and consultation with community partners. Lastly, I’d like to see more think-pieces from people who are underrepresented in LIS who not only discuss what their day-to-day realities are, but who offer solutions, support, and hope to other underrepresented minorities who are interested in library work.

The editorial board would like to recognize and thank all of our emeritus board members, including Derik Badman, Brett Bonfield, Hilary Davis, Leigh Anne Focareta, Emily Ford, Eric Frierson, Gretchen Kolderup, Lindsey Rae, Kim Reed, Hugh Rundle, Coral Sheldon-Hess, and Micah Vandegrift.