''The Library Quarterly'' is a quarterly
double-anonymous peer-reviewed academic journal covering
library science, including
historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
,
sociological,
statistical
Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industria ...
,
bibliographical,
managerial,
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
, and
educational aspects of the field. It is published by the
University of Chicago and was established to fill a need for investigation and discussion set forth by the
American Library Association in 1926.
The editors are Paul T. Jaeger (
University of Maryland, College Park), and Natalie Greene Taylor (
University of South Florida), with associate editors Jane Garner (Charles Sturt University, Australia) and Shannon M. Oltmann (University of Kentucky).
History
''The Library Quarterly'' was established in January 1931, the year that
Lee Pierce Butler joined the
University of Chicago Graduate Library School, which was where library science as the academic study of the relationship between books and users was originally conceived. Thus, its publication history parallels the existence of library science as a field of academic research. The emergence of a journal devoted expressly to research in library science was met with conflict in the discipline according to the journal's first editor,
William M. Randall
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...
. The controversy revolved around whether research and scientific method was needed in the field.
The ''Quarterly'' continued publication after the Graduate Library School closed in 1989.
Howard W. Winger
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
was managing editor from 1961 through 1972, in 1975, from 1980 through 1985 and from 1988 through 1989. More than 50 of his essays (particularly those on 16th-century printers' devices) appeared in ''The Library Quarterly''. When editorship was taken over by Steven P. Harter in 1990 Winger wrote a history of the journal's editorial boards.
In 2002 editor, John V. Richardson, analyzed the peer review process in place at ''Library Quarterly''.
A bibliometric analysis in 2006 on the 75th anniversary of the journal found that nearly 50% of the world's most cited library and information scientists were contributors.
Until 2013, the covers of the journal featured emblems from booksellers or printers. Featured in every issue was a study of the particular emblem that focuses on the typographer, dealer, seller, and designer. As of 1975, 176 prints had been displayed on the journal's cover.
The
University of Florida libraries provide digital access to printers' devices, including those that appeared on the cover of ''The Library Quarterly''.
In 2004 ''The Library Quarterly'' went online, adding additional articles, content, and unique supplements. Online features also include most accessed and most cited articles.
A new team of editors, Editorial Board, and a new Reviews Committee were added in 2016.
[Jaeger, P. T., Taylor, N. G., Gorham, U., Sarin, L. C., Peterson, K. J., & Kettnich, K. (2015). "85 Years of ''Library Quarterly''". ''The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy'', 85(1), 1–5. ]
References
External links
*
Index of ''The Library Quarterly'' covers, 1931 to date
{{DEFAULTSORT:Library Quarterly, The
Quarterly journals
Library science journals
University of Chicago Press academic journals
English-language journals
Publications established in 1931
1931 establishments in Illinois