Frequency | 20 per year |
---|---|
Founder | Frederick Leypoldt |
Founded | 1876 |
Company | Media Source Inc. |
Country | United States |
Based in | New York City, New York, U.S. |
Website | www |
ISSN | 0363-0277 |
OCLC | 818916619 |
Library Journal is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice. It also reviews library-related materials and equipment. Each year since 2008, the Journal has assessed public libraries and awarded stars in their Star Libraries program.
Its "Library Journal Book Review" does pre-publication reviews of several hundred popular and academic books each month.
With a circulation of approximately 100,000, Library Journal has the highest circulation of any librarianship journal, according to Ulrich's. [1]
Library Journal's original publisher was Frederick Leypoldt, whose company became R. R. Bowker. Reed International later merged into Reed Elsevier and purchased Bowker in 1985; they published Library Journal until 2010, when it was sold to Media Source Inc., owner of the Junior Library Guild and The Horn Book Magazine . [2]
Founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey, Library Journal originally declared itself to be the "official organ of the library associations of America and of the United Kingdom", according to the journal's self-description in 1878. [3] Indeed, the journal's original title was American Library Journal, though "American" was removed from the title after the first year. [4] Its early issues focused on the growth and development of libraries, with feature articles by such prominent authors as R. R. Bowker, Charles Cutter, and Melvil Dewey, and focusing on cataloging, indexing, and lending schemes. In its early issues, Bowker discussed cataloging principles; Cutter, creator of the Cutter Expansive Classification system, developed his ideas; and managing editor Dewey made recommendations for early library circulation systems. Initially, Library Journal did not review books unless they related to librarians' professional interests, but then, like now, the journal ran articles on collection development and ads from publishers recommending their forthcoming books for libraries to purchase.
Early issues of Library Journal were a forum for librarians throughout Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States to share news, discussions of their libraries' ideas and practices, and reports of professional activities such as meetings and conferences. In an 1878 prospectus, the journal stressed its importance by noting that small libraries, in particular, could gain the "costly experience and practical advice" of the largest libraries. Regular reading of Library Journal, the prospectus declared, would make "the librarian worth more to the library, and the library worth more to the people." [5] In the Notes and Queries section, librarians shared reports of how their library managed common problems, and they maintained a constant exchange of questions and answers about authorship and reader's advisory. Two prominent sections, the Bibliography (compiled by Cutter) and Pseudonyms and Antonyms (compiled by James L. Whitney), served as reference resources for librarians. The latter contained an ongoing list of titles of untitled works and real names of authors who were anonymous or used pseudonyms, with an index compiling all of them in the December issue.[ citation needed ]
The print edition of Library Journal contains the following sections:
January
February
March
June
November
In 2008 the journal started awarding public libraries with a star system, grouping libraries into categories by expenditure level. [39] In 2018, the journal award five stars in the over-US$30 million expenditures category to five libraries: Cuyahoga County Public Library, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Seattle Public Library, Cleveland Public Library, and King County Library System. [40] A total of 257 libraries nationwide were awarded stars, ranging from 3 stars to 5, in the nine different expenditure level categories. [40]
LibraryJournal.com, the Library Journal website, provides both subscribers and non-subscribers full access to all print content as well as recent archives. Visitors can sign up for email newsletters such as "BookSmack", "Library Hotline", "LJ Academic Newswire", "LJ Review Alert", and "LJXpress". Web articles in the site's "Libraries & Librarians" category are listed by topic, with each topic assigned its own RSS feed so that users can receive articles relevant to their interests. Past and present reviews are archived and organized by type (book, DVD, gaming, magazine, video, etc.); they are also available via RSS feeds. Another feature is "InfoDocket" (edited by Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy, originally founded, and still accessible, as an separate website at InfoDocket.com). [41] Additionally, Library Journal maintains an up-to-date list of library jobs in the website's "JobZone" feature. [42]
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. It was first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876. Originally described in a 44-page pamphlet, it has been expanded to multiple volumes and revised through 23 major editions, the latest printed in 2011. It is also available in an abridged version suitable for smaller libraries. OCLC, a non-profit cooperative that serves libraries, currently maintains the system and licenses online access to WebDewey, a continuously updated version for catalogers.
Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey was an influential American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, a founder of the Lake Placid Club, and a chief librarian at Columbia University. He was also a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and antisemitism.
Mary Salome Cutler Fairchild was a pioneering American librarian, educator, and school administrator. She is known for her contributions to the establishment of library science in the United States through her work at the Columbia College library and New York State Library School, as well as her service in the American Library Association.
Eric Edward Moon was a librarian and editor who had a shaping influence on American librarianship in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s as editor-in-chief of Library Journal, president of the American Library Association, and chief editor at Scarecrow Press. Moon was a trailblazer and influential figure instrumental in transforming library professionalism, polity, and social responsibility.
Education for librarianship, including for paraprofessional library workers, varies around the world, and has changed over time. In recent decades, many institutions offering librarianship education have changed their names to reflect the shift from print media to electronic media, and to information contained outside of traditional libraries. Some call themselves schools of library and information science, or have dropped the word "library" altogether.
Arthur Fremont Rider was an American writer, poet, editor, inventor, genealogist, and librarian. He studied under Melvil Dewey, of whom he wrote a biography for the ALA. Throughout his life he wrote in several genres including plays, poetry, short stories, non-fiction and an auto-biography which he wrote in the third-person. In the early 20th century he became a noted editor and publisher, working on such publications as Publishers Weekly and the Library Journal. In 1933 he became a librarian at Wesleyan University, eventually becoming director of the university's Olin Memorial Library and afterwards founding the Godfrey Memorial Library of genealogy and history in 1947. For his contributions to library science and as a librarian at Wesleyan University he was named one of the 100 Most Important Leaders of Library Science and the Library Profession in the twentieth century by the official publication of the American Library Association.
Richard Rogers "R. R." Bowker was a journalist, editor of Publishers Weekly and Harper's Magazine, and founder of the R. R. Bowker Company.
James F. Williams II is a retired American librarian. He was the Dean of Libraries at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Dewey Readmore Books was the library cat of the Spencer, Iowa, Public Library. Having been abandoned in the library's drop box in January 1988, he was adopted by the library and gained local attention for his story shortly thereafter.
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World is a best-selling non-fiction book published in September 2008. The book recounts the life of Dewey Readmore Books, the cat in residence at the Spencer Public Library in Spencer, Iowa.
Vicki Myron is an American author and librarian. Director of the Spencer Public Library for more than 20 years, Myron is best known for her book Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, written with Bret Witter. It sold more than one million copies internationally and was on bestseller lists for more than six months. It is about a cat which she found and cared for at the library, and his engaging effects on the townspeople. The library cat's story became internationally known before his death.
Mary Wright Plummer was an American librarian who became the second female president of the American Library Association (1915–1916).
The Southeastern Library Association (SELA) is an organization that collaborates with different library associations within the Southeastern United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Klas August Linderfelt was an American librarian. A native of Sweden, he emigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and became a teacher and a librarian. As the first librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library, he became a significant figure in the city and in the library profession, becoming the seventh President of the American Library Association. He left both the city and the profession permanently following his arrest for embezzlement.
Josephus Nelson Larned was an American newspaper editor, author, librarian, and historian. As superintendent of the Young Men's Association Library, he presided over its transformation into what is now the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.
Alice Bertha Kroeger was an American librarian and educator. Kroeger was a student of Melvil Dewey. She founded the library science program at Drexel University in 1892 and directed the program until her death in 1909.
Deanna Bowling Marcum was an American librarian and nonprofit leader who served as president of the Council on Library and Information Resources from 1995 to 2003, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress from 2003 to 2011, and managing director of Ithaka S+R from 2012 to 2016.
Zella Allen Dixson was an author, lecturer, librarian, and publisher. She was the longest-serving director and associate librarian of the University of Chicago Extension Division's library school.
May Childs Nerney was an American civil rights activist and librarian. She was the secretary of the NAACP from 1912 to 1916, overseeing a large increase in the organization's size. She led protests against the segregation of federal government employees in Washington, D.C., and against the film The Birth of a Nation (1915). Nerney came into conflict with several members of the organization and resigned in 1916. She later worked on cataloging Thomas Edison's papers and published a 1934 biography on him, Thomas A. Edison, A Modern Olympian. She also worked with the League of Women Voters, the board of the Young Women's Christian Association, the Consumers Cooperative Services, and the New York Philharmonic Society.
Valborg Platou was a Norwegian librarian, writer and art critic. She was the first Norwegian female to become the chief librarian, a position that she held for 27 years at the Bergen Public Library.