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Code4Lib Journal

One locus of pragmatic innovation has been the Code4Lib community [1]. Inspired in part by the social dynamics of distributed open source projects, Code4Lib is an annual conference and more importantly an informal online social and professional network embodying values of transparency, cooperation, and pragmatic problem solving. This informality and lack of structure is a strength which provides agility and helps make Code4Lib a focal point for collaborative opportunities and sharing of skills and ideas [2,3,4]. But paradoxically, this amorphous informality can make it hard for someone new to the field—or wanting to take a new look at the field—to find a comfortable entry point to the community and the resources it has to offer.

The Code4Lib journal project aspires to balance a variety of sometimes competing goals. We want to provide quality articles providing useful information and discussion on bringing library technology into the future. We want every article to be a useful intervention into our communities of practice. We value readability over formality, and hope to meet high standards for quality and utility. At the same time we want to ensure an easy process for authors, letting authors share their important work and ideas with as few barriers as we can get away with. The journal is intentionally edited rather than refereed, and we try to contribute editing advice to help authors improve their articles without aggravation. We are committed to the Journal’s free online availability, to increase its visibility and impact in addition to its accessibility. We want the immediacy of a blog, the usefulness of a professional conference, the reliable quality of a good scholarly journal, and the participatory nature of our online communities, all in one easy to read and easy to produce package.

You can read our articles, suggest our articles to others, and continue the discussion found in our articles in your blogs and listservs. You can also continue the discussion right here in the journal, as we’ve intentionally enabled comments on all of our articles, taking advantages of the unique affordances for multilateral communication in online publishing and communication. We want every article here to be part of an ongoing conversation towards cooperative innovation among libraries.

Carol Bean

[1] http://www.code4lib.org