Changes
→DRAFT, please do not circulate
Introduction from the Coordinating Editor
This is a decisive time for libraries. In our constantly the changing social and technological environment, libraries must adapt to fulfill their missions and satisfy their users. This pressure is acutely felt by those working with library technology. Digital services, content and tools have become a part of nearly every aspect of library operations. The "digital library" is here, and most of us work in one.
This mission of this journal is to cover "the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future." We plan to provide practical information to help the library community envision and achieve our technological future, to bring libraries' tradition of collaboration to bear on new challenges. We want the digital libraries of today to be transformed into the digital libraries of tomorrow, providing quality information while meeting new and changing needs. A course of rapid transformation has risks, but maintaining the status quo brings its own, greater, risks. Libraries must take a leading role beside their vendors in the technological innovation that must accompany this needed transformation.
And we are trying to accomplish all of that on a shoestring, with an all volunteer editorial committee sharing management and editorial responsibilities in an informal, open, and productive way as per the Code4Lib ethic. Our Coordinating Editor will rotate with every issue; I'll soon be passing the baton to Eric Lease Morgan.
The Code4Lib Journal project is in that sense much like some of the innovative library technology projects many of us work on in our daily lives, balancing competing values and priorities with limited resources. And we've tackled this project the same way we do those, with a 'can do' spirit and an agile development approach—in other words, we're making it up as we go along.
So how is the experiment working out? We think we've got a great first issue. This is due to the great work of our authors, and of the Editorial Committee. I am not alone among the Editorial Committee in discovering that inventing a journal—even one solely online which is intended to be relatively informal and agile—is more work than I personally expected. All of our authors and editorial staff deserve to be proud of what we've produced together through hard work [5]. But ultimately only the judgments and actions of you, our readers, can measure our success. If you think this first issue is evidence of a worthwhile endeavor, you can contribute to its future success.
