Category: Publications News

The first issue of Conversants is now available at http://conversants.syr.edu

While articles will be added as they are accepted, the first release has the following:

Editorial
Making library schools smarter
– Andrea Mercado

Artiles
When the conversation goes “meta”: Organizing knowledge in collaborative online environments
– David M Pimentel

A New Approach to Understanding the Digital Divide : Why two levels are not enough
– Todd Marshall

Essays
The Knowledge Base for a Participatory Library (Google Video)
– Keisuke Inoue

And a report on a meeting about Web 2.0 in the LIS Curriculum:
Colleagues converse about technology change, curricula

Please come and read, comment and participate.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Introducing Conversants. Conversants (ISSN: 1940-5022) is a limited-run, open-access journal about participatory networks. Part of a joint project on Participatory Librarianship (http://ptbed.org) between the Information Institute of Syracuse and the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), the journal is a forum for the exchange of ideas relating to conversation-based theories as well as their applications in knowledge environments. Articles and essays are solicited not only to increase our understanding of participatory approaches to virtual and physical settings, but also to challenge the scholarly and practice communities. The emphasis of the journal is on durable concepts that transcend any particular technology or suite of functions.

While treatments related to all types of settings are welcome, a special emphasis is placed on the library domain and the role librarians play as facilitators of conversations. Submissions might include:

• Empirical articles analyzing user contributions to web resources;
• Thought pieces concerning the library as conversation;
• Podcasts of presentations concerning Library 2.0; and
• Discussions of curricular initiatives to incorporate new web technologies into information science education.

All submissions will be reviewed by the editors of the journal and then, in keeping with the central tenets of participatory networks, made available for ongoing public review via CommentPress. Authors are encouraged to follow these conversations, and can incorporate these comments into revised drafts.

Unlike most journals, pieces are published as they are accepted to encourage timely discussions of current trends and events. Selected pieces will be edited into a volume exploring participatory librarianship.

Please e-mail submissions to [email protected] in Word, HTML, RTF or ASCII text format.

The editorial board of Conversants comprises:

Editors
• R. David Lankes, Associate Professor Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies
• Joseph Janes, Associate Professor University of Washington’s Information School
• Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor District Library
Associate Editors
• Todd Marshall, Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies
• David Pimentel, Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies

If you are interested in joining the board, please contact David Lankes [email protected]

More information is available on the project website at http://ptbed.org/conversants.php

The technology brief “Particiaptory Networks: The Library as Conversation” is now available in Italian at:

http://www.aib.it/aib/cg/gbdigd07.htm3

The paper was translated by Angela Di Iorio and Marialaura Vignocchi on behalf of the Digital Libraries Working Group of the Italian Libraries Association.