Coming This September: EveryLibrary Plans to Launch a New Journal Titled “The Political Librarian”

EveryLibrary, an organization that assists and advocates for public libraries on local ballot initiatives announced today that the organization plans to launch a new journal titled The Political Librarian (superb title!) devoted to “locally focused advocacy, policy, and funding issues for libraries.”
The first issue is scheduled for publication on September 5, 2015.
In a blog post introducing the new publication EveryLibrary’s Founder and Executive Director John Chrastka writes:

While discussions in the library sector tend to focus on federal and state-level issues, it is at the local level that the majority of funding and policy decisions for libraries are made and expressed. Our work places us at the nexus of library tax and public policy discussion at the hyper-local level. Many of the campaigns we support aim to secure taxes for operations or building initiatives. Through our work we have seen first-hand that there is limited civic awareness and understanding of tax codes and funding structures on the part of librarians, boards, voters, and policy makers. This low level of awareness stems from lack of engagement in a public debate about local library taxes and authority.
With the launch of “The Political Librarian”, EveryLibrary is expanding the discussion, promoting research, and helping to reenvision tax policy and public policy on the extremely local level. We will provide a venue for listening and learning across a wide range of experiences, and a platform for sharing insights from librarians at the forefront of services by the librarians who need funding, authority, and policy to align with, and support, the actual practices of modern librarianship.

The complete introductory blog post about The Political Librarian includes a call for contributions.
We welcome the EveryLibrary announcement and look forward to reading the first issue.
See Also: EveryLibrary Releases 2014 Annual Report (January 27, 2014)
 
 
 

Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries, Reports