Library Trends Call for Proposals

• Volume 75, Issue 3: Evidence-Based Practices for eLearning in Information Organizations
• Volume 76, Issue 1: Exploring Metaphors of Expertise in LIS

Guest Editors

• Becca Greer, Director of Organizational Development & Learning, University of California, Santa Barbara Library
• Melissa A. Wong, Adjunct Instructor and Editor in Chief, Library Trends, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

Libraries and information centers have been using online learning to expand learning opportunities for a diverse range of learners for some time. However, during the COVID-19 global pandemic, online learning became a necessity for continuity of educational, outreach, and community programming amid social isolation, leading more information professionals to experiment with the creation of instructional videos, multimedia tutorials, asynchronous learning modules, and online instruction and programming. Adjusting curriculum and the delivery of that curriculum under these unexpected conditions was highly variable, but it demonstrated the ways in which digital learning resources can reach more patrons and provide continuity when learning disruptions occur. For many information organizations, the pandemic forced a deeper engagement with and integration of online learning into established instruction and programming offerings. 

Post-pandemic, online learning is poised to yet again buffer resource limitations, including reduced budgets and staffing shortages, which have a profound impact on organizational capacity. Even in the best of circumstances, time and resources are limited. How does one know their online learning interventions were effective? What principles, frameworks, or guidelines can inform information professionals’ approach in their design and assessment of not only the learning, but the workflow of developing and maintaining these digital learning assets? 

This issue of Library Trends will explore evidence-based practices that can inform the development, promotion, and assessment of effective online learning in libraries, archives, and information centers.

Examples of topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Applying evidence-based practices such as Mayer’s Multimedia Principles
• Utilizing design frameworks such as ADDIE, Universal Design, or the Agile framework
• Catalyzing high-impact practices for diverse learning communities
• Instituting accessible design for inclusive learning environments
• eLearning in archival settings, such as the intersection of digital archives and online learning, teaching physical archives in online spaces
• Training and development of information professionals using eLearning
• Choosing a modality based on curricular and patron needs
• Engaging learners and/or partners as part of the design process through participatory design, focus groups, beta testing, usability testing, etc.
• Evaluation and assessment of learning objects, including assessment of learning, measuring reach/impact, return on investment (ROI), and data-driven decision making
• Management of digital learning resources such as version control, migration between platforms, coordinating design teams, and managing employee workload
• Application of AI in the design and development of digital assets
• Challenges and benefits of (open/closed) systems of cooperative solutions, either cross-institutional or within an organization
• Training and development in instructional design / online learning for information professionals and others such as faculty or community members

Article Length (not including bibliographic references): 7,000-10,000 words

Submitting a Proposal 

Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract outlining their proposed article by April 3, 2026. Decisions about the proposals will be communicated by April 13, 2026, with manuscripts due for peer review July 31, 2026. 

This issue will use an open peer review process in which article authors review 1–2 manuscripts by other contributors. As part of submitting an article proposal, authors will be asked to commit to participation in this process as both an author and a reviewer. For proposals, authors may use any citation style. For manuscripts, authors should use Chicago author-date.

Important Dates

• April 3, 2026: Proposals due
• April 13, 2026: Notification of proposal acceptances
• July 31, 2026: Manuscripts due
• August 7, 2026: Peer reviews assigned
• August 28, 2026: Peer reviews due
• September 11, 2026: Reviews returned to authors
• October 9, 2026: Revised manuscripts due
• February 2027: Anticipated publication date

Additional Information

Questions about the issue and/or proposal process should be directed to Becca Greer (rrgreer@ucsb.edu) and Melissa Wong (mawong@illinois.edu). 

More information about the journal, including author instructions, is available on the Library Trends page.

Guest Editor

Laureen P. Cantwell-Jurkovic (MSLIS, PhD), Humanities & Multidisciplinary Librarian, Vassar College Libraries, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA.

In 2000, information scholar Marcia Bates shared a metaphor wherein the field of library and information science (LIS) was described as an iceberg, with aspects of the discipline visible (“above the water line”) and invisible (“below the water line”). As with icebergs, this “invisible substrate” of our discipline is both sizable and significant. Part of the LIS “iceberg” that exists below the waterline, or hidden to the naked eye, is its positioning as a meta-science or a meta-discipline, like journalism and education. LIS “cuts across” seas and engages with the storage and retrieval of human knowledge in recorded form in connection with all other disciplines. But can this metaphor thrive, in a climate where boundaries between disciplines have become more fluid and where notions of expertise have been muddied and eroded? Perhaps, then, it’s time to launch an intellectual expedition, to voyage beyond Bates’ metaphor and to consider anew the concept of LIS expertise through new metaphors.

While metaphors are an established means of framing and describing the work of librarians (beyond Bates, we can see ; Chiu, Ettarh, & Ferretti, 2021; and Vanscoy, 2016, e.g.), defining and understanding the topography and conditions of expertise is complicated, and a cause for debate–especially at a time when public trust in the notions of and qualifications for expertise have declined and/or been misplaced. What metaphors would we use, then, to (re)conceive and (re)consider, the concept of expertise within LIS? 

This issue of Library Trends invites our field to engage in critical reflective practice centering on role of expertise in LIS through the exploration of new metaphors – be that through the “visible” elements of our discipline or the hidden; through the interest in generating, preserving, and heightening the concept of our expertise or through the repositioning and reconceptualizations of expertise for our discipline. What does expertise mean to us? What expertise have we carved out over time, distinct to our field? How is it made visible–and how is it obscured? How is our expertise conceived, constructed, and communicated? How can we use data to unveil, share, and determine the parameters and state of expertise within LIS?

About This Issue

Submitting Your Proposal 

• Prospective authors are invited to submit a 300-500 word abstract outlining their proposed article by April 15, 2026. Please use the online proposal submission form.
• Decisions about the abstracts will be communicated by May 15, 2026.
• Final articles should be 7,000–10,000 words (including bibliographic references).
  • Citation Style: For proposals, authors may use any citation style. For manuscripts, authors should use the Chicago Manual of Style’s author-date format.
  • The issue will use an open peer review process in which article authors review one to two manuscripts by other contributors.
• As part of submitting an article proposal, authors will be asked to commit to participation in this process as both an author and a reviewer.

Important Dates

• CFP open: March 15, 2026
• Article proposals due: April 15, 2026
• Author notifications: May 15, 2026
• Article manuscripts due: Sept. 1, 2026
• Peer reviews assigned: Sept. 15, 2026
• Peer reviews due: Oct. 15, 2026
• Peer reviews returned to authors: Nov. 1, 2026
• Revised articles due to guest editor: Dec. 15, 2026
• Finalize manuscripts: Dec. 15, 2026–Feb. 28, 2027
• Submit manuscripts to Library Trends: March 1, 2027
• Issue publication: August 2027

Other Details

• Inquiries about the planned issue and ideas for articles should be directed to Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic (Vassar College), guest editor of Library Trends issue 76.1 (lcantwelljurkovic at vassar.edu).
• More information about the journal and author instructions are on our website.