Library Trends

The journal Library Trends, now in its seventieth year, has since its inception in 1952 been produced by the School of Information Sciences, formerly the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The quarterly journal is currently published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This 71 (2) issue celebrates the contributions the journal has made to library and information science (LIS) internationally. While the journal uses the word “library” in its title, its rich history shows that it not only has covered LIS in breadth and depth, starting with its first issue on the theme of “Current Trends in College and University Libraries,” but also has pushed the boundaries of the field, with its 70 (1) issue on “Fashion in the Library / Fashion Librarianship” and its 70 (4) issue on “The Joy of Information.” The language of publication is English, with one issue, 67 (4), published in 2019 in both English and Spanish on the theme “Communities and Technologies: Realities, Challenges, and Opportunities for Librarians in Cuba.”

Library Trends has had thirteen editors-in-chief from 1953 to 2023, two-thirds (or nine) being men, all from the United States, except for one from England and another from South Africa. Each editor-in-chief or at least one of the coeditors-in-chief has been affiliated with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Information Sciences.

• Clara M. Chu and Jaya Raju, Summer 2021–present

• Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Spring 2017–Spring 2021

• Alistair Black, Summer 2013–Winter 2017

• Alistair Black and Boyd Rayward, Summer 2009–Spring 2013

• Boyd Rayward and John Unsworth, Summer 2006–Spring 2009

• F. W. Lancaster, Winter 1986, Summer 1986–Spring 2006 [End Page 145]

• Leigh Estabrook, Spring 1986

• Charles H. Davies, Fall 1979–Fall 1985

• Rolland E. Stevens, Winter 1979–Summer 1979

• Herbert Goldhor, Summer 1962–Fall 1978

• Harold Lancour, Summer 1952–Fall 1952, Winter 1954–Spring 1962

• Ernst J. Reece, Winter 1953–Fall 1953

A review of the first seventy volumes reveals that the top three subject areas of publication are special libraries (covered in 23 issues), academic libraries (17), and administration (also 17). The seven subject areas that made the top ten in frequency of publication coverage include public libraries (16 issues), collection development and management (14 issues), research methods (13 issues), library technology systems (12 issues), specific populations (11 issues), critical librarianship (10 issues), and LIS (7 issues).

Among the seventy volumes are 278 issues that account for 3,185 articles (each introduction was counted as an article). An average of eleven articles per issue have been published. Of the issues, 72 percent (or 200) were edited by one guest editor, while 24 percent (67) were coedited, 4 percent (10) had three co-guest editors, and one issue had four co-guest editors. Alistair Black is distinguished by serving as guest editor of four issues, at the same time also serving as editor-in-chief. Eight guest editors have enriched the journal by guest editing three issues each, and thirty-five guest editors have had the honor of editing two issues each. Library Trends has been a scholarly space for festschrifts to celebrate LIS luminaries, including Herbert Goldhor, 38 (2); F. W. Lancaster, 56 (4); W. Boyd Rayward, 62 (2) and 62 (3); and Linda C. Smith, the last of which was published in the preceding issue, 71 (1)—a fitting commencement to the next seventy years of the journal.

Of the 3,185 articles, 80 percent (2541) were single-authored, while 14.5 percent (462) were coauthored, 4 percent (135) had three coauthors, and 1.5 percent (47) had four or more coauthors. The authors publishing the most articles are duly acknowledged and include fourteen by F. W. Lancaster, twelve by Robert B. Downs, nine by Joanne G. Marshall, and eight each by Alistair Black and by Jennifer Craft Morgan.

Library Trends has over the past seven decades captured evolving trends impacting the LIS field as well as provided critical analyses of interesting and extraordinary information spaces, as evident in the preceding...