Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues invites submissions for a themed issue on Library Exhibitions.
The issue of identifying library exhibitions as a special type of exhibition and curatorial activities in libraries as a special type of curating was first raised in the late 1980s, catching up with the changes in understanding art and museum curatorial discourses. However, even recent literature reviews on this topic are still brief and lead to the conclusions that, although practical guidance and theoretical studies on the purpose of the museum exhibition are an integral feature of museum studies, they are not usually directly relevant to exhibitions in a library context. Furthermore, the issues of exhibiting in the library environment have not been sufficiently identified and studied. To fill this gap in our knowledge, we are seeking articles on the theory and practice of exhibition work in all types of libraries – national, academic, public, community, school, special, etc. We will be interested to hear from information professionals, librarians, curators, interpretations officers, academics, etc. about their experience and practical issues. We also hope that colleagues will offer us conceptual and theoretical frameworks that could contribute to our broader understanding of the topic.
A process of double peer review will be applied. Abstracts are due Tuesday 8 January 2019 and the full manuscript for selected articles will be due Friday 17 May 2019. The themed issue will be published in late 2019.
Abstracts should be no more than 1000 words.
Full articles should be between 4000 and 7500 words long.
Short communications should be no more than 3000 words long.
Author guidelines are available at https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/alexandria/journal202510#submission-guidelines
Suggested topics include but are not limited to:
· Library exhibitions vs museum or art exhibitions: theoretical and practical issues
· Exhibition work in various types of libraries and their audiences
· What is exhibition work in a library?
· Book as an object/treasure
· Physical vs digital
· Partnerships and cooperation on exhibition projects
· Art objects in the library environment
· Library and exhibition audiences
· Crowd-sourcing projects
· Upskilling and training for exhibition projects
· Lessons learned from exhibition projects in libraries
· Benchmarking resources available for exhibitions in libraries with exhibitions in other sectors (museums, art)
· Aims and purposes
· Exhibition planning, delivery and promotion
· International exhibition projects
· Exhibition’s afterlife
This is not a prescriptive list: Alexandria wishes to present the widest possible range of papers relating to library exhibitions, including papers from the perspective of academic libraries, public libraries and other archiving institutions. All submissions make clear their collecting context and we particularly welcome submissions on new and emerging programmes within developing countries.
This themed issue will be edited by Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia (Lead Curator of Central and East European Collections at the British Library) and Susan Reed (Lead Curator of Germanic Studies at the British Library). Queries about the suitability of a topic should be addressed in the first instance to the Journal Editor, Monica Blake (info@blakeinformation.com).
Miriam Hodge
Senior Publishing Editor
SAGE Publishing
1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road
London, EC1Y 1SP
UK
Tel: +44(0)207 324 8517
www.sagepublishing.com
