Letter from the Editor Kenneth J. Varnum 
 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | SEPTEMBER 2018 1 
https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i3.10747 

 

This September 2018 issue of ITAL continues our celebration of the journal’s 50 th anniversary 
with a column by former Editorial Board member Mark Dehmlow, who highlights the 
technological changes beginning to stir the library world in the 1980s. The seeds of change 
planted in the 1970s are germinating, but the explosive growth of the 1990s is still a few years 
away. 

In addition to peer-reviewed articles on recommender systems, big data processing and storage, 
finding vendor accessibility documentation, using GIS to find specific books on a shelf, and a 
recommender system for archival manuscripts, we are also publishing the student paper by this 
year’s Ex Libris/LITA Student Writing Award, “The Open Access Citation Advantage: Does It Exist 
and What Does It Mean for Libraries?”, by Colby Lewis at the University of Michigan School of 
Information. This inciteful paper impressed the competition’s judges (as ITAL’s Editor, I was one 
of them) and I am very pleased to include Ms. Lewis’ work here.  

This issue also marks my fourth as editor. With one year under my belt I am finding a rhythm for 
the publication process and starting to see the increased flow of articles from outside traditional 
academic library spaces that I wrote about in December 2017. As always, if you have an idea for a 
potential ITAL article, please do get in touch. We on the editorial board look forward to working 
with you. 

Sincerely, 

 

Kenneth J. Varnum, Editor 
varnum@umich.edu 
September 2018 

http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2018/04/colby-lewis-wins-2018-litaex-libris-student-writing-award
mailto:varnum@umich.edu