Letter from the Editor Kenneth J. Varnum 
 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | DECEMBER 2018 1 
https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i4.10852 

 

As 2018 draws to a close, so does our celebration of Information Technology and Libraries’ 50th 
anniversary. In the final “ITAL at 50” column, Editorial Board member Steven Bowers takes a look 
at the 1990s. Much as for Steven, for me this decade was where my career direction and interests 
crystallized around the then-newfangled “World Wide Web.” Taking a look at the topics covered in 
ITAL over those ten years, it’s clear that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose: the more things 
change, the more they stay the same. We were exploring then questions of how the burgeoning 
Internet would allow libraries to provide new services and be more efficient and helpful in 
improving existing ones. User experience, distributed data and the challenges that causes, who has 
access to technology and who does not…. All topics as vibrant and concerning then as they ar e 
now. 

With the end of our look back at the last 50 years, we are taking the opportunity start something 
new in 2019. There will be a new quarterly column, “Public Libraries Leading the Way,” to 
highlight a technology-based innovation from a public library perspective. Topics we are 
interested in include the following, but proposals on any other technology topic are welcome.  

• Virtual and augmented reality 
• Artificial intelligence 
• Big data 
• Internet of things 
• 3-D printing and makerspaces 
• Robotics 
• Drones 
• Geographic information systems and mapping 
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion and technology 
• Privacy and cyber-security 
• Library analytics and data-driven services 
• Anything else related to public libraries and innovations in technology 

Columns will be in the 1,000-1,500 word range and may include illustrations. These will not be 
research articles, but are meant to share practical experience with technology development or 
uses within the library. If you are interested in contributing a column, please submit a brief 
summary of your idea. I’m grateful to the ITAL Editorial Board, and especially to Ida Joiner and 
Laurie Willis, for their guidance in shaping this concept. 

Regardless of whether you work in a public, or any other, library, I’m always happy to talk with 
you about how your experience and knowledge could be published as an article in ITAL. Get in 
touch with me at varnum@umich.edu. 

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

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