Call for Papers - Special 2025 Issue of The Political Librarian
After years of growing pressures on libraries through budget cuts, pandemic shutdowns, and an empowered censorship movement, the results of the 2024 elections at the local, state, and federal levels generally seem to further challenge the position of libraries in American society.
At the national level, the executive and legislative branches will be controlled by politicians who support book bans and other limitations on access to information and who vilify many of the communities that libraries have long worked to support and empower. At the state level, politicians who crafted the laws that threaten to jail librarians faced no consequences from voters and those who pushed for even more regressive agendas were voted in by wide margins. Many local government offices and boards that oversee libraries are now in the hands of those who wish to ban books, incarcerate library workers, and even shut down libraries. In just three years, national public opinion polls have swung from overwhelming opposition to book bans in libraries to nearly half of Republicans supporting the imprisonment of librarians.
This Special Issue of The Political Librarian will be devoted to discussions and analyses of what the results of the 2024 election may indicate for the future of libraries and library work. Allison Jennings-Roche of University of Baltimore and Paul Jaeger of the University of Maryland are serving as the guest editors of this Special Issue.
Of key importance is trying to determine and examine the political, policy, economic, legal, advocacy, and cultural lessons that librarians and their supporters can learn from the current political climate to reestablish widespread public support for libraries, protect our institutions and communities in the coming years, and succeed in addressing future political challenges.
Submissions are welcome from all levels of library professionals, administrators, educators, researchers, policy analysts, and library stakeholders. Submissions are welcome about, but are not limited to, the following areas:
- Advocacy,
- Lobbying,
- Fundraising,
- Rhetoric and messaging,
- Law and policy,
- Historical context,
- Community engagement,
- Friends organizations and other supporters of libraries,
- Libraries as institutions,
- Librarianship as a profession,
- Specific types of libraries,
- Types of library services,
- Communities served by libraries,
- Types of information, and
- Any other perspective through which to better understand the implications of the 2024 election.
Submissions of complete papers of any length are welcome and should conform to the journal's style and formatting guidelines at the time of submission. Authors are encouraged to review recent issues when preparing their paper.
Submissions of complete papers for the Special Issue will be accepted until February 1, 2025 and should be submitted through the journal site, noting on a cover page that the submission is intended for this special issue. Given the urgent need for this special issue, the review process will be expedited and submissions that require limited editing and revision will be prioritized for publication.