The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), seeks to appoint an editor for its journal Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS). Appointment of a successful candidate will be made by ALA Annual Conference 2020. The effective start date for this position is July 1, 2020. The editor serves a four-year term, renewable at the Board’s discretion. The appointment will overlap with the current editor’s term through the end of 2020. (While there is a proposal before the membership this spring to merge ALCTS with LITA and LLAMA into a new division called Core, it has been decided that LRTS will be supported in its current form for at least the next four years regardless of the outcome of this vote.)
The editor of LRTS, with the assistance of an editorial board, strives to achieve a balance among the articles published in the journal so that the varied interests of collections and technical services are represented. The editor serves as an ex-officio member of the ALCTS Publications Committee (or its successor within the proposed new division, Core), and the chair of that Committee is also an ex-officio member of the LRTS Editorial Board. The editor is expected to attend the ALA Annual meeting. Editors receive a stipend from the division office to support their role and the editorial process.
Requirements include:
- demonstrated writing and editing ability
- ability to meet deadlines
- familiarity with current technical services and collections research issues and trends, including efforts to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive knowledge structures
- familiarity with the practical and daily operations in technical services and collection management
- knowledge of the professionals working in the areas of collections and technical services
- ability to proactively seize publishing opportunities
- knowledge of copyright ownership issues
- skills to cultivate prospective authors (combination of editorial and people skills)
- sufficient time for editorial work
- time management skills to create and maintain an editorial calendar
- experience with electronic publishing
- experience with electronic manuscript systems and submissions
Desirable qualifications include prior experience on ALCTS committees.
LRTS is the official quarterly journal of ALCTS and contains refereed articles in the fields of cataloging and classification, acquisitions, collection development and management, continuing resources, electronic resources management, preservation, and general technical services. It also contains regular LRTS features such as literature reviews, reviews of books and other materials as well as official reports of ALCTS activities.
Applicants must be members of ALCTS, LITA, or LLAMA. They should submit a resume and cover letter; a statement describing the role of LRTS in the profession and indicating their reasons for seeking the editorship; the names of and contact information for three references; and at least two writing samples, preferably one work edited for publication by the candidate and one publication written by the candidate.
Send nominations and applications via email to: Brian E. C. Schottlaender, at BECS@ucsd.edu.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled; those arriving by March 31 will receive first consideration. The search committee will conduct interviews via ZOOM in April.
Learn more about LRTS: https://journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/about.
