Archives

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies
    Vol. 1 No. 1 (2020)

    This very first issue of Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies is launched in a moment overwhelmed with information, misinformation and disinformation. Which experts who forecast the future of the Covid-19 pandemic can we trust and what makes this information trustworthy?

    Under normal circumstances people may visit the library to find some answers. In Sweden, most public libraries are still open and people come there to relax or to find some normality in these times of turbulence, even though they keep distance and abide regulations. However, in our neighbouring countries and other parts of the world, libraries are closed due to the disease.

    Obviously, the launching of a new journal for library and information studies in the middle of the pandemic crises is a coincidence. Yet, the societal relevance of the journal could hardly be more striking.

    However, the first issue do not analyse the pandemic crises. Research takes time, and research of high quality demands time. Therefore, the crisis is a theme for an upcoming issue, but not for this one. Instead we offer two exciting articles, analysing the past and pointing towards the future. This is the beginning of an exciting future with a journal that inspires, analyses, criticises and discuss questions of relevance to library and information studies.

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies, vol 1 no 2 2020
    Vol. 1 No. 2 (2020)

    This issue of the Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies contains three very different, yet all equally inspiring, research articles. The first article, “This is really interesting. I never even thought about this”, is authored by Pamela J. McKenzie and Nicole K. Dalmer. McKenzie and Dalmer introduce and discuss four methodological strategies that can be used to analyse unnoticed information work: “(1) consider the local and the translocal; (2) attend to the material and the textual; (3) consider visual methods; and (4) (re)consider the participant’s role and expertise”. The second article, Den digitale offentligheten i kultur- og bibliotekpolitikken, is authored by Håkon Larsen and Per Aleksander Solheim. They analyse Norwegian cultural policies’ description of how digital information technologies challenge democracy, as well as the solutions ascribed to these outlined threats. Mia Høj Mathiasson has authored the third and final research article in this issue of NJLIS; From means to an end to ends in themselves. Mathiasson shows how the programming has changed over the years and she analyses the reasoning behind offering these activities. In addition, Wiebke Keim reviews Nora Schmidt’s doctoral thesis The privilege to select. Global research system, European academic library collections, and decolonisation. 

  • Theme issue on research on pandemic and crisis information
    Vol. 2 No. 1 (2021)

    The current theme issue of the Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies provides a flashback to what is now known as the first wave of Covid-19. Two of the scientific articles in our theme issue are about Norwegian libraries’ situation during the period of lockdown starting in March 2020, whereas the third is about young people’s information behaviour related to Covid-19 in Finland and the US during March to June the same year. The paper Folkebibliotekets digitale tilbud under koronakrisen – en case studie fra Tromsø bibliotek og byarkiv by Roswitha Skare examines the situation for the public library in Tromsø and the increased role of digital resources during the time the physical library was closed. The second paper is called Samfunnsoppdrag under press: Erfaringer og vurderinger i norske bibliotek under Covid-19 and is written by Sunniva Evjen, Terje Colbjørnsen, Idunn Bøyum, Kim Tallerås and Heidi Kristin Olsen. Based on surveys with library workers in different types of libraries it examines how Covid-19 has influenced the social missions of Norwegian libraries and emphasizes the role of crisis management. The third paper, Dealing with the COVID-19 infodemic: Understanding young people’s emotions and coping mechanisms in Finland and the United States, written by Muhaimin Karim, Rajesh Singh and Gunilla Widén, is an exploratory study with the aim to understand information experiences, emotional reactions, and coping mechanisms of young adults in two different populations during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

    This issue, furthermore, contains two book reviews of recently published edited works. Herbjørn Andresen has reviewed Uncertain archives. Critical keywords for big data, edited by Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, Daniela Agostinho, Annie Ring, Catherine D’Ignazio and Kristin Veel, whereas Samuel Edquist has written a review of a piece of work that is topical as seen in relation to the two scholarly papers in this issue on libraries in times of lockdown, that is, Libraries, archives and museums as democratic spaces in a digital age, edited by Ragnar Audunson, Herbjørn Andresen, Cicilie Fagerlid, Erik Henningsen, Hans-Christoph Hobohm, Henrik Jochumsen, Håkon Larsen, and Tonje Vold.

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies
    Vol. 2 No. 2 (2021)

    In this issue, the four scientific articles connect to two research areas that have historically attracted a great deal of interest from Nordic scholars within LIS: public libraries, and research practices and publication patterns. The first two research articles present studies focused on public libraries. Even though theoretical and empirical approaches differ, the two articles express an interest in how library users are constructed and positioned in relation to library policies and activities. In the first article, “Public libraries for all? A study on accessibility and participation in library policies”, Lisa Engström studies the meaning ascribed to the concepts accessibility and participation in Swedish library plans, and how these concepts relate to each other as library users are constructed in these policy documents. The second article, authored by Bo Skøtt, is titled “Introducing society: A lifelong learning perspective on public libraries’ contribution to integration” and presents a study that suggests a shift from the notion of integration to lifelong learning in the context of public library initiatives directed towards asylum seekers in Denmark.

    The next two articles of this issue concern research practices and publication patterns. In the article “Publication practices in the Humanities: An in-depth case study of a Swedish Arts and Humanities Faculty 2010–2018”, Joacim Hansson, Koraljka Golub, Jukka Tyrkkö and Ida Ahlström investigate characteristics of research practices and publication patterns against the background of digital scholarship and performance-based systems for managing and funding research. The article presents an in-depth study of publication patterns from a single faculty, as the relation between policy initiatives and publication practices are studied using bibliometric data from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Linnaeus University. The fourth article of this issue focuses a single discipline, but the perspective is transnational rather than local. In “Publishing patterns in pharmacy: A bibliometric analysis of publications from six Nordic universities”, Terhi Sandgren presents a bibliometrical study of publishing patterns among pharmacy researchers from six Nordic universities using data from Current Research Information Systems.

    As usual, this issue also includes a section of book reviews – this time with no less than six reviewed titles. The review section begins with two reviews of current titles from the growing body of literature on Open Access. First, Antti Rousi reviews “Open access in theory and practice. The theory-practice relationship and openness” written by Stephen Pinfield, Simon Wakeling, David Bawden, and Lyn Robinson. Then Samuel Moore offers a review of “Corporate capitalism’s use of openness: Profit for free?” written by Arwid Lund and Mariano Zukerfeld. After these two reviews, we present four reviews of recent Nordic PhD theses from the field of LIS. First among the thesis reviews, Nanna Kann-Rasmussen reviews “Atmospheres of surveillance” by Karen Grova Søilen. The next review by Ola Pilerot concerns the thesis “Performing interdisciplinary knowledge: Information work in emerging interdisciplinary research” written by Eystein Gullbekk. After that, Ulrika Sjöberg reviews “Performing search. Search engines and mobile devices in the everyday life of young people” written by Cecilia Andersson. Anna Sparrman then reviews “(I) Kindly like: Participatory research with young people about identity and social media” by Amira Sofie Sandin.

  • Theme issue on public libraries in times of political turmoil
    Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022)

    The three scientific articles of this thematic issue contribute with both empirical and theoretical perspectives on public libraries in times of political turmoil. In addition to the three scientific articles this issue presents three book reviews of recently defended doctoral theses, all of which connect to the broad theme of reading, literacies, and search skills.

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies
    Vol. 3 No. 2 (2022)

    This issue of the Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies (NJLIS) contains three research articles all reflecting on different aspects of library and librarian practices. In “Mind the gap!” Hilde Moore introduces an alternative approach to teaching source evaluation, connecting the search and source evaluation with the actual use of sources. Ulrika Centerwall and Lill Langelotz article also concerns pedagogics, but from a school library perspective in “Norm Critical Projects in Swedish School Librarian Practices”. The article illustrates how norm critical projects are shaped by librarians in negotiation with the principals and other education professionals at schools. The results give interesting insight into how librarians’ work with literature and pedagogics not are accepted at face value, but evaluated in their actual situation of use and usefulness in the school setting. Finally, in “Easier material management - at what cost?” Lovisa Liljegren analyses how the introduction of automated systems for material management affects librarians’ work, particularly with regards to knowledge about the collections and skills to evaluate sources.

    In addition to the research articles this issue presents four book reviews, two of which reviews newly defended Nordic PhD thesis (Hanell p. 59-64, Rasmussen, p. 65-70). The other two presents recently published research literature with Alison Hicks reviewing Jutta Haider and Olof Sundin’s Paradoxes of media and information literacy (p. 54-56), and Toumas Harviainen reviewing Ian Ruthven’s Dealing with Change Through Information Sculpting (p. 57-58).

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies
    Vol. 4 No. 1 (2023)

    This issue is chiefly a thematic issue about Library and Information Studies in the Climate Crisis, edited by guest editors Carin Graminius, Björn Ekström and Jutta Haider. However, the paper also includes a thematically independent paper by Maciej Liguzinski that thematizes e-lending and challenges in a Scandinavian library context. This paper was published prior to the thematic issue due to our new continuous publication practice. 

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies
    Vol. 4 No. 2 (2023)

    This issue of the Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies presents four research articles, all contributing theoretically and empirically to the diversity and richness of the LIS research community. The issue also contains two reviews of LIS themed anthologies, and three reviews of Ph.D. theses from the Nordic LIS community.

  • Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies
    Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024)

    This issue of the Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies presents research articles contributing theoretically and empirically to the diversity and richness of the LIS research community. The issue also contains reviews of LIS publications including reviews of Ph.D. theses from the Nordic LIS community.

    Articles and reviews are published continuously as they are accepted.