For the past few years I’ve lamented the lack of professional literature for folks doing user experience work in libraries. While UX-focused articles will turn up from time-to-time in publications aimed at serials catalogers, reference librarians, or systems folks, there hasn’t been a single place for Library UX professionals to share and learn from each other.
Until now.
I’m thrilled to announce a project I’ve been working on with Kyle Felker and Aaron Schmidt for a few months, putting together an open-access, peer-reviewed journal for library user experience professionals.
Announcing Weave: The Journal of Library User Experience
Libraries now provide services rather than collections, and so the experience of library users is more important than ever. While new jobs are being created for User Experience librarians and Circulation departments are being renamed “User Experience” Teams, there is still no comprehensive, rigorous publication for Library UX professionals to share with and learn from their colleagues. WeaveUX helps practitioners and theorists come together to make libraries better.
There is a smart group of library folks on board to help guide this journal toward our first issue later this year. We’ll have a Call for Proposals out shortly, but if you’re interested in getting involved as a peer or book reviewer, drop us a line at hello@weaveux.org or follow @WeaveUX on Twitter.