Call for Papers
Theme issue of Progressive Librarian
“Palestinian Libraries and Archives Under Israeli Rule”
The publication Progressive Librarian: A Journal for Critical Studies and Progressive Politics in Librarianship invites Palestinian information providers to submit papers for a special issue, “Palestinian Libraries and Archives Under Israeli Rule.” Papers accepted for this special issue may also be republished later in a book on this topic.
Submitters and Topics
Editors are seeking papers from Palestinian information providers, including: librarians, archivists, library staff, publishers, researchers, book dealers, and book store owners and employees. We are especially interested in papers in the following three areas:
- Historical or analytical studies of how the occupation or a particular Israeli policy has made it difficult to provide information. For example, a paper might discuss the history of the confiscation of Palestinian archives, the history of the destruction of Palestinian libraries, restrictions on the import of books from “enemy states”, restrictions on the import of books dealing with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, internet restrictions, restrictions on access by Palestinians to materials in Israeli libraries and archives, the effect of curfews and travel restrictions on access to information, or limitations on professional collaboration due to travel restrictions.
- Papers describing the experiences of the author or authors in confronting these problems. For example, papers might describe difficulties experienced by an information provider or providers, or explain how an information provider or providers creatively dealt with some of these challenges. We encourage the submission of even very short papers of this type.
- Papers describing current efforts to create libraries and archives. Papers in this topic could describe different case studies of library and archive projects that document the experiences and histories of Palestinian life, culture and history.
Submission Details
Papers may be submitted in either English or Arabic. Papers submitted in Arabic will be translated into English.
To submit a paper for consideration, please send an abstract of up to 200 words to the editors (Walid Habbas, Jessa Lingel and Tom Twiss) at progressive.librarian@protonmail.com by May 30, 2018. Notifications of acceptance will go out on June 30, 2018.
Papers can be shorter (between 500 and 2000 words) or full-length research papers (of 5,000 to 8,000 words). Final versions of short papers will be due September 30, 2018, and longer papers will be due December 31, 2018. Please do not hesitate to reach out to editors with questions or inquiries.
About the Journal
Progressive Librarian is an American journal published by the Progressive Librarians Guild. It provides a forum for critical perspectives in Library and Information Science (LIS), featuring articles, book reviews, bibliographies, reports, and documents that explore progressive perspectives on librarianship and information issues.