6:11 p.m.
Call for papers: The Corona pandemic and the new normal
Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues
invites submissions for a themed issue on The Corona pandemic and the new normal.
In 2020 Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information
Issues – published a special issue on the immediate responses to the Corona pandemic from
library institutions in different parts of the world. The submissions focused on the
urgent and many times dramatic changes of operations that libraries were forced to
undertake. Two years later it´s time for a follow-up on the more long-term and lasting
consequences of the pandemic.
Alexandra therefore welcomes submissions of papers both from those who contributed to the
2020 special issue and from new submitters, this time focusing on “the new normal” that
the pandemic may have resulted in. What are the most important lessons learnt from the
pandemic and how can the consisting changes from its impact be summarized? How has the
pandemic affected the digital transformation of libraries? How has it changed physical
spaces and services, as well as workforce planning? Are user behaviors and expectations
different from what they were before the pandemic? Submissions can be both short
communications on a practical level, including accounts of actual development of events,
and full articles with a more theoretical approach.
A process of double peer review will be applied. Abstracts are due Friday 4 November 2022
and the full manuscript for selected articles will be due Friday 9 December 2022. The
themed issue will be published in late 2022 or early 2023.
Abstracts should be no more than 1 000 words.
Full articles should be between 4 000 and 7 500 words long.
Short communications should be no more than 3 000 words long.
Author guidelines are available at
https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/alexandria/journal202510#submission-guidel…
<https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/alexandria/journal202510#submission-guidelines>
Alexandria wishes to present the widest possible range of papers relating to the theme,
including papers from the perspective of academic libraries, public libraries and other
relevant institutions. All submissions make clear their collecting context and we
particularly welcome submissions on new and emerging programmes within developing
countries.
Queries about the suitability of a topic should be addressed in the first instance to the
Journal Editor, Lars Ilshammar (lars.ilshammar(a)kb.se <mailto:lars.ilshammar@kb.se>)
alt. (ilshammar(a)gmail.com <mailto:ilshammar@gmail.com>).