September 2023 Editorial

Abstract

It is our pleasure to bring you the September 2023 issue of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association (JALIA). In this issue, in addition to our regular features, we welcome selected papers from the 2022 Research Applications in Information and Library Studies (RAILS) Conference. These are introduced in the following Guest Editorial by Associate Professor Mary Carroll (2023) from the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University. The Guest Editorial contains a very interesting and useful brief history of RAILS. The first research paper in the issue is by a team at Charles Sturt University (Hider et al., 2023) and examines two sets of data sources (job advertisements and articles in INCITE (an Australian Professional LIS magazine) with the aim of comparing the knowledge and skills required by employers with librarians’ preoccupations and aspirations. Supported by an ALIA Research Grant, the second research paper is a timely one by Johnston (2023) and examines the impact and management of misinformation and disinformation at university libraries in Australia. These two research papers are followed by the RAILS papers, and also by an obituary written by Roxanne Missingham (2023), detailing the great contribution to librarianship, library and information research, and education for librarianship made by Dr Maxine Rochester. As usual the issue is rounded off with book reviews. Except when JALIA is running a themed issue, JALIA reviews tend to be on a wide variety of librarianship topics. This issue continues the broad approach with reviews on books about books; books about libraries, archives and museums; books about open data and open access; systematic reviews, managing data, managing technology – even a book on the social future of academic libraries. This issue we have a wide variety of reviewers as well. Some of our reviewers are distinguished professionals holding senior positions in the library landscape, others are beginning their contributions, submitting their first or second reviews. All of them write well in their own styles and generously bring their time and talents so you, the reader, might be kept up-to-date with the torrent of publishing that keeps our calling buoyant.