LIBREAS. Library Ideas

The workshop highlights experiences, lessons learned and thoughts for future work resulting from publishing a peer reviewed Open Access LIS journal by students at the Institute of Library and Information Science, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. The workshop describes the conditions under which "LIBREAS. Library Ideas" was established, the underlying conceptual ideas and its development so far, as well as past and current usage patterns. LIBREAS aims to serve as an interface between the “young savages” and the “old hands” from the academic and the professional LIS community. It creates a platform joining the results of scholarly work by publishing research and reviews. It uses active library journalism including reports, opinion papers, interviews, podcasts, and photography. It was established and is run by a student editorial and publishing board and supported by the Institute. The publishing process is based on a culture of openness and free access. One core topic is explored in each issue. This open and independent structure enables the board to decide more spontaneously and allows picking up new ideas more quickly than in the case of traditional journals. Usage patterns clearly show that there is an audience for such a type of publication. Additionally the paper explains the level of integration within the professional field by analyzing the citation of articles published in LIBREAS. A student LIS journal can be successfully implemented and maintained on a very low cost-level using the Web and personal commitment. An open publishing policy is very supportive, enabling the flexibility necessary for such a project. A solution aimed at a more widespread integration of a greater number of the institute’s student did not work out well until now. Therefore a linkage to the curriculum will be one of the future options. Another already partly achieved goal, is to internationalize LIBREAS using i.e. social networking software to involve authors anywhere around the world. The workshop provides an insight into experiences which might be helpful to similar publishing projects. It also draws out current possibilities for establishing an electronic journal using common tools with an almost zero budget. Projects like LIBREAS provide an exceptional learning curve for all participants and serve as an example that emerging publishing structures open opportunities to enter the field of professional and scholarly publishing at an early stage, especially with Open Access and Social Software.