Tidal Ebb and Flow: Onward! Volume 68 of Virginia Libraries

Here in Tidewater Virginia, we are accustomed to the ebb and flow of tides. It can be a relaxed mode of life, some of the time, but can also make things busy, particularly during a storm or high winds that we must know the time of the tides to figure out which roads will be flooded and when, as we go about our routines. After a busy year at Virginia Libraries with several research articles moving toward production, 2024 has been a more relaxed pace, but with submissions coming in during the later half of the year that we have had to step up our pace with articles through production to publication.

This does not necessarily mean that we had nothing happening in the earlier half of the year. Continuing the board’s offering of an online webinar on the publication process, we presented a session in the spring for anyone interested in publishing with Virginia Libraries, which can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAuVxshTq_I. This was followed by a presentation and workshop at the Virginia Library Association annual conference this past October. Our association is made up of all types of libraries, librarians and interests, and because this is your journal, we want to hear from you. We want to thank VLA for their ongoing support for the journal and encouraging library staff to share experiences, best practices and research. Highlights for 2024 include:

• Kimberly B. Knight, past VLA President, reviews ongoing work in membership, advocacy and visibility, continuing education, and communication and organization.

• Stephen Leist shares combining travel and learning from other libraries, focusing on a recent trip to Berlin, Germany, in “Visiting Libraries: Mixing Business and Pleasure.”

• Veronica Fu discusses the power of mentorship in “From Mentee to Mentor: Growing Along the Way.”

• Tammy Hines, Tammy Parlier, and Wendy Snow present on the power of a rural regional library consortium and collection development in rural communities with “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Are Rural Libraries Answering the Call?”

• Kathryn E. Shenk discusses the CAAMP-PADL method for source evaluation and information literacy instruction in the sciences in “The CAAMP-PADL Method: Creating a Homegrown Source Evaluation Method for the Sciences.” This article is currently in production and expected to be published before the end of the year.

As generative AI (artificial intelligence) has gained more attention, a task force within the Editorial Board has been working on a policy statement regarding the use of AI in submissions for publication. When this work has been completed, this will be added to the Virginia Libraries journal homepage and the guidelines for submission. The work of Virginia Libraries continues—onward!