Frame of Reference

Changes are afoot at The Looking Glass!

David Beagley

Big changes are underway at The Looking Glass as we continue our evolution as a strong voice in the world of children's literature. We have changes to the people who work to bring you this journal, changes to the way it is offered to the world, and changes in the way we work to maintain our standards of thoughtful and critical analysis.

People first.

Sadly, this issue sees the last contribution by Michelle Abate as editor of Emerging Voices. Michelle's enthusiastic and professional mentoring of new writers has firmly set this column as a major feature of The Looking Glass and is rare, almost unique, in academic and critical journals. Obviously, her work has been noticed, and so Michelle is assuming the role of editor of the authoritative journal, Children's Literature. We (somewhat sadly, it must be admitted) wish her all the best on this new role and have the highest confidence that she will create the same success there as here, through her hard work, diligence, and insistence on nothing but the best!

True to form, Michelle has not left us stranded. She has recommended a new editor for Emerging Voices and we are delighted to welcome Thomas Crisp to the TLG team.

Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Reading in the Department of Childhood Education and Literacy Studies at the University of South Florida -- Sarasota/Manatee. He has published in Children's Literature Association Quarterly, English Journal, The Horn Book, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Children's Literature in Education, and he teaches courses in children's and adolescent literature, their media and culture, literacy studies, and literary theory at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level. He has also served as co-chair of USFSM's Children's Literature Symposium since 2009 so he not only brings a wealth of experience to the column but also a determination to help more new voices to emerge.

Now for how the world finds us. We have reached an agreement with the EBSCO group for The Looking Glass to be made available through their suite of journals in the EBSCOHost system. From the middle of this year, all libraries and corporations all over the world who subscribe to the EBSCO products will be able to have access to The Looking Glass.

This will not affect your access or your registrations as a reader in the slightest! Indeed, the extra features that you receive (notifications, capacity to comment on articles, and so on) will still be bonuses to you - only individual registered readers will get them. EBSCO will simply provide access to the articles that we publish, and searching capacity through their indexes.

What advantage is there in that, you ask? Quite simply, it will give a far greater audience to our published articles. This, in turn, gives our academic pieces far more weight and credibility in their circles, brings our general articles a much wider group of interested readers, and gives the announcements direct contact with so many more potential users.

This arrangement is similar to the one we have already in place with the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) for access and indexing.

So, to make sure that we keep living up to the standards that have been set over our 15 year history, The Looking Glass has established a Editorial Advisory Board. Professor Judi Saltman of the University of British Columbia, Canada, Professor Vaughan Prain of La Trobe University, Australia and Professor Michelle Abate of Hollins University in the United States (we do not let go that easily, Michelle!) are established scholars in the field of children's and young adult literature who represent the wide reach of The Looking Glass as an international journal. They are all keen to support and ensure our reputation for innovative, challenging and thoughtful discourse and ideas and we thank them heartily for their willingness to take on this role.

That change is inevitable has become a truism in this vibrant world of online communication and global awareness. The suddenness of change that we see in upheavals in politics or economics, or in worldwide responses to natural disasters echoes the words of Alice - "I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." (Chapter 5, to the Caterpillar) or "I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then." (Chapter 10, to the Mock Turtle).

The world changes, so we change with it. But one thing that does not change is The Looking Glass's community. Since its formation 15 years ago, this journal has been shaped by the love of you, its readers, its writers, and its creators, for the worlds to be found in children's literature. The joy and the wonder that accompanies every new discovery of those worlds by a child is why we do what we do.

If you would like to comment on these changes, or suggest others, or just discuss the ideas in general, please use the Add Comment button below (available when you log in as a registered reader) or email your thoughts directly to me.

David Beagley
General Editor - The Looking Glass

Volume 15, Issue, 1The Looking Glass,May/June 2011

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"Frame of Reference - Changes are affot at The Looking Glass" © David Beagley, 2011
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