December 2023 Editorial

It is our pleasure to bring you the final 2023 issue of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association (JALIA). In this, the final issue of the year we like to thank all our authors, readers, and peer reviewers and book reviewers. Without you we would not have a journal. This year we would like to especially thank all our peer reviewers. As peer review is usually conducted ‘blind’, peer reviewers do not usually get recognition for the vital work that they do in scholarly communication, where they have responsibility assess the validity, quality, appropriateness for the journal, correct application of the methodology and methods, and often the originality of the research in papers recommended for publication.

This issue is devoted to the special topic of Social Work in Libraries. The Guest Editors, a team of researchers from both Library and Information Studies and Social Work at Charles Sturt University in Australia put out at Call for Papers https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24750158.2022.2135981 following their symposium in late 2022. We have been pleased with the response and this is an interesting issue on many different aspects of social work in libraries. The Guest Editors have written a fuller introduction to the issue which follows this shorter than usual editorial.

The seven book reviews in this issue are related to the broader view of social work services in libraries. The reviews cover serving patrons with disabilities, supporting people with dementia and combating online health misinformation. There are also two reviews of American Library Association (ALA) publications on cultural humility – striving to be aware of our preconceptions about sociocultural differences – so we can better understand the service needs of diverse and minority groups. On a different but related tack, seasoned reviewer Roxanne Missingham from the Australian National University provides us with a review of another ALA publication, this time a collection of case studies about service disruption and the psychological issues faced by library staff in times of crisis. In keeping with the issue’s theme, there’s also a review of a Facet publication on supporting refugees and other new arrivals, described by the reviewer as a ‘welcome gem’, combining ‘ethical considerations with practical examples and suggestions for library workers’.