Aims and scope of the proceedings
The purpose and history of the NLL proceedings
The Proceedings of the National Library of Latvia (NLL, ISSN 2661-5134, electronic ISSN 1691-5941) is a peer-reviewed serial publication – one of the longest-running periodicals in the humanities and social sciences in Latvia and the Baltics.
From 2022 the publication is indexed in Scopus.
The aim of the publication is to promote the added value that can be achieved by advancing interdisciplinarity in library science, archival science and information and communication sciences, heritage studies utilising the latest findings in the humanities and social sciences and initiate new research topics and directions outside these fields, building upon and highlighting important sources in memory institutions.
The Proceedings of the NLL bring new knowledge to the research ecosystem on national and international level, provided by the focus to summon together insights from the history of reading, history of the book, book studies, the history of ideas and in other, interdisciplinary aspects. Thanks to the current subject and theoretical approaches, the publication is purposefully attracting an international circle of authors to make it interesting and useful to the growing humanities and social sciences community but also to a broader range of readers, particularly in the Baltic Sea region and wider Europe.
The publication specifically focuses in activating researchers working at libraries, other memory institutions and scientific institutions devoted to history of reading, history of book, librarianship. The readership contain research libraries in the Baltic Sea Region, individual researchers, museum specialists, research centres and university faculties.
The Proceedings of the NLL have been published since 1964. They are the longest-running serial publication in Latvia’s library sector. The first five volumes (titled Proceedings of the Vilis Lācis State Library of Latvian SSR) were published from 1964 to 1974 and featured more than 30 studies, as well as statistical and bibliographic information about the State Library of the Latvian SSR. In 1977, the title of the publication was changed to Aspects of Library Science, as the Soviet authorities officially prohibited the Library from issuing further serial publications.
The change of title provided an opportunity to expand the profile of the publication to include studies not only analysing State Library problems, but sector processes as a whole. Researchers from many other Latvian libraries joined the development of the publication. Consequently, the publication reflects the development of library science, book studies and related fields in Latvia, for example, it contains the first research in the sociology of reading, the first theoretical publication on the history of library science, relevant terminology, etc.
By 1991, 13 volumes had been published. After the restoration of Latvia’s independence, it became possible to officially renew the status of a serial publication and obtain an international standard number.
From 1994, the publication’s title – Papers of the National Library of Latvia – was changed in line with the renamed publishing organisation, the National Library of Latvia
When the Library officially acquired the status of a research institution in 2007, the title of the publication was amended to Proceedings of the National Library of Latvia (since 2009). The succession is clearly visible by the publication profile – research in library science, especially in the history of libraries, the history of publishing, bibliography and other related fields, this focus has been preserved and especially finetuned over the last decade.
The publication’s quality is assured by an international editorial board comprising researchers from Latvia and other countries, specialists in relevant fields, as well as anonymous peer-review process.
The publication publishes original, previously unpublished articles by researchers from various countries and institutions. The international editorial board is very observant and is not considering multiple submissions and redundant papers.