Editor’s Corner

Elizabeth Psyck

Hello, and welcome to our first online issue of DttP: Documents to the People!

I’m writing this editor’s corner before the website is live, but I think it’s safe to say that we’re probably still working out the kinks and finding all the bugs in our new online home, so if you have any feedback, the publications committee and I would welcome it. (You can send me an email at psycke@gvsu.edu or dttp.editor@gmail.com—you know the drill.)

By transitioning to a digital format, we hope to make DttP more accessible to GODORT members and nonmembers alike. No more emailing me to get a copy of an article you accidentally threw out! (That’s right, you weren’t the only one, so don’t feel bad if this is you. Really! I was happy to help!) This will also help those who have requirements to deposit their articles in institutional repositories, as articles will be easily downloadable in PDF. Finally, by being searchable through standard online interfaces, like Google Scholar, we increase the likelihood that our content is found by nongovernment-information-specialists and nonlibrarians who can use your scholarship to better utilize government information.

Most importantly, though, transitioning to an online format allows DttP to be more accessible to those who find print publications difficult to use. Accessibility is an incredibly important topic in education, libraries, and society, and I’m proud, as the granddaughter of a man who went blind later in life and a proponent of making information accessible to all, to play a small role in this transition.

In our final print issue, we included a piece by John Shuler, who unexpectedly passed away on June 29, 2016, after that issue had gone to the printer. I didn’t know John well, but I know that many of you did and that his loss will leave a hole in our community and many of our hearts. More information is available from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s news website (https://news.uic.edu/deaths-john-shuler), including requests that memorial donations be sent to the International Rescue Committee or Doctors without Borders.