Open Access Part 2

A few weeks ago I wrote about open access. Upon further reflection, what I did not address are defunct journals; I only looked at active ones. It’s quite a project to find defunct journals, much less whether they are available online. However, these journals also deserve mention as it is not just the current journals that contribute to our scholarly history.

I decided to do a little digging. My search was minimal and I know I did not find all of them, so please let me know of others. While some of these journals may be forgotten, if we can find them in print that can lead to advocating for making the content available.

I started by searching WorldCat. I used “archives” and “library” as keywords and limited to serials, which yielded nearly 4,000 results. I found a subject heading for Archives–Periodicals, which brought the number down to about 2,600. Of course, many were not archival scholarly journals but here’s a few that I found:

Available online:
The Archivist (Public Archives of Canada): https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/publications/archivist-magazine/index-e.html
The Canadian Archivist: http://archivists.ca/content/canadian-archivist

Available in print:
Pennsylvania Archives
Archives (British Records Association)
Ms. Archivist

This exercise allowed me to find current journals I wasn’t aware of, including African Journal of Library, Archives, and Information Science, Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, The Indian Archives, and Journal of the South African Society of Archivists (now added to the Journals list).

I’d love to hear about other journals that are no longer in print or are not open access. Perhaps if we identify these, we can figure out ways to advocate to make them available online.