World Libraries, an international, free, peer-reviewed library and information science journal, welcomes Debra Mitts-Smith as editor, effective with volume 21, to be published in fall 2013. Mitts-Smith is a professor of the practice at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS).

Mitts-Smith has served as an assistant professor in Dominican’s GSLIS and has held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she earned her doctoral and master’s degrees in library and information science. She also holds a master’s degree in French from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Mitts-Smith’s publications include Picturing the Wolf in Children’s Books, published by Routledge in 2010 and articles in The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Library Trends and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, among others. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of children’s literature and has made presentations at the Newberry Library in Chicago, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing in Oxford, England, and more.

Mitts-Smith succeeds assistant professor Christopher Stewart, who has served as journal editor for the past two years. During his tenure the journal published a collection of the GSLIS Follett Lectures and was guided by an advisory board of internationally recognized library leaders. “I am excited about this opportunity and look forward to continuing the fine work of Christopher Stewart,” says Mitts-Smith.

World Libraries is a unique, international, free, peer-reviewed library and information science journal founded in 1990 (originally titled Third World Libraries). It appeared only in print until 2004, when it began to migrate to a completely online journal. The transformation took place over several years, during which time it was published in both formats. It is now an openly accessible online journal—without registration, passwords or fees.

World Libraries provides a forum dedicated to all aspects of librarianship throughout the world, especially for librarians and libraries in regions without associations or agencies to encourage scholarly communication and professional development. The current issue, featuring Sara Paretsky’s 2012 McCusker Memorial Lecture, “Another Turn of the Screw,” and other articles—along with the complete World Libraries archive—is available at www.worlib.org.

Dominican University’s GSLIS is distinguished by innovative practice and research and has been educating future library leaders and information professionals since the 1930s. The school offers an American Library Association–accredited master’s degree in library and information science, a master of professional studies degree, specialized certificates and a doctoral degree in library and information science.