“Our goal at the Student Research Journal (SRJ) is to further the scholarship of LIS and MARA students. We want to provide the opportunity for graduate students in our program to go through the peer review experience and become published authors.”

Megan Price
Editor-in-chief, Student Research Journal
France/San Francisco

Megan Price wants students to know about the opportunities available for getting published at the San José State University School of Information’s Student Research Journal (SRJ). She recently took over as editor-in-chief of the SRJ for the 2018-2019 academic year. Price applied to the journal when a previous editor left, but was hesitant to take the position because she hadn’t written anything academic in a number of years. “I was always interested in learning more about the academic side, the research and scholarship, of library science, as well as publishing. I hadn’t had any experience with that and wanted to learn,” said Price.

Finding the Right Fit
Price is a fifth generation Californian from the Bay area, but is currently living in France. The iSchool attracts students from around the world because of its flexibility, and allows opportunities for research assistants and editors such as Price to work from wherever they are located. Price has been living in France on and off for three years while going back and forth to the U.S. for work, and has recently made the commitment to stay there for the indefinite future. Price has spent the majority of her career in the field of education working as a teacher, coordinator and administrator. “I took a year off [work] to see where I wanted to go from there. I knew I couldn’t figure it out while I was doing the job because the job is really intense, so I used that time to figure out what I wanted to do. I traveled and spent time doing the things that I really enjoy to see if something would open up or something new would appear for me,” said Price. Price blogged about this experience of discovering her new path on Dr. Michael Stephen’s Tame the Web website.

Transformation to Librarian
Price chose the MLIS program at the iSchool after speaking with a former student about the program. “When I entered into this program I had one idea of what I was interested in and really no idea about all of the different ways we can go. I have all of these interests and I am not exactly sure which one to pursue. I have taken a wide variety of classes because of this,” said Price. The idea of working as a librarian in a museum or cultural organization appeals to her because of the possibility of connecting deeply with a community. “One day I was in a museum and I felt so much energy that I hadn’t had for a long time. I began to look at all the aspects of the museum – where the museum was located, how it came about, how the environment and the community and the government came together to build this really wonderful thing, and I began to think about museum librarianship and culture and preservation, and it ticked all of the different boxes that I was looking for,” said Price.

She has taken a number of exciting courses at the iSchool in addition to her work at the journal. Her favorite classes to date include INFO 248: Beginning Cataloging and Classification, INFO256:  Archives and Manuscripts, and the INFO 287: The Hyperlinked Library. “[INFO248] really challenged me. I had a hard time getting it, but even though it was very difficult it was very rewarding. The archives and manuscripts class was really interesting because of the discovery involved with archives and uncovering the story about someone’s life. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did,” said Price, “The hyperlinked library class made me think more about programming and community involvement in libraries and public libraries. That class was the most community that I have felt in the program.” The MLIS program at SJSU and working as the editor-in-chief of the SRJ will help Price find her dream job after graduation. She would like to work for an organization like UNESCO or in a museum library where she could be very involved in the community, utilizing the skills she has gained in a broad range of classes and experiences at SJSU.

Providing Opportunities to Students
Price would love to see more students submit their work to the SRJ. “Writing for the SRJ can improve writing not only for your general classes but also for opportunities after graduation. You might consider publishing to a journal outside the college one day,” said Price. Papers can be on any topic relating to librarianship including museum studies, archives and records management, and areas of interest within the LIS. The specific guidelines can be found on the SRJ website. The editors have created an evidence summary (a precise and concise way of looking at a study and condensing the information) to help students who would like to write and be published but don’t know where to start. They have very specific guidelines for what the different submission types are like and what should be included in them. Price can be contacted through the journal or through her professional website. She believes that students will benefit their studies and future careers by getting involved with what the SRJ has to offer.