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This paper aims to examine the emerging field of reference in virtual worlds and attempts to determine its place among existing reference services. The virtual world of Second Life is the focus for these virtual world services. Advantages of virtual world reference are highlighted and drawbacks are discussed.

The paper examines two existing virtual world reference projects in an attempt to determine both the feasibility of virtual world reference and the level of need for such a service.

Both virtual world reference projects were successful and appear to indicate there is a need for reference within Second Life.

Virtual worlds and reference within these realms are at the very early stages. There is room for detailed analysis of issues raised within the paper.

The paper outlines the steps of creating a collaborative and institutional virtual world reference service, including training and implications.

This paper examines the emerging field of research and practice in virtual worlds and will be of significant interest to reference librarians.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss research articles from authors who have just left school.

This is an opinion piece.

Bad research should not be accepted just to help young professionals get published, but the best can be offered opportunities like this special issue with explicit invitations to publish their research via a peer‐review process.

This paper identifies the potential of young professionals and peer‐reviewed journals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the following question: What is cloud computing?

This paper surveys the current literature.

Cloud computing is described in many ways.

This paper is one of the first pieces to examine the nature of cloud computing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what metadata elements for access points currently exist to represent diverse library reading materials, either in libraries or from external sources, as well as what metadata elements for access points are currently not present but are necessary to represent diverse library reading materials.

A field scan of thirteen contemporary metadata schemas identified elements that might serve as potential access points regarding the diversity status of resource creators as well as topical or thematic content. Elements were semantically mapped using a metadata crosswalk to understand the intellectual and conceptual space of the elements. Element definitions and application of controlled vocabularies were also examined where possible to offer an additional context.

Metadata elements describing gender, occupation, geographic region, audience and age currently exist in many schemas and could potentially be used to offer access to diverse library materials. However, metadata elements necessary to represent racial, ethnic, national and cultural identity are currently not present in specific forms necessary for enabling resource access and collection assessment. The lack of distinct elements contributes to the implicit erasure of marginalized identities.

The search for metadata describing diversity is a first step toward enabling more systematic access to diverse library materials. The need for systematic description of diversity to make visible and promote diverse materials is highlighted in this paper. Though the subject of this paper is library organization systems and, for clarity, uses terms specific to the library profession, the issues present are relevant to all information professionals and knowledge organization systems.