Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing has relaunched Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO), transitioning the long‑running open‑access media review resource into a journal format for contributors and readers in the library, documentary film, and education sectors.
EMRO originated in 1997 as the AV Review Database within MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship. After MC Journal ceased publication in 2002, the database continued independently as EMRO. Returning to a journal format is intended to improve discoverability, strengthen scholarly identity, and reinforce its role within the library community. Since 2019, all EMRO reviews have been licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, with earlier reviews available as free‑to‑read content.
Angela R. Davis, reference and instruction librarian at Penn State Behrend’s John M. Lilley Library, who has managed EMRO since 2019, explained that the relaunch restores EMRO’s journal roots. She noted that EMRO remains one of the few open‑access sources for media reviews focused on video content for higher education. Davis added that the journal continues to provide opportunities for librarians and teaching faculty to participate in scholarly publishing while serving filmmakers, distributors, students, and instructors with critical analysis of educational films.
The relaunch moves EMRO onto the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform, which provides structured submission and review workflows to support long‑term sustainability. Reviews are evaluated using a four‑tier rating system: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Recommended with Reservations, or Not Recommended.
Open Publishing, the open‑access imprint of Penn State University Libraries, supports Penn State‑affiliated authors and groups in publishing scholarly journals, annotated bibliographies, and monographs across digital platforms. All publications are freely available online, with copyright retained by authors or sponsoring entities where possible, and most licensed under Creative Commons.
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