UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing has relaunched Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO), bringing a long-running, open-access media review resource into a new home as an open access journal for contributors and readership from the library, documentary film and education sectors.
EMRO began in 1997 as the AV Review Database within MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship, a peer-reviewed electronic publication devoted to issues in media librarianship. When MC Journal ceased publication in January 2002, the AV Review Database continued independently, becoming Educational Media Reviews Online. The migration back to a journal format brings improved discoverability, legitimacy and scholarly identity to a resource built by and for the library community. From 2019 onward, all EMRO reviews are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, and all prior reviews are available as free-to-read content.
“EMRO is one of the few open access sources for media reviews focused on video content for higher education. I’m excited to bring it back to its journal roots,” said Angela R. Davis, reference and instruction librarian at the University Libraries’ John M. Lilley Library, which serves the Penn State Behrend campus community. EMRO is edited and managed solely by Davis, who has led the database since 2019.
The relaunch moves EMRO onto Open Journal Systems (OJS), an open-source platform that brings structured, transparent submission and review workflows, supporting the long-term sustainability of a journal built on the voluntary contributions of librarians and teaching faculty from across the United States and Canada.
“EMRO has always provided a low-stakes, high-impact opportunity for librarians and teaching faculty to participate in scholarly publishing. Returning to a journal format amplifies that purpose,” Davis said. “At the same time, EMRO reviews serve filmmakers, distributors, students and instructors by offering critical analysis of films for educational use.”
EMRO reviews are evaluated using a four-tier rating system: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Recommended with Reservations or Not Recommended. Distributors and filmmakers interested in contributing media for review are encouraged to visit the journal’s Film Submissions page. Interested reviewers are encouraged to visit the journal’s Information for Reviewers page.
Open Publishing is the open access imprint of the University Libraries. Open Publishing provides tools and support for Penn State-affiliated authors and groups to publish full-featured electronic scholarly journals, searchable annotated bibliographies and monographs using a variety of digital platforms. All publications are free to view online and download. Copyright is retained by the individual authors where possible, or by the journals or sponsoring entity. Almost all are licensed for use under a Creative Commons license.
For more information about the program, visit openpublishing.psu.edu or contact the Libraries Open Publishing team at openpublishing@psu.edu.